How are people getting on when moving over to an EV?

Andy From Sligo

for absolutely years I have driven 5 gear conventional petrol cars with clutch and gearstick and even passed my driving test in a car with gears - and the one time I tried an automatic petrol car I absolutely detested it. Proper messed with my mind, trying to press a clutch pedal when there was no clutch pedal there and going to change a gearstick when there wasnt one there.

SO I wonder how people are getting on when they ditch their manual car for an EV - maybe you get used to it after a while? - (well you must do)

Also I think changing gears keeps the driver more alert and takes the monotony of driving especially on long distance (and also helps keep the driver awake so people say)

could they have ever adopted a EV with a 5 gear gearbox complete with clutch and gearstick (or would that just be silly) or just not technically possible?

irishgrover

Drove manuals all my life. Now drive an ioniq.
It's very different, I obviously never use the non existing gears, but also very very rarely use the break pedal.
Have I got used to it... Yes very quickly
Do I miss driving a manual.... Not even slightly. Driving the ioniq is the most pleasurable long term driving experience I've ever had

ED E

Love how every little idea that arises in your noggin becomes a boards thread Andy.


Its a simplification not an increase in complexity, a very easy learning curve. Think go-karts. Manual drivers don't fail to drive them or dodgems.

Also I think changing gears keeps the driver more alert and takes the monotony of driving especially on long distance (and also helps keep the driver awake so people say)

Heresay or evidence? Get coffee when you're charging at 200km.

could they have ever adopted a EV with a 5 gear gearbox complete with clutch and gearstick (or would that just be silly) or just not technically possible?

You're right, silly. Like an FM radio in a spaceship.

Andy From Sligo

irishgrover wrote: »

Drove manuals all my life. Now drive an ioniq.
It's very different, I obviously never use the non existing gears, but also very very rarely use the break pedal.
Have I got used to it... Yes very quickly
Do I miss driving a manual.... Not even slightly. Driving the ioniq is the most pleasurable long term driving experience I've ever had

did you even, by habit, even try to change the no-existent gear stick and press the non-existent clutch pedal ever? ... not even at the very beginning?

derekbro

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

did you even, by habit, even try to change the no-existent gear stick and press the non-existent clutch pedal ever? ... not even at the very beginning?

I did it 2 or 3 times but you very quickly get used to it. I do find it a bit boring not changing gears but i think the advantages outweigh any disadvantages. (Driving an outlander PHEV) Plus the newer automatics are so much more responsive than the old(90's) automatic cars I drove previously.

irishgrover

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

did you even, by habit, even try to change the no-existent gear stick and press the non-existent clutch pedal ever? ... not even at the very beginning?

yes, for the first 5 minutes.... but whenever you change any car, by habit you look for things that don't exist or have changed position on your new car...

GOing from ICE manual to ICE automatic is not the same as going from ICE manual to full EV.

EV's drive quite differently.... primary differences being gears, acceleration and breaking.
There are no gears...you get used to it very quickly
Regen Breaking #1 - there are different levels and different systems, eg Leaf epedal versus Ioniq system etc. The different settings have a noticable impact on the cars behaviour. It is not a problem that you need to get used to, consider it more of a feature that you need to decide on which options you like bast.
Regen Breaking #2 - dependent on how you use regen breaking you may find yourself using the break pedal very rarely, again this takes some getting used to by it's more of a question of finding out what suits your personal driving.

You get used to the change very quickly, and it really is a much much nicer drive...

waynegalway

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

did you even, by habit, even try to change the no-existent gear stick and press the non-existent clutch pedal ever? ... not even at the very beginning?

The opposite for me.

My OH has an Octavia automatic and whenever I drive that, I find myself looking for the knob to put it into B mode when slowing down at junctions.

glynf

The best thing about driving an electric is the wave of lovely, instant torque.

The second best thing is not having to clean brake pad dust from alloy wheels.

Andy From Sligo

if your car needs charging and you turn up at these public charging points in the street but someone is already charging their car .. what do you have to do, wait is it until theirs is charged? - and what about when your charging your car up at one of these points how long roughly do you have to wait for it to get any decent charge. And does if feel weird or more inconvenient than just rocking up to a garage and just putting fuel in?

sorry for all the questions.

Gumbo

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

if your car needs charging and you turn up at these public charging points in the street but someone is already charging their car .. what do you have to do, wait is it until theirs is charged? - and what about when your charging your car up at one of these points how long roughly do you have to wait for it to get any decent charge. And does if feel weird or more inconvenient than just rocking up to a garage and just putting fuel in?

sorry for all the questions.

It’s good manners to charge to 80%.
The problem is that with the bigger batteries coming around now, 80% in my car is 20 mins but could be 60 mins in a new leaf for example.

Also, if I’m charging and someone pulls in, I make a point to acknowledge them and just let them know roughly how long I’ll be. They can make their own mind up then if it’s worth waiting. I hate pulling in and the other guy doesn’t even look at you. You don’t know if he’s there for 5 more mins or another hour!

