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Electric Vehicles

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Going beyond the range is no big deal. Just pack a bicycle and a rope, and then, when the battery's drained, use the bicycle to tow it and let it recharge from the movement. It's called regenerative biking.
 
Delvo said:
Going beyond the range is no big deal. Just pack a bicycle and a rope, and then, when the battery's drained, use the bicycle to tow it and let it recharge from the movement. It's called regenerative biking.
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Oh dear.

And nommed.
 
Delvo said:
Going beyond the range is no big deal. Just pack a bicycle and a rope, and then, when the battery's drained, use the bicycle to tow it and let it recharge from the movement. It's called regenerative biking.
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Nice.

Noted

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk
 
This month, I have activated the Full Self Driving features of my Tesla Model 3, for the month!

I can already tell you that I probably won't be keeping them any further, though. Not that they're not great in their own way, but I don't think they're worth the fee, given how little I would actually want to use them. (Currently $200 a month or a one-time payment of $12,000, and the price will probably rise beyond that.)

It's both fantastic and terrible at the same time: Its capabilities are quite amazing, how it can switch lanes for you, and such. And, I guess the auto-parking is a little useful.

Plus, it's fun watching people's heads explode when I demonstrate the Smart Summon!

However, it does induce it's own kind of anxiety for folks who prefer to keep more control over their vehicle. There is always this tiny fear that the car won't do what it's supposed to, at any given situation. Sometimes it slows down later than I would, for a vehicle in front of me, for example. So, I end up "panic disengaging" it more often than I probably need to.

So, while it was interesting enough to be worth $200 to try for one month, I won't likely bother activating it again, at least not for a long while.
 
I'm seriously looking at getting an EV now, prompted partly by fuel shortages, increased fuel prices, and suddenly problems with my current car.

Currently looking at the Kia e-Niro, Kia Soul or MG ZS. Major problem with most of them is availability. The MG ZS is pretty good, but there's a 5 month waiting list for new ones, and not many second-hand ones. There are some second-hand e-Niros about, but not many, and the prices are higher than a new MG. One good thing about the Kias is that, if you buy from a Kia dealer, the second-hand ones come with a 7 year warranty.
 
zooterkin said:
I'm seriously looking at getting an EV now, prompted partly by fuel shortages, increased fuel prices, and suddenly problems with my current car.

Currently looking at the Kia e-Niro, Kia Soul or MG ZS. Major problem with most of them is availability. The MG ZS is pretty good, but there's a 5 month waiting list for new ones, and not many second-hand ones. There are some second-hand e-Niros about, but not many, and the prices are higher than a new MG. One good thing about the Kias is that, if you buy from a Kia dealer, the second-hand ones come with a 7 year warranty.
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Nissan Leaf?
 
My wife wants an electric car in due course and I tried to persuade her to try playing the game of pretending she had one for a few months. By which I mean use the trip counter to work out when you'd need to find a charging point and actually go find one (don't take up the space, obviously, but maybe park nearby for equivalent time).

Did anyone here try something like that before taking the plunge?
 
Jack by the hedge said:
My wife wants an electric car in due course and I tried to persuade her to try playing the game of pretending she had one for a few months. By which I mean use the trip counter to work out when you'd need to find a charging point and actually go find one (don't take up the space, obviously, but maybe park nearby for equivalent time).

Did anyone here try something like that before taking the plunge?
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I didn't literally do that. But, for the past few years, I've kept track of where charging stations are located, along any routes I would be traveling. They started off being in relatively good locations, to be honest. And, they have only increased in number since, so I figured it wasn't going to be an issue.

If you have your own garage, you can keep the car charged in it whenever it's parked there, and you won't even need to worry about stations, unless you're going on a long road trip.

If you acquire a Tesla, you can use supercharging, which is much faster than other options.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
My wife wants an electric car in due course and I tried to persuade her to try playing the game of pretending she had one for a few months. By which I mean use the trip counter to work out when you'd need to find a charging point and actually go find one (don't take up the space, obviously, but maybe park nearby for equivalent time).

Did anyone here try something like that before taking the plunge?
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Haven't done that, but it is a good thought exercise.

We've got a driveway and power in the garage, so charging overnight would be easy., even without a charging point. The supermarkets we go to have charging points; the long journeys we make regularly are about 70 miles each way, so easily doable on a full charge.

EVs with a range of more than 250 miles are available now, so that's mainly what we're looking at. A shorter range like the LEAF might be OK, though I think we might need a bit more load capacity.
 
zooterkin said:
I'm seriously looking at getting an EV now, prompted partly by fuel shortages, increased fuel prices, and suddenly problems with my current car.

