Random EV thoughts.....

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119483818#Comment_119483818

Sorry to hear of your predicament, re things settling down, supply may settle down but given folk have finally caught on to EVs the prices are never going to come down from where they are today and are only going to go one way. With all the price increases this year and late last year all produced EVs will still be sold. When the raise prices again, they will still sell

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119484322#Comment_119484322

Have you calculated savings for fuel on a real world like for like basis? If you can get a might rate esb meter then over night charging rates can be relatively cheap. An 80% savings on diesel versus electricity is possible and so the savings may mean switching asap. Depreciation is typically the highest running cost, and you are right that resale with high mileage may hit value. If you went for say a 32k used eniro (like was for sale recently). The numbers might work much better.

In terms of market stabilisation inflation is going to be high, particularly as many cars or parts come out of non euro areas.

Demand for EVs is not going to go down. If you have cash in the bank consider putting it in something that won't drop soon, or put it into house insulation or a value EV.

cannco253

The A55 north Wales is one of my favorite roads to drive on (to/from the ferry).

Must try it again soon…jealous !

AndyBoBandy

As regards the M6, I drove up it a good few years ago from London to Warrington, and remember there was a regular version of it, but also a tolled version of it (maybe south of Birmingham?), and all my colleagues said take the tolled road, and they were right as it was very nice, and very quiet....

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119484058#Comment_119484058

Once you go above the grant in price i'd start looking at Polestar, Q4 Etron etc. Its a different class of car IMO, 65k for a Kia or VW is tough for me to stomach, i'd want a premium badge for that sort of price. You're close to IX1 or even IX3 territory at that stage, particularly if going PCP.

But with the Polestars, Audis, BMWs etc thats the base price with no kit - their prices escaluate pretty rapidly once you start optioning up. At least with Kia, Hyundai & Tesla EVs you dont get hit with the option BS, as its built into the spec level typically.

UID0

M6 Toll is north of Birmingham. It's amazing the number of people who would prefer to sit in traffic for an hour on the non-tolled M6 instead of paying the £5 (although I see it's gone to around £7 now). It's not useful for going to the south west - you have to stay on the M6 and then onto the M5.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488358#Comment_119488358

Yeah a fair point but last time i checked the Polestar started at 50k ish, even adding some options to get you up to 65k is still going to be a very nice car even leaving out performance packs etc. Q4 (when you could spec it) S line was in or around 60kish if I remember right too. I would consider those a step above the EV6, ID4, Ioniq5 in class even if build quality isn't what it used to be in the premium marques. Tesla have nothing under the 60k grant apart from white paint M3s as far as i can see but I'd agree you get very nice spec as standard but again I'd have a Tesla over an EV6, ID4 or Ioniq5 if we are talking similar prices and models.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119487960#Comment_119487960

Really makes a mockery of the argument that its essential the Govt maintains the €5k grant so people will switch to EVs. The way things stand it will shortly be impossible to buy an EV under €55k (€60k - €5k) in this country with manifactueers maximising profits at taxpayers expense.

Amazing how an argument that reducing / removing the grant would cause a collapse in EVs sales can be sustained in the context of what seems like infinite demand despite massive price increases yoy.

unkel

The base Polestar is front wheel drive only. Meh. I thought we left that mostly behind when we moved to EVs. All the competition is RWD.

And @Ivefoundgod - you are wrong about Tesla pricing. A base white metallic Model 3 is €53k, the optional metallic colours like midnight silver and blue are €54k. €3k more than a few months ago, but still good value compared to the competition. Even if you don't take things like standard autopilot, the high spec and the supercharging network into account

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488499#Comment_119488499

Why would that matter to the majority of drivers who couldnt even tell you if their car was fwd or rwd? Or those driving around in 2wd 'jeeps' because of their rugged go anywhere looks. When it comes to EVs all that seems to matter for most is if their EV gets in under the grant threshold.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488404#Comment_119488404

That's funny because my recent model 3 order is not white but is under the grant

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488383#Comment_119488383

Ah jaysis I forgot about tolls 😅

I presume that Eflow tags don't work over there? I seem to remember they have the technology for roaming but no-one had implemented it yet.

Do toll booths take credit cards or is it a cash only operation?