Gumbo

As for the automatic thing, it just comes naturally. The first day or 2 you’ll be reaching for the clutch when coming up to corners and stop signs.

I’ve went from so many cars, from auto to manual and vice versa, for example, I went from an auto X5 V8 to a manual avensis and then back to an auto 320d and then to a manual Fabia VRs. It’s like riding a bike. You never forget.

n97 mini

If you've ever been in bumping cars (aka dodgems), an EV is the same thing. Push the pedal to go. It's very natural.

n97 mini

kceire wrote: »

Also, if I’m charging and someone pulls in, I make a point to acknowledge them and just let them know roughly how long I’ll be. They can make their own mind up then if it’s worth waiting. I hate pulling in and the other guy doesn’t even look at you. You don’t know if he’s there for 5 more mins or another hour!

Same. But I'll ask the other guy how long he/she will be.

There is a whole can of worms around public charging, which is why you're better off to be self sufficient, i.e. charge at home or work. It's all too frequent that people abandon their cars at fast charge points, queuing at some is a problem (Naas, Blanch and Lucan especially), and all too frequently charge points at critical locations go out of service and can take weeks before they're fixed. ICEing (where a petrol or diesel car parks in a charging spot) is a big problem too, and the county councils are completely incoherent when it comes to policy about this.

Andy From Sligo

n97 mini wrote: »

If you've ever been in bumping cars (aka dodgems), an EV is the same thing. Push the pedal to go. It's very natural.

been absolutely years since i have been in a dodgem - in fact , i know I was a kid so it was most probably before I even started driving .. God I feel like a go in a dodgem car now, I used to love them as a nipper

Andy From Sligo

technology wouldnt allow it, along with another bunch of headaches , but you imaging if the batteries were on some kind of sliding in/out tray on the car and all you had to do when the batteries were getting low all you would have to do is pull up at a petrol station and they had all stored fully charged batteries there and an attendant just slid out the discharged batteries and slid in the fully charged batteries and away you went

unkel

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

God I feel like a go in a dodgem car now, I used to love them as a nipper

Go take any EV for a free test drive. You'll love it

n97 mini

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

technology wouldnt allow it, along with another bunch of headaches , but you imaging if the batteries were on some kind of sliding in/out tray on the car and all you had to do when the batteries were getting low all you would have to do is pull up at a petrol station and they had all stored fully charged batteries there and an attendant just slid out the discharged batteries and slid in the fully charged batteries and away you went

It's been tried by Renault with the Fluence. Massive infrastructure required... think specialist forklifts to lift those heavy batteries out. Wasn't popular. Ended in failure.

Andy From Sligo

unkel wrote: »

Go take any EV for a free test drive. You'll love it

can you bump into other cars if you like?

unkel

n97 mini wrote: »

It's been tried by Renault with the Fluence. Massive infrastructure required... think specialist forklifts to lift those heavy batteries out. Wasn't popular. Ended in failure.

It was called "Better Place". The main problem was that their timing was off. It was back in 2012 when they ran fairly big trials, with dozens of operational swapping stations and a thousand Renault Fluences in one small country alone. That was way too early for mass acceptance of EVs. With the added complication in real life that it doesn't really work unless everyone has the same car. Or at least an identical battery pack

Conceptually it was and still is a good idea. Didn't even Tesla demo a full robotic battery swap within one minute at some stage years ago?

Andy From Sligo

n97 mini wrote: »

It's been tried by Renault with the Fluence. Massive infrastructure required... think specialist forklifts to lift those heavy batteries out. Wasn't popular. Ended in failure.

ah well at least they tried it out , thats something I suppose

ELM327

unkel wrote: »

It was called "Better Place". The main problem was that their timing was off. It was back in 2012 when they ran fairly big trials, with dozens of operational swapping stations and a thousand Renault Fluences in one small country alone. That was way too early for mass acceptance of EVs. With the added complication in real life that it doesn't really work unless everyone has the same car. Or at least an identical battery pack

Conceptually it was and still is a good idea. Didn't even Tesla demo a full robotic battery swap within one minute at some stage years ago?

Tesla actually opened one or two battery swap stations in CA.
The problem was, supercharging was 100% free for everyone then, and they charged for battery swap. So it failed.

liamog

ELM327 wrote: »

Tesla actually opened one or two battery swap stations in CA.
The problem was, supercharging was 100% free for everyone then, and they charged for battery swap. So it failed.

You could say the battery swap process in California was 100% succesful.
Some history ...

At the time the Model S was a Type III ZEV under california emissions as it had a range greater than 200 miles. To become a Type IV ZEV it also need to be capable of replacing 190 miles in 15 minutes or less.
The battery swap process allowed Tesla to claim 5 credits instead of 4 for the 60kWh and 7 credits instead of 4 for the larger batteries.

Heres Johnny

The Tesla promo for it timed a battery swap against a guy filling a tank of petrol and the battery swap was quicker but even at the time I didn't think it looked realistic. Very slick presentation though