Who has or is planning to get an electric car / EV Talk

[avro707]

Is anyone now after a Lotus Evija X after it did that crazy Nurburgring lap time?

6min:24.047sec

345km/h top speed on the long straight, some crazy speeds in other places. Through some corners it wasn't any quicker than the AMG One (comparing the two), so it 2000+hp and brutal acceleration is helping it.

I cannot say I'd like to be a passenger in that machine.

In regular EVs, I didn't mind the new Mini Aceman, it has about the right size and room inside, but I probably won't like the price.

 

[I7guy]

Is anyone now after a Lotus Evija X after it did that crazy Nurburgring lap time?

6min:24.047sec

345km/h top speed on the long straight, some crazy speeds in other places. Through some corners it wasn't any quicker than the AMG One (comparing the two), so it 2000+hp and brutal acceleration is helping it.

I cannot say I'd like to be a passenger in that machine.

In regular EVs, I didn't mind the new Mini Aceman, it has about the right size and room inside, but I probably won't like the price.

It’s a great car for the money. However:

- not street legal in US
- 3/36000 warranty
- buyers won’t care about the above

 

[cyb3rdud3]

I had a test drive in one of these, and it is rather lovely. But I didn't take pictures at the time. But today this rare sight was in front of me, and it is rather lovely. The brother of a different mother to the excellent Polestar 4, and the Lotus... But packaged as a ZeekR... Definitely one to watch once available in your markets. It is a great electric vehicle.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

I’ve done a thing 😬😎

As I’m going so often between the UK and the Netherlands, and Dutch customs was asking too many question I had to get a Netherlands registered car. But as we are in the middle of a big home renovation it wasn’t smart to buy a new car.

So I got a cheap older car to replace the Range Rover (my wife is still in the UK and keeps her Polestar for another year until she moves across.

It’s a PHEV, bought unseen and untested without warranty 😬🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤣 But I arrived and it was very economical. So weird to have a car like that on electric only around town.

And is the opposite to Tesla interior design 🤣 These are the rear seats buttons alone 😎 Also comes with a Starbucks holder and can play Hardstyle really loud.

 

[diamond.g]

I wanted a Panamera E-Hybrid, but my wife said no.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

I wanted a Panamera E-Hybrid, but my wife said no.

It was an itch I had for a long time. I wanted something I could drive between the UK and the Netherlands without stopping.

 

[pshufd]

We're getting a Tesla dealership and service center.

I didn't know that these existed but will make the vehicle more attractive.

I'm still waiting for Toyota to put out an EV but would consider a plugin-hybrid for the tax credit.

 

[diamond.g]

We're getting a Tesla dealership and service center.

I didn't know that these existed but will make the vehicle more attractive.

I'm still waiting for Toyota to put out an EV but would consider a plugin-hybrid for the tax credit.

You haven't seen Toyota brz4x? (I think that is what they call it)

 

[pshufd]

You haven't seen Toyota brz4x? (I think that is what they call it)

It's okay. We have 2 Camrys and I'm more of a car person. Our HOA requires requesting approval for putting in a home charging station and the closest Supercharger is 25 minutes away. I think that we'd need to buy a SFH if we wanted to do electric on a regular basis. But things are slowly improving.

 

[Apple fanboy]

It's okay. We have 2 Camrys and I'm more of a car person. Our HOA requires requesting approval for putting in a home charging station and the closest Supercharger is 25 minutes away. I think that we'd need to buy a SFH if we wanted to do electric on a regular basis. But things are slowly improving.

Wow! I’m glad we don’t have that sort of BS here. If we want to put in a charger we just do. I only ever here bad things about HOA’s here.

 

[pshufd]

Wow! I’m glad we don’t have that sort of BS here. If we want to put in a charger we just do. I only ever here bad things about HOA’s here.

We have underground power and utilities and it was put in in the 1980s. Adding capacity would likely require a lot of digging thing up. It will probably have to be done at some point but, apparently, not right now. Having underground power has been great in terms of reliability. Our last power outage was in 2011.

 

[Apple fanboy]

We have underground power and utilities and it was put in in the 1980s. Adding capacity would likely require a lot of digging thing up. It will probably have to be done at some point but, apparently, not right now. Having underground power has been great in terms of reliability. Our last power outage was in 2011.

My house was built in the 60’s. We added a charger no issues at all. No additional capacity was needed as we have higher voltage as standard in the UK (240v).

