Electric vehicles

[Nigel Burden]

When I bought my 1.4 Ford Fiesta in 2010 the salesman said to knock 10 mpg off the official fuel consumption figures. He was right. It averaged around 39 mpg mixed motoring, and a good deal less if I was out on an ADUK driving day. My daughters Cooper S only averages around 25mpg, and under 20 if you push it, but you can get in excess of 30 mpg if you're not heavy footed.

Nigel.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Leaving aside VW dieselgate, cars are designed to optimise fuel consumption based on the mandatory test regime. This is now closer to, but not the same as, normal driving conditions.

The other variable is driving style and speed. On a motorway it is easy to demonstrate that setting the cruise control to 70mph it will use 15-20% more fuel than 60mph.

On a longer journey - say 200 miles - it will make a real difference to journey times of 25-30 minutes. But for the odd 30 mile trip it is ~ 5 minutes. Depends how you value your time!

 

[Just4Fun]

Depends how you value your time!

It also depends on how you value your licence. Out of town I tend to drive at the speed limit, but limits are typically lower over here than in the UK so I am still able to beat the official test fuel consumption figures. Consistently driving faster carries a real risk of a speeding ticket; get enough of those and you win a bicycle, which I try to avoid.

 

[Rorschach]

Leaving aside VW dieselgate, cars are designed to optimise fuel consumption based on the mandatory test regime. This is now closer to, but not the same as, normal driving conditions.

The other variable is driving style and speed. On a motorway it is easy to demonstrate that setting the cruise control to 70mph it will use 15-20% more fuel than 60mph.

On a longer journey - say 200 miles - it will make a real difference to journey times of 25-30 minutes. But for the odd 30 mile trip it is ~ 5 minutes. Depends how you value your time!

The difference between 60 and 70 isn't that big for our car, but the difference between 50 and 60, probably close to the 20% you state. Of course 50 is too slow for motorway driving in terms of both safety and (on longer trips) journey time. I tend to drive between 60-65 and get a reasonable compromise. I don't like to drive too much in one day so we try and plan our journeys accordingly. When we take a trip further than around 4 hours we tend to leave the afternoon/evening of the day before and book a cheap motel at a suitable point to stay for the night. If possible as well we try and break trips down by staying a day in a new town/city or visiting a heritage site that would normally be way too far for just a day trip. It's a much more civilised way to travel and we have been to some lovely places doing this.

 

[NikNak]

I don't like to drive too much so we try and plan our journeys accordingly. When we take a trip further than around 4 hours we tend to leave the afternoon/evening of the day before and book a cheap motel at a suitable point to stay for the night. If possible as well we try and break trips down by staying a day in a new town/city or visiting a heritage site that would normally be way too far for just a day trip. It's a much more civilised way to travel

Planning ahead... sounds like you're a perfect match to be an EV owner/driver

 

[NormanB]

I have a Nissal Leaf , Owned now for 11 months , Never run out of power , Charge it at home on the std 3 pin 13 amp charger , Each charge cost me £4.20 this is what the smart meter at home tells me the hourly cost of £0.42 pence per hour , Takes 10 hours to fully charge ( This is the slowest type of charging ) I could use a local 7KW charger and re charge to 80 percent in about 1/2 hour IE at the local ASDA when shopping
I love the car its quiet / smooth / and FAST , does wht I need it to do , I have a app called zapmag that tells me of all the local charging points near my car when I am out and about .

That is a good thing to do. A lot of focus in reviews is how fast I can charge back up to say 80% and it does provide a good benchmark, however. Apart from long tripping it is probably better to minimise the use of rapid charging - using the ‘granny lead’ overnight (maybe on an off peak tariff) or during the day off solar if fitted is probably a lot ‘cheaper‘ and slower charging will do less harm to battery life. For the Nissan Leaf specifically with a battery that has no active cooling this is particularly an issue and recognised by Nissan on newer models where they introduced a software limit (by stealth) to slow the charging rate on subsequent rapid charging sessions per trip. This was discovered by users and was labelled ‘Rapidgate’.

 

[MusicMan]

I have a Nissal Leaf , Owned now for 11 months , Never run out of power , Charge it at home on the std 3 pin 13 amp charger , Each charge cost me £4.20 this is what the smart meter at home tells me the hourly cost of £0.42 pence per hour , Takes 10 hours to fully charge ( This is the slowest type of charging ) I could use a local 7KW charger and re charge to 80 percent in about 1/2 hour IE at the local ASDA when shopping
I love the car its quiet / smooth / and FAST , does wht I need it to do , I have a app called zapmag that tells me of all the local charging points near my car when I am out and about .

