Random EV thoughts.....

We need new technologies like solid state batteries as soon as possible so we can move away from the need for rare metals, especially cobalt.

The environmental impacts and human costs of mining cobalt in particular are well documented.

The cobalt comment was half in jest. We need that performance but in a better way. LFP (and other variants as @unkel mentions above) are more resiliant and longer lasting than initial li-ion that was used up to now. I have a feeling that solid state batteries are close to hydrogen in private cars, both are good on paper but we are eons away from getting there and may not get there in our lifetime.

The limitations of LFP are known, cold weather performance, low energy density (leading to higher weight and more space needed). But they can take a pounding and dont have the risks of fire. If we can find a way to get them to safely charge at the same C rate that the ioniq 28 did, we're almost at the 10-12 mins to 80% level

Personally I'd happily take an EV with LFP cells, the drawbacks don't really worry me and the advantages are absolutely worth it IMO

Trying to keep up with all the charger companies now with their separate apps.etc. leaf driver here.

So I have esb account and easygo. Apps for both. What other ones are out there case I ever need them?

On a related note they really need to unify to get more uptake. Being cashless etc is great for me who hates cash but not so much for the older folk or those who don't want to pay tax.

Not clear what the relevance of the last category mentioned above in this context?

My issue with multiple operators relates to the requirement that a minimum account balance be maintained before you can charge. Fair enough if one account covers all chargers but unreasonable if multiple operators demand individual balances. Chargers need to be like any other service, rock up plug in and pay by card, end of.

The last comment was about people who are cash-only. They cant do electric cars with the current charging infrastructure

"Cash only" people will go the same way as "no mobile phone" people.

Check out your route on abetterrouteplanner, Switzerland is a small country and one charge should get you from end to the other I would have thought. Unless you're planning on camping in the car I doubt you'll have an issue.

Some rental services provide a card or cards. Ask on collection. What rental company?

BT are considering moving into the car charging business, using existing telecoms cabinets

It looks like a tidy system they are planning and theres a pilot scheme due to start in Northern Ireland in the autumn.

I've heard it said before that it's often cheaper to buy a cheap short range EV like a Leaf or Zoe and then just rent a bigger car when you need to travel further

Has anyone ever actually done that? I wonder what the experience was like and was it worthwhile?

I appreciate that it might not be workable for anyone outside the Pale, but since 40% of the population lives in the Dublin commuter belt then it's worth considering that if that 40% could be persuaded to buy a small and cheaper EV then it would significantly reduce our carbon emissions

Anyway, the potential savings seem fairly compelling. The difference between say a Dacia Spring and MG4 is probably around €10k, much more when compared to something like an ID.4

Just did some checking and you can rent a sh!tbox Kia Sportage for a weekend for around €400, or an ID.4 for €550

I'd say a shorter range EV gets a bit head wrecking above a 200km journey, so if you only go beyond that twice a year then you could rent cars for nearly 10 years and still end up spending less

I don't think anyone is going to be selling up their cars on the back of this, but it'd be interesting considering that some manufacturers seem to want to move to more of a leasing based model

Vinfast, probably what some people feared Chinese cars would be when they came here, but the Chinese turned out to be decent. A lot of this cars problems are supposedly being addressed in software updates, though that won't fix the ride.

different topic but ive noticed 'mr ev?' on youtube has been renting his evs last few months from a company called onto (uk based).. initial prices seem high but it covers road tax/insurance as well and you have no lump sum tied up as a deposit for a PCP etc..

I kept my old ICE. At times I declared it off the road to reduce road tax to zero but only in blocks of 1-3 months. Thus we became a 3 car household. I also then sold the ICE spare and had a classic car with 56 euro annual tax and 230 euro annual insurance.

I have swapped, borrowed, hired cars as required. Gocar tends to be very expensive for a whole weekend and no guarantees on the day there will be a car available near to you.

Lately I am just public charging on longer trips as in taking the time planning ahead and stopping at quieter sites and granny charging at grannies.

Our second car is a diesel so much less so of an issue day to day. Ideally your EV should have the range to cover 95%+ of trips on home charging only.

Interesting (albeit somewhat long winded) discussion about NACS and how it's winning the plug war in the US

Quick summary, NACS is probably the nicer plug and it's cool that it won but it's literally not going to solve anything about public charging in the short term (in the US)

I agree with the reasoning that the problem with public charging isn't the CCS plug but rather the convoluted payment process of using an app or RFID card instead of just paying with money

I'm also in agreement that Plug & Charge is a nice to have, but the ability to pay with a debit card (or dare I say it, cash money) is essential

I think the video also exposed a gap in the recent EU regulations regarding EV chargers, which is that while it's great that chargers will be required to have card readers, it doesn't really replicate the simplicity of fueling a petrol car

I'm sure we've all had the experience where a charger wouldn't start for whatever reason and you're on the phone to support trying to get them to fix the issue from potentially hundreds of kilometres away

Whereas in a petrol station there's generally a person in the shop who can manually start the pump if the card reader is broken. Or you can even pay with cash money if you want. To be clear, I'm not one of these cash free society conspiracy theorists, I avoid using cash as much as possible but I also respect that there's people who prefer to use cash and they don't deserve to be excluded from EV ownership

Anyway, it'd be great if there was some trained person on-site who could help out with some basic troubleshooting, or maybe even if the staff in the shop could force the charger to authenticate and start and take payment in the shop

It'd be great if the EU charger regulations contained some provision for this, at least along major routes. I can understand it's probably not feasible for every shop or hotel with a charger to have trained persons onsite

Frankly, I don't think it'll happen because even petrol stations are moving to an unmanned system as much as possible. Some stations will only allow pay at pumps outside business hours and the shop is closed

Anyway, that's my Sunday rant over and done with 😁