Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

[Saga Lout]

My Mazda has the stop/start thing. I thought I wouldn't like it and would need to turn it off but I've got used to it. If you want it off you have to turn it off every time you start the car. It also has an automatic "handbrake". Weirdly, you have to turn that ON every trip if you want it.

[Nordboy]

Always turn start/ stop of in my cars, bloody hate it.

Electronic handbrakes though especially with auto hold and release, brilliant bit of tech. However, if i'm stopped at lights for a period of time and i have someone behind me i apply the handbrake so the person behind doesn't have to sit staring at my brakes lights because they stay on when you use auto hold.

I've had the pleasure of driving a £80k Kia EV9 this week. 7 seater, fully leccy, all the bells and whistles. Drives brilliantly and has a fair bit of go for a big vehicle. But £80k is a shit tonne of cash for a Kia. Saying that, it's probably better to drive and a load more reliable than something like a range rover.

[Saga Lout]

...more reliable than something like a range rover.

The phrase "damning with faint praise" comes to mind.

[Noggin]

It takes around a second to restart but also there is a lag on the acceleration. So, even with the engine on, from a standing start I have to account for the delay in the vehicle actually getting moving when I'm looking at gaps in the traffic (roundabouts are the main issue as folks here are slightly random on them!). Add in the time to get the engine started to the lag in acceleration and it makes things 'interesting'. I never go for a gap if the engine isn't already going!!

I may well be doing something wrong, but I've not worked out what it is yet, so I just kill the stop start once out of town (well, out of Annecy!) and then I only have to account for the lag in acceleration

In my car, it will only switch off once per stop.

If yours is similar, perhaps just touch the throttle to get the engine started? (Foot on the brake too)

Yep, I can do that, and do - but it doesn't take away the second issue of the lag to accelerate, but also, it will stop when I really don't want it to, quite often just before I actually fully stop. For instance, coming up to a roundabout, in a manual you can coast 'almost' to a stop but in gear and then accelerate into a gap. I've stopped even thinking about that because sometimes the s/s thing thinks I've actually stopped or will stop so it kills the engine and then I can't get going fast enough for the gap I was aiming at I'm sure it's me, but I've given up and kill the s/s now unless I'm in traffic in town - and then if I'm in a traffic queue it restarts anyway if I haven't moved soon enough

There's certainly a certain demographic who are most opposed to it.

It's basically invisible to me. Don't even think about it, even when I'm accounting for it. Like changing gear or using the wipers.

I probably fit into that demographic. But TBF, I am only anti what doesn't actually work - so probably it would be fine on other vehicles but on the various ones I've driven (the work minibuses, passat and a friends gurtly big Subaru), I've found fault with most of the 'help' stuff -

- as discussed, the s/s on the minibuses sux big ones

- auto windscreen wipers - don't think they have the same idea of how fast they need to go or how often as I do. I either have to turn them on to clear the screen or turn them off because the are going at warp speed in a light rain!!

- auto full beam - WTAF - if I can't have full beam on auto if I'm doing less than 50kmph, then it's useless, as is turning off the full beam because of the reflection of a road sign!! TBH, it's the slow speed lack of full beam that pisses me off the most. My mate that lent me the Subaru whilst I was house/cat sitting lives in a tiny village with very little street lighting. The car would not give me full beam whilst driving into the village because I was going too slowly but it was dark that I wanted it to be sure I was driving safely! (Didn't know the area very well!) Also took me ages to realise that I could turn it off auto and manage the headlights as I wanted!!

Actually, the headlight thing isn't totally awful apart from the slow speed thing, but it also takes a split second longer to go back to dip than I would take - or more as often I'd dip the lights before the oncoming car comes around the corner.

I'm sure higher spec vehicles are better, but so far, my experience has been that the driver aids aren't - and also WTF can't drivers sort out windscreen wipers/headlights themselves? Surely it isn't too difficult for the average driver? Sometimes feels like a solution to a problem that wasn't there?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Also took me ages to realise that I could turn it off auto and manage the headlights as I wanted!!


and also WTF can't drivers sort out windscreen wipers/headlights themselves?

[Taipan]

I bloody HATE that auto-turn-off thingy almost as much as the headlights that won't go on full beam if you are under 50kmph!!

The auto turn off thing is a sodding nightmare for me on transfers as often it kills the engine just as I get to a junction and, as I'm in an auto minibus it's got a lag anyway, so I have to get the engine back on before I even consider trying to get the thing to pull out into a gap!!!

I always forget to turn it off until I need it not to happen!!

Probably is good (especially in an auto) in town/slow traffic, but not for roundabouts/junctions/getaway car from a bank job!

It's the second button I press when I get in the car. On my old car, it was permanently turned off, but on this one it can't be turned off in the software so I have to turn it off each time I use the car. PITA.

[Noggin]

Also took me ages to realise that I could turn it off auto and manage the headlights as I wanted!!


and also WTF can't drivers sort out windscreen wipers/headlights themselves?

