Random EV thoughts.....

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180074#Comment_120180074

1,000% plain sailing….. I never even gave charging a 2nd thought….. just let the car decide when and where I should charge.. it would automatically route me away from busy superchargers, or if I was hammering it on the autobahn, it would recalculate and bring me to closer superchargers etc….

in my opinion this is one of the greatest strengths of a Tesla (and one we don’t get to experience that much in Ireland)

AndyBoBandy

And just to add, if I was ever doing that same trip again, I wouldn't even consider doing it in anything other than a Tesla, let alone just an EV.... (ICE - No Chance)

We took the ferry from Dublin to Cherbourg, then drove up to Kiel in Germany with an overnight stop in Maastricht, then another ferry to Lithuania, about 1,000km of driving in Lithuania over 2 weeks, then the ferry back to Kiel, and the drive back to Cherbourg via overnight stops in some town in Germany & Rouen in France.... and of course 10 cases of wine added to the boot in Cherbourg...

When we arrived in France it was 40 degree's, and the car was flawless throughout.. and being able to leave the AC on while charging meant we always got back into a lovely cold car.... which might not sound like much, but when it's 40 degree's out, it's a '''very''' useful feature to have...

....you know it's hot when you arrive at a Supercharger with no pre-conditioning whatsoever and the car still pulls its maximum 170kW from the charger.....

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180630#Comment_120180630

Beside that you have no guarantee you're getting an electric car. I've rented a Polestar or similar, on October last, only to get an A6 Avant PHEV. I said, but I rented an electric car and the girl at the desk "This one has both, petrol and electric". They were acting like they are making me a big favour, which in fairness if you're into ICE kinda is. However, the battery was depleted and with only 3.6kW Type2 I never had the chance to charge it. Probably that car will never be charged in its lifetime with the rental company.

slave1

Wouldn't touch a non Tesla EV rental, DC charging nightmare in a foreign country versus simple plug in with a Tesla

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181075#Comment_120181075

I had a Leaf in Switzerland last year and overall a good experience. There is an app which has all Swiss chargers in one place. With the elli app I have now I wouldn't be worried on the continent. I was in December in Germany/Austria, on an ICE though, very impressed with the charging infrastructure. We stayed in an aparthotel in Austria and over 3/4 of the parking spaces had chargers. Asked at reception where shall I park as there were very few spaces without a charger. She said "they are not exclusive to EVs and soon all will have a charger beside them. The same was for all places where we stopped. The AC chargers where scattered everywhere some not even on plugshare.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180919#Comment_120180919

I know you're a dedicated EV fan but why is there no chance you would do a long journey in an ICE? Did a 750km journey in a e220d over weekend. Flawless journey, extremely comfortable. Would it have been anymore flawless in a Tesla? Cheaper yes

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181306#Comment_120181306

I feel more tired after driving a long distance in an ICE than I would in the Tesla... The Tesla drives itself (basic autopilot/autosteer), so I'm literally just a passenger resting my hand on the steering wheel.. it is so so so much less stressful..

Over the years I've driven a sh1t ton of 'prestige' cars plenty of large distances (mainly in the U.K./Europe the last 10-15 years), including all the C & E Class/AMG Merc's, Volvo's, BMW's & Audi's etc.... and for a long distance drive (300+km) there's just no comparison to the Tesla.

Back in February 2021 I did a 700km trip down to Cork and back in a day, and when I got home honestly felt like I could easily drive back down to Cork again.... I've done the same trip in my BMW and been absolutely shattered by the end of it.

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181391#Comment_120181391

Is that really the Tesla or just an example of a modern driver assist system (of which Tesla are very good). Modern cruise controls systems mean that most automatic cars and lane keeping systems are capable of the same thing. Is there anything that made the Tesla experience particularly outstanding?

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181430#Comment_120181430

Is there anything that made the Tesla experience particularly outstanding?

Yeah the charging network along the route which meant I didn't look at a single charging app once during the trips from Cherbourg to Kiel and back again, or even give charging a single thought..... just followed the cars nav all the way, and charged where it told us to charge...

And I've tried a few other driver assist systems, and of the ones I've used, the Tesla system is miles better.

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181391#Comment_120181391

Thanks for your comments above. Good to know.

