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With more people taking up EVs and Motability continuing to offer them I thought it was a multi user ‘guide’ to ownership. I’ll kick off with a long post shortly but I really don’t want this to be my voice alone. There’s quite a few now who have owned at least one BEV and will have some hints and tricks they’d like to share, whether it’s how to charge away from home cheaply or driving tips or even test driving hints.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
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A nice idea – I’m sure there is a wealth of cumulative knowledge
I do – I suspect a very low mileage- compared to most – the majority being local.
I checked today what my rate per kWh has been over the nearly 3 years I have had the Kona – just on 10k miles at an overall average of 4.4 – so I must be doing something right.
When I get the Elroq I hope a lot of what I have learned will be transferable – but I know there will be members like Gordon who can give me specific tips for the Kona.
So MFillingham I think this is a great idea 👍👍
So, to start I thought I’d go over the biggest difference between ICE and BEV – Regenerative braking.
We mostly know the details, energy is returned to the battery through the wheels turning the motor and also loses speed at the same time.
So, the basics: Regenerative braking is always available at different levels, whether that’s just on/off or 4 different levels including 1 pedal driving like KIA/Hyundai. The most aggressive is most suitable when stopping/starting often, city driving or traffic queuing, roadworks, etc. Similarly, the reverse works, if you’re cruising at a steady speed, the lowest settings means you’ll get the best efficiency.
Driving with regen is somewhat different to driving an ICE, where the accelerator is effectively push harder to accelerate, hold steady to maintain speed and lift a little to slow a bit and lifting entirely just uses a little of the engines mechanics to create a little resistance. Drop the clutch and you’ll be able to roll down hill without slowing (depending upon the hill). With the EV it’s more like pressing speeds up, holding keeps pace lifting slows down. The heavier the regen the more delicate you need to be with the accelerator. You can still press hard and fly forward, much more so than most engines muster, but lifting completely can take you to almost an emergency stop (on a few cars). Lifting slightly will feel more aggressive than the ICE you’re used to but, like changing to a bigger engined car, you’ll get used to how much pressure both accelerates and decelerates the car at a comfortable rate. As ever, if you allow more space so you can slow at an easier pace, you’ll drive more efficiently.
One pedal driving means the car will come to a complete stop. Some will do so as you would in normal traffic, some are gentler and require more space to completely stop. Again, time with the car gets you used to how quickly you stop. Also, anti collision monitoring will increase the rate of slowing to some extent. It is possible for all cars fitted with that level of regenerative brakes to drive around town, up and down hill, without touching the brake pedal at all. That’s fantastic if, like me, your knees or lower legs object painfully to constantly pushing different pedals. I will say the some Nissans have a 1 pedal button that, for some obscure reason, won’t bring the car to a complete halt. Also some ACC will use a combination of brake and regen to stop the car if the cars in front stop.
If you’re on a test drive and the regen feels hard, aggressive or uncomfortable, you probably need to adjust how much you lift your foot to slow down. I’ve not yet tried a car that too harsh yet but even in the Model S, you can balance it right although I find I need to drop through several levels of efficiency before controlling the acceleration down to not breaking necks.
More to follow….
(hopefully not all from me😁)
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
This was partly covered in another thread – so some of what I am about to say I have said elsewhere.
I suspect all EVs will have the ability to show the regen on the dash in real time – either numbers or bar often green and red depicting energy used and energy put back – regen.
In the early days of having the Kona I found this particularly useful as I could see exactly how what I did affected the energy used and regen.
It made me realise I often had my foot on the accelerator when I could have coasted more – ie using less energy.
The same with braking – finding the sweet spot comeing upto lights or junction.
Here’s a cliche we all need to understand. Don’t stop to charge but charge when you stop.
On long journeys mist normal humans have a bladder that can’t last 250 miles at 70mph. So, we stop after a couple of hours or so. On a motorway flowing fairly normally you’ll get to your first stop around half ‘tank’. So wherever you plan to stop, there’s usually chargers available. Most Motorway Service Areas will have at least one provider (Gridserve/Tesla/other?). If you’ve thought ahead, use whichever works out cheaper for you. If you’re pitching up unplanned, Gridserve are usually quicker but can be quite expensive. However, plugging in before going for your comfort break, plus maybe getting a coffee or lunch, should see the ‘half tank’ boost to 3/4 or more. That’s usually up to your car, some precondition to charge faster, some will only charge to a relatively low rate above 50% some just go for it. (I’ll touch on charging curves later).
Now you can carry on your journey knowing you’re getting beyond your bladder’s range.
Charging Curve: All EVs claim a maximum rate of charge, all state they’ll get from 20% to 80% in a certain time, mine states 16 minutes but it’s never done it yet. The max rate will be at the optimum point, usually between 25% and 40% but may only be for a few seconds. Some cars, however go up to a lower maximum rate but can keep going at that rate for longer. Then there’s what happens beyond 70%. Some cars slow their charging to as low as 5kW after they’ve hit 80%. Watch what happens, I had a ZS which charged to 90% at a relatively steady 35kW then drops dramatically to below 10%. The Ioniq hits 50kW by 80 and keeps dropping to sub 10% by 90 and even less later.
