recently saw a Taycan Turbo (according to the badge). Couldbt figure how a battery car would have a Turbo charger or is this just bs marketingOriginally Posted by Middo
Apparently, for Porsche, Turbo and Turbo S are just model variants these days, nothing to do with actually having a turbocharger. Unlike Vauxhall who seem to stick a turbo badge all their turbocharged cars in typically eighties style.
If you have the intelegent version do you get the cheap rate whenever the car is scheduled to be plugged?
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You plug in and Octopus decide when to charge your car. It's always 7.5p unless you override it (eg you need to force a top up in the middle of the day).
Yes that's what I thought you just put a time in that you need the car and they sort it out.
But the whole house draw gets the 7.5p rate and not just the charger.
Have seen on some forums people having comparable granny type chargers and getting almost the whole day at cheap rate. Guess you need batteries to charge at the same time though
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And we give BMW abuse for the front ends lolJeeeez !! What in the name of the Starship Enterprise is going on with the front end of that ?
I use a granny type charger for my wife’s mini and regularly get offered 9 hours at cheap rate, not that it needs that long.
Seems to be a rather speculative law suit…….
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tra...9wKbib9D_xZIwq
For those that have an EV and want to avoid the increase of tax next year (for 12 months anyway), below is a YouTube video of how to realign to 1 March 2024.
Just done mine (was due 1 June) and took two minutes - need V5
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=WKn27...&v=cS3VmT557lQ
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I’d been thinking about that but didn’t realise it was quite so simple.
I guess you could also just do it in March 2025 too.
Yes, you just need to remember to do it in a years time and hope the government haven't caught on and closed the loop hole.
Going to do the Tesla this month but I strongly suspect that in March 2025 if I've still got it they will calculate the tax pro-rata, so March 25 will be £0 but then I'll end up paying 11 twelfths of the tax due for April25 to March 26.
Worth a punt though.
By happy accident, mine is due in March 2025 anyway.
Interesting that the system allows you to re-tax an already taxed vehicle. Wonder how long before they close that loophole!
This is what I do with my Tesla. I only change on granny charger, and once a week I go to Sheffield which is a 140 mile round trip, and as I don't hang around the battery is normally left with about 10% charge. Plug it in the next day on Octopus Int. and get the whole day on cheap rate, and that's when the washing machine and tumble dryer go on to do the whole weeks washing.
My electricity bill before the Tesla and the wife's BMW 330e (which fully charges every night) was £200 per month, and now we've got the Tesla and the BM, because of Octopus Int we're still paying approx £200 per month, including charging, so effectively we're getting free transport with both cars.
The wife only does a 10 mile round trip every day so she constantly runs the 330e on battery. We've only filled the tank once since Nov23, and even then it only takes £40 to fill it from empty to full.
Have no doubt things will change over the course of the next few years, but for us atm an EV and a hybrid work very well.
Does the range vary much with driving conditions for example motorway or urban and driving at speed or plodding along ?
Yep, like an ICE car you can see huge variations between driving like a granny and driving like you stole it. However, unlike ICE, cold weather can affect range, although the new heat pumps (like in my 2021 Tesla) are meant to make a difference.
The wife's 330e battery range is on average 17 miles in the winter and unto about 24 miles in the summer - but again the range also varies based on how you drive.
I think it’s unlikely they would apply pro-rata tax (but who knows with these bunch of crooks)
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General Election has to have happened by Jan 2025, so who knows what policy will be by then!
I accept it would be met with astonishment and borderline hysteria by the population at large, but having experienced much increased range in my ev when stuck behind slow traffic, much like that experienced in a conventional ICE car, wouldn’t a blanket 50mph or similar speed limit reduce the use of fuels and emissions in one fell swoop - whatever fuel you use in your vehicle? Seems like a guaranteed way to stretch finite resources, but what do I know? I’m just a bloke who likes watches?!? - and also a (legal) blat about in a pokey car on occasion, but surely only a matter of time before it happens?
Most regular (obviously not super cars etc) ICE cars are actually most efficient at 70-80mph where the highest gear puts the engine in its most efficient rev range. Even to the extent of overcoming the increase in drag at higher speeds.
