My Electric Car thread!
Discussion
I appreciate that this thread might die a fiery death on PH, but I want to start a thread to share my experiences of trailing an electric car for 6 months. Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer them!
To give you a little background - My previous daily driver was a 2002 3.0 Manual X-Type, which I bought at 60k miles and drove on a daily basis for just over 5 years. I even took it on a PH Highlands run! Before that, I had a series of diesel company cars including (2002-2006 plate) Golfs, Vectras, Passats, Focus(s?), Avensis, etc.
I really enjoyed owning my top spec X-Type as my only car, but when I finally bought my TVR last year, I found that the running costs of the Jag were starting to annoy me. The more money I had to spend on the Jag for fuel, parts and servicing, the less money I had left to fuel my TVR. Something had to change, and it wasn’t going to be the Tiv!!!
I had been looking at various small cars for a daily driver when someone at work mentioned that there was a scheme looking for volunteers (victims?) for trailing an Electric car for 6 months. I thought – why not!? I can just give it back after 6 months by which time I would have saved up enough for my next daily driver.
So I sold the Jag and signed up to trial a Peugeot iOn 100% Electric car through the Switch EV trial. I collected the car in late October. Here it is!
The car is worth a barmy £33k but the Government will chip in £5k so that you only pay £28k. The bulk of the cost is the battery, which is still a new technology for this kind of application. Just like a Porker 911, the powerplant (motor) is at the back and it is RWD, so it must be good!
Some initial thoughts:
I made a comment on Facebook that I might be getting an electric car and everyone took the piss. I mean EVERYONE. Random guys that I barely know from primary school said that I was an idiot and clearly gay for even considering an electric car. Colleagues from work said they would disown me. Everyone said that they would laugh when I get stranded in the middle of nowhere. I’m still not sure if they were joking or not! Having owned an X-Type, i'm used to it! I did however have an eco-warrior lentilist friend who thought the idea was brilliant. I don’t think he realised I have a 5-litre TVR for the weekends though. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on electric cars.
One of the main things you notice is that the iOn is almost silent! To start the car, you turn the ignition key like you would in a normal car. Instead of hearing the engine fire up, you hear an electronic “Pinnng” noise and a green light appears on the dash. That’s it – the car is on and ready to go. You then slide the automatic-style gear stick into the “Drive” position, release the footbrake and drive off. There are no gears. You just get one continuous surge of torque from the motor from 0 to the 80 mph top speed. The lack of noise actually makes the car feel much faster than it actually is.
I have previously read posts on PH about having to maintain momentum when driving small-engined cars. I used to wonder what the hell that was about when I had 230+ bhp on tap in the V6 Jag, but I now know what it means! It adds a new dimension to driving and you have to plan manoeuvres a lot earlier.
I’m interested to see how it gets on in the snow! I'm sure I will find out over the next few months.
I am only one month in to the trial, so I will be using this thread to record some of my thoughts and experiences.
To give you a little background - My previous daily driver was a 2002 3.0 Manual X-Type, which I bought at 60k miles and drove on a daily basis for just over 5 years. I even took it on a PH Highlands run! Before that, I had a series of diesel company cars including (2002-2006 plate) Golfs, Vectras, Passats, Focus(s?), Avensis, etc.
I really enjoyed owning my top spec X-Type as my only car, but when I finally bought my TVR last year, I found that the running costs of the Jag were starting to annoy me. The more money I had to spend on the Jag for fuel, parts and servicing, the less money I had left to fuel my TVR. Something had to change, and it wasn’t going to be the Tiv!!!
I had been looking at various small cars for a daily driver when someone at work mentioned that there was a scheme looking for volunteers (victims?) for trailing an Electric car for 6 months. I thought – why not!? I can just give it back after 6 months by which time I would have saved up enough for my next daily driver.
So I sold the Jag and signed up to trial a Peugeot iOn 100% Electric car through the Switch EV trial. I collected the car in late October. Here it is!
