TOT Go woke go broke

MG4 from 2 years ago has a 281 mile range (more like 200 in the winter, but can - with care - achieve over 310 in warmer weather).

Battery is under the full floor and it is not an SUV.

OK if you have your own off road parking

Where I live there are areas (square miles) where it's all on street parking both sides of narrow roads in front of properties where there is no space for an off street parking bay. More than half the housing stock in the UK was built before mass car ownership was considered to be possible.

Just watch a 1950s Britsh B movie shown of Talking Picture TV channel to see how few cars were parked in a typical urban street.

Home charging is more normally 7p per kWh and is the norm for almost all charging, with public (ultra fast) charging varying as low as 65p, but more commonly 75p,

Additionally, on some tariffs, the 7p per kWh applies for 5 to 6 hours a night, to the whole house and applies for periods in the day too, if demand is low and your supplier chooses to charge your car during those periods.

I've done average mileage, including some reasonably lengthy ones and only charged on public chargers twice - once because I wanted extra charge, so I could travel fast on the way home and wasn't sure I'd quite make it otherwise (but that was around 45p per kWh on a 7kW charger, while I attended a 3.5 hour event) and once when I had an unexpected work trip in the morning and wanted to go to another county in the afternoon to a specialist shop, without waiting hours at home to add charge.

At the moment, I'd not go full EV without having a second car in the household ... for those emergency, unplanned, long journeys (we've had a number of those as family in Ireland have fallen ill or died) or for holidays, where I'd not want to travel some distance and then hang around charging, every day or two.

Raises the question , would it be permissible for those on such a tariff who don’t need to charge their own vehicle frequently and have suitable access to allow others to use their charger at a cost to be agreed , higher than what they pay the supplier but cheaper than an actual public charger. Probably would break all sorts of T+C but who would know. Could be a little earner in some circumstances

GH.

snipped-for-privacy@news.>

The last 20 or so Ubers I have used have all been hybrids.

I see the council in the area adjacent to me (Central Beds) have an offer on a system for charging on the road: "Kerbo Charge", an approved channel across the footpath. They are offering a discount for early adopters but it's still eye-wateringly expensive!

nib

That won't happen.

When the intersection of autonomous cars meets sky high energy prices meets EVS, then you'll end up with EVs toddling off to charge when you are sleeping.

And some genius will say "hey, while it's doing that, it can carry fares".

Especially if you have groups of chums all chipping in to buy an EV with the sole intention of doing that.

It's quite amazing how much automobiles cost compared to how long they are used for in a day ...

No it varies. When I was working and doing the same 60 miles per day, I was taking between 25% and 35% battery usage, with the 25% being the best in summer and the other the worst in winter (around freezing and traffic congestion).

(I like to have plenty of reserve - I only bought an EV when my work journey was going to be <50% of the battery - and also there were chargers at work if it was ever necessary.)

nib

I'd work on 4 miles/kWh - even for a smallish EV. My supplier does overnight charging at 6p/kWh. So call it 2p/mile.

OK. My diesel Berlingo does about 55mpg, 11p/mile.

Trying to get my head round it all at the moment. City driving it's an EV win on just about every level. Including emissions - I'm very reluctant to do trips under 10 miles for that reason alone. Which means I'm often engaged in convoluted workarounds and trip combining.

One thing I've not factored in is the EV charge point. I could manage on the slow charger, but would prefer a dedicated (say) 7kWh point for the lower tariff/faster charging. Say £500?

What it sort of comes down to is how achievable the few long trips I do each year are. I'd just have to take the hit on charging costs. And that'd be easily offset by savings from home charging. It's more to do with the logistics of charging than cost - time spent fueling, and finding a charger that works. My sister came to visit the other week. Her Cupra has a 260 advertised mile range. She made the 150 mile journey with an indicated 17 miles remaining. Tense.

Anyways, a lot of this comes down to individual priorities and use patterns.

My XF is supposed to do 42mpg at 100Kmh

In reality on a long run, I can see 40mpg anyway. So long as I dont stop or touch the brakes

In reality I am happy to get 35mpg and its usually nearer 32mpg.

In town, 28 mpg is optimistic. In a traffic jam, make that 5mpg

You need to understand what burns fuel and avoid it.

nib snipped-for-privacy@ingram-bromley.co.uk> wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Providing a reserved parking space for the subscriber? That should make for a fun enforcement situation.

That assumes you have a dedicated parking space on the public road. Even in a residents only zone it's still first come first served with regards parking spaces - zero guarantee that you can park outside of your own house.