Of course, EVs don’t benefit from these advantages where higher speeds use much more energy than lower speeds.
Having said that, two identical vehicles will use the same energy at, say, 70mph whether powered by petrol/diesel or electricity, or indeed any other fuel.
So once EVs are the norm, a blanket speed limit of 50mph should mean less energy usage than one of 70mph but there are still a lot of other variables such as weather conditions, road conditions, hills, acceleration and deceleration etc.
Last edited by Dave+63; 15th March 2024 at 14:16.
That surprises me - I’ve always had better fuel economy at or below 70 in an ICE car when on the motorway - start pushing it and economy drops dramatically in my experience. I drive on lots of A roads and 60mph country lanes and pottering about behind lorries at 45-50 is a lot more economical than 60 in both my EV and petrol cars - in my experience.
Lower drag if sat behind a larger vehicle, effectively punching a hole??????
I too see a difference between driving at 60 on the motorway vs 70. Also 1 big difference is city driving when stuck in serious traffic. I see Dacia has just released a new electric city car which is cheap as chips. We might see more cars like this in our cities going forward.
Rightly or wrongly I'm purely driving the EV gravy train atm due to the hilarious acceleration of the Tesla and the smooth driving experience it gives, and the fact both cars are costing us next to nothing to run. IF EV ownership becomes more challenging (Octopus pulling the tariff, electric prices shooting up etc), or if I need to start driving longer distances, then they'll be gone and I'll be back to Diesel (for as long as we're allowed to use them).
I was speaking in general terms, the gearing on your fiesta could be lower but all my cars (usually Mercedes are most economical between 70/8ph.
As has already been mentioned above though, get rid of the drag (ie behind a lorry) and the fuel economy will increase substantially; the car is effectively being pulled along in a bubble of still air.
It is certain though that the energy consumption vs speed graph is much more linear for an EV without the complications of gearboxes and rev ranges.
My experience also. I regularly travel to West Wales and for some years now there is a several mile stretch of the m4 along Port Talbot with a 50mph limit and average speed cameras. I've found in everything from a 1.0litre 125bhp three cylinder petrol Ecosport, 185bhp diesel focus ST, 1.5litre diesel mini, 2.0litre petrol Honda CRV, and now my 2.2litre diesel transit campervan I average at least 5mpg more on this stretch than the 70mph sections before and after in all these vehicles. A few of them have/had 6 gears and they didn't like 6th at 50mph, but still returned better mpg at 50mph in 5th than 70mph in 6th in all weathers and traffic conditions except jams.
Perhaps Dave's Mercedes is geared for the autobahn and this makes the difference?
Could be. It does make sense and it’s an awful long time since I’ve driven any distance in anything other than a Mercedes.
Only a guess on my part Dave, but it does sound plausible. Maybe someone who knows more about these matters can enlighten us?
An ICE vehicle doing 1300rpm at 70mph, for example, will be using more fuel than the same rpm at 50mph, because of drag.
Drag increases as an object increases its speed, more work (ie fuel) is required to maintain a 70mph vs 50mph speed.
Yes it will but will only travel 5/7ths the distance so the mpg may be less.
I’m not sure physics supports this postulation.
The higher gearing gives the most efficient engine speed for that that vehicle at that road speed - but it’s not implicitly mote efficient than a lower road speed.
This guy has good videos and this might be relevant (I have not specifically watched this one but the content sounds relevant):
https://youtu.be/iNspNdVkslA?feature=shared
Last edited by stooo; 15th March 2024 at 16:17.
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
- Bender Bending Rodríguez
Amazing what a difference temperature makes to an EV. My journeys in December/Jan were normally between 0-4 Celsius and the car was telling me I was getting an average 2.1 miles/kwh. Today the car tells me it’s 15.5 Celsius and it’s averaging exactly double at 4.2 miles/kwh! I’ve had the aircon off completely which accounts for part of the difference but I’m still a bit shocked.
Agreed, there are so many parameters that need to be considered that there is no correct answer for every situation.
True, but also drag goes up as the square of the velocity, so if you double the velocity, the drag force goes up by a factor of 4.
That’s pretty tough to overcome and still achieve the same mpg as at a slower speed.