The car is worth a barmy £33k but the Government will chip in £5k so that you only pay £28k. The bulk of the cost is the battery, which is still a new technology for this kind of application. Just like a Porker 911, the powerplant (motor) is at the back and it is RWD, so it must be good!
Some initial thoughts:
I made a comment on Facebook that I might be getting an electric car and everyone took the piss. I mean EVERYONE. Random guys that I barely know from primary school said that I was an idiot and clearly gay for even considering an electric car. Colleagues from work said they would disown me. Everyone said that they would laugh when I get stranded in the middle of nowhere. I’m still not sure if they were joking or not! Having owned an X-Type, i'm used to it! I did however have an eco-warrior lentilist friend who thought the idea was brilliant. I don’t think he realised I have a 5-litre TVR for the weekends though. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on electric cars.
One of the main things you notice is that the iOn is almost silent! To start the car, you turn the ignition key like you would in a normal car. Instead of hearing the engine fire up, you hear an electronic “Pinnng” noise and a green light appears on the dash. That’s it – the car is on and ready to go. You then slide the automatic-style gear stick into the “Drive” position, release the footbrake and drive off. There are no gears. You just get one continuous surge of torque from the motor from 0 to the 80 mph top speed. The lack of noise actually makes the car feel much faster than it actually is.
I have previously read posts on PH about having to maintain momentum when driving small-engined cars. I used to wonder what the hell that was about when I had 230+ bhp on tap in the V6 Jag, but I now know what it means! It adds a new dimension to driving and you have to plan manoeuvres a lot earlier.
I’m interested to see how it gets on in the snow! I'm sure I will find out over the next few months.
I am only one month in to the trial, so I will be using this thread to record some of my thoughts and experiences.
Steffan said:
What is the practical range? 80 miles? How long to recharge to capacity? Four hours?
Steffan,The book figure for the iOn is 93(?) miles but I have never seen the range indicator read about 75 miles when fully charged.
This could be for various reasons including:
The indicator is particularly pessimistic
Battery doesn’t perform quite as well when below zero degrees
Lights, heater, aircon - all sap power and reduce range
My route to work is very hilly. Hills sap power!
I am lucky to have charging points at home, work and at my shopping locations, so range really isn't a problem for me. Access to charging points will be the difference between an electric car being a viable option or not.
This seems to have generated more interested that I imagined! Keep the questions coming though…
Q1) Does the vehicle require maintenance beyond the IC engine, Battery life is my concern here.
A1) This will be a longer term thing and of no real concern to me in the trial. The battery is modular though, so they could replace a number of modules as the battery starts to underperform. The only think I need to do it pop the tiny bonnet and top up the washer jets!
Q2) Just how much of a premium does the ownership involve. The longer term values secondhand are open to question IMO. And they are not cheap iitially despite the direct subsidy.
A2) I think 95% of sales will be on lease deals. I doubt people will actually pay that much cash for them. It will be interesting to see how the 2nd hand values hold out.
Q3) How did you get on with insuring it?
A3) Initially – difficult. My 3.0 Jag was costing about £550 to insure and my initial quotes for the iOn from Leccy car specialists were between £850 and £1500. There is a lack of data on these cars so insurers have to guess the risk factor. In the end I spoke to my current insurers for the Jag who have insured me for 4 years without a claim and they came in at about £450 for the iOn. Result! (Still more expensive than the Tiv insurance though)
Q4) Do these things not have noise generators on them? How do pedestrians hear them coming?
A4) This one doesn’t, but I think the Leaf might do. Through town I tend to wind the window down a little and play some music at a volume that can be heard from outside. “Move b
h” by Ludacris tends to get the desired result. 
Q5) Is there any noticable delay with the accelerator?
A5) Not really! The torque curve from the motor is flat, so all the power is available through the “rev range”. The accelerator has a system similar to a kick-down where the final part of the movement near the floor gets stiffer but means the car delivers full output.
