I'm an Electric Vehicle owner AMA

[Tulipomania]

Seen a lot of myths on MN so I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Have had an EV for 6 years. We are all going to have to switch to them eventually.

Oh and there is a lot fewer moving parts so minimal servicing needed - much cheaper there as well as refuelling. I think we got new windscreen wipers as our car was second hand and they were a bit worn. A few minor issues like a jammed wing mirror and a loose seal. Nothing ‘engine’ wise at all. Regenerative breaking also means less traditional breaking plus if you go downhill you recharge the car!

Downhill recharges the car !! Well I may need detailed topographical mapping and choose drives/routes/life according to inclines. May become as bad as cyclists doing their ‘everesting’ using strava or whatever that cycling data app is !

I don’t have a drive and the street is set far from my house so I would only be able to charge by running cables out onto the street which is a hazard, also there are no where near enough lamp posts for the amount of people in my village that don’t have drives to charge their cars. I’m holding off as personally I don’t think they’ll be the only answer in years to come

This is all really interesting. We ordered a VW Id 3 today. Really excited to take delivery now

frenchy how exciting. Malsonhad image of the Seinfeld episode where George became the (harassed) alternat side parking car mover with all of those keys around his waist.
Street light chargers would/could then require a street car mover to ensure all had fair crack of the whip at being charged !?

@MissCherryCakeyBun my Renault Zoe does 230 miles on one charge, and with rapid charge can refill to 80% in 20 mins if need be.

Range really isn't an issue anymore if you pick the right car. I really wanted a mini but the range was terrible, about half the Zoe.

The main advantage to the Tesla's is not having to plan your route with charging in mind. It does it all for you, it plans your route and directs you to the right charger and with Max charge speeds of up to 250kw/h compared to 40kw/h for my Zoe, you really can charge it up in 10 mins. Thats just a regular coffee stop.

How many times do you nearly mow down s pedestrian as they can’t hear you coming?

Asking from personal experience as a pedestrian

@brokenbiscuitsx

How many times do you nearly mow down s pedestrian as they can’t hear you coming?

Asking from personal experience as a pedestrian

not many, no... it's more dangerous the electric scooter twats on their phones and not stopping on zebras...

at least a car is big... (but i always said they should add customisable noises, id like a clip clopping sound)

I was reading an article about electric cars and the owner was talking about being on a long drive, having done his research on where to recharge, and arriving at the service station to find that the only charger that fit his car was broken. This had happened twice. How common is this?

Why aren't the chargers universal?

@BalloonSlayer its a risk, I'm not going to lie. However apps such as ZapMap usually have updates where there is an issue so you can check on here to make sure your chosen charger is working.

It's far more likely that the charger you want to use doesn't accept contactless, some silly network subscription with a key fob, or their own app you can't download because the charger had been situated in the deepest far corner of a station with no signal than it being broken actually.

There's also a lot more chargers these days, although depends wildly on location. We're Midlands and it's a good level, we recently visited both Hastings and Devon and the networks were much more few and far between and often broken.

Can I ask about home charging for a Tesla? We're in the process of buying one but the installation firm insist it needs to be connected to the main fuse box which is the the kitchen so will be a big hassle.
We have a garage with a power supply.

My other question is about icy roads and snow, how does it handle?
If you're aware of any quirks I'd be grateful to know.

We bought a Renault Zoe about 8 weeks ago. I absolutely love her. We’ve had a charger fitted at home so just recharge once a week/fortnight. Can get 240 miles out of a full charge. Acceleration is ace (forgive the pun). Would highly recommend.

@deckchairday our Tesla handles well in ice/snow, including steep icy hills. Not 4wd version either. It’s quite heavy and has a low centre of gravity. Norway has a large no. of Teslas on the road, quite a few ice/snow handling videos on youtube.

That's reassuring thank you @Berkeys

We have an id4 on order. Excited. It’s hilly, snowy, and - temp all winter here yet our area is already heaving with Tesla’s and other electric cars. We have a home charger being installed but there are plenty of places nearby to charge.

I got a Renault Zoe on contract hire last August. I've done 20,000 miles so far and have loved it. I spend less on the hire and charging than I did on petrol/diesel. Currently sitting in a garden centre cafe whilst the car charges.

Oh, and I agree with a pp - nothing burns me off at the lights. 😆

Electric cars sound really boring to drive though! I like changing gear and I like the symbiosis of man & machine.