Theoretically, it’s possible I suppose, but no car I’ve ever owned achieved better mpg over long trips by driving faster, and I’ve tried! :-)
56mph seemed to be the sweet spot, probably no coincidence as the old NEDC test used that speed as a measure didn’t it?
The USA introduced a national maximum speed limit of 55mph in 1974 (oft called the 'double-nickel') in an attempt to reduce consumption after the 1973 oil crisis. It was hoped to reduce overall consumption by 2.2%, but it didn't. The law wasn't fully repealed until 1995.
Various types of vehicles are restricted (both by law & technology) to 56mph in the UK. I also seem to remember that in the 1980s (?) the RAC or AA used to preach that 56mph was the optimum speed for swift progress & best fuel consumption.
______
Jim.
Mine hasn’t been that marked, but last weeks 200 mile trip at circa 4c was 3.0 miles/kWh and this week at nearer 12.5c was 3.3 miles/kWh. Maybe I was going a bit faster this week as well though, traffic was lighter.
Driving an EV certainly wakes you up to energy use for given conditions!
Yes I thought my range was a bit rubbish in the first few weeks of ownership but that might have as much to do with the software getting used to my driving style and other parameters as the temperature? 4000 miles in and the range guessometer seems to be much more accurate - and will give me much more confidence and help to quell any last vestige of range anxiety
Thanks.
That seems pretty restrictive ?
Not really, it’s also got a petrol(?) engine.
Yep spot on. It's a hybrid not an EV, so only a little battery. As said, its perfect for the wife as her daily journey is 10 miles, but even if she forgets to charge (which I honestly thought would be quite often but she's actually done it every night) she can rely on the petrol engine to get her to work and back.
Only takes 2.5 hours over night to charge, set to come on at 23:30 to take advantage of the cheap tariff.
Me too, I think it’s nonsense.
Yes thought so that is decent at cheap rate
Electric no use to me though as I can't share at home so just a more expensive car that's less convient and costs about the same per mile at the public charger by the looks of the price per Kw. Does still look good with home charging though.
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That is perfect I hate the thought of giving the tax man a penny.
Without getting my tin foil hat out we are pretty screwed and like you say EV will soon be the cash cow the ICE has been for decades
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Some public chargers now proving to be more expensive than ICE, so if you can't home charge or even better solar charge from home I doubt EV would work out. However, starting to see second hand EV prices drastically fall, almost in-line with ICE prices, so don't think that will be such a barrier in the future.
Makes sense. If you stick your hand out of the window (if safe to do so of course) at 50mph, then try it at 70 the difference in drag is incredible.
EV solves some of the transport problems - provided journeys are short and you can home charge making them cheep. Other use cases, I'm not convinced
Yep, £180 car tax for EV from April 2025 and subject to luxury car tax, plus I hear most of the EV perks like free parking in MK and free congestion charge in London have either ended already or due to end 2024/25.
What do you consider a short journey? Many new EVs have an official range of >300 miles, likely still 200+ in the real world. The Polestar 3 I have on order has an official range of nearly 400 miles or at least 250+ real world. The kids will want me to stop for food or a pee (and charge) long before the car runs out of juice.
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These sort of things kinnda bother me as it's not a real point planning your trip around chargers is not the same as stopping where you want for a pee or a burger king.
EV are see event if you charge at home and any range anxiety is aliievated if you do a repedative journey I doubt that is a real debate
Problem is my microwave can cook my steak but I'll put it on the BBQ every time worst case I'll cook it on the hob. It will go nowhere near the micro even though it does the job. No problem heating a tin of soup in it but last night's Indian is going in the air fryer as well.
Horses for courses I guess
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It’s not 2010 anymore you know?
If I may enquire what sort've of price is the polestar 3 coming in at...
In fairness for a lot of people Dave salaries haven't really moved since then or even earlier say 2008...I understand there's households on 40k or 50k nowadays struggling to make ends meet...so in a real sense its worse than 2010!
Last edited by Passenger; 15th March 2024 at 19:57.
Nothing to do with money or salaries P, small batteries and having to carefully plan your journeys around what few chargers are available is a distant memory.
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