Discussion
I still think it's a great car. I've been travelling weekly to London (from Leeds) in mine and it's great. Charging takes no time whatsoever.
As for dimsdms, it's strange he chose to mention it being slab sided rubbish, or whatever his words were, as you look at his previous cars and they seem to be the definition of this, ie Porsche 944, Volvo V70, TVR Seac, etc.
On a separate note, my 55 is now getting around 210 miles range as opposed to circa 180 I found I was getting when first delivered. I assume due to the longer type trips and the hot weather.
As for dimsdms, it's strange he chose to mention it being slab sided rubbish, or whatever his words were, as you look at his previous cars and they seem to be the definition of this, ie Porsche 944, Volvo V70, TVR Seac, etc.
On a separate note, my 55 is now getting around 210 miles range as opposed to circa 180 I found I was getting when first delivered. I assume due to the longer type trips and the hot weather.
I think it’s a great car. I drove mine 160 miles the other day, starting from 100%, got back with 32% and something like 68 miles remaining. Average energy utilisation 2.7m per kWh. This was driving mostly in dynamic mode on NSL country roads and overtaking dawdlers where necessary so I wasn’t exactly striving for maximum range, but it was smooth progressive driving without much traffic or braking.
I have my first motorway embarkation and public charge on Friday as I need to do a 300 mile round trip so plan to use Ionity MK and have the Audi RFID and some free credit ready and waiting.
So it’s the least efficient EV by some margin but I thought this was perfectly useable and acceptable at 6p per mile and that’s on a full fat 15.5p per unit tariff until I can get a smart meter installed.
I have a couple of problems but that’s more to do with the commercials than the car itself. It’s booked in with a dealer today because the AC isn’t working properly. I’ve also found out by looking at the build plate that I’ve been fobbed off with an April 2019 build (registered and delivered last month) so it’s an early example which seems to have been stood pre-registered for a year which almost certainly accounts for the failing AC. I knew I was taking a deal on a stock car but that seems ridiculous to me especially after I sought confirmation that I was getting a MY2020 car (it now seems nobody knows what that actually meant and that these are probably non-existent due to factory delays). Will have to see where I get with the lease company.
I have my first motorway embarkation and public charge on Friday as I need to do a 300 mile round trip so plan to use Ionity MK and have the Audi RFID and some free credit ready and waiting.
So it’s the least efficient EV by some margin but I thought this was perfectly useable and acceptable at 6p per mile and that’s on a full fat 15.5p per unit tariff until I can get a smart meter installed.
I have a couple of problems but that’s more to do with the commercials than the car itself. It’s booked in with a dealer today because the AC isn’t working properly. I’ve also found out by looking at the build plate that I’ve been fobbed off with an April 2019 build (registered and delivered last month) so it’s an early example which seems to have been stood pre-registered for a year which almost certainly accounts for the failing AC. I knew I was taking a deal on a stock car but that seems ridiculous to me especially after I sought confirmation that I was getting a MY2020 car (it now seems nobody knows what that actually meant and that these are probably non-existent due to factory delays). Will have to see where I get with the lease company.
Edited by theboss on Wednesday 3rd June 08:42
For those who are doing some distance in their e-trons.
How are they finding the charging infrastructure?
An e-tron 50 is on my shortlist at the moment because of the fact audi are practically giving them away, but the other half is concerned around longer distance trips (albeit rare for us) wont have the charging infrastructure like tesla superchargers to back them up.
How are they finding the charging infrastructure?
An e-tron 50 is on my shortlist at the moment because of the fact audi are practically giving them away, but the other half is concerned around longer distance trips (albeit rare for us) wont have the charging infrastructure like tesla superchargers to back them up.
From what I've heard about the UK, the charging infrastructure is pretty crap, with chargers poorly working and all sorts of apps to get them to work.
In Europe it's a bit more straightforward. With one token you could go to 95% of all the chargers, the Teslas do have one or two advantages still.