C'mon!! I'm of 'that' demographic!!! If I flick the headlight switch I expect it go full or dip - not refuse!! (A bit of a challenge to work it out in the dark too!! )

[Mr. Dazzle]

Bargain hunters rejoice! Dacia are entering this market space.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 8#message1

[Yorick]

Bargain hunters rejoice! Dacia are entering this market space.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 8#message1

65 gee gees won't get me up those volcanoes

[MingtheMerciless]

So three weeks ago we picked up our Hyundai Tuscon Plug In Hybrid. So far it's been brilliant, Mrs M's journeys are mainly 10-20 miles a day (battery range is 39 miles in perfect conditions) and with charging overnight on a ZAPPI charger. I will be going of an EV tariff in April when the rates change (hopefully downwards). Currently (ohh look and electric joke) its about 1/2 to 1/3 the price of petrol at 21p per kWh but Octopus EV rate is 7.5p kWh, possibly cheaper when I sign up. I pretty much got to work in Brighton, with some dual carriageway at 70 before the engine kicked into charge the battery, which is 25 miles and was at night.

Drive is pretty seamless, you can feel the petrol engine kick in if the battery is getting low or you want brisk to hard acceleration and if I'm really concentrating I can feel the step between the regen and hydraulic brakes when slowing. Being part Scottish I feel shame if I have to resort to the hydraulic brakes .

It's not a niggle but I think a characteristic of the small battery but if you want the heated windscreen on high or the heating on high then the engine kicks in to do that. So more use of the heated seats and steering wheel, though a foggy windscreen still requires the engine to run.

MPG is over 100 on the average totaliser so far (600miles so far).

A trip to Cornwall, fully laden with a top box will show what its like on a long journey later in the year (our old Trail 2.0DCi managed about 33/35 mpg for that trip.

[mangocrazy]

Not sure if a link to this YT video has been posted before (and I CBA to search through145 pages to check), but the driving 4 answers dude has this to say about EV vs. ICE:

[ace llani]

2 years into owning my Nissan Leaf 30kw, and it's great for the school run (no warming up to wait for) but that's about it.

Charging on a trip is a complete nightmare, and rapid chargers cost per mile pretty much the same as diesel.

Imagine a ICE car, that only holds enough fuel to do 80 miles. A fuel station only has 2 pumps, and it tales half an hour to drip feed the tank.
That is, if it's working, and you're not in a queue to fill up.

It's most likely you'll need to find a charger en route, as you don't just pass one every few miles.

Only practical way is to charge at home, overnight on the cheap rate (say goodbye to cheap rate - soon the demand for electric will be higher at night than the day - my Little Leaf charges at 3kw, for 8 hours to get nearly 100 miles (if you drive like a Chelsea pensioner, and don't mind looking through a misted windscreen and shivering).
Also - being in an old town, not many houses have off road parking. I have to run the cable from the house across the footpath, and I'm on double yellow lines.

We have 4 charging points in town, all 7kw, so it takes 4 hours to charge my car. I have to pay for parking while charging (unless I sit in it for 4 hours).

Rapid charging harms battery life, and so does just topping it up full all the time.
And a replacement battery is more than the value of the car.

Basically - by far, the worst car I've owned.

[KungFooBob]

By Roadster, I assume he means a convertible like the original Roadster?

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 024-02-28/

[mangocrazy]

By Roadster, I assume he means a convertible like the original Roadster?

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 024-02-28/

So, a paper launch in 2017, citing a proper launch in 2020, which has now been pushed out to 2025. Musk's promises are like pie crusts - made to be broken.

[ZRX61]

hard facts...

https://www.realclearenergy.org/article ... 14698.html

[mangocrazy]

hard facts...

https://www.realclearenergy.org/article ... 14698.html

The author makes his right-wing bias all too plain; Cost-cutting and bureaucratic overkill were behind the Challenger (whose politically correct O-rings failed) and Columbia disasters. I mean, WTF? Politically correct O-rings? Get a fucking grip, mate.

However he does make some valid points, not least of which is the iron grip China has on EV (and EV battery) production. For that reason alone I'd be very wary about going all in on EVs. Plus the fact that they are simply not ready for prime time and won't be for decades.

[ZRX61]

Apple just shit canned their EV program

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah that is a surprise to basically noone

Making cars is hard and making cars for profit is almost impossible. Apple were almost daft to begin with. WTF do they know about cars?

Car companies have actually been slightly more intelligent here, they're partnering with Apple and Google (plus others) to develop information systems in their cars, kinda mirroring what Apple should have done.

In other news, I'm pretty sure the rumours of this were mentioned here almost a year ago...but JLR have confirmed today they're building a big ol' battery factory in Zummerzet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-68412570

[Taipan]

Anyone seen Toyotas 1:6:90 theory?

[Slenver]

Anyone seen Toyotas 1:6:90 theory?

Interesting perspective. They probably have a point that a more considered approach might be better overall than trying to force immediate change, given the issues around mining, charging infrastructure and current costs.

That said, all marketing material has to be seen for what it is... Toyota have fallen behind in the EV stakes, and Japan as a whole has very few natural resources. So they're bound to have a different take compared to other manufacturers that are way ahead of them.

I'd also take issue with the line "instead of replacing one internal combustion engine, you can replace 90', which is inherently bollocks when every hybrid has an internal combustion engine by definition. So they're not replacing a single one. Like I say, marketing...