First electric car experience

[CXRAndy]

Thanks for all the info on this thread, much appreciated.

A few things hold me back ATM.

(1) Tightfisted yorkshireness. I'm not a car person and quite happy with our ancient Galaxy which does everything I need at near zero cost. I do hate unreliable cars though, so if it starts to go wrong I'll replace it.

(2) Tandem transporting. There's no other practical way to get a tandem around other than on a car roof. Getting to the Alps is a 16 hour continuous journey and *just* doable in a day but knackers the fuel efficiency - so will knacker the range on an EV. That makes it at least a 2 day journey I think. Maybe even three...

(3) Charger networks. It sounds a bit of a nightmare at the moment on interconnectivity of various charger networks, apps etc. Someone upthread said you can't use Tesla charger on non-Teslas yet, though planned. I'm guessing a cross Europe journey makes all this yet worse. Certainly possible, but a hassle.

So I think I'll hold off until the Galaxy dies a natural death and take the plunge then. An e-Niro looks to be the job at the moment, but hopefully more choice will come too.

Im Yorkshire man too

There isnt really a problem with charging networks. Government told various supplierd to allow contactless payment. This is happening now and even though i dont use other networks than Tesla's much, Ive found most do contactless. A tandem is a little bit different for transportation

 

[CXRAndy]

More wind and solar

Food for thought , I see we had to fire up two coal fired Power Stations due to leccy demand ! You just wonder how we are all going to cope if we all drive about in leccy vehicles!

 

[CXRAndy]

If he wants to sell it let me know, my daughter is looking for a Tesla?

No offence I’ve seen a Tesla in the flesh ( bro in law owns one ) it’s not a Bonny car . However beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Personally I think he was sucked in and regrets the purchase which evidenced by the fact they use the BMW X1 more now .

 

[cougie uk]

Sorry, not completely continuous, but more or less - ie drive for a couple of hours, swap, go again, 80mph on French motorways reduces the fuel efficiency by about 2/3 or more, about 30-35mpg rather than 45-50 without the bikes. Need to refuel probably twice with a diesel.

So I'd guess the best you'd get would be, what, 150 miles on an EV, it's about a 900 mile journey, need best part of an hour recharging each time even on a rapid charger I think, maybe 6 charges? Definitely makes it 2 days rather than one, I think.

This is a completely atypical scenario, no other journey I do would be a serious problem. And even this would be OK, a minor inconvenience *if* I was confident about all the availability, interconnectivity etc. As two days is more civilise than one anyway.

It's a bit weird to base your car buying around the one long journey you do ?

You'll probably have 1/4 of the fuel bill the rest of the year so you could use the savings to hire a car for the holiday ?

And when you stop and swap drivers - do you not have a comfort break or eat during this 16 hour mammoth drive ? I don't think EVs would slow you as much as you think.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

It's a bit weird to base your car buying around the one long journey you do ?

You'll probably have 1/4 of the fuel bill the rest of the year so you could use the savings to hire a car for the holiday ?

You could be right - but that would require getting a tandem carrier set up for a hire car, which could be a total PITA and might scupper the whole thing.

I did try to get S&S couplings to allow dismantling, but the tubes are ovalised...

[edit: I'm going to bow out now as it's rather niche and not a live issue for me and I don't want to derail the very interesting thread. Also to note that we won't base car buying around the one journey - it was more musing about the impact of it. When the current car dies, we'll almost certainly replace with an EV & take any adverse consequences on long journeys for the quid pro quo elsewhere]

 

[figbat]

More than combustion cars? I've just checked the tyres on our 2ton+ SUV in preparation for a MOT, 25k miles done still 3mm+ of tread left (4mm on the rear).

Brake pad wear seems to be 50k per set, not bad for a car of its size. Smaller EVs wouldn't need pads till 70k+ miles.

I wasn’t comparing to an ICE car, just pointing out that an EV is not without its pollution.

 

[figbat]

I wonder how much regenerative braking reduces this by compared to ICE cars?

A lot I would imagine, possibly even enough to lead to brake seizing issues through lack of use?

