Deep Purple parked outside my door!

[Kasper]

@stitch

Congrats on the new EV. Looks like there is room for your gear.
We’ve been looking at EVs as well. Unfortunately Canada is a vast country and is only now trying to get caught up with charging stations.

I remember flying over Canada at one point, and for hours it was just this empty but beautiful country… with straight roads going on and on for I don’t know how long… I can totally understand why EVs could be a challenge to use there! The effective range (especially in cold weather conditions) is still rather low, I guess you would have to recharge quite frequently if you often have to travel far. I guess EVs makes most sense if you live near a big city and spend most of your time there…

[TheMadman_tobyjenner]

Kasper aka Highway Star !

[stitch]

@Kasper

with straight roads going on and on for I don’t know how long…

You must have flown over the prairies. They have a saying “It’s so flat you can watch your dog run away for 3 days.”
I live on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Lots of twist mountain road and dense forest.
Luckily most of the forest fires burning right now are North and west of us.

[Lefteris]

@Kasper

looking at an “optional” £1500 investment in tyres, spark plugs, air filters etc… so it made sense to get an offer on it to uptrade.

So you opted to pay 40k+ over 5 years to avoid 1.5k now
I’m joking.
Enjoy your new car!

But this:

@Kasper

veto’ed any chance of a new fossil fueled vehicle

Is a huge topic for discusion with a lot of arguments for and against.

[JasmineJ]

‘Deep Purple’ did reel me in…
Congrats on your new car! It looks so nice!

[brianlarsen]

Happy NCD Kasper
You can get your community-car-playlist here

[Majik]

Very nice.
Do you have a home charger?

I’m, currently on my 3rd EV in about 8 years. I love them, and would not want to go back to an ICE car.

Cheers,

Keith

[Majik]

@GNS

there’s a problem with charging stations and electricity prices

Electricity prices have been very affected by current world events, and are ridiculously high at the moment, especially in the UK. Although it’s often still cheaper to run an EV than an ICE car.

When electric prices were more normal, it was costing me somewhere between 3-5 pence per mile to run my EV on the normal tariff, compared to between 15 and 20 pence per mile for an equivalent ICE car.

A lot will depend on your usage patterns, where you live, and whether you have a home charger. Public chargers can be very expensive and I rarely use them, as I do most of my charging at home. When I do use a public charger, I tend to use slower ones which are generally cheaper, and I can charge overnight.

As an example, when in the UK, we often drive from our home near Reading to our daughters house in New Brighton. It’s around 220 miles mostly motorway driving. If we are careful and we start with a full charge (which we always do), it’s possible in one go in our car.

But we always like to break the journey up, so we usually stop at the M6 toll services for a toilet break and a bite to eat. We plug the car in for, maybe, 15-20 mins on a rapid charger whilst we do that, and that gives us enough of a top-up to make the journey comfortable. That costs us a few quid. We often do the same on the return journey.

Note that, if we hit traffic, the range of the car actually goes up, so that isn’t a concern.

When we get there, we park overnight at the nearby supermarket which has a 7kW (slow) charger. The supermarket is about 10 minutes walk from my Daughter’s house, and the charger is free. That gives us a full charge by morning.

So a nearly 500 mile round trip costs us about £6-7 in fuel.

Note that we also have solar panels at home, so the cost of home charging for us is even lower.

We also have an electricity tariff where we pay a lot less for night-time charging, we just set the charge scheduler on the car.

Cheers,

Keith

[jkahn]

Looks like a pretty awesome car. Happy NCD.

I’m a car guy, love cars, have had a few, always mod them! Australia has a few EVs but quite low penetration compared to Europe. My ideal would be a hybrid ute (pick up truck), because there are long distances here that would be a real hassle in an EV.

[Lefteris]

@Majik

So a nearly 500 mile round trip costs us about £6-7 in fuel.

For comparison, I can do 500 miles non stop at a cost of approximately £70 (today’s prices) with my petrol car, motorway driving 70mph. About 550 miles when I do 50mph due to road works on the M3.
So 10 times the cost.
But how much do you value your time?
Right now, if I changed car, I’d probably go for a hybrid, not fully EV yet.

Out of curiosity, how much is maintenance costs? You don’t have to change engine oil etc (perhaps just gearbox) but what is required in terms of maintenance and how often?

Also, what is the battery life and what happens when you hit that point?

Bonus question for everyone, I’d love to see a full life-cycle analysis for modern ICE cars and EVs (from manufacturing to end-of-life disposal).

And just to make it clear, I’m not arguing for or against anything, I’m just curious for the facts.

[Majik]

@Lefteris

But how much do you value your time?

A half hour to an hour stop on such a journey is something I would want anyway. More than about 2 hours in a car an my bladder starts to complain for start.

@Lefteris

Out of curiosity, how much is maintenance costs? You don’t have to change engine oil etc (perhaps just gearbox) but what is required in terms of maintenance and how often?