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

My house was built in the 60’s. We added a charger no issues at all. No additional capacity was needed as we have higher voltage as standard in the UK (240v).

My house is only 22 years old but we too did not have to add anything and our charger was just installed into the main consumer unit. I think the States have a much lower voltage for some strange reason so it’s probably a nightmare there, I’m no expert though.

 

[Apple fanboy]

My house is only 22 years old but we too did not have to add anything and our charger was just installed into the main consumer unit. I think the States have a much lower voltage for some strange reason so it’s probably a nightmare there, I’m no expert though.

110 volts as I understand it. But I think it’s the amps that might be the issue over there.

 

[JT2002TJ]

We have 220v-240v to our houses, by way of 2 110v-120v legs.

Houses can have all kinds of different Amp service, 80, 100, 200 (and others). It really depends on the need and if the house has gas/oil/propane to supplement electricity. Older houses with non-electric heat/hot water in the north east didn’t really need high amps here since we mostly don't have AC’s in our houses.

Things are changing since everything these days are smart WiFi enabled…

My house has been upgraded to 200 Amp service, with natural gas, and no central AC, so I have a lot to play with.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

We have 220v-240v to our houses, by way of 2 110v-120v legs.

Houses can have all kinds of different Amp service, 80, 100, 200 (and others). It really depends on the need and if the house has gas/oil/propane to supplement electricity. Older houses with non-electric heat/hot water in the north east didn’t really need high amps here since we mostly don't have AC’s in our houses.

Things are changing since everything these days are smart WiFi enabled…

My house has been upgraded to 200 Amp service, with natural gas, and no central AC, so I have a lot to play with.

And to be fair a lot of houses in the UK are actually worse. Those two as usual don’t tell the whole story. Many houses here have only a 60Amp breaker. You aren’t allowed to upgrade that yourselves. After the breaker you have the meter, and the legs installed on those are often not suitable for a smart chargers installation either. You then need to navigate a process between the electricity board and supplier to get that upgraded. And that is if your supplier isn’t looped via a neighbour. And let’s not even begin about being able to get a 3 phase supply in a domestic dwelling.

Seriously it isn’t as easy and good as they make it out to be in the UK. LOL our UK home was build in the 1980s. And the fuses you had to spin the wire around yourself 🤷‍♂️🤣

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

We have 220v-240v to our houses, by way of 2 110v-120v legs.

Houses can have all kinds of different Amp service, 80, 100, 200 (and others). It really depends on the need and if the house has gas/oil/propane to supplement electricity. Older houses with non-electric heat/hot water in the north east didn’t really need high amps here since we mostly don't have AC’s in our houses.

Things are changing since everything these days are smart WiFi enabled…

My house has been upgraded to 200 Amp service, with natural gas, and no central AC, so I have a lot to play with.

Interesting, thanks for the education on this, as I said I was unfamiliar with your setups. I am lucky I live in a house that was built this century and has a modern consumer unit that had provisions for an EV charger. I had this put in when I extended my home a couple of years ago. My Mum lives in a house built in 1725, and the electrics there are just about adequate. She would have to spend a lot getting her house up to spec, but she has never driven so its not a priority. Its also a grade-a listed property so an about nightmare. In the UK many homes would not be able to adapt to EV charging due to them being terraced or just not up to modern spec, it is possibly the biggest hurdle with EV adoption combined with general public perception of the technology.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Interesting, thanks for the education on this, as I said I was unfamiliar with your setups. I am lucky I live in a house that was built this century and has a modern consumer unit that had provisions for an EV charger. I had this put in when I extended my home a couple of years ago. My Mum lives in a house built in 1725, and the electrics there are just about adequate. She would have to spend a lot getting her house up to spec, but she has never driven so its not a priority. Its also a grade-a listed property so an about nightmare. In the UK many homes would not be able to adapt to EV charging due to them being terraced or just not up to modern spec, it is possibly the biggest hurdle with EV adoption combined with general public perception of the technology.

60% of house in the UK have offstreet parking. 75% of drivers in the UK have access to off street parking. In reality it is not an issue. Also when an existing consumer unit is full on the RCD side, or in a location where it is impractical to extend cabling it is a common solution to add an extra consumer unit. This is typically done anyway to make a clean install.