 

[figbat]

As I understand it, the total efficiency of EVs is such that even if the leccy is generated from fossil fuels, they're still more efficient than ICE cars.

I think there are data to sway it either way and it depends a lot on the grid, distance from source generation and so on. On the move an EV is still a weighty, draggy thing so the efficiency difference is down to how the energy is converted to mechanical motion, whether at a power station and transmitted down cables or in situ and transmitted through driveshafts. Ultimately though the single biggest efficiency factor of any vehicle, by some margin, is driver behaviour.

 

[BrumJim]

A lot I would imagine, possibly even enough to lead to brake seizing issues through lack of use?

Friction braking is always used, but only for the last part of the stopping. In my car, anything below 6 mile/h is friction only. However majority of pad wear will occur at higher speeds, due to the energy levels being dissipated.

 

[All uphill]

I've been following this discussion with interest; our petrol car is old and high miles so it won't be too long before we will need to make some decisions.

It seems to me that the first decision is if car ownership is truly essential; I would love to be free of the parking/maintenance/purchase issues if a good hire or community scheme is available.

If ownership was essential because of unavoidable daily use I would not hesitate to go EV after hearing the experiences of neighbours with plug in hybrids and Teslas.

 

[icowden]

It seems to me that the first decision is if car ownership is truly essential; I would love to be free of the parking/maintenance/purchase issues if a good hire or community scheme is available.

This is a good point, and the strangest part of Musk's strategy. Once roboTeslas are available, in theory many people will ask whether they need to own a car, if a Tesla can pootle up and take them where they want to go, for less than it would cost to own a car and go yourself. Taxi drivers are people and therefore an additional expense at the moment (if not the main expense). Obviously this will appeal more to those living in relatively well populated areas.

 

[Electric_Andy]

I don't own an EV but we drove from Plymouth to Cumbria last week in my parnter's Diesel. We stopped twice for food/wee and I only saw 1 or 2 charging stations in the car parks, but they were empty. If we had an EV I'm sure we could have planned the journey and done it comfortably. I understand that we should adapt our behaviours to newer forms of transport, but some of the alternatives are way too expensive. I suppose we could have driven to Bristol and flown to Newcastle, and then got the train to Penrith. Or paid £200 each to go on the train. I'd have to wait for the EV 2nd hand market to be booming before I consider it.

 

[CXRAndy]

Friction braking is always used, but only for the last part of the stopping. In my car, anything below 6 mile/h is friction only. However majority of pad wear will occur at higher speeds, due to the energy levels being dissipated.

Not on Tesla, the Nissan Leaf uses brakes for the last few ft of coming to a full stop. Tesla model 3 use the motors. Model S that dont have the reluctant induction motor cant/wont come to a full stop- say Tesla. BUT, they will stop if using adaptive cruise control.

 

[Bazzer]

My Golf PHEV needs the brakes for the final stop on regen, but it will also stop using the ACC. I don't know what combination of regen or brakes it uses on ACC as both will illuminate the brake lights. Having the car stop behind another without my foot on the brake, is still too buttock clenching to be concentrating on quite how the car is dealing with the stop.

 

[gzoom]

It seems to me that the first decision is if car ownership is truly essential; I would love to be free of the parking/maintenance/purchase issues if a good hire or community scheme is available.

This is exactly why Tesla as a company is currently valued at DOULBE the worth of Toyota and VAG combined, despite making only barely more cars than JLR (whom lurches from one survival plan to another).

If we can truly remove the need for human drivers than car ownership will pretty much disappear, you will simply summon an autonomous car to take you some where than forget about it as you arrive at the destination. No more worries about parking, insurance, maintance etc.

Lorries on M-ways could disappear overnight literally, why clog up the M-way network during the day when you can have autonomous lorries run all night long? The potential applications are mind boggling, and the fact its even been discussed as a possibility is simply crazy talk.

It sounds like Sci-Fi, but Thunderbird 1 was also Sci-Fi till very recently, and Thunderbird 2 is also nearly with us. NASA said is was impossible to land rocket boosters which why the Shuttle was developed at great expense, but here we are.