In Europe it's a bit more straightforward. With one token you could go to 95% of all the chargers, the Teslas do have one or two advantages still.
- The SuC will be the easiest infrastructure to operate by a mile, as well as being by far one of the cheapest
- Tesla's these days can use all the other infrastructure + the superchargers, so their network will always be bigger
Audi provides a subscription service (complimentary for a year with e-trons) which combines a number of the networks under one RFID and gives discount on Ionity. I can reach the Ionity stations in Gretna, MK and north of Dublin on a single charge, which are actually well placed for the majority of my longer trips. I hear the continent is better still.
Meanwhile I have subscribed for the free services in NI and Scotland which I travel to occasionally and might give Polar a try.
I expect the charging networks to improve considerably in the next few years.
Meanwhile I’ve done 600 miles in a few weeks surviving with the 3-pin until I get 7kW installed, and it’s been okay. Not nearly as tedious as I expected. Just need to plan ahead and avoid long journeys on consecutive days.
Meanwhile I have subscribed for the free services in NI and Scotland which I travel to occasionally and might give Polar a try.
I expect the charging networks to improve considerably in the next few years.
Meanwhile I’ve done 600 miles in a few weeks surviving with the 3-pin until I get 7kW installed, and it’s been okay. Not nearly as tedious as I expected. Just need to plan ahead and avoid long journeys on consecutive days.
ZesPak said:
Yeah, I've done that before the home charger was installed. Was a PITA as I travel about 200-250 km/day, but could only charge 150km/night. I was glad when the weekend came around for several reasons 
Yeah that would certainly be difficult. It’s a shame you can’t plug two chargers, one in each side!Come to think of it, the last few “long haul” commutes I have been involved with all had charging facilities onsite and that was a couple of years ago... this can only get better.
ZesPak said:
From what I've heard about the UK, the charging infrastructure is pretty crap, with chargers poorly working and all sorts of apps to get them to work.
UK has thousands of 50kW chargers .. but only 40-50 of higher power. I've been using Polar for the last 4+yrs 60k+ and only been let down a couple of times. It's less and less a problem. Ecotricity is a different matter! modeller said:
UK has thousands of 50kW chargers .. but only 40-50 of higher power. I've been using Polar for the last 4+yrs 60k+ and only been let down a couple of times. It's less and less a problem. Ecotricity is a different matter!
I haven't been tbh, we were planning to do a round trip in Schotland but corona has changed that for now.I was going by videos I've seen of people reviewing non-Tesla EV's ( Harry's Garage was esp disappointed with the infrastructure).
I checked for our trip to south of France and having probably the longest range EV on the market, I could skip several Tesla SuC for the trip and probably as many non-tesla fast chargers. The infrastructure is coming together nicely, and in countries like the Netherlands it's a complete non-issue. I also thought that NL have one general provider for all these installations so that one token/card gives you access to all charging points, which is great. Having to have several PLUS several per country you'd travel through is a nightmare.
I chose the "Shell Recharge" one as it covers most chargers in Europe and has no monthly fee. It's a bit more expensive to have one without a monthly fee but I think I used it twice ever.
Don't watch ludites like Harry trying to charger. He struggles to charge his mobile phone. There are plenty of other like Jonny Smith who are a little more open to technology and seem to manage perfectly well.
Scotland has few superchargers and wealth of rapids that even 4 years ago when I first did it makes touring a pleasure.
Pretty much all the bad press on the UK charging infrastucture comes down to the following points:
- Ecotricity are a joke and have a lot of the motorway services
- The best networks cost the most, people struggle with idea of payng over 20p a kwh for a service
- Free chargers of any desciption get abused by freeloaders
- Too many networks and therefore accounts, cards and apps
- Tesla have a few large sites which people tend to get to know (I can name most of the ones in the uk), the others are more ubiquitous but you need to go looking for them, but they are pretty much everywhere.
Scotland has few superchargers and wealth of rapids that even 4 years ago when I first did it makes touring a pleasure.
