Random EV thoughts.....

Although that's the case in Ireland, in Europe there is very significant long hauler market where the same driver has a truck for multiple days and does runs across multiple countries. I've a friend who does Spain-Poland, he used to do UK-Poland before Brexit and Sweden-Poland before that. As night approaches you see many of the motorway stopovers start to fill up and the more popular stops would easily have 50-100 trucks parked up in every available space. In Northern Italy even there are so many trucks overnighting on the busier routes that it's rare to pass a motorway emergency stop without a truck in it after 11. There is definitely a sufficient market for EV trucks in Europe if not here.

Question about the SEAT/VW/Elli apps....we charge/easycharging etc they are called.

I have just received my card for my Cupra and I will try it out over xmas break at a few public chargers while I have the time.

Can this same account be put on multiple phones and used on more than 1 vehicle, or are chargers activated by cards only?

2 reasons for this....

I'd like my OH to be able to use her phone to charge my car on my account if she has my car and not have to pay another 9.99 per month subscription fee. I will leave the card in the car but in the event of the next point it may not always be in it

I'd also like to be able to charge my fathers etron when I have it, he hasnt signed up for any public chargers etc nor is he likely to, he is not doing any long trips and just charges at home

This analysis is applying new tech / new ways of doing things to an existing fossil fuel model.

Change or die

I agree with change and use of new tech etc. In reality there is a requirement for service technicians to get to site on time no matter what. Essential public infrastructure or in the case of MNCs equipment worth millions can't have a delayed response. It's a needs based model not a fossil fuel model.

Exactly right. It's actually not that difficult.

And if VAT exemption was added into the mix in the initial phase you'd see EV deliveries skyrocketing. The supply exists if there's a demand. The demand here is not as high as people think. It's about 4 times higher in Norway and the EVs are delivered. It's not that there's some massive demand here... Yes the supply is constrained and delivery times long but the demand is feeble compared to more develeped EV markets.

Part of the problem, I suspect, is RHD and being de facto an extension of the UK market whilst being a EU market.

If we had people queuing 3 times more due to conducive policies the supply would adjust and deliver.

I had some fun in the snow 2 weeks ago in Lithuania, in a little Hyundai Bayon which was a brilliant little car… and handled everything spectacularly!! (I arrived and it was -14) Even for an auto!!! And even after I beached her on the snow trying to get a washing machine as close to the front door as possible!!!

First off, PHEV topups during a longer journey doesn't really matter for me. In my experience, my VW GTE only starts to benefit from a sit down meals worth of time at a motorway stop (the longer the journey, the less they matter). They charge too slowly.

Last February, Dublin to Dingle with two people and luggage was 5.5 l/100km with a full charge to begin with and what turned out to be a worthless short charge at the Obama plaza. I'd never plan a long trip around midway charges, as that misses the point of a PHEV for me (which is biased towards 4-50km commutes).

Secondly, it reads like you're basing PHEV owners on the sample size of 2ish which isn't a great number to assume from. I'd can only add my own experience that I wouldn't mind public charging near my place of work. In this weather, I'm getting 30 of my 45km commute on EV, so a top up where I can before my return journey is welcome. I've not done the maths on price per km on petrol vs public charging.

I had a C350e before that and I'd need to charge that wherever I possibly could due to the smaller battery. If I wanted to, I'd need 3hrs at a public charger to get me most of the way home on that. With the VW, I've better ev range so charging at work matters less.

Most EV you stick it in sports mode and drive fast, much more fun than pressing a button.

Do most not have battery cooling to undo all your hard work?

Well you don't always get to pick and choose the ideal location for a charging stop

For example last week I did Dublin to Belfast and back again the next day. Arrived with slightly more than 50% so I had a few options:

Wing it, and arrive home with maybe 4% if I'm lucky

Try to find an AC charger overnight in central Belfast, a city well known for having cars left on chargers for days at a time

Go for Ionity on the way back, probably ideal to get max charging speeds, but only two chargers so there's a risk of waiting

Roll the dice on an Ecars charger being working and available (and buy a lottery ticket if there was because it would have been my lucky day)

Top up at Maxol Kinnegar, slower because cold battery and high SoC but 6 chargers makes for low risk of a long queue

In the end I went for the last option, wasn't ideal conditions but I was only plugged in for 10-15 mins (would have been shorter but an emergency bathroom break was needed). There was no queues at all and I had one of the 150kW all to myself, although I was only pulling around 60kW so wouldn't have mattered if another car plugged in

Yeah but how would a preheating button have changed the situation, if you have time to preheat with a button, you have time to to preheat by driving it harder, takes just as much time. If you have a battery temp reading on your car you can test that for yourself.

THats a terrible things to say to anyone 😁

My point was more that you might not be able to do 15-30 mins of hard driving, particularly across central Belfast

I could try it but I imagine the PSNI might have a few things to say 🤣

So being able to just manually preheat the battery would be handy sometimes

Sure the preheating wouldn't make any difference then, you'd be hitting Castlebellingham at too high a SoC to get full power 😝