Random EV Thoughts 2 - The Jimnying

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123350809#Comment_123350809

Found an article on it

https://www.electrive.com/2025/04/15/instavolt-presents-ev-cable-protection-system/

Apparently the cable is worth £4 in scrap value

I couldn't help but laugh at the security force of "trained military operatives". Are they going to have the SAS on standby at every charger?

Also as an Irishman I'm not sure I'd be feeling safe turning up at a charger guarded by some British army veterans

The old West Brit accent might come in useful for once

Exiled Rebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123361405#Comment_123361405

4 quid only! You'd wonder what's the point.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123361707#Comment_123361707

It's possible the CPO is undervaluing the cable to try and discourage theft

Can't really see them getting a fortune on the scrap metal market though, especially the water cooled ones whuch are less then 50% cable

kanuseeme

Its £4 a kg minimum and its pure profit, generally speaking its added to a pile and then cashed in, 200 kg of wire would easily fit into a boot and be worth 1200 euro.

Pay attention to the guys that travel around especially the ones on the side of the road, you might see bags stacked up against the caravan, there is probably 2 or 3k there. money in the bank sort of.

You really know when things are bad when the likes of manhole covers go missing, 10 cent a kg.

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123361707#Comment_123361707

Got to put bread on the table.

Exiled Rebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123361919#Comment_123361919

You wouldn't get a decent loaf of sourdough for that 🤣

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123361924#Comment_123361924

Would barely get a sliced loaf in the UK these days

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123361835#Comment_123361835

True, and for many of these thefts it tends to be a target of opportunity. Low risk of getting caught is a big factor as well

Things like armoured cables and anti theft systems should increase the risk of being caught and discourage thieves

It's a lot like the theory behind bike locks, doesn't need to be impenetrable, just needs to be strong enough that thieves look for an easier target

September1

I think EV reviews are missing a lot of crucial information. Reviewers rarely take cars to HPC to test charging speed and battery preheating. Bjørn Nyland does more in depth reviews, but sometimes he tests in summer and sometimes in winter. Rant over 😁

mr chips

Hear hear. Two of the most fundamental need-to-know details for me are motorway range and charging speed, especially on a typical crappy winter's day in Ireland (less than 5 degrees, wet conditions). Lots of video reviews spend a chunk of time talking about e.g. design changes in a facelift model, space, comfort, practicality, etc - some of that is important to know, but I don't really give a toss about stuff like the number of LED bulbs in the light cluster. First & foremost, I always want to know how usable the car is on longer trips, because I do a lot of them. Bjorn focuses on this a fair amount, but he often only cruises at 90kph and I want to know what a car's range will be like at constant speeds somewhere between 110-125kph. That German lad (Chris?) who does the Battery Life videos provides more useful information in that regard, and like Bjorn he also shows what the charging speeds are like. Derek Reilly's trips from coast-to-coast can also be a pretty good indicator of how suitable a car is for longer trips in this country.

The EV database provides range figures for either end of a very broad temperature range and could provide more useful information. The "mild weather" best case range figures are for temperatures above 23 degrees C - it doesn't get much hotter than that here! - and crucially, with no use of aircon. On a mild but sunny day, a car's interior can still get pretty toasty and I could easily want the aircon running even when it's something like 15 degrees outside. Meanwhile, the "cold weather" worst case figures are for temperatures down to -10 with use of heating. It'd be handy if they also provided something in between those extremes.

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369084#Comment_123369084

Cold air-conditioning doesn't do much damage to my range in my car anyway.

Warm heating does reduce it by a good 10% or more.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123368719#Comment_123368719

EV Database have launched a long distance rating for many cars, it runs from 1 to 5 stars

The basis is you drive down to 10%, charge for 15 minutes and then drive down to 10% again

The number of kilometers traveled determines the rating with over 700km giving the highest rating

I think it's a good basis for comparison because it takes charging into account and they use the real consumption and charging power they've measured instead of the manufacturer specs

It doesn't take into account things like a cold battery and slower chargers, it's quite difficult to build a reliable test around those

mr chips

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369108#Comment_123369108

Using aircon seems to take between 4-10 miles off mine (eNiro), although I haven't had it long enough to see if that's something that remains constant from the start to the end of a long drive. As you say, heating air seems to make more of a difference. I might have a 300km trip coming up later next week, so if that happens on a warm day I might get the chance to see what effect keeping the aircon going throughout the trip will have, without forcing me into a charging stop on the way.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369338#Comment_123369338

There's another thing that creates confusion.....is it miles or kms you're talking about?

mr chips

I've lived in NI for some 35 years, so I think in miles and when I write miles I mean miles. When I write distances in km, it's because I am deliberately choosing to mentally recalculate and use that unit of measurement for the sake of the majority of people in this forum who happily don't still live in the 19th century. :-)

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369338#Comment_123369338

Does the eNiro have a heat pump? I noticed in my father's EV6 which does have one, range only drops by a very small amount with heating on hot. Way less than in my cars that don't have one.

