EV do's and don'ts

[Blue62]

I'm about to take delivery of my first EV and while I have done a reasonable amount of due diligence I know, at some point, things will go horribly wrong. So with my sense of fatalism firmly intact, I'd be interested to know what early adopters have since learned and what their personal 'do's and don'ts would be.

[Mark V GTD]

Will you have a home charging point?

[TheDeuce]

I felt the same and the quickly learned to not worry

I thought pedestrians not hearing me would be a concern but in reality the fact I know they might not hear me, makes me more aware of them, so not actually a safety issue at all.

What EV have you got?

[RobbyJ]

Unless it's a couple of specific cars then don't charge generally to over 85% daily unless you're going on a trip. If you are going on a trip charge to 100% as close to your departure as possible.

Try not leave it at very low states of charge, less than 15%.

Frequent full charges and very low states of charge aren't great for battery longevity as a general rule.

If you're going on a long trip do a bit of planning, your first choice of charger and have enough power to get to the 2nd choice if the first isn't working. If it's a Tesla then there's nothing to worry about here.

Just enjoy it, it's a car, you'll learn most of it as you go

[Blue62]

I will have a home charging point but trying to get someone to commit to fitting it is proving to be challenging, some proper cowboys out there. Car is a Taycan 4S, arriving sooner than I thought so will be using public chargers for a short while, I hope. I specced it with the electronic sound option because I encounter a lot of cyclists on my lane and want to be heard, no idea if it will work, especially with the idiots who use earphones, but it wasn’t an expensive option.

[Knock_knock]

Do: take a bit of time to understand your vehicle - what range you'll really get at what speeds, how fast you'll really charge.

Don't: worry unduly about having an EV, most of the early adopter problem are now in the rear view mirror.

[RobbyJ]

Blue62 said:

I will have a home charging point but trying to get someone to commit to fitting it is proving to be challenging, some proper cowboys out there. Car is a Taycan 4S, arriving sooner than I thought so will be using public chargers for a short while, I hope. I specced it with the electronic sound option because I encounter a lot of cyclists on my lane and want to be heard, no idea if it will work, especially with the idiots who use earphones, but it wasn’t an expensive option.

All new EV's make a sound on the outside. The sound option you ticked is for the sounds on the inside!

[Blue62]

RobbyJ said:

All new EV's make a sound on the outside. The sound option you ticked is for the sounds on the inside!

That’s not what the salesman told me😂. Are you seriously suggesting I’ve been duped? If you’re right I will add it to my don’t list, thank you.

[JonnyVTEC]

They all make the legal noise, the Taycan extra sound is special though.

[Blue62]

What about apps boys?

[Register1]

The Tesla's self plan their charging stops.
This is what essentially swayed wifes mind,
White, with white Model 3, RWD.
She can't wait.

[SWoll]

Blue62 said:

RobbyJ said:

All new EV's make a sound on the outside. The sound option you ticked is for the sounds on the inside!

That’s not what the salesman told me??. Are you seriously suggesting I’ve been duped? If you’re right I will add it to my don’t list, thank you.

Afraid so. External sound generation upt o 13mph is a legal requirement on all new EV's sold in the UK, the Porsche "Sport Sound" is piped through the internal speakers just for the occupants benefit and is standard fit on all new Taycans now I believe.

[TheDeuce]

SWoll said:

Blue62 said:

RobbyJ said:

All new EV's make a sound on the outside. The sound option you ticked is for the sounds on the inside!

That’s not what the salesman told me??. Are you seriously suggesting I’ve been duped? If you’re right I will add it to my don’t list, thank you.

Afraid so. External sound generation upt o 13mph is a legal requirement on all new EV's sold in the UK, the Porsche "Sport Sound" is piped through the internal speakers just for the occupants benefit and is standard fit on all new Taycans now I believe.

Sounds like spaceship though, so not a complete waste

Mine with the piped sound effects sounds more like a tube train leaving the station in a hurry

[tamore]

Blue62 said:

What about apps boys?

zapmap. and the ones for any charger networks you might look to use which don't yet take contactless payment.

[Mark V GTD]

Main app I used was pod-point as most of their units do actually work and most of them are free to use.

[21ATS]

SWoll said:

Blue62 said:

RobbyJ said:

All new EV's make a sound on the outside. The sound option you ticked is for the sounds on the inside!

That’s not what the salesman told me??. Are you seriously suggesting I’ve been duped? If you’re right I will add it to my don’t list, thank you.

Afraid so. External sound generation upt o 13mph is a legal requirement on all new EV's sold in the UK, the Porsche "Sport Sound" is piped through the internal speakers just for the occupants benefit and is standard fit on all new Taycans now I believe.

It's not internal only, we had two, one with it one without. There is a huge difference. The one with the sound was like a spceship zooming up the road. Sound incresed with speed.

Mine on the other hand didn't have it, which suited me just fine.

[dhutch]

Mark V GTD said:

Main app I used was pod-point

This is what my colleague was talking about at lunch today.

[SWoll]

21ATS said:

SWoll said:

Blue62 said:

RobbyJ said:

All new EV's make a sound on the outside. The sound option you ticked is for the sounds on the inside!

That’s not what the salesman told me??. Are you seriously suggesting I’ve been duped? If you’re right I will add it to my don’t list, thank you.

Afraid so. External sound generation upt o 13mph is a legal requirement on all new EV's sold in the UK, the Porsche "Sport Sound" is piped through the internal speakers just for the occupants benefit and is standard fit on all new Taycans now I believe.

It's not internal only, we had two, one with it one without. There is a huge difference. The one with the sound was like a spceship zooming up the road. Sound incresed with speed.

Mine on the other hand didn't have it, which suited me just fine.

Has nothing to do with warning pedestrains though as per the original point, you get AVAS whether you option the sport sound or not. Our etron also does a great spaceship impression from outside, but only at low speeds thankfully.

[RobbyJ]

dhutch said:

This is what my colleague was talking about at lunch today.

I've found the Shell Recharge app very useful in Europe. I signed up for the card that came with it (for free I think) and found it seems to work on all of the weird and wonderful non Tesla chargers I've encountered. Podpoint is a good call too. The Shell and Podpoint apps are the only ones I've needed to use in 2 years and 40,000 miles of UK and Euro EV'ing.

[Blue62]

RobbyJ said:

I've found the Shell Recharge app very useful in Europe. I signed up for the card that came with it (for free I think) and found it seems to work on all of the weird and wonderful non Tesla chargers I've encountered. Podpoint is a good call too. The Shell and Podpoint apps are the only ones I've needed to use in 2 years and 40,000 miles of UK and Euro EV'ing.

Part of the deal with my car is a discount on Ionity and the dealers chargers for the first three years, I’m hearing mixed reports about Ionity. Not clear which app is best for journey planning, someone suggested ABRP.