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Electric Vehicles

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Filippo Lippi said:
As far as I can see the UK government are failing to persuade Tesla to open up their superchargers soon
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That comment aged well! :D

Tesla drivers are complaining, of course; one of the perks, especially for early adopters, was the superior charging network for Teslas. There are also issues to be resolved with the practicalities of using the superchargers with non-Tesla cars. It's difficult, if not impossible, for non-Teslas to use the chargers without occupying two bays.
 
zooterkin said:
Kia e-Niro 4+, six months old.
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Delighted to discover that we, too, are at 5.12 miles/kWh. Some of my driving has been careful, trying to conserve the battery, some has been, "let's just get home ASAP."

Now we're discussing it, I do remember a lot of talk at the time the e-Niro and Kona were released about how efficient they were.
 
zooterkin said:
That comment aged well! :D
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Ephemeral, even

zooterkin said:
Tesla drivers are complaining, of course; one of the perks, especially for early adopters, was the superior charging network for Teslas. There are also issues to be resolved with the practicalities of using the superchargers with non-Tesla cars. It's difficult, if not impossible, for non-Teslas to use the chargers without occupying two bays.
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The non-Teslas fitting in the bays thing was anticipated. I haven't tried, are the front charging CCS types OK, like the e-Niro and Zoe? Or will the cable not reach that far? Our "chademo and type-2" Leaf is definitely going to be the local run-around.
 
Filippo Lippi said:
The non-Teslas fitting in the bays thing was anticipated. I haven't tried, are the front charging CCS types OK, like the e-Niro and Zoe? Or will the cable not reach that far? Our "chademo and type-2" Leaf is definitely going to be the local run-around.
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The problem is that in order for the cable to reach, they have to park in the wrong bay, so effectively, even though parked between the white lines, they are taking up two spaces.
 
Filippo Lippi said:
Delighted to discover that we, too, are at 5.12 miles/kWh. Some of my driving has been careful, trying to conserve the battery, some has been, "let's just get home ASAP."

Now we're discussing it, I do remember a lot of talk at the time the e-Niro and Kona were released about how efficient they were.
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I'm looking at the figures on the app; the figures on the car are, I think, lower, because the car counts all the power used, while the app doesn't count power regained through regeneration as being used, if I understand comments I read on another forum correctly. Not sure in my mind which is the more useful figure. The app figures are real-world data, but dependent on the type of journey. The other figures show the actual power consumption of the motor, ignoring regeneration.
 
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zooterkin said:
Tesla drivers are complaining, of course; one of the perks, especially for early adopters, was the superior charging network for Teslas. There are also issues to be resolved with the practicalities of using the superchargers with non-Tesla cars. It's difficult, if not impossible, for non-Teslas to use the chargers without occupying two bays.
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Some Tesla drivers are complaining.

I'm fine with it.
 
zooterkin said:
The problem is that in order for the cable to reach, they have to park in the wrong bay, so effectively, even though parked between the white lines, they are taking up two spaces.
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Compatibility and etiquette are going to be more of a problem at supercharger stations as the demand grows unless the power providers start doing a lot better job.
 
There seem to be a lot of articles in the press these days saying how terrible electric vehicles are and/or how expensive they are to buy and run. Maybe I'm just noticing them more :o

This article says OMFG NOES electricity prices are soaring !!11!!!!!!11!11

Electric car rapid charging costs soar, says RAC
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61592931

Oh no, Mrs Don will have to scrap her Fiat 500e :rolleyes:

But actually reading the article tells a different story:

The price of charging an electric car on a pay-as-you-go, non-subscription basis at a publicly accessible rapid charger has increased by 21% over the last nine months, the RAC said.
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Oh no ! Electric car costs are spiralling out of control. Lucky I have an ICE car.

But both rapid charging and home charging are still less expensive than petrol or diesel per mile.
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The average cost of a litre of petrol has increased by 25% since last September, and diesel by 30%, according to the RAC.
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So why isn't the article entitled "Costs for Electric car drivers rise more slowly than for Petrol and Diesel car drivers" ? :confused:
 
Wowbagger said:
I was considering making a bumper sticker for my Tesla that reads:

No, I don't like Elon Musk.
Yes, it's still a great car!

What does everyone think?
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In my experience the debate about electric cars around here has moved on over the last few years. When I got my hands on my TM3 in 2019 critical comments concentrated on how in actual fact EVs were worse for the environment because of their construction methods. Now it’s all about what a wanker Musk is.

Which I completely accept.

It’s still the best car I’ve ever driven.
 
The Don said:
So why isn't the article entitled "Costs for Electric car drivers rise more slowly than for Petrol and Diesel car drivers" ? :confused:
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I think we all know why. The news media loves to pour scorn on electric cars while ignoring the faults of gas cars. Some blame it on fossil fuel industry influences, but I think it's more basic than that. Journalists are no different from the rest of us, reacting badly to change.