Q6) Does it feel strange when you reach a speed you want to cruise at (say 50) does it feel like its over or under geared if that makes sense?
A6) The main strange thing is that you have to keep looking at the speedo. In a petrol car, you can hear the engine revs, so if the pitch increases, you know you are going a little faster than before. On this, there is no such indication. At higher speeds, it can still accelerate hard up to 80mph if you want to, but there is a power usage dial on the dash which will show you are draining the battery faster than normal if you drive in that way, so you tend to back off and drive more economically, unless you know you are nearly at your next charge point.
Q7) Can you keep track of how often you go to the garage in it for us?
A7) Sure, will do. It has been seen by an engineer once, but this was because of a fault in the aftermarket data-logger unit. As part of this trial they are recording use to see how the driving habits effect the battery life, etc. I don’t think the other cars on the trial will be driven as hard/much as this one! I was the 2nd person to trial this particular car and the first guy/company only used it for 1000 miles in the first 6 months. I have done more than that in the first month!
Q8) Do you miss the delights of handing over a large amount of money to a spotty teenager at the petrol tax station.
A8) Not. At. All. I had to take Wifeys car to the petrol station the other day and I forgot what an absolute pain it is. Usual things – having to queue for ages as people are going in for a weekly shop of groceries. Mong-boy using the pump I am queuing for gets back into his mondeo and messes about opening sandwiches and texting his Mong friends, etc. AGHHHHHH
Q9) How much of you time does recharging actually take? As in do you have to stand for 8 hours with your finger on the recharge button or can you just spend 10 seconds plugging it in and then bog off and do something else.
A9) A full charge from empty on a normal charger will take about 7 hours. Yes, that sounds like a lot. However, you never let the car get to empty so you only end up doing top-up charges. For me, I get to work at 8:50am and plug in. I then either unplug it at lunchtime or just leave it charging all day. At 5pm I get in the car to drive home and it is fully charged. Drive home (about 20 miles). Next day, drive to work and usually have about a third of a charge left, so plug it in again. About 3 hours charges will get me to full charge from a third full. There are also “quick charge” points dotted around which will charge 80% in 30 mintues.
Q10) I have noticed a few recharging points around recently - whats the deal with these do you need to swipe a card to get the power?
A10) Correct – you need a swipe card in order to access the charge points. This is through a scheme called “Charge Your Car”
http://www.chargeyourcar.org.uk/indexx3.php
You pay £10 a month (paid up front, so I paid £60 in October) and they will send you a swipe card to access all the public charging points and you can charge as much as you like. When you charge, you also get free parking. This is a bonus during busy times like Christmas shopping as you are guaranteed a parking space right at the front of the car park! CYC also keep a log of all your charges (time, actual cost, etc) and have a map of all the charging points.
Q11) Also have you had a home electricity bill yet to see how much the charging is costing you?
A11) Good point – mist electric car users change their tariffs to get cheap leccy at night time which is when they charge the car. I did get a charging point installed at my house as part of the trial but I am fiunding that the public points are so handy that I tend to use them. I have only charged at home a handful of times.
Q12) You bought the wrong car my friend, the Leaf is about the same money & 100% better.
A12) I have heard this a few times. I parked up next to one recently and I must admit it looked like it has a few more gadgets than mine. On the trial, the Leafs wern’t available until April so the iOn was the only option. I don’t really mind to be honest.
Q13) How do you manage to plan journeys that might require a "top up" charge. Is there an acessible database of charging points?
A13) To be honest, until I get to understand the car better, I am not willing to test this out. If I know I have got some longer journeys to do, I will take Wifeys car. She loves driving the iOn so it’s not a big issue for us.
Q14) I have heard about trials on "induction plate charging", similar concept to the eleectric toothbrush, which removes the need for cables. Are these in use now?
A14) I haven’t seen them yet so I think they are still early stage. My iOn gets parked on the drive as Tiv is in the garage so it might not work for me anyway.
