Joining the electric car club

jasst

Member
Messages
2,313
Perhaps all EVs should have external speakers playing a Strad soundtrack? Safe and sound.
In all seriousness, electric cars are proving to be a real problem for guide dogs, something needs to be done, on the other hand when we are blasting around Exmoor in our V8's and V12's and the ramblers stand there with their fingers in their ears, it's quite a good retort 'Well madam, would you rather we drove around in silent electric cars, because you wouldn't know to get out of the way until you were underneath our cars, at least you can hear us now, and know it would be prudent to move' :lol2:
 

Manc5

Member
Messages
395
It will come, i am pretty sure i read something about Japan and looking to fit a speaker emitting a car like whirring noise... probably similar to a whining alternator !!!
 

davy83

Member
Messages
2,809
An i3 driver tried to mow me down today as I walked across a car park! Came out of nowhere lol. I may have to learn a new set of skills.
Hope it wasn't me!!! I have an i3 and yes they are unbelievably quiet and probably ought to have a sound generator somewhere. its blissfully quiet inside too :)

Having owned the i3 since March I must say I am enjoying it. It costs nothing to run (I know this will change) and goes like stink, I am getting 0-60 mph around 6.5 seconds. for driving in and out of town in traffic and generally visiting family or commuting its perfect. Its not bad on longer runs either, did Aveimore to Aberdeen in hour and half so you can push it. There is the range issue, but I have a range extender version so I have more options if I am short of time or just cant get to a charger, car has a total range of about 150-180 miles. I think if you can charge it up at your house overnight which I do, its a decent option and I initially thought I would constantly feel like its a step down from an ICE car, and I would have to put up with it because its the future, but its not, its a good car by any measure, and the surge of acceleration with no noise and no gaps from gear changes is quite infectious.
 
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RobinL

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456
I forgot to mention the i3 regenerative braking. For me it was perfect and slowed the car pretty much in line with my driving style. I hardly ever needed brakes, not even coming to a complete stop!!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk
 

Ewan

Member
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6,757
Interesting, Ewan. What put you off the iPace relative to the Audi? I've always quite liked the iPace and the just-updated one looks even better.

I like the iPace. But the Audi is bigger (especially the boot) and the interior quality is higher. Frankly there's not much in it and I would have been happy with either (or indeed the Merc). The fact that I happened to find our perfect Audi in terms of colour and spec, locally, and at a great price, was also a factor.
 

rs48635

Member
Messages
3,181
The sole driver of EV is the tax efficiency. There is a clear benefit for air quality in urban use. (the emissions are pumped out elsewhere in the countryside). Range anxiety is the same argument as panic buying hand wash and bog roll. "I might need it (but rarely do consecutive journey totalling 200 miles)"

Look at the cradle to grave cost , both environmental and $$$ add up to equal or greater than ICE. Agree with thoughts on another thread that EV is stopgap before Hydrogen or next gen solution. The buyers of EV are paying back development costs until investment is returned.
 

Zep

Moderator
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9,110
Certainly looks a bit of a beast. Interested to see how you get on.
 

Ewan

Member
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6,757
Whats under the bonnet? More luggage space or engine/batteries ?
Just a compartment for the various charging leads. I don’t know what’s under that, but I assume batteries.
The luggage space is the big boot, plus also quite a big box/well under the boot floor, which is useful for muddy boots or the like.
 

Oneball

Member
Messages
11,075
HVAC will probably fill most of the bonnet space.

interested to see how you get on.

Did it come with a full charge or the electrical equivalent of “I’ll stick a tenner in it for you”?
 

Ewan

Member
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6,757
Full charge. Which will have cost less than a tenner anyway. Which, I suppose, it part of the reason for buying one - they cost pennies to run.
 

Oneball

Member
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11,075
Full charge. Which will have cost less than a tenner anyway. Which, I suppose, it part of the reason for buying one - they cost pennies to run.

Im interested to see how you get on as I don’t reckon the Ms’ car has seen a journey longer than 120 miles in the last 3 years.
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,757
Update 1.
On my way home from Audi Salisbury in the new toy, I stopped at my local Tesco to practice the charging routine for the first time (thinking it was sensible to do this when the car already had plenty of charge, rather than waiting for it to be a necessity and then discovering I didn’t know how).
The first task is to download the app of the company that owns the charging point, then upload your payment card details, plug the car in, and wait while the car charges.
Anyway, while I’m doing this, three different sets of people come to chat about the car. I thought this unusual, as remember, it’s only an Audi SUV.
But here’s the interesting bit.
One was a lady in a Mini, who is thinking of getting an electric car. So we get chatting about cars, and it so transpires her brother is FD (or might have been MD) of TVR. We chat about the progress of the new TVR factory and how it’s now definitely all-systems-go. Exciting times for us V8 lovers.

The lesson of the story being, if you want fresh updates on loud and raucous V8 ICE cars, drive an electric car!
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,757
Update 2.
Had the home charging unit fitted this week. Given my rural location, a home charging unit is essential, as only charging at Tesco (etc.) is not sufficient or reliable. Maybe for a city dweller you could rely on public charging points, but not here in farming territory.
Currently the Govn will cover up to £350 of the supply and fit cost, so for my pod, this bought the final bill down to £500.
While arranging this I discovered that Octopus Energy offer a special tariff for electricity, which lowers the per KWH unit price from approximately 15p to approx 5p, from midnight to 4.30 am. So, you set the charger to only draw current at this time, meaning the charging costs are peanuts.
My wife and I are now fully used to the new toy, and enjoying it.
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