Electric Vehicles EVs

I've recently got an E-Up for commuting and it's ok but is tiny, Zoe will be far more useful if you have more than a couple of folk in the car at a time, being in stock helped a lot as well, only had to wait for delivery to be organised and it was here, have a friend who ordered a Skoda Enyaq in July and it keeps getting pushed back. Our main car is a Leaf and it's been great, use if for holidays and what not, getting into the rapid chargers is also great, it's a lot less stressful to drive as well than the ICE cars we had before. hope you enjoy it!

Upped the spec for my december delivery on.to id.3 from life to family. An extra £30 for glass roof, reversing cameras and speakers in the back.

Though I’m now considering swapping it for an id.4 pro or the Audi q4 etron 40 thing. Both way more than expensive, but come with additional range (and London -> Scotland in winter is on my mind)

£300/£400 a month extra for 40 miles more range seems spicy. I'd probably factor in an extra stop and a fancy meal instead but (obviously) YMMV.

Yep, absolutely. My only worry was what mileage will I see if it’s -5 degrees out. Visions of limping from service station to service station….

Doesn’t Scotland still have a few free fast chargers ?

You’d probably need a comfort break anyway

Not many. Most are paid for now.

Our VW Touran is finally on the way out (conflicted hurrah for awful car, boo for new car expense.) And have been eyeing up the Kia EV6 and Hyundai ioniq 5.

We regularly visit the in-laws in the north east so a Zoe isn't an option. Are mid priced long range EVs really ready for the big time? I want to believe but my wife just wants me to spend £15k on a second hand Mazda.

Also I've never bought a new car so would appreciate thoughts on leasing vs. purchase on finance.

Have a look at http://on.to - 1 month rolling leases which include insurance, power (shell, bp, instavolt) and so on. £550 a month gets you a Kona Electric or an id.3 for example.

It’s a really good way to try out EVs without a long term commitment, and you can swap models (at a cost) to try different things.

They have id.4s and q4s too, but the bigger suvs seem expensive at 800-1000 a month if you really need the size.

I’d say leasing is the way to go for a longer term commitment. Everything just seems a little undercooked at the moment - I reckon there’s still a lot of change in the market over the next couple of years.

Thank you I'll have a look at them. Good point about it still being and emerging market.

I've never leased before, but for an ev it seems to make sense. I get a newer car, more recent tech than I would be able to afford outright and then in 3 years see where the market has got to. Hopefully cheaper, better range and more choice.

I have heard a lot of good things about the MG 5, they do a long range version now as well, it is also fairly reasonably priced. I'm leasing a 40kwh Leaf and an E-Up, I get a brand new car that's not gonna break down any time soon and pay a very reasonable amount for them (looking at in stock pre reg stuff helps drive the price down)

One thing to consider is the charging speed, if you have a smaller battery but faster charging that could make a difference in journey times, this chap in Norway has done a load of range tests on different EV's.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG1QcV31eoSaX4rE8avQL4A

Worth a watch through some of his stuff.

Why don’t evs have loads of solar panels? Is it just the aesthetic

Ah to be clear I was in the 2017 team.

Solar panels don't really have enough output to make a meaningful difference. Technology isn't good enough, surface area isn't very big, roof frequently points in the wrong direction or is obstructed.

https://lightyear.one/

It adds very little range (30km on a good day) for a big cost. As much as I like the idea of a solar car, I think in most parts of the world we’re better off putting the panels on buildings. No faff with having to park in the sun etc, and usually at a better orientation. The big nut to crack is energy storage, if you have a big cache battery or some such at home you don’t have to rely on the weather as much. E.g. charge from wind surpluses at night and solar surpluses whenever the weather allows.

There’s a Dutch startup that does variable prices for fast chargers based on energy availability, I think they also experimented with using cars as buffer batteries. The question is if the benefits of load balancing weigh up to the accelerated battery degradation though.

Not long ago MG we’re selling their suv EVat about £20 k and that was a bargain , a really long (7)? Year warranty too.
A friend drove one and liked it, it got great reviews for the money and that was at the non discounted price .
Discounts will be long gone now , I think the tipping point to EV has tipped but for the first time in my car buying I PCP’d my ID3 ,as I agree , a lot can change in 3 years

While I agree that the solar output from a car roof isn't there, I'm sure one of the cars I was looking at had or had the option for roof solar panel. I think it was defined as "maintain battery charge while parked. "
I assume this would be to offset the alarm power consumption/ having your 4 wheeled PC on standby.

The Solar panel will be for trickle charging the 12volt battery and not the main high voltage battery. Early leafs had the issue of this running down to the point you couldn't start the car, slightly ironic when it has a massive battery as well!

I actually wanted to get an MG5, never got round to testing one and the wife was not interested in it (as in, no bloody way are we getting that car) so got a leaf and E-up.

Ah. Didn't realize they had separate batteries. What an odd setup.

Safety; the 12V operated BMS checks first and then switches on the high voltage pack. And things like interior light don’t really need 400V

Voltage regulation is a thing.

The systems I work on are all powered from single battery banks; from traction to lighting inverters to computers and microprocessors.

The main battery is completely isolated by a contactor when the vehicle is parked (and not being charged). The contactor is operated by the 12V battery.

There is a large DC-DC converter to charge the 12V battery and power the ancillaries when the car is on, but it’s not much use being on the wrong side of the contactor.

I have pondered whether it would be possible to have a manual override of some kind to jump start the 12V system, but it seems no manufacturer considers it worth the hassle and complexity.