My First EV experience.....
Discussion
Yet people on here still keep claiming Tesla's supercharging network is pointless etc. this is exactly why I recommend only a Tesla to people who do long distance.
Also OPs post is a bit suspicious, but I'm just going to assume he's just totally unfamiliar with EVs, sounds like a Nissan car, they have pretty terrible range these days in comparison to other brands.
Also OPs post is a bit suspicious, but I'm just going to assume he's just totally unfamiliar with EVs, sounds like a Nissan car, they have pretty terrible range these days in comparison to other brands.
Zapmap.
A better route planner app
Few hours when you first get your car setting up a couple of charging apps, order a couple of rfid cards if the network you'll use requires them.
I was worried at first but not now, done a few thousand miles with no drama.
I always keep 30 miles on reserve when travelling, gives enough to go to other chargers if you're planned one isn't working.
Using some free and some pay chargers I've used 527kwh,at a total charge of £18. Less than 4p per kwh. Happy with that. Can't be bothered to work out an equivalent cost of mpg but it's a great saving!
A better route planner app
Few hours when you first get your car setting up a couple of charging apps, order a couple of rfid cards if the network you'll use requires them.
I was worried at first but not now, done a few thousand miles with no drama.
I always keep 30 miles on reserve when travelling, gives enough to go to other chargers if you're planned one isn't working.
Using some free and some pay chargers I've used 527kwh,at a total charge of £18. Less than 4p per kwh. Happy with that. Can't be bothered to work out an equivalent cost of mpg but it's a great saving!
Max_Torque said:
In 1998 i picke dup my new car, a Citroen ZX 16v, and it was great. But on a trip i stopped for fuel and about 5 minutes later the car started misfiring, worse and worse, and eventually ground to a halt on the M45. Turns out i had ended up with half a tank of water, not half a tank of petrol, as the petrol station i had just visited had been recently flooded by heavy rain, and unknown to them, about 5,000 gallons of water had flooded into the underground unlead storage tank! Car was recovered to main dealer, and required around £500 worth of attention including replacment of the fuel pump and the metal fuel lines that had rusted due to the water in them.
Due to this, it's quite clear that absolutely nobody should buy a Petrol powered car, as clearly the filling network is simply not up to the task..........
Does that happen often in 2021? The OP's issue on the other hand though ...Due to this, it's quite clear that absolutely nobody should buy a Petrol powered car, as clearly the filling network is simply not up to the task..........
TX.
Edited by Terminator X on Thursday 11th March 12:13
Edited by Terminator X on Thursday 11th March 12:14
i have some sympathy with the OP.
one doesn't know what one doesn't know.
if you have zero experience of EVs then you don't know all 'the little tricks' that you pick up pretty quickly with ownership.
it's like firing the queen's driver and making her drive herself. she'd probably run out of petrol because she doesn't know to fill it up....
a bad worker blames their tools etc...
if you were to do the exact same journey again you can be certain that the OP would never run out of charge a second time.. he'd leave a bigger buffer and use a reputable fast charger/zapmap
or take a tesla...
one doesn't know what one doesn't know.
if you have zero experience of EVs then you don't know all 'the little tricks' that you pick up pretty quickly with ownership.
it's like firing the queen's driver and making her drive herself. she'd probably run out of petrol because she doesn't know to fill it up....
a bad worker blames their tools etc...
if you were to do the exact same journey again you can be certain that the OP would never run out of charge a second time.. he'd leave a bigger buffer and use a reputable fast charger/zapmap
or take a tesla...
CheesecakeRunner said:
Bit concerned for Lexus that at least two of their drivers had problems then.
Maybe its a very clever bit of marketing......Toyota has telling people EVs are rubbish for years, and now they are providing real life proof. Am sure if they could they would have a Mirai as a back up car, but those probably didn't even have enough hydrogen on board to make it out of the distribution center 
.https://www.wsj.com/articles/toyotas-chief-says-el...
Edited by gangzoom on Thursday 11th March 14:43
Terminator X: thanks for posting that video - quite illuminating for an non-EV motorist.
One thing which struck me when he video'd himself in the car was how distracting the whole route/range/charging things were. His eyes were flicking to the screens continuously.
Watching his experiences made me realise just how tech-savvy you need to be to run an EV as more thana runabout. He was switching between Zapmap, Wayz and the car's own satnav, had his phone loaded up with lots of charger apps, etc..
I will take flak for this but I found watching that hugely off-putting.
While I'm a keen driver, have a lifelong interest in cars and have a fair grasp of how they work, I am a neanderthal with modern tech. My mobile is a hand-me-up from one of my kids and I use it for calls, texts and pics. Yes, I am of a "certain age" - been drawing a pension for a couple of years and I fully recognise that I should get up to speed but I have no urge to do so until it's forced on me. I am sure that there are many, many folk like me and I suspect it's a barrier to EV adoption which does not get enough recognition, albeit one that will diminish with time.
