Random EV thoughts.....

Bit of a side topic but I checked out a new Osprey charging location along the A55 yesterday because for some reason I didn't want to go to Flint Mountain

Osprey must have been getting desperate for locations because they put a dozen 300kW Kempower units behind a proper greasy spoon truck stop diner called Billy Jean's Cafe.

The car park isn't even tarmaced, no lights or bathrooms or any of that modern garbage 😂

I wouldn't have minded checking out the diner but unfortunately it closes at 2pm. Hopefully it opens for longer on the back of more cars stopping to charge

82p/kWh as well, you could fund a decent drugs habit for that money. Needless to say I decided to use the superchargers today for some more convenience

https://www.plugshare.com/location/590696

it’s this adaptor.

A CCS socket is too large for the Model S charge flap location

Any Model S/X older than 2022 will need to use this adaptor in order to charge at V3 Supercharger sites (Enfield, Cork, Athenry, Sandyford, Belfast)

@unkel, spotted this gem in the Anglesey Transport Museum earlier. Weren't you refurbishing one a few months ago?

Second hand EQE 300's start from 58k on DD. What kind of 2nd hand value would boardsies expect a 2022 or 2023 to retail for this time next year?

Looking at Brady's mercedes in Dublin they refer to VAG financing. Any idea what APR one would be looking at here. Details are sparse on the website. If they dropped to 50k then I could in theory only need to finance 30k (HP) but going through with the deal would very much depend on the cost of finance.

Tesla, vw and Hyundai are very transparent when it comes to financing but jesus mercedes are a disaster.

The EQE is never going to be in big demand. They had to cut the prices big time earlier this year. I can see it bring discontinued soon.

That said, I kinda like them.

I expect some bargains out of them in the used market next year or so.

€50K in 2025 for a used base model EQE sounds realistic. It will depend on availability more than anything. They didn’t sell well hence expect that there won’t be a lot of them for sale at 3 years old. Owners that bought the heavily discounted stock recently are unlikely to be moving them on anytime soon. Some demo 2023 and pre registered 2024 cars are still sitting on Merc forecourts if you you’re a cash buyer and fancy a haggle now.

Johnstown House (Tesla) is a good option, but be aware that you will end up paying the toll charge twice if you are stopping for food. Kinnegad Plaza is a good option for charging as there are multiple units. Avoid Applegreen Enfield (both directions) - single charger at both locations and you may not want to queue.

As others said just don't leave it above around 80% for days and you'll be fine.

Range can suffer when doing a lot of short hops in winter because the car cools down and has to be warmed up every time.

Doesn't really make a difference to battery life but it does mean the GOM range can end up being pessimistic

Two weeks ago I did this. Pressed the assistance button on the unmanned toll and said I went through the main westbound toll earlier, he asked did I have a receipt, I said yes (expecting to have to call our a number of something) and he said ok grand and opened the barrier. I don't know if he could see me holding the receipt through a camera

Wouldn't have known about it if it wasn't for someone mentioning on here a while back

if you pass through the same toll both in the same direction within 3 hours of initially passing through that you don’t have to pay again apparently.

(This only applies to tolls that you can pass twice like Enfield if you come off the ramp for the hotel and then rejoin the motorway and has the slip road booth)

At the risk of going off topic talking about tolls, I'm in the UK at the moment and when I mentioned that 1) I had to pay four tolls on my route West / East (Ballinasloe, Enfield, M50, Port tunnel) 2) There are no longer any EV toll price reductions, I was greeted with amazement that I would travel a route that would cost so much....any form of tolls on the roads are not acceptable in the UK it seems.

So an interesting experience I've had recently regarding destination chargers

Went to several campsites over the past few months and did lots of driving and sightseeing around the area. One campsite had AC chargers, the other didn't and I was reliant on DC charging nearby

I will say that surviving on DC charging is definitely doable, it's a bit more head wrecking. I found I wasn't at a low enough SoC to get max speed so it took 20-30 mins to get to 80%

I probably could have charged less to speed things up but I didn't want to leave myself short for the next day and hadn't really planned where we were going next

Having AC chargers onsite was a good but easier, just plug in when you get back to the campsite. Only real hassle (other than chargers not working) is having to delay wine time until the car is charged

So I'd probably still book accommodation that has a charger over one that doesn't, all else being equal. But I certainly wouldn't avoid an area just because there's no destination charging

After driving on Italian motorways I said I'll never complain about Irish tolls. On two stretches I paid once 36 and once 25 plus some meager 2-3 quids at some bypasses. In fairness crossing mountains and such but still. The tolls costed more than renting the car for the day