EDIT: It looks like ABRP is recommending the non tolled M6 (who thought of that idea). Might take the toll on the day. It looks to be longer distance since I'm going around 3/4 of Birmingham, but might be quicker if there's less traffic

UID0

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488571#Comment_119488571

It's not worth taking the M6 Toll if you're going down the M5. Most of the M6 traffic is between the M5 and the M42, which you wouldn't be driving on. You'd have to take the M42 around Birmingham, which can be quite busy at times, and the total journey is about 20 miles longer. The M6 Toll is great if you are keeping on the M6 (towards north London) or on the M40 (towards west London or the South East)

rocky

Credit card only from what I saw on the M6 toll

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488872#Comment_119488872

No debit cards? Surely they can't tell the difference

rocky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119489086#Comment_119489086

First time I went through, all the signs said "cards only accepted", was hoping that meant credit/debit cards, and not some special toll card, especially since a police car begind me chose the same booth... 4,5 seconds after swiping my credit card, barrier was raising and I was slowly accelerating as not to trigger the police 🚓

Probably debit cards accepted as well...

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488537#Comment_119488537

Which is why I said as far as I can see, never claimed to be an expert or giving a definitive answer.

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119489086#Comment_119489086

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119489210#Comment_119489210

Debit cards are just cards that work on a credit card providers payments system. The main ones are obviously Visa & Mastercard, but others include American Express, Discover (US mainly) to round out the big four.

Today, cross-border card payments in Europe are mainly made through two international card payment schemes: Visa and MasterCard. In order to guarantee cross-border acceptance, national card schemes are reliant on co-badging with international card schemes. [Source: ECB]

AndyBoBandy

The rumour in Toyodaland is that the Bz4X's built to date will all have to be sent back to Japan to be rebuilt, but just built correctly this time!!!

Ouch!!

Toyota: The best built cars in the world....... eventually

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119493774#Comment_119493774

In fairness my old Auris needed a lot of killing before the clutch went 😂

Did they say what was wrong with them?

the_amazing_raisin

Okay, I just want to drive this thing around an off-road course

https://www.electrive.com/2022/08/18/ponsse-presents-electric-forestry-vehicle-concept/

Meanwhile, the world's cutest electric tractor just got closer to reality

https://www.electrive.com/2022/08/12/foxconn-to-build-electric-tractors-for-monarch-in-the-usa/

AndyBoBandy

SSE are getting into the EV charging game…

https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/2022/08/20/planning-sought-for-ev-charging-station-in-mullingar/?fbclid=IwAR2r6e6xA6sL7lQ47IRy4XkUH2PiYKtJZIwzox0urpx0ZbB6peFK8o0-zo0#l732zm12mtg5qrl249r

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119488488#Comment_119488488

You just don't see much discussion of the compact family hatches that are on the market for around 25-40k, I think those customers are more interested in buying wheels than talking about desirable models.

the_amazing_raisin

I was watching a cartoon called Gecko's Garage (okay, my kids were watching it as well, don't judge me 😜) and I was impressed at some of the EV education going on

There was a car called Evie (get it? 😉) and they couldn't figure out where her engine or petrol cap was until they figured out she was an EV and installed a rapid charger for her (thus winning the number one spot for customer service of any charging provider 😏)

The next episode they converted one of the buses to electric. They took out the motor and then realised they forgot the batteries and put them in the engine compartment, but then the bus was too heavy at the rear, so they put them on the roof to balance the weight (sound familiar?)

Then they installed a higher power charger because the one they had was charging the bus too slowly. And solar panels and a diverter to charge from solar as much as possible

Seriously, in 20 mins they explained EV concepts and design better than years of documentaries and news articles

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119502227#Comment_119502227

My young fellow was telling us we should get an ev before ours arrived and I think gecko is the reason too. He was four at the time.

Fingleberries

Random observations from recent trip to London - see how they're getting on across the water.

High volumes of BEV cars around the city (saw my first Polestar 2, Cupra Born and a couple of other models in the flesh). Lots of spaces around Regent's Park and St. Johns Wood for "Electric Vehs" - on-street charge points / lamp post charge points. Enough places that I didn't see one ICE'd, but if one was ICE'd, there'd be another spot in spitting distance.

Also, at WB / Harry Potter Studios Tour they had a couple of BEV double decker buses operating to Watford Junction train station.

wassie

Congestion Charge, ULEZ and LEZ would seem to be a big factor in EV uptake in & around London I would of thought.

slave1

Yep, that's why do many bought the Outlander PHEV

mfceiling

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-08-21/saudi-arabia-s-ev-battery-bets-are-a-warning-to-those-going-slow-on-clean-energy?utm_medium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-view&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=view

TitianGerm

Does anyone here use Tronity. Was having a poke around at the app last night and looks like it could be useful.