The Car Thread

[Paddingtonwolf]

Where I worked in 2003 board members all took a car allowance of £945 per month. That got a LOT of car twenty years ago.

 

[EpsomWolf]

Wow! My last company car was 2003 and I think the limit was 22k??

I went 2020 petrol to buy some time for EV’s to develop and the market to stabilise.

Didn’t realise the ECS is for 5 years but it kicks in after year 1 so is effectively 6. The £570 VED does make you wince but it is what is is.

There are a lot of EV owners that are going to get a shock when the VED catapults from virtually nothing to £570.

Bit concerning where this is heading tbh.

 

[ROVERT47]

Ain’t quite ready for an electric yet so I’m getting an ex demonstrator Kia Sportage GT line next Wednesday.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I know all about planning in advance when you have an electric car, but on New years Eve, we charged the car to 100%.
Drove to Belfast International Airport which is about 150kms which used about 70% of the battery.
We kept the speed down to around 100-110kmph. We had the Air con on but very low. And the radio.
So it sits there till Friday evening, so we obviously need a top up to get home, so went (Unfortunately, only a 7KWphr available)) to Tesco at The Boulevard to get some stuff for dinner and a bit of shopping, plugged it in to charge, we were there about 45minutes and it went up from 20% to 24%.
Probably needed about 40% to get home, probably another 3 hours so fuck that.
Found a FAST charger 7 minutes away in Banbridge and that got us to 45% in about 20 minutes.
Moral of that story is...
Get a home charger fitted.
Your 7kw charging cable is for emergencies AND if you have plenty of spare time
Always use the 50Kwphr charger or higher when you're out and about.
Be prepared for these FAST chargers to be nowhere near convenient places like shopping malls etc.
Pain in the arse.
1 hour wasted.

 

[The Bear]

There are plenty of Rapid 50kw+ chargers around in retail areas. There's three at my local Morrisons, Lidl, and Toby Carvery. The latter being 150kw.

My advice is always plan where you can charge with ZapMap before you set out.

 

[Tredman]

This show all charging hubs in the British isles, hubs being at least 6 chargers and at least 100kwh per charger.

[705] Charging Hub Locations – Google My Maps

Last updated October 2024 [705] live sites Open Hubs with [5] or more CCS Rapid DC Chargers bluesky profile: @doctorsnacks.bsky.social UPDATE SEPT 24: Red lines illustrate hub locations related to main road, with approx. 35 miles to next nearest hub at the longest gaps. Aberdeen to Dundee is...

www.google.com

 

[Mel Evo]

What I would really like to see are significant numbers of medium chargers in places I tend to park my EV. Wolverhampton city centre for a start. I’m there for 5 hours every other week with an unfortunate 49% of battery remaining, so can’t leave it tethered to a fast charger but it would be great to get back to find I had another 30% in the tank. Be great if offices that I attend for meetings around the country had the same - then the fast chargers would be great as a last port of call if needed. Mass roll out of chargers you could attach to for a few hours would make a huge difference to me, and I’m approaching year 7 or 8 as an owner and very much a fan.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Was there not a million fast chargers on your route from the airport that you could have used for 20 minutes? Cost you £15 and be on your way. Not really a big deal as a one off.

 

[Tredman]

What I would really like to see are significant numbers of medium chargers in places I tend to park my EV. Wolverhampton city centre for a start. I’m there for 5 hours every other week with an unfortunate 49% of battery remaining, so can’t leave it tethered to a fast charger but it would be great to get back to find I had another 30% in the tank. Be great if offices that I attend for meetings around the country had the same - then the fast chargers would be great as a last port of call if needed. Mass roll out of chargers you could attach to for a few hours would make a huge difference to me, and I’m approaching year 7 or 8 as an owner and very much a fan.

Destination chargers, for work / business / shopping, are definitely the way forward. I find them pretty common and at offices locations pretty cheap. It’s 25p/kwh at our head office and if I’m there for 8 hours the cars usually full by the time I leave.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

This show all charging hubs in the British isles, hubs being at least 6 chargers and at least 100kwh per charger.

