Electric cars

We still have a few free chargers in Scotland. Today I set off with 71% charge, drove 10 miles for lunch whilst I charged the car at a National Trust for Scotland car park. Drove another 20 or so miles to another NTS Car Park (with free charging) for coffee and a trip to their 2nd hand book store did errands on the way and return having done another 25 miles and had 81% charge left.
Do you have to be a NTS member to use the chargers? I'm going to have to find my nearest site now :)
 
Curious at to this scenario with electric cars

Winter at night and your stuck in a huge traffic jam on a busy motorway where it has been closed whilst emergency services do their thing.
 
Curious at to this scenario with electric cars

Winter at night and your stuck in a huge traffic jam on a busy motorway where it has been closed whilst emergency services do their thing.
It's not really an issue.
Even with a seriously low battery, a stationary EV hardly uses any power. It's the traction motor that uses the most juice. As long as you are not sat there blasting the heating, the emergency battery reserve will normally have way more power for heating than you really think. Youtubers regularly run these EV's until they die. There are so many warnings before they do, including reduced power modes. The heating part doesn't use that much.

So if you are travelling along and need to recharge, but you are suddenly held up, you just switch the car off, and run the heating on low. The seat heaters are another way of conserving power (heat the body, not the whole car). You would be silly to run an ICE car on fumes on the motorway, same as an EV etc.
But it is the same scenario for ICE. If they are on empty, you will still have the same problem running out of fuel.

The heating system on an EV is very efficient. On a 300 mile journey (the max my car can do on a single charge), the heating/aircon system has to run the whole time (around 5 hours) including powering the car. This is in addition to power the motors. So if you get stuck, there isn't much worry about running the heating on enough to keep warm. There are some videos about showing a battery on around 20% can heat the car for 24 hours.
 
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What is going on with EDF!
I'm locked in until October. So i'm protected from any energy price rises. I'm happy with that, and hopefully things are settled down by then.

However, this morning, i get an email telling me my EV tariff is changing...WTF???
So i was paying 8.99p/kWh from 00.00 to 05.00.
Now they have changed it to-
5.49p/kWh and the hours are 23.00 to 06.00??
It has actually gone down and is longer??? (for the whole house as well)
I'm not complaining, but i don't understand!
 
I'm OIG and mines coming down to 5.2p/kwh .. think mine 11.30pm to 5.30am. Summer months is going be close to 1p per mile.

Just got to get into the habit of doing the washing through the night. Pretty sure I can programme my washer to finish by a set time.
 
It's not really an issue.
Even with a seriously low battery, a stationary EV hardly uses any power. It's the traction motor that uses the most juice. As long as you are not sat there blasting the heating, the emergency battery reserve will normally have way more power for heating than you really think. Youtubers regularly run these EV's until they die. There are so many warnings before they do, including reduced power modes. The heating part doesn't use that much.

So if you are travelling along and need to recharge, but you are suddenly held up, you just switch the car off, and run the heating on low. The seat heaters are another way of conserving power (heat the body, not the whole car). You would be silly to run an ICE car on fumes on the motorway, same as an EV etc.
But it is the same scenario for ICE. If they are on empty, you will still have the same problem running out of fuel.

The heating system on an EV is very efficient. On a 300 mile journey (the max my car can do on a single charge), the heating/aircon system has to run the whole time (around 5 hours) including powering the car. This is in addition to power the motors. So if you get stuck, there isn't much worry about running the heating on enough to keep warm. . There are some videos about showing a battery on around 20% can heat the car for 24 hours.
Thanks for the response, not that I’ll ever but an EV.

Is there any risk though say in winter when you need lights and heating and the traffic is stop start for several hours?
 
Thanks for the response, not that I’ll ever but an EV.

Is there any risk though say in winter when you need lights and heating and the traffic is stop start for several hours?
No, at least no more than an ICE car, perhaps less. An EV is at its most efficient in towns & cities where it's stop & go so you get more mileage per charge, it's the opposite for an ICE car where you'll be less efficient. It's the the other way around on a free flowing motorway of course when you can cruise at 70 constantly.

Do you drive for several hours in stop start traffic in the winter?
 
No, at least no more than an ICE car, perhaps less. An EV is at its most efficient in towns & cities where it's stop & go so you get more mileage per charge, it's the opposite for an ICE car where you'll be less efficient. It's the the other way around on a free flowing motorway of course when you can cruise at 70 constantly.

Do you drive for several hours in stop start traffic in the winter?
Only in traffic jams, normally on the M6
 
Thanks for the response, not that I’ll ever but an EV.

Is there any risk though say in winter when you need lights and heating and the traffic is stop start for several hours?
Absolutely.
But not more than in a ICE car. I would have thought a diesel with a full tank would probably run a very long time just on tickover. But i think your bladder/hunger/fluids would give out long before a ICE or EV would.

Run a EV or ICE car down to a very low charge/fuel level on a motorway and you are just asking for trouble in the winter. There are enough warnings about carrying emergency stuff in the boot.
Even then i'm sure if you were at risk of freezing to death, some poor sod from the emergency services would come bail you out.

I thought about stuff like this before i bought. Youtube gives you these answers.
Then i bought an EV. Ran it side by side of two diesels.
I can safely say, i won't be going back to ICE. Other than if it's a nostalgic weekender type purchase.
 