Pretty much all the bad press on the UK charging infrastucture comes down to the following points:
- Ecotricity are a joke and have a lot of the motorway services
- The best networks cost the most, people struggle with idea of payng over 20p a kwh for a service
- Free chargers of any desciption get abused by freeloaders
- Too many networks and therefore accounts, cards and apps
- Tesla have a few large sites which people tend to get to know (I can name most of the ones in the uk), the others are more ubiquitous but you need to go looking for them, but they are pretty much everywhere.
Heres Johnny said:
Don't watch ludites like Harry trying to charger.
Part of the point though, shouldn't luddites be able to use them?That said, my father would struggle at a gas station if he had to use his card.
Too bad there's no protocol to just have the identification in the car, superchargers are so convenient in that aspect.
Although privacy concerns could rise then...
ZesPak said:
Part of the point though, shouldn't luddites be able to use them?
That said, my father would struggle at a gas station if he had to use his card.
Too bad there's no protocol to just have the identification in the car, superchargers are so convenient in that aspect.
Although privacy concerns could rise then...
I agree, they should be able to but you shouldn't listen to someone like Harry thinking thats how it is rather than recognising its his ignorance of what to do. I suppose its a case of "I don't really understand what I'm doing" being presented as "this charging thing is really hard" because they don't want to admit they've no great idea. That said, my father would struggle at a gas station if he had to use his card.
Too bad there's no protocol to just have the identification in the car, superchargers are so convenient in that aspect.
Although privacy concerns could rise then...
We've seen it by lots of reviewers when they think the UMC is as fast as home charging gets or plugs in a T2 cable and not a CCS and wonders why they get 11kw, yet they can probably tell the difference between a Aussie and French red wine and know a dozen grape varieties, so they have the mental ability if they could get past it sounding like a physics lesson.
Heres Johnny said:
ZesPak said:
Part of the point though, shouldn't luddites be able to use them?
That said, my father would struggle at a gas station if he had to use his card.
Too bad there's no protocol to just have the identification in the car, superchargers are so convenient in that aspect.
Although privacy concerns could rise then...
I agree, they should be able to but you shouldn't listen to someone like Harry thinking thats how it is rather than recognising its his ignorance of what to do. I suppose its a case of "I don't really understand what I'm doing" being presented as "this charging thing is really hard" because they don't want to admit they've no great idea. That said, my father would struggle at a gas station if he had to use his card.
Too bad there's no protocol to just have the identification in the car, superchargers are so convenient in that aspect.
Although privacy concerns could rise then...
We've seen it by lots of reviewers when they think the UMC is as fast as home charging gets or plugs in a T2 cable and not a CCS and wonders why they get 11kw, yet they can probably tell the difference between a Aussie and French red wine and know a dozen grape varieties, so they have the mental ability if they could get past it sounding like a physics lesson.
Variously, I have found the chargers to be:
- Broken
- Occupied
- Require a cable that I haven't brought with me
- Require an RFID card that I don't have and presumably would take days to come
- Require a subscription that I don't want
- Require an app that, once downloaded, refuses to let me charge my car (the PHEV in that case)
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
AstonZagato said:
To be honest, I am with Harry on this. I have a Tesla and I'm no Luddite. But whenever, I have looked to charge off the Tesla network - either my Tesla or my PHEV Rangie - I have not once met with success.
Variously, I have found the chargers to be:
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
Broken is because so many used to be free or ecotricity Variously, I have found the chargers to be:
- Broken
- Occupied
- Require a cable that I haven't brought with me
- Require an RFID card that I don't have and presumably would take days to come
- Require a subscription that I don't want
- Require an app that, once downloaded, refuses to let me charge my car (the PHEV in that case)
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
Occupied often the same.. both are rarely a problem if you go for a lot of the other networks
- the cable can only be a type 2 cable and therefore A destination charger and not a rapid, unless you’re talking a Tesla and a Chademo adapter or ccs, but wh6 you’d not have them in your car guven the amount of storage is a mystery to me. Seems a self inflicted problem.
