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

[ZRX61]

Good idea while it lasted...

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/18/ford-ca ... ction.html

[Yambo]

I was away for 3 days last week taking photos and a Turkish guy attending was driving a Tesla. His, and a lot of other Turkish Teslas are developing cracked windscreens, the crack starting at the bottom corner (nearside on the guys car but both sides apparently). It appears to be quite a serious issue.

[ZRX61]

They just reopened the 15, the freeway between LA & LV.

A truck carrying lithium batteries (for EVs) caught fire TWO DAYS AGO & they shut the road, fire kept reigniting. Now they have to deal with countless cars that ran out of petrol or battery power along the road.

[Docca]

Now in Geneva.

Using the IONITY network (350kwh) charging network


Travel two or 3 hours. Take a 20 minute break. Car fully charged.


So far it’s been an absolute doddle.

If every time anything went wrong with ICE production line went wrong, we’d never drive

Personally- I wouldn’t listen to the negative-Neds. If you’re thinking of getting an EV- chose one that suits your needs and then there is no looking back

[Noggin]

I do quite like the idea.

If I had a garage with power or some parking with the possibility for a charging point, I would 100% look at options. I don't mind driving a few hours and stopping for half hour or so (kinda what I do when I drive back to the uk anyway), it's just lack of parking/charging on top of living on top of a mountain that stops me looking for now!! (and the french govt to some fairly decent subsidies quite often)

[Docca]

The scene across a lot of the Ionity network. Loads of 350kw chargers everywhere in Europe. 20% to 95% charge in about 15 minutes

[Mr. Dazzle]

Odds on the next person to turn up would park right next to you

[Pirahna]

Personally- I wouldn’t listen to the negative-Neds. If you’re thinking of getting an EV- chose one that suits your needs and then there is no looking back

As soon as VW stick a row of seats in the back of the ID Buzz commercial to make a Kombi and replace all the soft controls with proper buttons, I'll have a jolly good look at one.

[Taipan]

The scene across a lot of the Ionity network. Loads of 350kw chargers everywhere in Europe. 20% to 95% charge in about 15 minutes

That's such a marked difference in what I saw in France in 2022. The queues for charging points were horrendous on the motorway services. I wonder, does that mean the infrastructure has improved greatly, as that looks very new, or have EVs lost their following?

I'm a reluctant EV fan. I certainly disagree with their green credentials claim, but if we had one, I think it'd work well for us as most of our journeys are sub 10 miles.

[Taipan]

Progress or sacrilege!

[Docca]

Re: few EVs on the road? No- LOADS in Europe. Looked like quite a bit more than UK, but that’s my subjective opinion.


Anyway- now on Ferry.

For anyone remotely interested;

Dunkirk -> Luxemburg -> Geneva -> Lourmarin and Ventebren (Provence ) -> back and forth to a tonne of places -> Troyes -> Dunkirk


EV charging across Europe (we went through Belgium to get to Luxemburg) is an absolute piece of piss. I admit I was slightly anxious beforehand, but it’s so easy.

IONITY app - just route plan and it does the rest on 350 KW charges. Also used the Fastned network once (300kw)

The only snag with navigating by app ( it pushes it to apple/google on your CarPlay) is that you might have to slightly detour to use their charger. This happened only once on my journey and it was a 5 minute detour, so not a massive inconvenience.


Fully charged, the beemer could hit 530km range travelling all day at 75mph.

[demographic]

Even round Cumbria I reckon there's quite a few EV's on the road, I honestly can't make a few miles journey without seeing several.
Maybe 10%?

Easy enought to spot by the green bit on the numberplate, if people can't see em round here they maybe shouldn't be driving as they must have bad eyes.
Also theres a mass of chargers sprung up over the last year, mostly in supermarket arparks which seems a logical spot in my eyes.
It looks to be going in the right direction.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Fully charged, the beemer could hit 530km range travelling all day at 75mph.

I make that about 4m/kWh, based on the Beemer having an 80something kWh battery. Pretty good for a big ol saloon and a neat demo of why SUVs are shit .

[ZRX61]

The only snag with navigating by app ( it pushes it to apple/google on your CarPlay) is that you might have to slightly detour to use their charger. This happened only once on my journey and it was a 5 minute detour, so not a massive inconvenience.

That's far better than the US. Bloke just did a run from Az to Wa.. which should have been Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Washington. Instead he had to go Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington... so had to *detour* two entire States. & the California part took him into LA.

[demographic]

Is that a "Lecky cats ate shte" comment or an "America couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery" comment though?

[Taipan]

I’m pleased, but it does kind of sound like we’re applauding what we already had!

[Mussels]

I’m pleased, but it does kind of sound like we’re applauding what we already had!

It's a bit like stepping back 40 years of motoring where you could do long journeys fairly quickly but only if you chose the right route that had service stations in the righ places.
It's getting there but not for me yet.

[ZRX61]

Is that a "Lecky cats ate shte" comment or an "America couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery" comment though?

Both, but mostly down to the fact that Biden *invested* $7Billion to build 50,000 charging stations... & in 3 years has built...

Eight.

[Count Steer]

Dissing e-vehicles is all a bit King Canute-ish. The tide is coming in.

However, Gipsy Rose Steer predicts, all of those that wish to drive ICE vehicles for the rest of their lives will be able to*. In the UK you won't have as much choice of vehicle for a while, then have to buy older ones, petrol supply will get sparse and it'll be more expensive and youngsters will either point and laugh or take pics/selfies with your car. Oh...and some will scratch it/spike the tyres like they do with Chelsea tractors now.

Real die-hards will be finally buried in an ICE car and have a petrol pump for a headstone.

* particularly if they're prepared to move to the USA.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Spotted while out and about in Central MK.

Leccy van carrying EV charger repair stuff. Good motivation to get the charger working, otherwise you might not make it home after your shift

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