One thing which struck me when he video'd himself in the car was how distracting the whole route/range/charging things were. His eyes were flicking to the screens continuously.
Watching his experiences made me realise just how tech-savvy you need to be to run an EV as more thana runabout. He was switching between Zapmap, Wayz and the car's own satnav, had his phone loaded up with lots of charger apps, etc..
I will take flak for this but I found watching that hugely off-putting.
While I'm a keen driver, have a lifelong interest in cars and have a fair grasp of how they work, I am a neanderthal with modern tech. My mobile is a hand-me-up from one of my kids and I use it for calls, texts and pics. Yes, I am of a "certain age" - been drawing a pension for a couple of years and I fully recognise that I should get up to speed but I have no urge to do so until it's forced on me. I am sure that there are many, many folk like me and I suspect it's a barrier to EV adoption which does not get enough recognition, albeit one that will diminish with time.
Next time you will plan to stop after 100miles, breaks up the journey nicer anyway but won’t share the success.
Thanks for sharing today to help others not make the same mistake.
Kind of the thing you do once. Brand new so the car hasn’t even learnt itself let alone the driver and maiden voyage further than its range with a plan to stop at Ecotricity. Not sure it could have started off any worse.
Thanks for sharing today to help others not make the same mistake.
Kind of the thing you do once. Brand new so the car hasn’t even learnt itself let alone the driver and maiden voyage further than its range with a plan to stop at Ecotricity. Not sure it could have started off any worse.
Terminator X said:
Max_Torque said:
In 1998 i picke dup my new car, a Citroen ZX 16v, and it was great. But on a trip i stopped for fuel and about 5 minutes later the car started misfiring, worse and worse, and eventually ground to a halt on the M45. Turns out i had ended up with half a tank of water, not half a tank of petrol, as the petrol station i had just visited had been recently flooded by heavy rain, and unknown to them, about 5,000 gallons of water had flooded into the underground unlead storage tank! Car was recovered to main dealer, and required around £500 worth of attention including replacment of the fuel pump and the metal fuel lines that had rusted due to the water in them.
Due to this, it's quite clear that absolutely nobody should buy a Petrol powered car, as clearly the filling network is simply not up to the task..........
Does that happen often in 2021? The OP's issue on the other hand though ...Due to this, it's quite clear that absolutely nobody should buy a Petrol powered car, as clearly the filling network is simply not up to the task..........
TX.
Edited by Terminator X on Thursday 11th March 12:13
Edited by Terminator X on Thursday 11th March 12:14
;-)
Mikehig said:
Terminator X: thanks for posting that video - quite illuminating for an non-EV motorist.
One thing which struck me when he video'd himself in the car was how distracting the whole route/range/charging things were. His eyes were flicking to the screens continuously.
Watching his experiences made me realise just how tech-savvy you need to be to run an EV as more thana runabout. He was switching between Zapmap, Wayz and the car's own satnav, had his phone loaded up with lots of charger apps, etc..
I will take flak for this but I found watching that hugely off-putting.
While I'm a keen driver, have a lifelong interest in cars and have a fair grasp of how they work, I am a neanderthal with modern tech. My mobile is a hand-me-up from one of my kids and I use it for calls, texts and pics. Yes, I am of a "certain age" - been drawing a pension for a couple of years and I fully recognise that I should get up to speed but I have no urge to do so until it's forced on me. I am sure that there are many, many folk like me and I suspect it's a barrier to EV adoption which does not get enough recognition, albeit one that will diminish with time.
He mentions Shifnal services, which is where I charge my M3 (I have a year free supercharging and I live fairly close). One thing which struck me when he video'd himself in the car was how distracting the whole route/range/charging things were. His eyes were flicking to the screens continuously.
Watching his experiences made me realise just how tech-savvy you need to be to run an EV as more thana runabout. He was switching between Zapmap, Wayz and the car's own satnav, had his phone loaded up with lots of charger apps, etc..
I will take flak for this but I found watching that hugely off-putting.
While I'm a keen driver, have a lifelong interest in cars and have a fair grasp of how they work, I am a neanderthal with modern tech. My mobile is a hand-me-up from one of my kids and I use it for calls, texts and pics. Yes, I am of a "certain age" - been drawing a pension for a couple of years and I fully recognise that I should get up to speed but I have no urge to do so until it's forced on me. I am sure that there are many, many folk like me and I suspect it's a barrier to EV adoption which does not get enough recognition, albeit one that will diminish with time.
It has 8 superchargers. My sat nav tells me how many are free at any given time.
Shifnal has 2 Ecotrcity stalls. These often have 3 or 4 general EVs queueing to use them (when they work).