- few now require rfid cards, a few minutes to download the app and register, Never had the other issues you describe but either way, they increasingly take regular credit cards.
I imagine a Harry likes to drive mikes to get his shell super max 99 Ron unleaded or whatever it’s called (it’s been a long time since I bought petrol) and thinks nothing of it.
AstonZagato said:
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
In theory, that's what it's supposed to be like.https://www.gov.uk/government/news/all-new-rapid-c...
The government haven't made good on their promise to step in yet, and their support for charging infrastructure is derisory, well short of their ambitions.
Heres Johnny said:
AstonZagato said:
To be honest, I am with Harry on this. I have a Tesla and I'm no Luddite. But whenever, I have looked to charge off the Tesla network - either my Tesla or my PHEV Rangie - I have not once met with success.
Variously, I have found the chargers to be:
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
Broken is because so many used to be free or ecotricity Variously, I have found the chargers to be:
- Broken
- Occupied
- Require a cable that I haven't brought with me
- Require an RFID card that I don't have and presumably would take days to come
- Require a subscription that I don't want
- Require an app that, once downloaded, refuses to let me charge my car (the PHEV in that case)
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
Occupied often the same.. both are rarely a problem if you go for a lot of the other networks
- the cable can only be a type 2 cable and therefore A destination charger and not a rapid, unless you’re talking a Tesla and a Chademo adapter or ccs, but wh6 you’d not have them in your car guven the amount of storage is a mystery to me. Seems a self inflicted problem.
- few now require rfid cards, a few minutes to download the app and register, Never had the other issues you describe but either way, they increasingly take regular credit cards.
I imagine a Harry likes to drive mikes to get his shell super max 99 Ron unleaded or whatever it’s called (it’s been a long time since I bought petrol) and thinks nothing of it.
- The cable is indeed a type 2. I normally home charge and I rarely take one with me, even in the Tesla. A 6m type 2 is a big lump to carry on the off-chance one might use it (I charge on the road only once in a blue moon other than the S/C network).
- I thought I'd plug in at the local Jag/LR dealer on their customer charging post just last week. I thought to bring my T2 cable. But it needed an RFID card. Installed when they launched the iPace (so about three years ago?).
- Last December, I was on the M4 and stopped for a bit of a break at a service station. I thought I'd top up the PHEV for a few minutes - every little helps. So, find the charging points, find out it needed an app, search for the right app, download the app, create login, wait for the confirmation email to be delivered, recover it from Spam, go to website to confirm that they have my email, login to the app, input my payment details, register the car, discover it wouldn't accept a PHEV (except I could have plugged in in a couple of ways, IIRC). Give up and drive off.
AstonZagato said:
To be honest, I am with Harry on this. I have a Tesla and I'm no Luddite. But whenever, I have looked to charge off the Tesla network - either my Tesla or my PHEV Rangie - I have not once met with success.
Variously, I have found the chargers to be:
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
I agree with you too.Variously, I have found the chargers to be:
- Broken
- Occupied
- Require a cable that I haven't brought with me
- Require an RFID card that I don't have and presumably would take days to come
- Require a subscription that I don't want
- Require an app that, once downloaded, refuses to let me charge my car (the PHEV in that case)
But why can one not plug in, tap your contactless card / Apple pay on the charger and read your emails while it all works seamlessly? The current status quo is not a system that anyone would design.
I had to take my i-pace to Northern France in early March to visit my dad. Total distance one way was ~220 miles. So within range if driven carefully but I would have preferred a quick charge.
So I tried first at the Channel Tunnel CCS charging points - no luck. They wouldn't charge the i-pace for more than a few seconds. Next we stopped in France at a service station - the CCS charging station seemed to have no power. I asked staff in the service station if a trip switch had activated - no one had a clue. All I got was a Gallic shrug.
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