Curious at to this scenario with electric cars

Winter at night and your stuck in a huge traffic jam on a busy motorway where it has been closed whilst emergency services do their thing.
I’ve been in that scenario a couple of times on the M25 and you do get range anxiety….but on both occasions it’s worked out fine.
 
No speaking, THANK GOD, just a good look around the EV2, including a lot of tapping and feeling of the materials inside the cabin.

Italian translated.

We took a closer look at the new Kia EV2: from the E-GMP platform, the same one that powered the EV9, Kia has created a compact city car just 4.06 meters long and boasting a good range. Two battery sizes are available, with the larger one (61 kWh, up to 440 km of range) arriving later.

Climb aboard the new Korean electric car with us: it has plenty of physical buttons, but the focus is on the dual 12.3" screens that characterize the latest-generation Kia models.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS KIA EV2 Standard Range 42.2 kWh
------------------------
• Length 4.06 meters
• Width 1.80 meters
• Height 1.57 meters
• Wheelbase 2.56 meters
• Trunk 362 liters
• Front-wheel drive
• Electric motor power 108 kW (147 hp)
• Front-wheel drive
• Acceleration 0-100 km/h in 8.7 seconds
• Top speed 161 km/h

Price from 26,600 euros - £23,172.(currently)



 
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What is going on with EDF!
I'm locked in until October. So i'm protected from any energy price rises. I'm happy with that, and hopefully things are settled down by then.

However, this morning, i get an email telling me my EV tariff is changing...WTF???
So i was paying 8.99p/kWh from 00.00 to 05.00.
Now they have changed it to-
5.49p/kWh and the hours are 23.00 to 06.00??
It has actually gone down and is longer??? (for the whole house as well)
I'm not complaining, but i don't understand!
may be competition as I'm on Octopus and their rates have reduced from April.
 
What is going on with EDF!
I'm locked in until October. So i'm protected from any energy price rises. I'm happy with that, and hopefully things are settled down by then.

However, this morning, i get an email telling me my EV tariff is changing...WTF???
So i was paying 8.99p/kWh from 00.00 to 05.00.
Now they have changed it to-
5.49p/kWh and the hours are 23.00 to 06.00??
It has actually gone down and is longer??? (for the whole house as well)
I'm not complaining, but i don't understand!

Fairly sure the government said they’ve met with the energy companies & agreed to remove the green levy tax which should decrease electricity bills from April onwards including fixed rate tariffs.
 
What is going on with EDF!
I'm locked in until October. So i'm protected from any energy price rises. I'm happy with that, and hopefully things are settled down by then.

However, this morning, i get an email telling me my EV tariff is changing...WTF???
So i was paying 8.99p/kWh from 00.00 to 05.00.
Now they have changed it to-
5.49p/kWh and the hours are 23.00 to 06.00??
It has actually gone down and is longer??? (for the whole house as well)
I'm not complaining, but i don't understand!
What is going on with EDF!
I'm locked in until October. So i'm protected from any energy price rises. I'm happy with that, and hopefully things are settled down by then.

However, this morning, i get an email telling me my EV tariff is changing...WTF???
So i was paying 8.99p/kWh from 00.00 to 05.00.
Now they have changed it to-
5.49p/kWh and the hours are 23.00 to 06.00??
It has actually gone down and is longer??? (for the whole house as well)
I'm not complaining, but i don't understand!
Yep. Same here with with octopus. The have knocked 3.5 p per jWh off both overnight and daytime rates. So my 7p is now 3.5! Costs me £2.50 now to drive 300 Miles instead of the £5 lol. How much does it cost to drive one of those fossil cars 300 miles again?
 
No speaking, THANK GOD, just a good look around the EV2, including a lot of tapping and feeling of the materials inside the cabin.

Italian translated.

We took a closer look at the new Kia EV2: from the E-GMP platform, the same one that powered the EV9, Kia has created a compact city car just 4.06 meters long and boasting a good range. Two battery sizes are available, with the larger one (61 kWh, up to 440 km of range) arriving later.

Climb aboard the new Korean electric car with us: it has plenty of physical buttons, but the focus is on the dual 12.3" screens that characterize the latest-generation Kia models.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS KIA EV2 Standard Range 42.2 kWh
------------------------
• Length 4.06 meters
• Width 1.80 meters
• Height 1.57 meters
• Wheelbase 2.56 meters
• Trunk 362 liters
• Front-wheel drive
• Electric motor power 108 kW (147 hp)
• Front-wheel drive
• Acceleration 0-100 km/h in 8.7 seconds
• Top speed 161 km/h

Price from 26,600 euros - £23,172.(currently)




Cool 2nd video.

As an aside I saw my first ever (and possibly last ever) Citroen Ami on the road this week past. Not actually a car as it's classed as a quadricycle, but I find the manufacturing/engineering of it fascinating. The body panels are injected coloured plastic so don't get painted and there's only 2 actual main body panels. The front and rear below the windows are the same panel with just different headlamp & tail lamp units inserted. Both side panels are also the same panel which means the drivers side door (all left hand drives as you're damn near sat central anyway) is a suicide door.
 

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