Agree on the tiredness with ICE vs EV. My current EV only has dumb cruise control but I still felt a difference changing from the ICE. To me I think that a lot of it is down to noise fatigue.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181487#Comment_120181487

yeah, noise & vibration fatigue are the big ones that just aren't nearly as bad in an EV... then add to that the driver assistance in the Tesla (and the charging network) and they are motorway monsters...

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181391#Comment_120181391

I can absolutely see why a Tesla, with the benefit of the supercharger network, would beat other EVs hands down on long trans continental journeys. Maybe its just a case that I havent experienced the Tesla driver assist systems yet so dont know what I'm missing. Personally I like to drive cars myself and hate most driver assist systems I've experienced to-date. I've done the 700km+ drives in a day with one stop in manual ICEs and have never felt overly tired afterwards. On a motorway a decent ICE is practically silent, except for road noise which effects all cars, so I cant see how an EV would make long motorway journeys any less stressful for me.

Not in any way criticising EVs here by the way. Look fwd to the time when I can afford a decent EV, mostly for the cheaper running costs though. Even though I'm not a fan of Tesla minimalist interiors, my preference at the moment would be an M3 because of the range and power combination which seems a step above the competition. However, I will be sad when the day comes that I no longer regularly drive a manual car. Will just have to find solace in a nice classic sporty manual petrol to take for a regular scauld on decent driving roads.

kirving

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181509#Comment_120181509

I haven't done huge miles in a Tesla, but you don't hear or feel even a diesel engine cruising on the motorway in an E-Class.

Overwhelming factor on the motorway is tyre and wind noise, which wasn't great at in the M3 I've tried tbh (there are even aftermarket kits for sale to combat it like). Didn't like the seats, but but then I hate VW seats too, so that's personal preference.

Around town, EV all day long, but I'd probably take an E-Class over an M3 for a cross country cruise.

As for ADAS, all I'll say is be careful with it. Tesla chose to skip industry standard validation processes, and cut industry standard sensors in order to mass-market an excellent system, but flawed system. A net benefit to road safety, yes, but working in the area and having a big personal interest, not one that I'd personally trust.

AndyBoBandy

I'll use AutoPilot (adaptive cruise control) most of the time on any motorway/dual carriageway, but for AutoSteer.. yeah, I only really use that on long quiet(ish) stretches of motorway when there's not too much traffic around me, but once the traffic starts building, it's my hands on the wheel and I'm in 100% control of the steering.

It's just really sh1t lately using AutoPilot since Tesla Vision because the wipers default to auto when using AutoPilot, and at night they just wipe away regardless of whether it's actually raining or not... Tesla really fcuked up what was a reasonably well working system.... And I know that's the nature of Tesla and their software updates, always tinkering with the cars and that's mostly fine, but it's usually 10 steps forward, and 2-3 steps back...

slave1

I agree on the auto wipers, mine come on with perfectly clear skies and I have to come off AP to avoid the annoying scraping of rubber on dry glass

the_amazing_raisin

Okay here's a bit of a bizarre charging saga which I'm wondering if anyone has seen before

Up front disclaimer, I'm missing a few key facts like the brand of chargers since I'm getting all this second hand

But anyway, here goes...

My wife's workplace recently installed additional EV charging since the current chargers were constantly in use

The old chargers were basic 7kW AC pillars and all the cars could use them without any problems.

The new chargers are marked as 22kW AC chargers but I kinda suspect they're 7kW, given there's something like 24-32 chargers in total now

Since they were installed, a bunch of cars couldn't use them. They'd plug in and the charger wouldn't start

Those cars were my wife's Leaf24, and 'the Teslas'. I don't know exactly what Tesla models, but I know there's several Model 3 and S cars there, and it seemed to be all of those

The vendor came out and fixed the chargers today by replacing a transistor. Apparently there was a hardware update a while back which meant older cars couldn't charge

I've no idea what this transistor was for or even if it was a transistor, could have been a resistor. This is the problem with hearing stuff third hand

Anyway, that's the so story as I know it. Anyone got any ideas what was going on there?

Redfox25

Sounds more like (not an electrican) that the installer didnt check they worked before leaving and blaming it on a software update is better than fessing up to making a mistake.

