Random EV thoughts.....

That won't happen, but if they switch to a service model like the ranger service with Tesla then I'd be happy

I'm fed up of bringing the car to the moron brigade in VW to be told they don't know what's wrong with it

Thats exactly what happens. You do realise you can haggle at most department stores on the ticketed price for more expensive goods? People just don't ask.

Do you think you would very feel differently if you were one of the customers who got badly burnt by Tesla earlier this year? I would have been fuming knowing the next guy saved thousands for exactly the same car overnight.

There was massive outrage in the US & China. It was reported that a lot of people claimed that their Tesla adviser told them there were no upcoming price drops and placed orders on that basis. Then in typical Tesla style, overnight they massively discounted the price. That kind of thing leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths such that it feels not too dissimiliar from a bad experience with a dealer.

When your buying a car, often also theres a lead times and finance involved, so not like buying goods from a shop. For most people its the second buggest purchase after a house.

But to be fair, Tesla do allow you to lock in a price at time of ordering and delay delivery. That is something that is a definate plus and has been used by many of us to our advantage. I do wonder how long this will last though as it used to game the system somewhat. I'm not aware of other brands that will allow this on a vehicle with a long lead time and typically would pass on price rises while waiting for delivery on longer waits.

While I get the outrage for existing owners with the Tesla price cuts, and don't get me wrong I would equally be pissed off, the same level if outrage is rarely expressed when it's the other way around, which is the norm tbh.

I don't think there's anything specific but I'd probably try to charge it up because I wouldn't trust the rental company to do it without burning the place down

www.warpnews.org/transportation/new-test-81-miles-increased-range-for-electric-cars/

UFO Drive is a good one for rental if available in the location. I don't think there's any min and charging is all included. You pre-book for a block of kms and if over then per km.

thats still a pain in practical terms.

With a petrol car you can fill it at any number of stations within a few km of the airport in a couple of minutes. You can pay for the fuel with your card or cash, to a human at a till. The only complication is for americans who arent used to pumping their own petrol!!

With a rental EV, and you a tourist with no clue of the charging infrastructure or charging speeds or possible little to no experience of EVs (at this stage, probably the latter), and all the info you need hidden in a myriad of apps, which require data packages abroad (and for most tourists, you rent abroad) - its a headwrecker.

I can very much imagine using the UFO model where they take the pain out of the charging procedure, but until the other companies cop themselves on I'll be renting only petrol or diesel from them.

I have witnessed a painful EV rental experience this year at Hertz Manchester. A colleague of mine arrived one day ahead so he was in charge of renting. I didn't know what he got but not little was the surprise when he pointed us to "my" car. A blue 2021 Tesla 3LR with only 9k miles. It turned out it was the only reasonable availability. Hertz staff didn't explain one little thing, there was a QR code on the dash but "who has the time". The car started popping errors and at some point it was lit as a xmas tree. Even the headlights were flashing. I kid you not. I have never seen a rental in such a bad shape, and I rented from some dodgy places in my life. Again the guy didn't want to sped a minute looking into this. For example we visited a business campus where I counted at least 40 AC chargers. He could have plugged in but no. I have no time for this. On the way back we charged at a BP close to the airport which turned out very slow. about 35kW which took us plenty of time. So the guy was not really impressed by the whole EV experience and swears "never ever".

My own experience in Zurich was that they charged me a petrol tank just to see how clueless the desk staff were. They gave me a Leaf but didn't know what battery size.

Ref Dublin airport there is Radisson with its chargers which should alleviate the charging issue. I got steady 60kW from the DC. If travel from afar one could plan to arrive earlier and have a bite to eat there instead of whatever it is served at the airport's food outlets (reluctant to call them restaurants). If only a top up needed, parking is free for 20 mins that about 20kWh or about 30% of battery.

very Interesting technology - let’s see if/when it trickles down

see the info in the post in the link below

https://www.instagram.com/p/CtgXN6HNbzc/?igshid=YmM0MjE2YWMzOA==

Trabant, you've just become cool and trendy 💕💕

Wonder when it breaks, will you need a new "gearbox"?

Trying to stay relevant, they need a rethink.

To be fair that is fairly crap

I'm in France at the moment and passed some random Total motorway service station outside Paris which had around 8-12 150kW Delta chargers

The station across the motorway had another bunch of HPCs

Despite that I've seen a fraction of the number of EVs here as in Ireland

Don't insult my Bluey 😉

To be fair, I've spotted a few and EVs are selling well enough in France, I just feel like they're probably selling well in cities and not suburbs (I'm outside Paris at the moment)

I've seen a few Tesla's so far, a Citroen eC4 and I think I spotted an ID.4 and a C40 recharge

Out of the probably couple of thousand cars I spotted yesterday, that's not the best statistics

What boggles my mind is that this is despite electricity being dirt cheap in France and petrol being as expensive as Ireland from what I've seen. You'd think an EV would be an absolute no brainer here