Q15) Fake engine noises which will lead to custom engine noises
A15) It’s only a matter of time. I must admit – I did put some “TVR at idle” sounds onto a CD to test out having an engine noise to play through the CD player, but I felt like an idiot so I never used it where someone might hear it.
Q16) He didn't buy it. Its on a 6 month free trial.
A16) True. If I had £30k cash to blow on a car, I don’t think it would be this one.
Q17) Costs of taking part
A17) The lease on the iOn isn’t cheap as it is an expensive car. It comes in at £300 a month. After the trial, I think it will go up to £400+. For this, you get free maintenance, breakdown cover, zero tax, free parking and as much fuel as you want for £10 a month. It works out cheaper than the Jag. (£250/month petrol, £245 tax, needed 2 tyres @£100, servicing, DEPRECIATION!!! etc) The main benefit for me is that it buys me some time to save up for my next car without the threat of a large repair bill.
Keep the question coming!
Q1) Does the vehicle require maintenance beyond the IC engine, Battery life is my concern here.
A1) This will be a longer term thing and of no real concern to me in the trial. The battery is modular though, so they could replace a number of modules as the battery starts to underperform. The only think I need to do it pop the tiny bonnet and top up the washer jets!
Q2) Just how much of a premium does the ownership involve. The longer term values secondhand are open to question IMO. And they are not cheap iitially despite the direct subsidy.
A2) I think 95% of sales will be on lease deals. I doubt people will actually pay that much cash for them. It will be interesting to see how the 2nd hand values hold out.
Q3) How did you get on with insuring it?
A3) Initially – difficult. My 3.0 Jag was costing about £550 to insure and my initial quotes for the iOn from Leccy car specialists were between £850 and £1500. There is a lack of data on these cars so insurers have to guess the risk factor. In the end I spoke to my current insurers for the Jag who have insured me for 4 years without a claim and they came in at about £450 for the iOn. Result! (Still more expensive than the Tiv insurance though)
Q4) Do these things not have noise generators on them? How do pedestrians hear them coming?
A4) This one doesn’t, but I think the Leaf might do. Through town I tend to wind the window down a little and play some music at a volume that can be heard from outside. “Move b
h” by Ludacris tends to get the desired result. Q5) Is there any noticable delay with the accelerator?
A5) Not really! The torque curve from the motor is flat, so all the power is available through the “rev range”. The accelerator has a system similar to a kick-down where the final part of the movement near the floor gets stiffer but means the car delivers full output.
Q6) Does it feel strange when you reach a speed you want to cruise at (say 50) does it feel like its over or under geared if that makes sense?
A6) The main strange thing is that you have to keep looking at the speedo. In a petrol car, you can hear the engine revs, so if the pitch increases, you know you are going a little faster than before. On this, there is no such indication. At higher speeds, it can still accelerate hard up to 80mph if you want to, but there is a power usage dial on the dash which will show you are draining the battery faster than normal if you drive in that way, so you tend to back off and drive more economically, unless you know you are nearly at your next charge point.
Q7) Can you keep track of how often you go to the garage in it for us?
A7) Sure, will do. It has been seen by an engineer once, but this was because of a fault in the aftermarket data-logger unit. As part of this trial they are recording use to see how the driving habits effect the battery life, etc. I don’t think the other cars on the trial will be driven as hard/much as this one!
I was the 2nd person to trial this particular car and the first guy/company only used it for 1000 miles in the first 6 months. I have done more than that in the first month! Q8) Do you miss the delights of handing over a large amount of money to a spotty teenager at the petrol tax station.
A8) Not. At. All. I had to take Wifeys car to the petrol station the other day and I forgot what an absolute pain it is. Usual things – having to queue for ages as people are going in for a weekly shop of groceries. Mong-boy using the pump I am queuing for gets back into his mondeo and messes about opening sandwiches and texting his Mong friends, etc. AGHHHHHH
Q9) How much of you time does recharging actually take? As in do you have to stand for 8 hours with your finger on the recharge button or can you just spend 10 seconds plugging it in and then bog off and do something else.