I could be wrong ofc.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120193223#Comment_120193223

Well the strange part is the chargers seemed to work fine with other brands. There's at least one Ioniq 5 which would charge fine

slave1

Various charge points have various charging issues with various cars through the years, it's currently just something we have to accept, especially when the charge points are dumb and can't take an OTA update

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120193463#Comment_120193463

After consulting Prof Wikipedia, my current theory is that the newer chargers weren't backwards compatible to J1772 which the Gen 1 Leafs and (I think) the Tesla's all use

Apparently in an update to the Type 2 connector standards, they changed how the CP pin detects the car to a different transceiver (who wants to bet this was the "transistor" I heard about earlier)

I'm gonna guess the newer transceiver was supposed to be backwards compatible but turned out not to be

The vendor spoke to the charger manufacturer and they said it's a known issue and to swap the transceiver module out for the older one

I'm guessing since all the cars are backwards compatible then they work with the older transceiver module

Sounds like a definite hardware issue, and with so many cowboy outfits making chargers now we'll probably see more of this in future

cannco253

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/133757/mizen-to-malin-non-stop-in-electric-car

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120193693#Comment_120193693

I know lots of issues with chargers and car compatibility. Myenergi and zappi are the experts on making all cars work and they had issues with ID range, Teslas and more. Often it was the car side that needed an update but myenergi often had to put in a quick fix or work around. One issue with zappi for example is that it ramps up the charge slowly and many cars get confused by this. It advertises a very slow rate for first few seconds and then advertises a higher rate, but many cars gets confused and cars like some Hyundai's would display a time to full 5 or 6 times higher than actual as they estimated time to full on first few seconds rate, not rate after that.

Many cars also struggle on the "wait for night rate or timed charging" as they constantly query the charger and so the car stays "awake" all evening and this can cause the cars 12 volt to run low. The car expects the charge to start in the first few seconds. Better to use timer in car. Myenergi was also first to really use the solar excess and many cars struggle on wait, charge slowly, charge quickly, wait. Part of the reason is cars disconnect the main high voltage battery when not charging and they have a big contactor switch that makes a clunk when charging starts. With solar only and a cloudy day it may start and stop dozens of times, meaning the contactor is switching on and off which may wear it out quicker. Myenergi have settings to reduce this issue and often tweaks are needed depending on the car. They mainly have issues with brand new cars to market that were never tested in a zappi like happened with the ID range and also Tesla. Tesla quickly pushed out an update. I had to tweak setting lso my car would display the correct time to full. It's not exactly plug and play.

SPwr1990

VW ID.3 Life model a little closer to the concept design looks much better then the ID.3 that was released

Spring 2023 release on this

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120209602#Comment_120209602

All they really did was redesign the front grille and put a bigger screen in the dashboard from the looks of it. The MEB platform underneath will still be the same with a few minor improvements

They're still making the same dumb mistakes with the interior lacking much covered storage as far as I can tell

Launch is spring but first deliveries will be autumn

It's certainly a step up, but hardly a massive leap of an improvement

the_amazing_raisin

Did a double take today when I saw a LEVC taxi in Dublin. 231 plate as well, so it wasn't visiting

Bad news is that it was on the back of a tow truck. 🤦‍♂️

Might have been a delivery but it was a single vehicle truck that the recovery companies use, so possibly a breakdown

I see there is one on Donedeal, so somebody is importing them

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120210278#Comment_120210278

Based on my experience of the ex-wifes Cupra Born, just lighting the temperature slider will make a huge difference for night driving 🤣

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120181758#Comment_120181758

My previous etron was in for some warranty work and they gave me a diesel q 5 as a loaner for a week, i can honestly saw i would never own a diesel car again (and my previous 3 cars had been diesel audis). Once you get used to a decent EV going back to an ICE car is unappealing.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120211866#Comment_120211866

Each to their own but for me there is nothing to compare to pushing on a decently powered manual car on good quality country roads. Absolutely agree a decent auto for urban traffic

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120212822#Comment_120212822

Maybe, but if that’s what you are into a q5 would be a long way down the list, or a diesel anything.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120213350#Comment_120213350

Obviously petrol beats diesel but for me a manual gearbox is far more engaging and enjoyable to drive. An auto and especially an EV are certainly easier but imo less rewarding to drive. Probably just a dinosaur heading for extinction