Any pure EV owners here?

[UKRob]

I’ve just changed my Audi petrol engined car to a Tesla model 3 For the simple reason that it came into a price bracket I could afford. About 12 months ago with my wife’s retirement imminent we decided that only one car would be needed and decided to upgrade mine as her company car would no longer be available. She has been a Tesla driver for nearly 10 years so we have the charging infrastructure in place - however, 12 months ago I would have agreed with @Smiffy comment that they expensive. Since then, second hand prices have dropped by about £10k due to a number of factors so we decided to make the change.

EVs work for us because we have off-road parking and charging and the experience to plan refuelling stops on the very rare occasions that a full charge won’t get us there and back. In terms of performance and driving comfort - we both much prefer the Tesla to any other cars we have driven. Horses for courses.

 

[p.b]

Last week, due to poor planning on my behalf and some time constraints, I didn't have enough fuel to get from home to work so I had to get up 15 minutes earlier to drive several miles out of my way to get fuel. I then then had to stand there for a few minutes holding a stinky greasy diesel pump (unlike American's we in Europe aren't allowed a trigger hold for the pump) while a slow pump quickly robbed me of £95. It's like using a fuel from the 19th century.

If I had an EV it could have been refilled while I slept.

 

[R181]

If I had an EV it could have been refilled while I slept.

Unlike Europeans North American houses are wired for 120 Volts iirc and not 220 Volts like across the pond. I think the recharge would be rather slow on 110 compared to 220. People here have gone to the extra expense of having a 220 outlet installed to make recharging faster at home.

If you want a 20-30 minute recharge that is in another class again.

In any event, it is a good policy to never let your fuel level in an ICE vehicle drop below half a tank before filling up.

We have a low population density and greater distances to travel than in Europe which makes the availability and number of recharging stations problematic.

Electric vehicle charging station outages leave drivers stranded

NDP calls for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and reliability across Northern Ontario and Canada

www.snnewswatch.com

It has not been a well thought out and coordinated conversion process to EVs in a lot of places.

Bob

 

[Smiffy]

UK Police advise that electric cars, by which I guess that they mean currently available electric cars, are not up to the job of law enforcement and particularly armed response vehicles.

 

[slapo]

UK Police advise that electric cars, by which I guess that they mean currently available electric cars, are not up to the job of law enforcement and particularly armed response vehicles.

If you're referring to this article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-62049834, then they state the problem isn't the cars, but the lack of charging facilities. A related issue, but not the same thing.

At the same time, it does make me wonder how they manage their existing fleet, which cars they'd been using and what the operating mode of those cars had been, because it seems like someone rubber stamped a decision to purchase without knowing the actual requirements, or a plan to work around it or with it.

 

[R181]

There have been warning not to park your EV near your house or in your garage particularly while recharging. This related to batteries over heating while charging and exploding.

There is currently a RoRo ship transporting cars off the Dutch coast that is on fire. I'd be interested to see if the fire was caused by one of the EVs onboard.

MSN

Bob

 

[R181]

UK Police advise that electric cars, by which I guess that they mean currently available electric cars, are not up to the job of law enforcement and particularly armed response vehicles.

I kind of doubt the EVs are too slow in acceleration. I wonder what the real problem is ?

Bob

 

[Smiffy]

I kind of doubt the EVs are too slow in acceleration. I wonder what the real problem is ?

Bob

Most of the police pursuit cars are BMW X5, Range Rover vehicles plus performance BMWs. There are police interceptor type tv programs which show the police doing 130 mph to catch the bad guys, sometimes 150mph, possibly this is outside an electric cars capabilities.

There is also the thought in my mind, although I haven't read this, that the car will need to be out of commission for eight hours to recharge, it should be earning it's keep as long as there is an officer on duty, which would or should happen with a conventionally fuelled car.

 

[slapo]

Most of the police pursuit cars are BMW X5, Range Rover vehicles plus performance BMWs. There are police interceptor type tv programs which show the police doing 130 mph to catch the bad guys, sometimes 150mph, possibly this is outside an electric cars capabilities.