It must be really hard not to speed when you don’t have the engine noise as an indicator

@PortMerrionCentre

Electric cars sound really boring to drive though! I like changing gear and I like the symbiosis of man & machine. It must be really hard not to speed when you don’t have the engine noise as an indicator

Ha, I know what you mean, but it goes like stink and really fast acceleration! Plus everyone watches you come past!

@PortMerrionCentre I know exactly what you mean. I've been a real petrol head since I could.legally drive and loved the manual sensation of changing gears, putting it in sports mode, or the of handbrake turn...

However, within a couple of weeks of having my electric car I had to drive a diesel Volvo. I absolutely hated it, it was heavy, the engine was so noisy i got a headache (never bothered me before) and I kept stalling the bloody thing forgetting it had gears.

Honestly. My EV is the most fun car to drive, so rapid it leaves most performance card standing and the Tesla handles corners like a rocket.

They're different, for sure. But better.

I have a 2014 pale blue Renault Zoe and I take a ridiculous amount of pleasure from zooming off at traffic lights and when my teenagers are in the car I have been known to shout ‘so long suckers!’ Because I also take pleasure in trying to mortify them. I am 43

I'm not against electric cars, but I wonder about how "green' they truly are, because although they don't emit CO2, if the electricity they use was produced by a coal fired power station then perhaps the emissions are about the same. Also, apparently there is a high carbon footprint around the lithium batteries.

Also, I wonder about the maintenance issues. The lack of an engine sounds great, as there is less to go wrong, but OTOH I know how quickly anything electrical/computerised can become obsolete or simply stop working due to tiny components on circuit boards deteriorating/connections eroding.

Finally, the silence is great for reducing noise pollution, but I foresee a lot of potential for pedestrians being injured due to not hearing cars approaching then crossing the road with a quick glance as they step out, lulled into a false sense of security by the silence. A built in noise effect seems a sensible way forward. So, lots of queries but perhaps someone out there can provide answers.

I take the quietness into account and am very aware now that pedestrians or cyclists may not hear me behind them so am careful. Some EVs have a noise feature you can turn on.

My i3 is not good in snow. Other models are better, or I could get winter tyres but we have so little snow where I live it 's not worth it.

I haven't had any issues with the software in my car after 6 years.

We don't make electricity from coal in the UK any more. Our grid is 42% renewables, more zero carbon if you include nuclear. You can sign up to a 100% renewable tariff designed for EVs.

Lithium batteries are recylable and Lithium can be mined in UK now. we use them in laptops & phones too. It's no worse an issue than the components of an ICE car IMHO.

Thanks OP, this is a very interesting thread. The roads will become much quieter if everyone switches to electric cars, which will improve the lives of many people living on busy roads. Maybe in the future people will be aghast at the levels of traffic noise and fumes that were once accepted as a normal part of life.

Another EV fan here, we've had one for about 8 years, Renault Zoe, we're on our second one. We lease them through dh's work because I think technology moves so quickly. Our first one had a range of just 80 miles, by the end of our first 2 year lease period the new model had jumped up to a range of 180. I think its more again now but we're happy with what we have.
At first everything was difficult, it broke down once and took aged to get fixed because no-one could work out why it was broken, then they couldn't get the right part to repair it. But all of that is better now the cars are more common. We still have to take it to the main dealership, the local garage we've used for years can't do EVs, so all that is an extra hassle.
We've charged ours out and about dozens and dozens of times and only once or twice has a charge not been free or not been working and there had always been another one we could have reached so it wasn't a disaster. Ours comes with a breakdown policy where the breakdown people will pick you up and tow you to a charger free 3 times in the first year, once in the second year, then you have to pay after that if you run out of power. We've never run out so far, but we did drive from Glasgow to Chester and arrived with 6 miles left so that was close.
Obviously the max range is reduced if you're driving at 80mph down the motorway. Our Zoe could happily go at 80mph, it's really nippy. And I'm a convert to automatic. Why mess about with gears if you don't have to?

I'm not trying to convince anyone particularly, I know it will be tricky for people who live in flats or don't have driveways. Range will always be an issue for people who do a lot of driving or who tow trailers or caravans. We've nearly been caught out because ours can only be rapid charged so many times in a day, the battery gets too hot, and when we tried to get an extra little charge at a service station it wouldn't charge up. We had just enough to get home, but it was close. So there are always uncertainties that don't exist with petrol or diesel available every few miles.

There was talk at one time about trying to make the batteries easy to change so you could drive up to a petrol station type place and switch your exhausted battery for a nice fully charged one then carry on with your journey, that sounded like a good idea but the larger capacity batteries are just too big and inaccessible for that ever to work.