Electric car anyone?
2 lurkers |
76 watchers
Dec 2024
10:27am, 31 Dec 2024
8,030 posts
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ThorntonRunner
Yep - you see a lot of criticism of the 80p/kWh pricing, but commercial electricity prices are higher than domestic, and as well as ongoing maintenance they've got to recover the not insignificant cost of installing the power infrastructure
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Dec 2024
11:17am, 31 Dec 2024
51,684 posts
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Merry Christmas and Happy NewG(rrr)
Yes, big cables. Bit just look at any overhead lines. Those can also be run underground. Electricity isn't that complicated. Bigger power just means bigger cables! It's perfectly possible to work around the limited battery capacity and charging speed with some planning and patience - coffee stops etc. Just be nice not to have to!  G
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2 Jan
11:35am, 2 Jan 2025
23,019 posts
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DeeGee
I've just done Grimsby to Maidstone, pottering around for a couple of days, and back. Left Grimsby with a full charge, stopped at Peterborough for a Starbucks and to empty out the sick bucket, at which point I hooked the car up to do the cleaning and coffee thing. That was the only stop I needed on the way down. I can't charge at my parents' house, but the free car park in the village has four cheapish PodPoints, so I parked there overnight instead. Drove to Uckfield and back for some parkrun the next day. Following day took us into Maidstone proper, for a full day. A full days' parking at Fremlin Walk is £12. The public car park almost next door is free for EVs, and has a PodPoint, so I "filled up" there for a cost of £13.49. So that was either almost free electricity or almost free parking!?! Back to Maidstone the next day for the cinema, another free parking session (didn't charge) which would have cost me a fiver in my Skoda. New Year's Day was the bargain of the week, free parking and a free of charge PodPoint at the parkrun I chose, which filled the car up again, so I needed one further charge at Starbucks on the way home. I've plugged all of this into a spreadsheet, because that's the sort of thing I like to do, and even given the exorbitant cost of public charging, I've ended up 4 quid in profit. Which is an acceptable cost for the five minutes it takes me to walk to the village car park and back. Of course, if I dared plug my granny charger into my parents' sockets, it would be even cheaper... |
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2 Jan
11:38am, 2 Jan 2025
23,020 posts
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DeeGee
HappyG(rrr) wrote: Oh, this is the only other "spec" that I would check on my next purchase, max charging speed. Mine won't do 100kW. Think max is 70 or 80. Having watched a Polestar charging twice as fast at 150kW at a motorway service station charger, I felt quite diddled! G Mine will apparently glug it down at 117kw/h, which should be plenty. I don't think I've ever seen that fast in the wild, though. |
2 Jan
12:28pm, 2 Jan 2025
6,308 posts
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K5 Gus
Read an "interesting" article over the holiday period ( lost the link to it now, sorry ) regards, "energy loss" when charging. Some German site, allegedly reputable, measured dozens of EVs as to how much actual energy was used compared to how much the battery storage was increased by. It varied a lot between 8% loss (VW ID3/4/5) and 25% loss (Mini Aceman). One of the other poor performers they mentioned was the MG4, at 20% loss - does that sound right for you @larkim ? Did you ( or do you still ) factor that in when deciding which EV to go for, or how much a trip costs, etc - paying for 60 kW and only getting your battery up by 45 kW sounds pretty poor. Can't remember if they broke down all the causes, longer cables are worse I think, but the car BMS is biggest factor I think. |
2 Jan
1:14pm, 2 Jan 2025
26,345 posts
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larkim
20% feels high, but I don't think I've specifically logged it on the MG @K5 Gus mainly as my smart-ish charger can be a bit unreliable. Maybe I'll log it when I return to the daily commute!
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2 Jan
1:34pm, 2 Jan 2025
23,021 posts
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DeeGee
K5 Gus wrote: One of the other poor performers they mentioned was the MG4 I can't say I've noticed 20% loss. Yes, there is some loss, but I'd notice 20%. |
2 Jan
2:49pm, 2 Jan 2025
4,883 posts
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Nord Rundeer 🦌
The study you are referring to was conducted by the German automobile association ADAC. It analyzed energy losses during charging for over 90 electric vehicles. On average, 14.5% more electricity was consumed at charging stations than what was stored in the car batteries. Losses varied significantly by model, with the Mini Cooper SE wasting up to 30.1% of energy, while Volkswagen ID. models performed better with around 8% loss. The main cause of inefficiency is the conversion of AC to DC power for battery storage. E.g. indirect source insideevs.com
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2 Jan
3:19pm, 2 Jan 2025
23,022 posts
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DeeGee
Ah, AC to DC. I don't tend to look at the numbers on that, as I just plug it in to my wall and forget about it. The only time I look at numbers is when I'm using DC charging and working out how long I might need to stay in a coffee shop... |
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2 Jan
3:42pm, 2 Jan 2025
51,695 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
AC to DC losses wouldn't bother me, that only applies to home charging and that's so cheap (for me, often free with solar). Public rapid charging is mostly DC - so presume losses are lower? No process is 100% efficient, so 10-20% loss is just what it is? The electric motor is 70-80% efficient (energy to movement) versus petrol which is 30-40% or something, so electric still good! EV database (link below) shows charging speed but not efficiency, I don't think. It does show miles per kWh / other way round, which is good to know. G
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