I guess sooner they become standard the better to decrease the difference between summer and winter ranges which only serves to confuse some people and turns them off buying.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369438#Comment_123369438

They should be the standard but some companies insist on treating them as an extra (looking at you VW 👀)

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369438#Comment_123369438

Does the actual range drop or is it just the GOM that’s changing?

Our eNiro will drop the gom significantly once you turn on the heat and higher up the temp. But like all the EV’s, once you get moving, the cabin gets up to temp and the heater has to work less, so you don’t actually loose the initial range as displayed on the GOM.

mr chips

Yeah, mine's a first edition and so has a heat pump - was actually a large part of the reason I was keen to go for this one. I only have it less than a month though, and temperatures have been pretty mild for much of that time so there hasn't been the opportunity to see how it performs in properly low temperatures. Quite possibly won't get to do that until November. However I do notice that turning on either the aircon or the "heat" button makes the main range estimate drop straight away, say from 209 miles to 204 miles or something like that. I haven't yet been on a long enough trip which has also necessitated significant heating or cooling throughout its duration that would allow me to see if this really is the case, or if it turns out to be significantly worse for either function.

September1

Problem with EV database is that its data is based on manufacturer info. I was not able to find a single person able to get 230kW in Sealion 7, yet they list it as peak charging speed.

CMOTDibbler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369593#Comment_123369593

It usually basis its charging data on Fastned tests. Some models haven't been tested yet.

Just note that it's only one model that they list with 230kW. The rest are 150kW.

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369463#Comment_123369463

Id have to test it to know for sure, but getting a like for like reliable test is near impossible. For winter I was definitely charging a day earlier in the week than the summer (5 days out of a battery instead of 6 for example) but again hard to know what is down to heating being used more and what is down to a physically cold battery.

Either way, for me it's not really an issue I'm happy with the cars ranges but I'm an experienced enough ev owner now, prospective buyers are very spooked by things like that.

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123369446#Comment_123369446

Yep vw are the offenders in my case!

Nigzcurran

My P2 has a heat pump but even with the heater on eco setting the estimated range drops a bit if I set it to 20°. I've no idea if it actually affects the real life figure much though

Nigzcurran

I drove 290kms to kerry again this week and still had 17% left on arrival. Not bad considering it was 8° and torrential rain the whole way

crl84

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123368719#Comment_123368719

Way too many variables and uncontrollable factors for a regular car reviewer to do that, especially if they only have the car for a day.

joe1303l

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123370667#Comment_123370667

They often get them for a week. Some DC charging should be included in a comprehensive review to have some credibility.

mr chips

Yep - doesn't even have to be a full-to-empty drive. Something like a 2 hour spin on the motorway, with a proper before & after measurement of battery capacity, plus a note of charging speed & duration to get back to 80% afterwards will probably do fine. If you know that the drive is done at a cool enough ambient temperature and what the road conditions are like (wet/blustery etc), it can still give a really good idea of how usable a car is in the sort of worst-case scenarios we're likely to encounter here.

One thing I don't remember seeing mentioned before is that the charging speed on the Niro seems to struggle to get above 40kW if the battery is too cold/not empty enough. That's what happened on the one long-ish trip we had when the ambient temperature had dipped to 7 degrees - I'd only been able to find one location en route that had a charger capable of providing speeds higher than 50kW (which I was looking for on the basis that the car should be able to charge at up to 72kW), and the battery was still around 40% full by the time we reached it. As it turned out, I may well have been quicker going further to a 50kW charger and starting the charge with the battery closer to 20%.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123370997#Comment_123370997

40kw seems very slow at this stage. That's almost at original Leaf speed which can be very frustrating on a longer journey.

The problem with relying on reported max charging speeds and 10% to 80% charge times is that there are many variables which rarely apply in the real world. Cars rarely hit their peak charging speed or even if they do its only for the first few minutes and then they progressively tail off all too quickly. The 10% to 80% times are based on ideal conditions with optimum battery/ambient temperatures and charger speeds. Then the reported charger speeds can be affected by load sharing which is hit and miss but increasingly hit as the number of EVs increases. For example the M3 has a max speed of 250kw but I have frequently plugged in at the Mahon Pt supercharger (rated at 250kw) with a fully heated battery and sub 20% soc and only pulling 90kw which would drop off to 60kw quite quickly as soc increases.

mr chips

Yeah, when I start doing ~440km trips in winter, I'll have to hope that after some 320+km the battery will be warm enough and/or at a low enough SOC when I arrive at a charger that I'll be able to get the max charging speed the car is capable of. Although mine does have a heat pump, it seems it can't be used to preheat the battery.