I love mine too though only got it just before the start of lockdown so haven't driven it very much as yet.

I do think you are paying too much for electricity though. My rate from Octopus is more like £0.15 an hour, and once I get the smart meter and go on their Agile tariff, it will be £0.05 - £0.075 per hour except between 4.30 and 7 pm when it goes up to about £0.035.

 

[Rorschach]

Planning ahead... sounds like you're a perfect match to be an EV owner/driver

Haha, I probably am in lots of ways (size is an issue at the moment for EV's though). If you go back through this thread the issue of planning came up. Using a charger app I planned a journey I took earlier in the year, working out if doing it in an EV was a good choice. If I recall the trip would have been very inconvenient with an EV compared to my ICE. I did a quick check on my most recent London trip as well, doing it with an EV (assuming bog standard model, not Tesla) would have taken several hours longer and required a fair bit of hassle at the other end to get the car charged for the return trip as opposed to my 5 minute fill up in my ICE.

 

[DBT85]

@MusicMan Aren't you comparing your electricity cost rate per hour to @Blisters actual charging cost per hour?

 

[Blister]

My price per hour is also including my home electric use and the car as you can't seperate the 2 with the smart meter ( Not so smart after all )

 

[Rorschach]

@MusicMan Aren't you comparing your electricity cost rate per hour to @Blisters actual charging cost per hour?

He is likely talking about his kWh rate for which 15p sounds about right. The charger is likely 2.5-3kW though, hence approx 42p per hour.

 

[Spectric]

Hi

Basic slow charger is 3Kw and can use std plug on 32amp circuit but can take long time to charge. Type 2 chargers are what you want, faster but not rapid and need proper installation as they are rated somewhere from 3.5Kw to 11Kw plus. I do not think the rapid chargers can be used on the domestic side due to the load, things may have changed.

 

[Spectric]

These EV's could open the way for the future of the public house and start a new era for them. If you look back to when we were using horses and carriages they used the public house as an overnight stop while the horses were fed and rested, so now people can stay overnight whilst their EV charges, they just won't need as many stops. Could be a problem if the ambulance or fire engine has gone flat on the call and is sitting at the roadside being charged!

 

[DBT85]

My price per hour is also including my home electric use and the car as you can't seperate the 2 with the smart meter ( Not so smart after all )

Oh sorry I assumed you were using one that sat between your 13a plug and the wall socket.

 

[AJB Temple]

Hi

Basic slow charger is 3Kw and can use std plug on 32amp circuit but can take long time to charge. Type 2 chargers are what you want, faster but not rapid and need proper installation as they are rated somewhere from 3.5Kw to 11Kw plus. I do not think the rapid chargers can be used on the domestic side due to the load, things may have changed.

You can install fast chargers (and even rent out their use) but when I looked into it 2 years ago they needed a 3 phase supply to get them into the 70Kw area that you need really. There is such a 3 phase supply near the boundary of our garden, on a transformer, but it was a good way away from the garages and prohibitively expensive to install. The fastest ones in common use are 120Kw but there are a growing number of 250Kw units in and around London. You don't really need fast charging at home though: I charge / top up overnight on cheap rate.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

The typical UK house has a 60-100amp power supply - ~25KW.

It is not unusual to have a oven or hob requiring 32amp - 8KW. An electric instantaneous shower may be similar - depending on location and power may need 40amp fuse and cable.

Adding a genuinely fast charger for EV (much more than 7KW) simply can't fit within typical domestic supply constraints without risking occasional main supply fuse failure.. Significant costly upgrade required.

Does it matter - probably not. Most times in a domestic setting several hours is not a charging contstraint - eg: overnight is 8-12 hours, afternoon at home 3-6 hours etc.

 

[DBT85]

Indeed. Not only that, in the UK a 300 mile range would get me from my house in the midlands to juuuuust outside my friends house in Stirling, Scotland. Well there's little chance I'm not stopping on the way up there if even only for 20 minutes somewhere there is a charger. That same 300 mile range would last me a week while working and I live 120 miles from work (I stay near work rather than commute up and down!). For many that only commute 20 miles a day it's much longer so a fast charge is less important.

The issue of range and fast charging is a much larger issue in the US where its a good 140 miles just to get some milk .

 

[selectortone]

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[Racers]

Nice!

Pete

 

[Droogs]

Have to admit, I've been an Alfisti all my life. Have owned 7 in my time including a beautiful yellow GTAm