A9) A full charge from empty on a normal charger will take about 7 hours. Yes, that sounds like a lot. However, you never let the car get to empty so you only end up doing top-up charges. For me, I get to work at 8:50am and plug in. I then either unplug it at lunchtime or just leave it charging all day. At 5pm I get in the car to drive home and it is fully charged. Drive home (about 20 miles). Next day, drive to work and usually have about a third of a charge left, so plug it in again. About 3 hours charges will get me to full charge from a third full. There are also “quick charge” points dotted around which will charge 80% in 30 mintues.
Q10) I have noticed a few recharging points around recently - whats the deal with these do you need to swipe a card to get the power?
A10) Correct – you need a swipe card in order to access the charge points. This is through a scheme called “Charge Your Car”
http://www.chargeyourcar.org.uk/indexx3.php
You pay £10 a month (paid up front, so I paid £60 in October) and they will send you a swipe card to access all the public charging points and you can charge as much as you like. When you charge, you also get free parking. This is a bonus during busy times like Christmas shopping as you are guaranteed a parking space right at the front of the car park! CYC also keep a log of all your charges (time, actual cost, etc) and have a map of all the charging points.
Q11) Also have you had a home electricity bill yet to see how much the charging is costing you?
A11) Good point – mist electric car users change their tariffs to get cheap leccy at night time which is when they charge the car. I did get a charging point installed at my house as part of the trial but I am fiunding that the public points are so handy that I tend to use them. I have only charged at home a handful of times.
Q12) You bought the wrong car my friend, the Leaf is about the same money & 100% better.
A12) I have heard this a few times. I parked up next to one recently and I must admit it looked like it has a few more gadgets than mine. On the trial, the Leafs wern’t available until April so the iOn was the only option. I don’t really mind to be honest.
Q13) How do you manage to plan journeys that might require a "top up" charge. Is there an acessible database of charging points?
A13) To be honest, until I get to understand the car better, I am not willing to test this out. If I know I have got some longer journeys to do, I will take Wifeys car. She loves driving the iOn so it’s not a big issue for us.
Q14) I have heard about trials on "induction plate charging", similar concept to the eleectric toothbrush, which removes the need for cables. Are these in use now?
A14) I haven’t seen them yet so I think they are still early stage. My iOn gets parked on the drive as Tiv is in the garage so it might not work for me anyway.
Q15) Fake engine noises which will lead to custom engine noises
A15) It’s only a matter of time. I must admit – I did put some “TVR at idle” sounds onto a CD to test out having an engine noise to play through the CD player, but I felt like an idiot so I never used it where someone might hear it.
Q16) He didn't buy it. Its on a 6 month free trial.
A16) True. If I had £30k cash to blow on a car, I don’t think it would be this one.
Q17) Costs of taking part
A17) The lease on the iOn isn’t cheap as it is an expensive car. It comes in at £300 a month. After the trial, I think it will go up to £400+. For this, you get free maintenance, breakdown cover, zero tax, free parking and as much fuel as you want for £10 a month. It works out cheaper than the Jag. (£250/month petrol, £245 tax, needed 2 tyres @£100, servicing, DEPRECIATION!!! etc) The main benefit for me is that it buys me some time to save up for my next car without the threat of a large repair bill.
Keep the question coming!
Snowboy said:
Sorry for the cheeky bump of my own question, but I think it got missed on the previous page.
Any difference in the cold?
Oops sorry I missed your question earlier.Any difference in the cold?
I have only had the car when the weather has been fairly cold. I believe the performance of the battery will drop off when we start getting below zero degrees. I'm not sure if this will result in just less power when you floor it, a drop in range, or both!
One thing I know is that the electric heater in the car used a lot of juice (range immediately drops by about 10 miles when you turn the heater on) so I have just ordered a North Face Nuptse 2 down jacket to keep me warm!
