Random EV thoughts.....

I could be wrong but I remember the Ioniq 5 having much bigger mirrors than the Model 3?

Small mirrors might be better for aerodynamics, but it does give you the blind spot visibility of an Abrams battle tank

Particularly unhelpful when manoeuvring into a very space efficient Irish parking space instead of a super sized American one than can fit two Polos 😂

There are relatively few oversized cars in Ireland. Yes they’re very heavy and yes they’re stupidly dangerous for pedestrians but their overall impact (in Ireland) is thankfully low.

On the other hand, the average car sold here is now a CUV so on average, every car is slightly taller and slightly heavier. The introduction of EVs will further increase the average weight. This means that pedestrians will be slightly more at risk and fuel consumption (fossil or electric) will be higher than it would be if sedans were still popular.

Yes, the Model 3 mirrors are a little on the small size. They were larger on my old ID.3

I will say that the SUVs we have in Ireland are pretty small compared to the things they have in the US. Something like an ID.4 is considered on the smaller side there

I remember I was in Albuquerque years ago and seeing the lads driving around in the full sized brodozers. These things would probably be considered a truck over here and you needed a ladder to get into half of them

All the car parks over there had extra large spaces for those things

I'd laugh to see the fuel bill for one of them in Ireland

A recent twitter thread on ‘thing I’d rather do than spend the weekend at a wellness retreat that the happy pear are hocking’ was something to behold

‘Would rather shite on my hands and clap.’ according to one tweeter 😂

As my auld lad said about a U2 concert, ''if I was fencing I wouldn't cross the ditch to look at em''

Somebody on Facebook posted about driving their i4 on the motorway at 90kph. Surely if BMW Ireland read that, they'd try to repossess the car?

I think part of the reason may be nct may be easier on them. Also in cities the french actually may crash into your car and push it to make a parking space bigger and it's considered ok. Same happens in Italian cities. This would encourage you to drive a small car that can take a few scrapes.

French cars probably have french mechanics that can fix them easily and the parts plentyful with knowledge.

Here in Ireland mechanics seem to know VW best and so many people drive older VWs which can be diagnosed and repaired even with major engine issues etc. Mechanics know them inside out.

The french weather may have less rust and maybe less desire to drive a 231. Indeed in Germany you don't see as many VW as in Ireland and indeed Germany had lots of older cars on the roads compared to Ireland.

Yeah I saw the crashing when parking to push cars out of the way, found it very funny to see. Thought it was just one lad doing it but have seen it multiple times where if it was done here the guards would be called

I saw a german review of them and the battery swap thing is a novelty but in general the car is just annoying. Theres a siri type assistant that keeps yapping if you do one 1km over the limit and cannot be told to shut up but aparantly this is a positive with the chinese . The lane assist was also a bit crazy going through roadworks and the likes (possibly with more yappin from yer one the voice assistant)

I'm sure they'll improve those things over time, but for now its a rather good car let down by its software

Would have sat back with the popcorn if those lads tried to squeeze into the half car space left by a gobshite I saw parking across 2 spaces in his/her 231 Ioniq 5 recently. Amazing despite all the driver aids packed into new cars these days, some people cant/won't or are too selfish to get the basics right

Do the Dutch still hook up their caravans to the Model 3s ?

UK consumer organisation Which!, as part of their wider annual car survey, asked over 3000 EV owners how much the range of their car had decreased since they bought it.

The results are interesting enough to be indicative even if the sample size and methodology is not robust enough to draw solid conclusions. The article at least does touch on the distinction between new vs older technologies.

I joined a green team in work to put forward ideas of being more eco friendly. EV chargers was mentioned as we don't have any, it was looked into last year but shelved as the idea of free charging would be 'unfair' for those with diesels paying €200 a month.

I didn't mention it yet as this was just a brainstorming meeting but it's not about saving money. I pay €15/pm to drive ~1,200km so I don't care about free charging.

I will be bringing several points up if anyone has any other suggestions that would be great.

A lot of people at the company are commuting 100-150km, chargers are reassuring for those concerned about range particularly in Winter. They're also the biggest polluters given their distance. Remote working seems to be nonexist for most companies.

New estates have to be multi unit developments so there's a lot more duplexes and apartments built that all have parking spaces. The likes of South Dublin County Council have a max 60% driveway rule in new estates so people like myself have parking spaces outside a house. There's also the issue with new estates being privately managed, the council have no obligation to take them over and the management companies might not want to engage in getting chargers installed as a lot of them are useless.