These are necessary to know because there’s going to be a point where sticking around for that one extra percentage point could take as much time as it takes to get back to the motorway and get off at the next charging stop. There’s also a certain etiquette where sticking around to squeeze in that little bit while there’s people waiting is just a little selfish. Unless you need that to get to the next charger (used to be quite common when the LEAD managed 80 miles from absolutely full) then be kind, unplug and move away, even if you’re going back in where you’ve parked.
So, if you’re putting a little boost in every time you stop and leaving before you’re trickle charging, you’ll be charging when you stop and will not need that emergency detour to charge as the battery runs dangerously low.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
My first EV had 65 reg plate and it was Zoe: you could get one with 0 deposit and £172 pcm for three years with 12K miles pa.
My current one is Enyaq, but as I have a wall charger I seem to be less susceptible to the costs – I simply get in and enjoy. The current Enyaq is from April 2024 and I covered 29,000 miles (plus another 2,500 miles with the replacement vehicle).
Last 3,000 miles I did with an average of 3.5 miles per kW. I would say 80% on M3.
I rarely charge away from home: either when driving to my kids unis (Cardiff or Newcastle) or on the Continent. But even then it’s just a small number of pounds. But I HATE to be ripped off and don’t pay 80p per kW.
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Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)Is this some kind of scaled x trick or ru taking the minic – anyone under 50 will have no idea
Scaleextric is still popular today, remember mine well intertwned with my train set. Memories eh!
You could have hours of fun and they’d never run out of charge lol.
Is this some kind of scaled x trick or ru taking the minic – anyone under 50 will have no idea
Scaleextric is still popular today, remember mine well intertwned with my train set. Memories eh! You could have hours of fun and they’d never run out of charge lol.
Maybe because it was permanently plugged in, imagine the cables you’d have for permanently charging at home.
There’s also a facility to have cars moving in train layouts now, without the scalextric groove.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
there was a terrible program on Channel 5 a couple of weeks ago trying to highlight the countries reluctance to EVs.
the one fact that really stuck out was the stopping distance. they took a EQS and what ever the ice equivelant was another big merc and they both had to do emergency stop from 70mph. the EV stopped first and even though it is an heavier car because of the regen braking it helps the car come to a stop quicker.
they also went on to say that because of a lack of an engine under the hood they can do wonderful things for safety protection for both occupants and pedestrians if heaven forbid anyone was to hit one.
rest of the program was EV bashing including war and peace from the fire brigade who might as well have said we dont know how to put the fires out when they set alight.
Maybe because it was permanently plugged in, imagine the cables you’d have for permanently charging at home. There’s also a facility to have cars moving in train layouts now, without the scalextric groove.
Still got those heavy duty extension leads haven’t you 😂
I know there’s some roads (Norway?) where theres stretches of road you can charge as you drive, which is technically cool, but I guess, it’s nothing more than fantasy fr anything similar in the UK.
I recorded that, thinking I’d see what a few EV groups made of it and whether it lived up to my rather bleak expectations. Due to popular opinion being it was a waste of airtime if truth was anywhere in your remit, I deleted it without watching.
There are issues, which you can easily make a mountain out of at will. For example, the fire thing. I’m sure @kezo will happily correct me but it’s really quite difficult to set a car battery on fire, mostly because it’s in a rather strongly built aliminium box with steel bits for extra strength, meaning it’s not going to simply snap and combust in a collision. However, once you get it burning the chemistry is such that it’s an absolute ballache to stop burning again. It’s both hotter and better fed, meaning it’s not just going to burn off however much liquid fuel is around until the fire brigade cut off it’s oxygen supply. Car batteries will, simply put, maintain their extreme heat for hours and hours after the oxygen has been cut off and will easily combust again if oxygen becomes available. You can smother it, like then do petrol with foam, the problem is that foam doesn’t last particularly long, so when the foam breaks down, the heat is still there for more fire. Putting a large fire blanket will work, it’ll cut off the oxygen for as long as you can keep the edges sealed but that isn’t as easy as it sounds and you’d have to leave the car there for many hours before you can lift he blanket. Huge water baths have been used, again the water both cuts off the oxygen and provides limited cooling. Insert burning car into bath, leave for a day or two and all is good. Not the most practical roadside solution.
What isn’t clear is just how much of a problem is this in real life? There’s insufficient data, due to insufficient cars having accidents resulting in battery fires, to say just how much of a problem this really will be. What is known is that, should the unlikely happen, the result is a real problem and has no simple solution.