RenesisEvo said:
My question to the OP - what's the 'engine braking' like?
This is another part of driving the car that you have to get used to. Do you see on the dash pic above, the power dial goes charging - 0 - eco – right hand side (let’s call it “PH-mode”). When stationary the dial is on 0, when you use power to move off, the dial moves to the right depending on how hard you press the gas pedal.When engine breaking (Regenerative breaking) you lift off the gas and the dial moves to the left depending on how much you lift off.
If you just lift completely off the gas at 60mph, it it feels like you have just lifted off from going flat-out in 2nd gear - you slow quite quickly. The key is then to lift off enough to slow you down in a reasonable way. i.e. approaching a roundabout, just before the 300 yard marker you might lift off 1/4 of the pedal travel. At 200 yards you lift off 3/4 of the travel and at 100 yards you lift completely off. If you use your PH skillz, you don’t need to touch the brakes. Its a bit like contoling the car only using one pedal.
For me, the regen-breaking could have 2 potential problems.
1) The brake lights don’t come on when lifting off. If someone is up your chuff, they will end up in your boot as its a bit like whipping on the handbrake at 60 mph without any warning. NEVER TAILGATE A LECCY CAR PEOPLE!
2) I have a feeling that lift-off oversteer might be a real possibility in the snow or ice! Seriously.
Edited by FreeLitres on Thursday 8th December 14:18
Thanks Beef -
The lease was arranged though SwitchEv who shortlist the candidates and then it's the manufacturer who decided who gets to trial the car. My agreement is actually with the Simon Bales Peugeot garage. That where my lease money goes.
The Nissan Leafs are available to trial from April. The lease for those is slightly cheaper and Nissan provide the insurance.
I think they would prefer trial candidates that;
- Would park the EV in a garage at night or on a private drive. They don’t want electric cables trailing across pavements.
- Would use the car for a reasonable amount. I'm planning on 5000-6000 miles on mine over 6 months. They want as much data as possible.
- Someone who lives or works near to public charging infrastructure. Check out the maps on the SwitchEV site. Most charging posts seem to be around the North East or London.
They only seem to be trialling about 40 cars at a time, so you need to register your interest now if you want to be considered. I have already put my name down to trial a Leaf in case the rest of the trial goes well. I still have time to change my mind though!
The lease was arranged though SwitchEv who shortlist the candidates and then it's the manufacturer who decided who gets to trial the car. My agreement is actually with the Simon Bales Peugeot garage. That where my lease money goes.
The Nissan Leafs are available to trial from April. The lease for those is slightly cheaper and Nissan provide the insurance.
I think they would prefer trial candidates that;
- Would park the EV in a garage at night or on a private drive. They don’t want electric cables trailing across pavements.
- Would use the car for a reasonable amount. I'm planning on 5000-6000 miles on mine over 6 months. They want as much data as possible.
- Someone who lives or works near to public charging infrastructure. Check out the maps on the SwitchEV site. Most charging posts seem to be around the North East or London.
They only seem to be trialling about 40 cars at a time, so you need to register your interest now if you want to be considered. I have already put my name down to trial a Leaf in case the rest of the trial goes well. I still have time to change my mind though!
ridds said:
What is the in car heater like and how much does this affect the batteries performance?
The heater is very effective, but it canes the battery.It gets hot straight away so it excellent for defrosting the screen. When you turn it on, the range indicator drops by about 10 miles straight away though. I tend to use it as little as possible. I tend to turn it on for about a minute at a time just to take the chill off. When it is REALLY cold outside I might have to use it more.
ETA - when you turn the heater off again the range jumps back up again. Say you get in the car on a full charge with the range reading at 75 miles. If you turn the heater on full whack the range drops to say, 65 miles. Leave it for 15 minutes with the car stationary and the range will drop like 65.... 64.... 63.... 62.... but if you then turn the heater off if will jump back up to around 72 miles. I dont think I explained this very well.