I wonder how an autonomous taxi knows the someone has thrown up in the back of the vehicle?

This will do 620 miles. It's a prototype.

mass 3,858 pounds

single motor

The prototype even has solar panels.

The feature of that, is the ordinary size of the battery pack.

And you wouldn't put a roof box on it.

You would put a roof box on a Cybertruck.

Paul

Sometimes it's other road users.

I often travel long winding rural roads at the nation speed limit with little reason to touch the brakes or to change gear BUT only if the road is clear or I'm following locals. Get someone who doesn't know the road and it's random braking from them at every slight deviation from then straight or even random breaking when the road ahead can be seen to be clear. Even driving further back than normal it's gear changes when they drive too slow.

It's much the same when following someone up a hill. A bit of constant foot on the accelerator on approach and during the climb would get me to the top of the hill at the same speed as at the bottom. You get the driver ahead that will be half the speed at the top which forces drivers behind to adjust their normal driving habits and change down a gear or two.

I often see constant brake lights for distances of miles from cars ahead when descending reasonably steep hills.

I guess most of us would be more cautious on roads we don't know and possibly not get the same mileage or range as when driving on more familiar roads. I tend to glance more at my sat nav screen when driving in an unfamiliar area just to gauge which way the road ahead may be changing direction.

Yes, like most of the ideas being tried for those without off-road parking, it assumes that neighbours get on to some extent.

It's very rare that someone not visiting me parks outside my house, but I also have off-road parking. And the strip of highway between my property and the road is actually laid to lawn which I look after so I could drape across it if necessary.

The row of 7kW chargers near me works by being free-for-all parking during the day for a school, a health centre and a pharmacy, but overnight and at weekends it's used by locals charging.

nib

Oh, if a billionaire has to make money out of it, they'll find a way. Maybe call it a terrorist offence.

It may be BS but I saw something the other day indicating the Cybertruck may no longer be legal on USA roads, or at least not legal on the roads in some states.

From memory some loophole allowed the design to be exempt from some regulatory requirements including perhaps pedestrian safety in the event of an accident etc. The loopholes only apply to a limited number of prototype cars, usually aimed at one off custom cars etc. The reason that the regulations now apply is because the Cybertruck isn't the prototype and it isn't a limited production.

The Cybertruck would be illegal for road use in the UK and EU because it fails to meet many safety standards

Indeed. On a recent journey we had some difficulty in finding a working town centre charge point at our destination, despite downloading even more Apps than we already had. We eventually called at a motorway services, which had its own problems.

I contacted them later:

"Arriving last Saturday teatime, in heavy rain, we were initially delighted to see an impressive array of EV chargers, most of them available.

Our initial task was to spot a CHAdeMO charger. We were not able, from inside the car, to identify this. We therefore had to pull into a space. It became clear that, only by prodding each of the enormous touchscreens, was the type of socket identified. Having worked our way along the line, we finally found the single CHAdeMO on site.

However, the screen showed "Unavailable". We tried various combinations of unplugging, waving cards and muttering incantations, to no avail. Thinking it might be a software glitch that could be remotely reset, more in hope than expectation, we rang the helpline.

They were able to tell us that the equipment was working as designed, because only one output at a time is available on that pillar, and the CCS was in use. Helpfully, they were able to tell us that the car using the CCS output was nearly fully charged, and after a short wait we were able to connect.

I accept that CHAdeMO is now not the favoured connector, but I believe that things could be arranged better.

It ought to be possible to identify the type of connector(s) on each pillar from within a vehicle, before pulling into a space. I guess the operator prefers to use their enormous screen to achieve their chosen look. Indication of the connector type could easily be shown here instead. Alternatively, separate signage could be affixed.

The fact that, only on this particular pillar, the two outputs are not available simultaneously, should be made plain. "Unavailable" has a number of potential interpretations. Sadly, the number of charge points nationwide having technical problems is significant. We were on the verge of heading to another location.

A CCS user entering the charging area arrives first at the shared pillar. There is no indication to them that, by using it, instead of any of the many other pillars, they are inadvertently blocking use of the only CHAdeMO connector.

I have no idea if the single output limitation would also apply if both were CHAdeMO, but even if so, this might be an improvement, as it would stop CCS users blocking CHAdeMO.

I salute your efforts to support the growing community of EV users, and, I feel sure you would want to address this problem area."

They replied sympathetically, and promised to pass the comments on to their contractor. Things need to get a lot better.

Chris