We know a lot about safety concerns of ICE vehicles, we can easily transfer a lot of that to EVs as they’re pretty much identical on the outside, so pedestrian safety, collision systems, crumple zones and all the other things they’ve done are transferable, it’s the electricity and battery specific dangers that are a problem. Does any EV driver know where the cut off switch is for the HV circuit? I know for sure I’ve no idea but if an accident happens and the big cables are exposed, it’ll be bloody essential to cut power to those cables as 400V and a lot of amps will do a lot of damage to anyone who comes into contact with those cables or anything in contact with them.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Maybe because it was permanently plugged in, imagine the cables you’d have for permanently charging at home. There’s also a facility to have cars moving in train layouts now, without the scalextric groove.
Still got those heavy duty extension leads haven’t you 😂 I know there’s some roads (Norway?) where theres stretches of road you can charge as you drive, which is technically cool, but I guess, it’s nothing more than fantasy fr anything similar in the UK.
Contactless charging on the go would be fantastic but the UK model would mean a level of roadworks that’s just beyond acceptable. Then there’s the technology to know who’s supplying the power and how much each charge will cost. Ugh, that’s a headache I’m not going near.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Kezo – I was that spoilt child whose aunt worked for Tr-iang
I had the motorway and the railway together on a purpose built board with a hole in the middle for my seat and the controls – I had a four rocket truck on the train and a carriage that flew apart if hit – also a minic tank that I used to target with the rockets on the hump back bridge – spent many an hour with my dad who built the track – I think he enjoyed it as much as me 😂😂😂 – happy memories – I was a very lucky child!!
One development that I expected to happen that hasn’t is solar roofs on cars – I’m sure there is a very good reason why it hasn’t been developed – cost – area to return etc
But Lorry’s and vans would have quite a large up facing surface area – I wonder if it is being developed somewhere.
One development that I expected to happen that hasn’t is solar roofs on cars – I’m sure there is a very good reason why it hasn’t been developed – cost – area to return etc But Lorry’s and vans would have quite a large up facing surface area – I wonder if it is being developed somewhere.
The initial offering of the Ioniq 5 had a solar roof and it was, to be honest, a gimmick. The best you’re going to get from one means you’d have to sit in the sun for hours on end to get barely a mile back in the battery.
As you say, having the square footage on the roof of a trailer for the largest HGVs plus the development of lightweight and flexible solar sheets that generate as much power but just stick to surfaces like wallpaper would combine to make a great solution. They’d be a beast to keep clean but would be a great idea for southern Europe, the southern States in the US and other hot areas. I’m sure some clever soul will work out a cost effective way of making it work.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
I hope you have I Pace after the minor adjustments they applied in 2023. When you wanted to buy one for £76,000 you also had to pay extra for every tiny thing you wanted in the car – endless confusion and frustration. Same time you would go and pick up Tesla X and off you go. Plus I Pace didn’t move with technology, hence you can get one very cheap nowadays. But yes – driving this car is absolutely fabulous, as it is an only 4×4 sport EV car I am aware of. My current Enyaq 85x is AWD, but it is not even close to the true 4×4
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Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)Since V4 firmware Enyaq 85X’s are only AWD up to 15kph, it’s only for traction control if/when needed so makes no difference 99.9% of the time (unless you live somewhere with lots of snow and ice of course!).
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
Since V4 firmware Enyaq 85X’s are only AWD up to 15kph, it’s only for traction control if/when needed so makes no difference 99.9% of the time (unless you live somewhere with lots of snow and ice of course!).
True. It also kicks in, when heavily accelerated, I think as well as goes above the 15 mph mark if you are in Traction mode.
Sent from a mobile device.
Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)Having had my Kia EV6 awd for over a year now have been impressed with the range having not dropped below 260m in winter. Was using the highest setting for one pedal driving for the most but recently use level 2 for urban driving and it is more efficient – 309miles @ 100%. Don’t mind using the brake pedal as well. There is a’Hill Start’ button that when switched on stops the car from creeping forward when stopped in traffic – useful.
Use Ohme home charger on Octopus which also charges @ 7p when demand is light during the day as well now. Costs me £3 a week to run. big savings.
2024 - KIA EV6 GT Line AWD
2019 - 2024 BMW X1 2.0d X Drive Sport Auto
2017 -2019 Audi Q3 2.0d Quattro Sport Line Plus
2005 - 2017 Honda CRV Exec 2.0dOur new Ford Capri has only one level of Regen Braking – so it’s on or off. This suits my philosophy of Keep it Simple! Equally, it won’t normally bring the car to a complete stop unless there’s a very slight incline.
I think the biggest hazard from EVs at home is tripping over the charge cable!
I’m intrigued mate LFEW is a small airport in France
Our new Ford Capri has only one level of Regen Braking – so it’s on or off. This suits my philosophy of Keep it Simple! Equally, it won’t normally bring the car to a complete stop unless there’s a very slight incline. I think the biggest hazard from EVs at home is tripping over the charge cable!
That’s the VW thing. Their standard is for the on/off but can enhance that with several levels but none actually stop the car.
That’s one thing I’m going to have to think about, I’m now used to the benefit of not using the brake pedal for normal driving and it’s really good when I’ve been out and my knees are struggling, avoiding that rotation between pedals really makes getting home easier.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
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