Waiting for my first EV!

[HavingABlether]

I'm waiting for my car to be delivered on Wednesday. It's a BYD Atto 2.

Does anyone have tips for a first time EV driver?

I already:

• Signed up for Octopus Electroverse
• Installed ZapMap
• Hoping for a home charger. Got council permission for a drop kerb but need to get the wall in front of my house demolished first.
• Been told about Always Be Chargjng (ABC) and keeping battery between 20-80%.

I’m waiting for my first one too, Cupra Born, due to arrive next month hopefully. I’m nervous and excited! I’ve got a charger being installed in a couple of weeks, I hope you can manage something. I also have zap map and whilst I’ve heard of electroverse but wasn’t sure what it was or if I needed it?!

Be careful of very short trips, the 12v battery needs time to recharge properly. If you're only doing a few mins to the shops or school, the 12v can die.

It's from Octopus Energy. It lets you charge on all different chargers through one account instead of needing an app and account for the various providers. For a bonus point, you can stick it on your electricity bill if you're with Octopus, which is handy before pay day! Hope you enjoy your new car.

I didn't know about that, thanks for the tip!

I have had an EV for 3 years and I love it and have my second on order but one thing that suprised me was the huge difference to milage in the summer and winter- Granted I am up in the proper north and have a freezing and hilly commute but I burn through the miles much, much quicker in the cold with the heating on and the reverse is true in the summer. You will probably find that you have to charge more often and don't get the advertised mileage between about Nov/Feb

Oh and have a bit of a plan on long journeys.. I have only properly had a near miss with charging twice and both were a while ago and because I couldn't charge where I thought I could from looking at an app (chargers out of order/being re done) I now never get too low and plan a bit more than I did with Petrol- its fine just a new way of driving that you need to get used to- I always need to stop after an hour or 2 for wee and a coffee anyway- but have places I know are going to have decent fast chargers that work.

Glad it's worked out for you 🙂 Glasgow here, so we have two seasons: Winter and Rainy Winter.

I've just bought an EV, I love driving it! I was surprised how it can accelerate really fast, much faster than my old car! Really effortless up hills where my little, old car struggled. Apparently it does wear the tyres out if you are often accelerating hard.

On the subject of heating draining the battery - if you just have the heated seats on, instead of the fan blowing heat, this is less draining on the battery.

Ah, good tip! Warm bum it is. It's great to hear how much you enjoy it.