Hyundai INSTER

Having driven it home with autohold on, I didn't mind that.

What I did mind is the pinging from the speed sign changes....even after turning the sound off (allegedly) it was still telling me of every speed change.

It's a nice car to drive. Don't really notice when you put speed up on it.

And does that seem like good driving? 😂

The very worst thing about an automatic car is "creep". Kill it now!!

”I think we're going to take out the floor in the boot… We need the extra height that removing that floor would give”

If you do decide to do that then all the charging cables, tyre inflator, hazard warning sign and much more (toolkit, torch, gloves, kneeler, emergency 12v charger etc) will easily fit in the sizeable rear ‘frunk’ that sits underneath the second boot floor. Simply pull out the moulded polystyrene shape thing and use cloth or thin bubble wrap around the outer rim to prevent any rattles (see previous pics posted showing how this looks). That will give you a much bigger boot for everyday use, even with the back seats pushed right back.

And if you decided you want to keep the ‘privacy cover’ in the car ‘just in case…’ then it will fit under the flappy floor covers if you move the rear seats slightly forward (personally I just keep it in a wardrobe for when I eventually sell the car - if I ever do!)

Cheers for those tips. That's very useful.

It feels like you are making more of "lifting my foot off the brake" than is needed. I'm not "massaging the brakes". I'm in traffic (e.g. queuing for a lights) and my foot it just on the brake (no effort, just there). When traffic starts to move, I take my foot off and it accelerates to about 5km/hr. It's a very smooth, controlled lift off and if traffic picks up pace, I'm on the accelerator. With the paddles (behind the wheel) set to auto too, the car will stop for me in that traffic if it stops again.

And you're probably on the money there about the auto-hold. Hyundai just have a "snappier" way of going from "hold" to "move". There's no way I'd ever switch back to parking with auto-hold on.

I see a theme here 😂

My read of the EV plans is that you really need a battery system in place to maximize the advantage of the "EV" rate overnight and offset the peak rate. That's another cost though so only makes sense if you were already intending on a solar/battery system. Without that, I agree… you're saving what? about €200-250 a year charging the car but overall not much better off due to peak rates.

Thanks for feedback and yes your reads are right on EV plans and on a nice 33% discount rate with Bord Gaia right now and smart meter so no intent to change. No solar or battery plans.

On the impact of AC and radio on or off. The Inster forecast Km drops by a good 20/30 km with them on. Hence my approach.

Also another question.. I am averaging around 11.7kwh per 100km… is this good bad?

Exactly. There may the (very) rare instance where I'll want to do a long trip in the Inster (where an extra 20km) might be needed but otherwise the average day is going to be about 30-40km… so 5-6kwh… ish. The AC has a 4% ish impact on range (give or take depending on if you're setting it to 17C vs 20C). That AC is gonna cost between 1-2c a day to run (based on our usage).

On short journeys the heat pump wouldn't make any difference as 1st the old style PTC heater heats up the cabin and only then can the heat pump take over to sustain the temperature using less energy.

Our e-Niro didn't have a heat pump, our Ioniq 5 does and there's no meaningful difference in average city use.

I meant it wouldn't make any difference to energy consumption. As it wouldn't play any role in heating on short journeys.

Also, the optional extra that we call "heat pump" is only for heating. The standard cooling-only air conditioner that all cars/trim levels have does share the technology with the heating "heat pump" variant, but it's a separate system - even on cars with the optional "heat pump".

of course it does

despite YTs claiming (yet another) perpetual motion thingy😄

the car consumes around 1kWh battery energy at low a/c setting (cooling) in ‘Utility’ mode - not far adrift from a domestic portable a/c unit? - but the a/c element will be less than that (‘Utility’ mode itself will be consuming power in the background)

counterintuitively it will have less impact fast driving (significantly less than 10%) and greater impact pootling around the neighbourhood

Over 10,0000km in my 49kWh Inster! Delivered February 20th.

I'm still absolutely loving this car. It's been on a fair few "long" journeys already, plenty of the time at 120km/h, sport mode, not being remotely conservative with speed.

Some highlights:
Dublin <-> Giants' Causeway and coastal drive (530km)
Dublin <-> Offaly (260km round trip, many times)
Dublin <-> Belfast (350km round trip)
Dublin <-> Galway & Tuam (~450km round trip each).

Almost all charging at home (6.33c/kWh 2-5am w/ Bord Gáis), and a little bit also at work (free!).

I calculate I've spent about €175 on public charging, most of that at ESB+Ionity+Fastned.
I've charged about 1260kWh at home, costing approximately €80.
So I've spent about €255 over 10,000km!

Charging to 80% all the time, unless I've a long journey planned the next day.

Only once have I had to charge more than once - on the 530km trip to the Giants' Causeway.

The Belfast trips just need a single charge at Ionity Belfast or Fastned Banbridge. I was in Belfast last weekend, and we hadn't finished our Tim Horton's when the car was charged enough to get home from the Ionity!

Plenty of chargers in and around Galway.

Visiting family in Offaly, I plug in the granny charger for a few hours to make sure I've a bit more buffer for the drive back - never any issues. Plenty of fast chargers on the way back too if needed, in Kinnegad, or Ionity Dublin!

Yep, where's that charge station? Looks great. Guessing somewhere in NI?