There is also the thought in my mind, although I haven't read this, that the car will need to be out of commission for eight hours to recharge, it should be earning it's keep as long as there is an officer on duty, which would or should happen with a conventionally fuelled car.

Electric cars can go that fast for sure (maybe not all models... I don't really have the market mapped), but if charging is an issue, maybe they should get their favourite manufacturers to implement something like this, alongside charging:

It might not work for normal consumers at the moment, as it would require some sort of a subscription, but it should work quite well for institutions like the police.

 

[p.b]

There is also the thought in my mind, although I haven't read this, that the car will need to be out of commission for eight hours to recharge, it should be earning it's keep as long as there is an officer on duty, which would or should happen with a conventionally fuelled car.

This is also the problem with making ambulances from EVs. Although in the UK they could recharge while waiting for a hospital bed to become free

 

[p.b]

Unlike Europeans North American houses are wired for 120 Volts iirc and not 220 Volts like across the pond. I think the recharge would be rather slow on 110 compared to 220. People here have gone to the extra expense of having a 220 outlet installed to make recharging faster at home.

If you want to charge a full EV (as opposed to a hybrid with a much smaller battery) at home you'll need a level 2 charger (>7kW) which absolutely requires 220V, which I'm told is also required for a tumble / clothes dryer anyway.

 

[R181]

If you want to charge a full EV (as opposed to a hybrid with a much smaller battery) at home you'll need a level 2 charger (>7kW) which absolutely requires 220V, which I'm told is also required for a tumble / clothes dryer anyway.

Yea, that would be a 240V connection for a level 2 charger same as a clothes dryer. Some level 2 chargers are for use charging your car outdoors and a different one is required for charging indoors in a garage. At a quick glance level 2 chargers run $250.00 CAD to $500.00 CAD to buy. If your main service panel to the house has enough capacity, you just have the wiring cost. If you need to upgrade the main service panel there is that cost to add.

At a wild-eyed guess, you need about $1000.00 CAD without a service panel upgrade. Add a service panel upgrade and the cost easily doubles. Either way it is not a cheap proposition. Just hope you don't have to upgrade the service stack to house too.

Bob

 

[alex1921]

Yea, that would be a 240V connection for a level 2 charger same as a clothes dryer. Some level 2 chargers are for use charging your car outdoors and a different one is required for charging indoors in a garage. At a quick glance level 2 chargers run $250.00 CAD to $500.00 CAD to buy. If your main service panel to the house has enough capacity, you just have the wiring cost. If you need to upgrade the main service panel there is that cost to add.

At a wild-eyed guess, you need about $1000.00 CAD without a service panel upgrade. Add a service panel upgrade and the cost easily doubles. Either way it is not a cheap proposition. Just hope you don't have to upgrade the service stack to house too.

Bob

Exactly my situation. Panel is full and located in the basement on the there side where the garage is. It wouldn't be cheap.
Looked into RAV4 Prime which a smaller battery since it's a plug in hybrid but there is such a shortage that the dealers that have them were asking 10k over sticker.

 

[R181]

Exactly my situation. Panel is full and located in the basement on the there side where the garage is. It wouldn't be cheap.
Looked into RAV4 Prime which a smaller battery since it's a plug in hybrid but there is such a shortage that the dealers that have them were asking 10k over sticker.

It seems more people are interested in hybrids over here.

As Ford loses billions on EVs, the company embraces hybrids

Ford's hybrid hype runs counter to recent messaging from the Detroit automakers, which have touted the performance and popularity of all-electric favorites.

www.cnbc.com

Bob

 

[slapo]

It seems more people are interested in hybrids over here.

As Ford loses billions on EVs, the company embraces hybrids

Ford's hybrid hype runs counter to recent messaging from the Detroit automakers, which have touted the performance and popularity of all-electric favorites.

www.cnbc.com

Bob

The title CNBC chose seems kind of misleading in that it could make one think they're ditching EVs, but it just says they expect the transition to EV-only might take longer and because they have a well selling hybrid, they're going to be making more hybrid models in the meantime.
Seems quite reasonable.