[705] Charging Hub Locations – Google My Maps

Last updated October 2024 [705] live sites Open Hubs with [5] or more CCS Rapid DC Chargers bluesky profile: @doctorsnacks.bsky.social UPDATE SEPT 24: Red lines illustrate hub locations related to main road, with approx. 35 miles to next nearest hub at the longest gaps. Aberdeen to Dundee is...

www.google.com

Thanks for that Tredders, haven't seen / didn't know of it before! Looking closely at it, there isn't a single one directly on the route home, but with a short detour we could have found 2.
Have to confess, we did think we'd stop at Tesco in Banbridge but without doing any maths, we thought 60 minutes would be enough to give us enough to get home.
Good lesson learnt.
The one we used was a BP Pulse 50kw supply and they wanted 85p for a unit.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Was there not a million fast chargers on your route from the airport that you could have used for 20 minutes? Cost you £15 and be on your way. Not really a big deal as a one off.

I agree that £15 for a quick blast would have been ok, but no, as I said there were none directly on the route but a short 10 minute diversion would have got me to 2. One in Newry and 1 in Banbridge town.
Like I said, good lesson learnt, but If we'd have used my slightly smaller Golf, it would have been absolutely no problem.

 

[The Bear]

As I said if you haven't got ZapMap installed on your phone then you're doing EV owning wrong.

That tells you where every single charger around you is at the click of a button.

 

[PuntsWolf]

I agree that £15 for a quick blast would have been ok, but no, as I said there were none directly on the route but a short 10 minute diversion would have got me to 2. One in Newry and 1 in Banbridge town.
Like I said, good lesson learnt, but If we'd have used my slightly smaller Golf, it would have been absolutely no problem.

I find that mad that there isn’t any on what I’d assume is an arterial route between Belfast and Dublin? Doubt you’d have that issue here

 

[leedswolf]

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I went on my last trip for the year to the CIs. I left my car at Manchester airport and five days later returned to find that I had the same amount of fuel in the tank as I had when I left.

Started the car, had lights, wipers, radio, heater (inc aircon) instantly and drove straight home.

 

[Mel Evo]

Destination chargers, for work / business / shopping, are definitely the way forward. I find them pretty common and at offices locations pretty cheap. It’s 25p/kwh at our head office and if I’m there for 8 hours the cars usually full by the time I leave.

If you work in my industry you’re lucky if you find they’ve installed tarmac at the car parks when you turn up. This is where I must be going wrong.

Definitely need them in public car parks for when I go to the match. Duration would be perfect for a reasonable charge.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I find that mad that there isn’t any on what I’d assume is an arterial route between Belfast and Dublin? Doubt you’d have that issue here

There is a very Fast one at Circle K at City North, just off the motorway but thats south of me, also one at Applegreen but thats south of me too nearer to Dublin.
I've mentioned this before but Ireland just doesn't have the infrastructure for this shit.
I have a friend who is a director in VW Group and they had to build their own substation to charge and maintain all the electric vehicles in their 2 Dublin locations. Basic infrastructure just couldn't support them.

 

[BillyDee]

Interesting idea. Though I'm not sure if any near me are located where there is suitable parking.

BT Group to turn old street cabinets into electric vehicle charging points

Up to 60,000 could be converted to tackle a shortfall in electric car charging points, the group says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[EpsomWolf]

Probably the best summary I’ve seen of where we are, how we’ve arrived here, and how we go forward by the legend that is Harry Metcalfe.

No points scoring or agendas, just a superb analysis of why we’re in the mess we are with no one coming out of this particularly well.

Quite a farcical situation we find ourselves in with some difficult decisions to be made, but anyway, Harry sums it up as only Harry can:

 

[Hereford Wolf]

Ain’t quite ready for an electric yet so I’m getting an ex demonstrator Kia Sportage GT line next Wednesday.

We are really enjoying our Sportage. I’m sure you will love it.

 

[Tredman]

Probably the best summary I’ve seen of where we are, how we’ve arrived here, and how we go forward by the legend that is Harry Metcalfe.

No points scoring or agendas, just a superb analysis of why we’re in the mess we are with no one coming out of this particularly well.

Quite a farcical situation we find ourselves in with some difficult decisions to be made, but anyway, Harry sums it up as only Harry can:

Diesels for anything other than commercial vehicles should be banned for new cars. The health damage to children is very well proven