Currently looking at the Kia e-Niro, Kia Soul or MG ZS. Major problem with most of them is availability. The MG ZS is pretty good, but there's a 5 month waiting list for new ones, and not many second-hand ones. There are some second-hand e-Niros about, but not many, and the prices are higher than a new MG. One good thing about the Kias is that, if you buy from a Kia dealer, the second-hand ones come with a 7 year warranty.
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I don't know about the electric Kias but the recovery mechanic who visited my house (and car) yesterday said that there is a shortage of Kias because the wiring looms have a lot of input from Ukraine.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
My wife wants an electric car in due course and I tried to persuade her to try playing the game of pretending she had one for a few months. By which I mean use the trip counter to work out when you'd need to find a charging point and actually go find one (don't take up the space, obviously, but maybe park nearby for equivalent time).

Did anyone here try something like that before taking the plunge?
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An old habit I have from my days riding an old motorcycle with a less than accurate fuel gauge is to reset my trip odometer between each fillup.

For my 4 cylinder Corolla, I'm going about 300 miles between each fillup at the station. I think I could probably do maybe 350 before running out of gas.

300 miles happens to work out to slightly more than 1 week based on my normal driving habits. That's only a bit more range than what many of these EVs promising these days.

If I had home or work charging, an EV would work great and even be more convenient that driving out of my way to get gas (I detour a bit off my route for cheaper gas, so it's not as convenient as the nearest station). If I had to rely on dedicated trips to a charger, this would be inconvenient but still doable.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
An old habit I have from my days riding an old motorcycle with a less than accurate fuel gauge is to reset my trip odometer between each fillup.
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I always do that as well.

On the Tesla, under “Trips”, is a “Miles since last charge” odometer, along with the usual “Trip A” and “Trip B” options. On the one hand, that’s handy. On the other hand, the readout is buried requiring two button pushes to see the “Trips” page. No odometer shows while driving, which is dumb because it’s been de rigeur in every car I’ve driven, and there’s plenty of room on the periphery of the Tesla’s display to show one or more odometers.

Note: this is for software ver. 11. Earlier versions apparently have had the option to display the odometer and/or trips on the main screen. I’ve never used versions prior to 11, but there’s a lot of hate for it in various Tesla groups as a step backwards.
 
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Jack by the hedge said:
My wife wants an electric car in due course and I tried to persuade her to try playing the game of pretending she had one for a few months. By which I mean use the trip counter to work out when you'd need to find a charging point and actually go find one (don't take up the space, obviously, but maybe park nearby for equivalent time).

Did anyone here try something like that before taking the plunge?
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Sorry, been indisposed

What sort of driving is she doing? If she never (hardly ever) does more than 150 miles a day and can charge at home overnight then there's a whole raft of EV's she can choose from. Or if she drives to places with destination charging, or would be leaving the car somewhere with a three pin plug for a long time before driving back....

If she regularly drives much further than that, in rural areas, can't charge to full overnight, it all becomes more problematic.

Everyone who has a Tesla says the supercharger network makes everything so simple. I can see that.
 
Filippo Lippi said:
What sort of driving is she doing? If she never (hardly ever) does more than 150 miles a day ...
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For the time being she's dealing with clearing her late father's house, 200 miles away, and that means fairy regular long trips. The obvious thing to do was buy a moderately capacious ICE car until that's dealt with, then think electric.

The biggest problem was getting her out of the mindset that when she buys a car she's going to keep it for a decade (which she always does). She was frozen in indecision for so long her old car became a liability, accumulating urgent and expensive problems that really weren't worth fixing.

So I've persuaded her into a petrol Skoda Octavia with the reassurance that she is allowed to sell it next year. I do have a bit of guilt knowing that I've just kicked the can down the road and she'll be stuck in indecision again for years to come. At least she's in a safe car whose wheels aren't about to fall off.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
So I've persuaded her into a petrol Skoda Octavia with the reassurance that she is allowed to sell it next year. I do have a bit of guilt knowing that I've just kicked the can down the road and she'll be stuck in indecision again for years to come. At least she's in a safe car whose wheels aren't about to fall off.
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Excellent choice IMO. I've had mine for 5 years and 60k miles and found it comfortable and economical.

Mrs Don has just taken delivery of her brand new Fiat 500E, replacing the Skoda Fabia she has had for the last 14 years.
 

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