Mine have all been leases with the maintenance included, so I don’t know about cost.

The first time I took my first EV in for a service the guy started to reel off a list of things they would do, from changing oil to cleaning spark plugs. I stopped him and said “it’s the EV model”. He said “Oh. In that case, we plug in the computer, run a diagnostic, do any software upgrades, and you are good to go”.

One thing that is certainly true: brake wear is much, much lower on EVs.

Cheers,

Keith

[Majik]

@Lefteris

Also, what is the battery life and what happens when you hit that point?

There have been scare stories in the press (mostly the press with oil and gas financial interests, it should be said) about battery life.

Modern EV batteries will probably outlast the vehicle. Some manufacturers are giving very good warranties, and modern batteries are expect to last one million miles or more with minimal degradation.

Tesla has one which they claim will last 4 million miles.

Cheers,

Keith

[Majik]

@Lefteris

Bonus question for everyone, I’d love to see a full life-cycle analysis for modern ICE cars and EVs (from manufacturing to end-of-life disposal).

There have been some. I need to find some references. All I have seen have found that EVs are (currently) more polluting at manufacture than an equivalent ICE car, but after a short period (about 2 years, I think) break even, and then it’s all win from there on.

Let me check when I’m not in the queue to get my hair cut and I’ll come back with some references.

Edit, here’s one: Total CO2-equivalent life-cycle emissions from commercially available passenger cars - ScienceDirect.

Cheers,

Keith

[Lefteris]

@Majik

A half hour to an hour stop on such a journey is something I would want anyway

Yes I know what you mean. That’s probably personal to all of us. I’d rather not stop unless it’s necessary.

@Majik

Mine have all been leases with the maintenance included

Oh I see. I own mine as when I was looking, the leasing option was MUCH more expensive for my expeted milage.

@Majik

One thing that is certainly true: brake wear is much, much lower on EVs.

How so?
I’ve owned two cars so far and I didn’t even need to change the break pads before it was something like 5 years of driving. My current car, I have it 5 years already, almost 50k miles and break pads and disks still go strong.
I guess this too depends on driving style.

I’ll check the reference you sent me Keith. I’m really interested on the subject, thanks for pointing to it!

[Majik]

@Lefteris

Right now, if I changed car, I’d probably go for a hybrid, not fully EV yet.

By the way, a hybrid (unless it’s a plug-in) is just a petrol car. The name “hybrid” doesn’t change that really.

There’s a few benefits:

1. They are normally a bit more efficient than a pure ICE car, but often not that much

2. If you are often stuck in traffic or sitting idling the engine (like, as someone pointed out to me, taxis often are) they are both less polluting and more economical than a non-hybrid ICE car, although some of those have stop-start engines, so not so different.

3. When in EV mode, they can travel short distances (typically up to 30 miles) without emissions. That’s useful for some cities with emissions policies.

Note that “self-charging hybrid” is a marketing gimmick designed to deceive. By definition every hybrid and full EV on the market is “self charging”.

Cheers,

Keith

[Majik]

@Lefteris

Yes I know what you mean. That’s probably personal to all of us. I’d rather not stop unless it’s necessary.

Within a few years, EVs that can go 500 miles on a charge are likely to be common.

There are already some that do 600 miles.

When I got my first EV, it did about 80-100. My current one comfortably does 250 and often close to 300 miles.

Cheers,

Keith

[Majik]

@Lefteris

I’ve owned two cars so far and I didn’t even need to change the break pads before it was something like 5 years of driving.

Because, most of the time you won’t be using the brake pads at all.

That also tends to apply to tyre wear, as recovery braking has less tyre wear than friction breaking.

Having said that, even small EVs often are very pokey, so you could easily wear out the tyres quickly if you are heavy footed and like to utilize “sport mode”.

Cheers,

Keith

[Majik]

@Lefteris

I’ll check the reference you sent me Keith. I’m really interested on the subject, thanks for pointing to it!

You might want to check out the channel “Fully Charged” on YouTube.

Cheers,

Keith

[Lefteris]

@Majik

Note that “self-charging hybrid” is a marketing gimmick designed to deceive

Agreed. I know that. I would look into plug in hybrids.
Having said that, last month in Iceland I did about 1200km (a bit more but rounding down) on a “self-charging” hybrid Toyota Highlander, I think that’s a 2.5L petrol engine.
I managed 7.2l/100km (over the 1200km) driving normally (including sport mode for overtaking) which I think was pretty good for such a big engine.

Some people were driving Teslas. I wouldn’t want to be on one on a mountain road there though…

[Kasper]

@Majik

Very nice.
Do you have a home charger?

I’m, currently on my 3rd EV in about 8 years. I love them, and would not want to go back to an ICE car.

I’ve ordered a home charger, but will only get it installed in July. Until then I have to charge in town, but it’s not too bad if you find a supercharger.
Everyone I talk to says the same, about not ever wanting to switch back