To be honest, I would not chose a non Tesla EV right now unless I did less than 5 or 6,000 miles ( short hops / commutes) a year. I do at least 20,000 so the Tesla is a no brainer.
As much as Tesla get stick, they are a ground up design, not an existing manufacturer trying to catch up, often using an ICE platform (Polestar). Elon might be a nob, but he got his s
t together early on and put the infrastructure in place for his product. Even if his product is like a nervous pony when on autopilot. Were you the chap I tried to help at Peterborough? What a shame you were stranded there. I was driving back past about 45 mins later and nearly stopped to see if you had been able to move to the chargers at starbucks across the A1. They are far more reliable than ecotricity. So the issue was the compatibility between the charger and the new car?
Lordbenny said:
Driving from Sussex to Lincolnshire in a brand new.......car! (It’s a nice one but I can’t divulge which...sorry) The route was 145 miles and after a full charge I had 165 miles on the cars range display. I had my EV station fill up planned at around 135 miles so thought that would be fine based on a 30 contingency.
Within 25 of Driving my contingency had disappeared!...so knot in my stomach appeared, range anxiety hit me and I had to start re-routing. This was a time sensitive work job.
I stopped at a large service station on the A1 about 125 miles from my start location only to find the electric station was not working. By now my anxiety was hitting MAX....another 5 miles down the road I found another large service station that had Ecotricity chargers...PHEW!
In the pissing rain and 4 degrees of temperature I had to input name, address and bank details into my phone and I started to charge....except it wasnt charging....it was ghost charging! I didn’t realised this so after 45 minutes I realised the car hadn’t charged so I call the operators who told me to try the other station next to the one I was using. Another 45 minutes later....same thing had happened. Bering in mind I was late for my delivery and I had 0 miles in the batteries I was a tad upset...I tried again but to no avail. After approximately 15 phone calls and more attempts to charge with both Type 2 ac(slow) and Chadeo(Fast)I was informed that neither charger or plug was compatible with my car due to the fact that the software had not been upgraded for this car!
I was stuck....for 5 hours! The AA flatbed came around 2pm and took me to my destination.
Suffice to say...I’m not impressed.You can keep your EV’s until the network has been sorted, cars have a range of more than 130 miles (this was a £50,000 car,) and charger plugs are universal.
If your reading this and considering an EV.....don’t bother, especially if it’s not going to be used as a pottering about town car. There’s a LONG way to go before I’d even consider one.
Sounds made up... If you had CHAdeMO that means you had a Leaf, and they all work great on Ecotricity. Never heard of this "phantom charging" bWithin 25 of Driving my contingency had disappeared!...so knot in my stomach appeared, range anxiety hit me and I had to start re-routing. This was a time sensitive work job.
I stopped at a large service station on the A1 about 125 miles from my start location only to find the electric station was not working. By now my anxiety was hitting MAX....another 5 miles down the road I found another large service station that had Ecotricity chargers...PHEW!
In the pissing rain and 4 degrees of temperature I had to input name, address and bank details into my phone and I started to charge....except it wasnt charging....it was ghost charging! I didn’t realised this so after 45 minutes I realised the car hadn’t charged so I call the operators who told me to try the other station next to the one I was using. Another 45 minutes later....same thing had happened. Bering in mind I was late for my delivery and I had 0 miles in the batteries I was a tad upset...I tried again but to no avail. After approximately 15 phone calls and more attempts to charge with both Type 2 ac(slow) and Chadeo(Fast)I was informed that neither charger or plug was compatible with my car due to the fact that the software had not been upgraded for this car!
I was stuck....for 5 hours! The AA flatbed came around 2pm and took me to my destination.
Suffice to say...I’m not impressed.You can keep your EV’s until the network has been sorted, cars have a range of more than 130 miles (this was a £50,000 car,) and charger plugs are universal.
If your reading this and considering an EV.....don’t bother, especially if it’s not going to be used as a pottering about town car. There’s a LONG way to go before I’d even consider one.
ks either, especially since there are three big bright lights that flash on the dashboard and a display on the IC to tell you it is happening.St.kilda said:
Were you the chap I tried to help at Peterborough? What a shame you were stranded there. I was driving back past about 45 mins later and nearly stopped to see if you had been able to move to the chargers at starbucks across the A1. They are far more reliable than ecotricity. So the issue was the compatibility between the charger and the new car?
I believe the Lexus UX300e is Chademo not CCS so he wouldn’t have been able to use the Instavolt chargers. CheesecakeRunner said:
I believe the Lexus UX300e is Chademo not CCS so he wouldn’t have been able to use the Instavolt chargers.
The ionity are ccs only which are available at Peterborough services, however over the A1 there are a couple of instavolt which jave both chademo and ccs (according to zapmap) although not used them myself.Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff