[Misc] Electric Cars

[Fungus]

You'll get used to driving with regenerative braking very, very quickly.

Initially, you may lift off a little bit early, meaning you come to a standstill before you intended, but before long, you will be able to judge it accurately and you'll rarely touch the brake pedal ever again. It becomes a bit of a game.

Absolutely. The only time I don’t use regenerative braking is when I’m driving on motorways*, as I just want the car to keep rolling.

* Well, the A30, which is as close as I usually get to motorways.

 

[Bob!]

Did my fist long trip yesterday in the new (second hand) Kia e-niro.
Essex down to Sussex and back to see mum.
Started at 100% charged with 286 mile estimated range.
213 miles driven.
74 miles of range left.

Should be good for the 200 mile round trip to The Amex, even in the winter.

 

[AK74]

…before long, you will be able to judge it accurately and you'll rarely touch the brake pedal ever again. It becomes a bit of a game.

Ah, so I’m not the only one! This is good to know.

 

[Butch Willykins]

All being well we will move house in a couple of months. We had a Ohme Home Pro installed last July and just wondered if anyone had moved house and taken the charger with them to the new house?

From what I understand, moving the charger invalidates the warranty and the cost to decommission and reinstall is broadly cost neutral to simply buying a new one but keen to hear any real world experience here.

Also pretty sure if we had the Gov Grant in my name at the current house we could apply for a new grant at the new house in Mrs G’s name?

Thanks

Had this dilemma a while ago. In the end I just got a new charger installed, plus we’d marketed the house as coming with an EV charger!

Are there still grants available on chargers? Depending on how you fund your EV some suppliers will throw one in ‘for free’.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Had this dilemma a while ago. In the end I just got a new charger installed, plus we’d marketed the house as coming with an EV charger!

Are there still grants available on chargers? Depending on how you fund your EV some suppliers will throw one in ‘for free’.

Thanks,

Gov are still offering a £350 grant towards install but I wasn’t clear if was linked to a person or vehicle, if the former Id put it in Mrs G’s name

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Thanks,

Gov are still offering a £350 grant towards install but I wasn’t clear if was linked to a person or vehicle, if the former Id put it in Mrs G’s name

Only in some circumstances:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/electric-vehicle-chargepoint-grants

 

[Greg Bobkin]

You'll get used to driving with regenerative braking very, very quickly.

Initially, you may lift off a little bit early, meaning you come to a standstill before you intended, but before long, you will be able to judge it accurately and you'll rarely touch the brake pedal ever again. It becomes a bit of a game.

This is very true. A lot of cars give you a 'score' on your driving too, so you can try and 'win' against yourself on every journey!

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Did my fist long trip yesterday in the new (second hand) Kia e-niro.
Essex down to Sussex and back to see mum.
Started at 100% charged with 286 mile estimated range.
213 miles driven.
74 miles of range left.

Should be good for the 200 mile round trip to The Amex, even in the winter.

Yeah, you should be fine. Worst comes to the worst, all it'll take is a short stop en route and rapid charge to give you the extra miles you need to get home, which probably won't be many. I've done that at Pease Pottage many times – working on the assumption that five or 10 minutes spent there (when I probably need to stop anyway) is better than potentially hours by the side of the road waiting to be recovered because I've chanced it and ran out of miles along the A27 to Shoreham-by-Sea!

 

[Bozza]

Absolutely. The only time I don’t use regenerative braking is when I’m driving on motorways*, as I just want the car to keep rolling.

* Well, the A30, which is as close as I usually get to motorways.

Isn't that what cruise control is for?

 

[Fungus]

Isn't that what cruise control is for?

You're probably right, but to be honest I don't do enough mileage on fast, open roads to justify having to RTFM for cruise control!

 

[Bob!]

Isn't that what cruise control is for?

Cruise control was brilliant yesterday on my first long drive, keeps the same distance from the car in front, I even let it take the car all the way to stopping coming up to a junction.
Only downside of the cruise control was when changing lanes to overtake a slower vehicle it would speed back up very quickly without recognising the vehicle in front in the new lane.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Cruise control was brilliant yesterday on my first long drive, keeps the same distance from the car in front, I even let it take the car all the way to stopping coming up to a junction.
Only downside of the cruise control was when changing lanes to overtake a slower vehicle it would speed back up very quickly without recognising the vehicle in front in the new lane.

If the Kia works the same way as my Hyundai, adaptive cruise control does not recognise stationery cars, which is definetly something to watch out for, when you are letting it just do its own thing.

 

[Audax]

If the Kia works the same way as my Hyundai, adaptive cruise control does not recognise stationery cars, which is definetly something to watch out for, when you are letting it just do its own thing.

Depends on the ACC solution. I first had ACC in my Prius, which at the time (back in 2016) came in 2 flavours depending on which spec Prius you had. Spec 1 the ACC would only work down to a min speed. Spec 2 takes you all the way to zero, which I had, and I found it generally worked fine (even when approaching a stationary queue of traffic). Only problem was that periodically it would confuse itself and either think the stationary car in front was closer than it really was (resulting in some very abrupt applications of the brakes by the ACC) or it would simply decide to switch itself off while rolling up behind traffic. So yes, had to stay alert.

My ID3 has ACC all the way to zero as well. It even resumes from stationary on its own if it's only a brief stop, and also tries to respect the road rules re: not overtaking on the left unless traffic is slow. I'm not so keen on that, though, as it tends to choose to sit right in the likely blind spot for the vehicle in the right lane.

 

[Audax]

Do people on here generally use the drive mode or regenerative braking mode when they are driving?

I use B-mode (regen braking) almost exclusively. Single-pedal driving is great. Apart from anything else - getting the benefit out of driving an EV using regen braking necessitates learning to drive with a healthy, safe gap to the vehicle in front. ICE drivers still generally tail-gate far too close, but I'm seeing more and more EVs on the road and they seem to be far less likely to tail gate.

 

[Flounce]

Alpine A390 revealed

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

This is very true. A lot of cars give you a 'score' on your driving too, so you can try and 'win' against yourself on every journey!

Only just turned this on, my first assessment results are due month end

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I know the company it getting a bit of a kicking at the moment, but here's a fairly balanced review of the new Tesla Model Y from my mate Mark (it helps that he steers clear of pretty much anything that relates to Musk). I've not driven it, so can't comment, but it looks like it's a bit of an improvement over the previous one (which wasn't hard, IMO).

I actually saw him the day of the charging experience he mentioned and he was telling me how weird it was to have a load of Tesla fan-people poring over his car, when all he was doing was trying to charge it...

 

[GOM]

Did my fist long trip yesterday in the new (second hand) Kia e-niro.
Essex down to Sussex and back to see mum.
Started at 100% charged with 286 mile estimated range.
213 miles driven.
74 miles of range left.

Should be good for the 200 mile round trip to The Amex, even in the winter.

The Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona have remarkably accurate GOMs (Guess O Meters - estimated range remaining) compared to many others. I recently did a 274 mile day trip with a GOM of 304 before setting off and returned home with 10 percent left and 30 miles range left - bang on.

Be prepared for the nerves when you start hitting low percentages, it's human nature but trust in the car. On return journeys when aiming to get home without a 'splash and dash' I find having Google maps or whatever satnav you use on with distance remaining and keep monitoring the difference between that and the GOM. If the difference is closing rapidly then modify your speed especially on motorways.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Still in my first week of ownership but doing the Goring to Burgess Hill trip a couple of times, it seems like my mi/kwh figure is better on the way up which is A24 and cross country through Partridge Green and Twineham than the journey back which is A23/A27.

Do people find it generally the case that you get better 'economy' on slower routes or is it the impact of the regenerative braking that comes with roundabouts and country roads?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Still in my first week of ownership but doing the Goring to Burgess Hill trip a couple of times, it seems like my mi/kwh figure is better on the way up which is A24 and cross country through Partridge Green and Twineham than the journey back which is A23/A27.

Do people find it generally the case that you get better 'economy' on slower routes or is it the impact of the regenerative braking that comes with roundabouts and country roads?

Largely it is just speeds. You get a lot more miles for your charge at 55mph than at 70mph.