 

[scubachap]

60% of house in the UK have offstreet parking. 75% of drivers in the UK have access to off street parking. In reality it is not an issue. Also when an existing consumer unit is full on the RCD side, or in a location where it is impractical to extend cabling it is a common solution to add an extra consumer unit. This is typically done anyway to make a clean install.

The devil is always in the detail. In London for example only 44% of cars can or could be parked off street. (There's a total of 2.6 million cars registered in London).

 

[cyb3rdud3]

The devil is always in the detail. In London for example only 44% of cars can or could be parked off street. (There's a total of 2.6 million cars registered in London).

Sure, but the UK is a lot bigger than just London. Anyone can always come up with an exception. That doesn't change the overall facts.

In London, one can argue why have a car at all unless one has parking. My flat had two parking spaces, I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't have those and just used one of the many car sharing companies or just rented one when you needed to leave town.

 

[scubachap]

Sure, but the UK is a lot bigger than just London. Anyone can always come up with an exception. That doesn't change the overall facts.

In London, one can argue why have a car at all unless one has parking. My flat had two parking spaces, I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't have those and just used one of the many car sharing companies or just rented one when you needed to leave town.

The big city or small town terraced housing charging situation is as much a fact as is the fact that most people who live in a suburban situation outside of a big city will probably be able to have off street charging installed easily. Just because one outnumbers the other doesn't make it an easier problem to solve. (Avoiding the issue by suggesting that people in big cities and terraced housing probably shouldn't have cars isn't really going to work.)

 

[SalisburySam]

Just a US/North American datapoint: most large commercial power is three-phase, abbreviated 3Ø, but nearly all residential/small business power is called single-phase, 1Ø. Adopted alternating current frequency is 60Hz. Homes have three leads coming from the power pole transformer, two of which are insulated 120v lines and a bare ground/earth line. The 120v sources are 180º out of phase so the difference between them is 240v. Most in-home lighting and devices run on this 120v supply but larger ones (clothes dryer, EV charging unit, HVAC systems, electric ranges, ovens, some irrigation and pool pumps, induction hobs, etc.) require 240v achieved by running two 120v lines from the circuit breaker. And it all works pretty well.

For us, our home was built in 1905 and had knob-and-tube wiring. It was upgraded to more standard wiring several times by previous owners. When we bought the home we upgraded again to 400amp service giving us sufficient headroom for about anything we could think of. 100amps is routed back to the detached garage for EV charging, lighting, tool use, etc. and the remaining 300amps is for house use. We’re slowly getting rid of our natural gas appliances in favor of induction cooking, electric hot water heater, heat-pump HVAC, electric clothes drying, and we’re about halfway there. Still haven’t found a 48” induction range yet that includes a grill and griddle plus the normal burners.

There are several anecdotal reasons for using 120v in North America and some of South America vs. the 240v/208v found virtually everywhere else. One story is that back in the 1880’s early light bulb carbon fiber filaments could not handle the higher voltages thus 120v (110v in those days) was adopted. Metal filaments like tungsten eliminated the problem but the 120v standard had already been adopted and remains the standard to this day.

 

[Apple fanboy]

The big city or small town terraced housing charging situation is as much a fact as is the fact that most people who live in a suburban situation outside of a big city will probably be able to have off street charging installed easily. Just because one outnumbers the other doesn't make it an easier problem to solve. (Avoiding the issue by suggesting that people in big cities and terraced housing probably shouldn't have cars isn't really going to work.)

But there are really good solutions for those as well. The lamppost type chargers they have. Of where the council will put a channel into the pavement (with a cover) that terraced house owners can use to charge. I read about it on a forum and thought what a brilliant idea.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

But there are really good solutions for those as well. The lamppost type chargers they have. Of where the council will put a channel into the pavement (with a cover) that terraced house owners can use to charge. I read about it on a forum and thought what a brilliant idea.

It does sound like a good idea and one that was put forward for the South Wales Valleys on our local news as tens of thousands of homes here are terraced. The vandalism aspect might be a bigger issue here as frustratingly people can’t leave our cars alone and I’d hate to have to trust our car being plugged in on a street with some of the morons walking our streets in the early hours. It’s the only solution for many though once EV's actually become affordable to lower incomes of course.

 

[scubachap]

But there are really good solutions for those as well. The lamppost type chargers they have. Of where the council will put a channel into the pavement (with a cover) that terraced house owners can use to charge. I read about it on a forum and thought what a brilliant idea.

Yes, if that can be done then I'm all for it. Something that could retrofitted into a kerbside etc would be great.