Edited by FreeLitres on Friday 9th December 11:17
OK let me try and explain the charging process.
1) Park up in the EV charging bay (car park space with a charging pole at the end)
2) Pull a little filler cap lever to reveal this:
3) Open your boot to find your cable
4) Plug the handle into the car
5) Swipe your "Charge Your Car" card against the sensor on the charge pole
This will open a flap which uncovers a normal 3-pin socket
6) Plug the other end of the cable, a 3 pin plug, into the charge pole, and close the flap. The flap locks down and prevents others from pulling the plug out. Only your card can open the flap again.
7) The car is now charging, so just lock your car and go to work/shopping. (You dont have to stand with the car!!!)
That’s it. Takes about 20 seconds.
The cable is locked into the pole so no one can run off with it without cutting through it. The worst that could happen would be someone pulling the handle away from the car and you would no longer be charging.
1) Park up in the EV charging bay (car park space with a charging pole at the end)
2) Pull a little filler cap lever to reveal this:
3) Open your boot to find your cable
4) Plug the handle into the car
5) Swipe your "Charge Your Car" card against the sensor on the charge pole
This will open a flap which uncovers a normal 3-pin socket
6) Plug the other end of the cable, a 3 pin plug, into the charge pole, and close the flap. The flap locks down and prevents others from pulling the plug out. Only your card can open the flap again.
7) The car is now charging, so just lock your car and go to work/shopping. (You dont have to stand with the car!!!)
That’s it. Takes about 20 seconds.
The cable is locked into the pole so no one can run off with it without cutting through it. The worst that could happen would be someone pulling the handle away from the car and you would no longer be charging.
P I Staker said:
So if people can pull the handle off your car, can they plug it in to theres? 
I doubt it. The power is controled by the charging post. If the handle is pulled out I imagine it would cut the power to the cable and you would need the card to re-set it. There are so few EVs about that I have never had to queue up to plug in.Yazza54 said:
What happens when you want to actually go some distance that doesn't require a overnight stay or a full day behind a desk and even then who says you'll be able to find somewhere to plug in.
Then you would take another car. I wouldn't really recommend an electric car as an only car unless you never have to do mid/long range distances. If I have got to do some longer client journeys, I just take my Wife’s car and she takes the iOn for her short commute.In the future there will be more "quick charge" bays at service stations, so you could pop in for 20 minutes to have a coffee or lunch and the car will be 80% charged when you finish.
Youtube vid of an iMiev (rebadged iOn) doing 0-60 mph in about 10 seconds. Yes I know its not "fast"!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUI6oW_T2xk&fea...
Note the fairly constant rate of acceleration and lack of noise.
eta: at the end of the clip the power dial swings to the far left, meaning the driver lifted completely off the gas so it shows how much the regen engine braking slows the car down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUI6oW_T2xk&fea...
Note the fairly constant rate of acceleration and lack of noise.
eta: at the end of the clip the power dial swings to the far left, meaning the driver lifted completely off the gas so it shows how much the regen engine braking slows the car down
Edited by FreeLitres on Sunday 11th December 19:27
vrooom said:
Can you get electric shock whilst putting the handle in the car when it's raining? and do you feel the weight of the batteries in car??
and how long is the range when you really boot it everywhere?
vrooom - I don’t think you can get a shock putting the cable in. There is a delay between plugging in and the power going to the cable. The cable isn't 'live' until you have plugged it in and gone back to the charge post to close the flap, so your hands would be away from the danger-zone. and how long is the range when you really boot it everywhere?
I haven’t been able to get to the batteries but I believe they are heavy. They are located low down along the floor of the car, which gives the car a low centre of gravity.
I read somewhere that the battery costs about £20k(?)
If you drive the car hard all the time, the battery drains quickly. It's difficult to get accurate figures for this as the range is calculated on a rolling 15 miles average. I estimate that your range would drop to around half of what you would get when driving economically.
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