But not all of them:-

Out of gas — why we’re going to focus on clean cars
I can no longer justify writing about vehicles that are powered purely by petrol. Castigate me for my wokeness if you must, but I’m moving from petrol head to petrol dead. Within the luxury segment, and many other vehicle categories, it is now possible to buy electric vehicles without suffering range anxiety or significant additional damage to your finances...

BusinessDesk will no longer review the sort of cars I have always loved – big-engine, torquey, dinosaur-fueled speedsters. It is just not worth killing the planet for them.
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In other news:-

The world may be careening toward a 1970s-style energy crisis -- or worse
Current and former energy officials tell CNN they worry that Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the wake of years of underinvestment in the energy sector have sent the world careening into a crisis that will rival or even exceed the oil crises of the 1970s and early 1980s...

"Now we have an oil crisis, a gas crisis and an electricity crisis at the same time," Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency watchdog group, told Der Spiegel in an interview published this week. "This energy crisis is much bigger than the oil crises of the 1970s and 1980s. And it will probably last longer."...

Today's energy turmoil is not simply the result of the war in Ukraine. It is also the byproduct of cratering investment in oil and natural gas, which are depleting resources that require massive sums of money just to maintain their production, let alone increase it...

"We were heading towards a crisis anyway. Putin just brought us there faster and sharper," said McNally, who is now the president of consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group.
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This couldn't have come at a better time. Covid reduced demand for fossil fuels, now it's going back up and threatening to make global warming even worse. We all talked about what we would do about it, but it takes a crisis like this to force us into doing the right thing.

Energy pundits talk about a 'perfect storm' causing a massive long term increase in the price of fossil fuels. This is exactly what we need. Electric cars are already way cheaper to run than gas cars, but that still isn't enough to enamor the majority to them. Now with the combination of countries around the World committing to an electric future, car manufacturers producing models with range and performance to rival gas cars, and an energy crisis that won't go away, we have a 'perfect storm' in our favor!
 
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Ford taking a lesson from Tesla, cutting out dealership middle men for their EV.

Ford said that it wants to restructure its dealership model, including building an e-commerce platform where customers can shop for and buy EVs at non-negotiable prices in an effort to match Tesla’s profit margins.

“I feel like when that second quarter last year profit came out for Tesla and they showed like a $15,000 premium, it totally changed my world,” CEO Jim Farley said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday. “It was an epiphany. It was like the angels sung, it was like, ‘Oh my god, we can make more money on EVs than our ICE.’”
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https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/02/ford-wants-to-sell-evs-online-only-and-at-a-set-price/

The dealership model was always one that confused me. New car lots are obviously making mad money. The ones near me are practically palaces. I was always surprised that the car manufacturers were content to let these middle men make such huge margins.

I've never bought a new car, but seems like ordering it direct from the manufacturer, specified with all the options you want, would be a perfectly reasonable way to shop.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
Ford taking a lesson from Tesla, cutting out dealership middle men for their EV.



https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/02/ford-wants-to-sell-evs-online-only-and-at-a-set-price/

The dealership model was always one that confused me. New car lots are obviously making mad money. The ones near me are practically palaces. I was always surprised that the car manufacturers were content to let these middle men make such huge margins.

I've never bought a new car, but seems like ordering it direct from the manufacturer, specified with all the options you want, would be a perfectly reasonable way to shop.
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It's my understanding that the real money (actual profit) for the dealers comes from the service department.

According to the most recent data from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), the new-vehicle department of a car dealership accounts for about 58% of a dealership's total sales but less than 26% of a dealership's total gross profit. In addition to car sales, that figure also reflects profits from finance and insurance (F&I) products sold on new cars. That means such things as gap insurance, alarm systems and extended warranties.

<snip>

The used-vehicle department represents only about 31% of a dealerships total sales, but profit is close to that of the new-car department: nearly 25%.

<snip>

So where does the majority of a dealership's profit come from? It's not from car sales, at least not directly. It's from the service and parts department, which accounts for the other 49.6% of the dealership's gross profits. . . .
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source
 
Wowbagger said:
I was considering making a bumper sticker for my Tesla that reads:

No, I don't like Elon Musk.
Yes, it's still a great car!

What does everyone think?
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I think bumper stickers are almost always a mistake. People treat their bumper like open mic night at a comedy club, which goes about as well as you'd expect. Very few people are actually good at comedy. And the ones that are, aren't telling the same damn mass-produced "jokes" as everyone else.

Plus, the kind of people inclined to give you grief because they don't like Elon Musk, are highly unlikely to go easy on you just because you're running around shouting "but I'm one of you!"
 
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