Electric, Hybrid and Alternative fuelled vehicles - News and Discussion

[admiles]

On 01/05/2024 at 09:53, 30801 said:

 

No you won't. They lock in when in use.

 

A quick kick will disconnect a locked charging lead as my neighbour discovered recently.

[Ron Ron Ron]

We've all seen various press reports, saying that sales of new electric vehicles have....

....flat lined

...that demand has dried up or going down....

Even falsely claiming sales of EV's are declining.

Typical media misrepresenting the facts and using vague language to suggest something worst than the reality.

 

What has been happening recently, has been a slowing in the rate of growth...i.e. still growing as a share of the total market, but not as fast.

This does not mean falling sales !

 

Flat lining = the market share is not increasing as fast as it was.

It's holding firm and increasing at a slower pace.

The market for EV's (BEV's) isn't collapsing or dying away. Quite the reverse, it's still increasing.

 

 

SMMT stats for April and the first 4 months of 2024, with comparative figures for the same periods in 2023.

 

April 2024

 

Total passenger cars sales in April were up just  1% compared to April 2023

 

BEV's - sales up 10.7% compared with April 2023  

Market share up from 15.4% (April 2023)  to 16.9% (April 2024)

 

Diesel (including Mild-Hybrid)  - sales down by 25.3% compared with April 2023

Market share down from 8.7% (April 2023 to 6.4% (April 2024)

 

Petrol (including Mild-Hybrid)  - sales down 3.1% compared with April 2023

Market share down from 58.1% (April 2023) to 55.8% (April 2024)

 

Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) - sales up 22.1% compared with April 2023

Market share up from 6.5% (April 2023 to 7.8% (April 2024)

 

Hybrid (HEV) - sales up 16.7% compared to April 2023

Market share up from 11.3% (April 2023 to 13.1% (April 2024)

 

 

 

Year to date 2024  (1st 4 months)

 

Looking at the first 4 months of 2024, the total market grew by 8.4%.

 

BEV registrations increased by 10.6%  compared to the same period in 2023 

PHEV increased by 31.4%  and ...

...HEV increased by 13.3%   compared to the same period in 2023 

 

Petrol registrations increased by 6.7%  compared to the same period in 2023  (a lower rate of growth than the overall market)

Diesel registrations fell  by 9.8% .....again, compared to the same period in 2023 

 

More than 107,000 new BEV's were registered on UK roads between January and April (inclusive).

Did all those press reports suggest that?

Sales of new BEV's is now close to 3x that for all diesel cars.

 

 

 

The full 12 months of 2023

 

Almost half a million new BEV and PHEV vehicles were registered on UK roads.

314,687  - BEV's

141,311  - PHEV's

 

Sales of BEV's in 2023 increased by 47.3% over those for 2022 (the overall market increased by 17.9%).

 

 

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[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Sales of new BEV's is now close to 3x that for all diesel cars.

I now have 3 neighbours with BEVs.

Next door to my left, opposite (they also have a hybrid) and their next door neighbour.

However there have been several new diesel SUVs acquired in the road as well.

 

I wonder what proportion of new BEVs are private and what are company cars or company sponsored purchases?

The chap next door got his through his company's purchase scheme.

 

[Hroth]

 

There's also tales doing the rounds that there's a vast mountain of unsellable three or four  year "old" BEVs because their batteries are carp and it'll cost too much to replace them, so no one will buy 'em.

 

I'm waiting to see what Skoda pulls out of the hat in the way of a relatively inexpensive BEV in the next couple of years.  My current Skoda diesel is getting elderly and may soon start clocking up MOT costs. 

[4630]

There was a discussion on R4s The World at One today about the latest figures.

 

World at One, 8th May 2024

 

The piece starts around 21 minutes into the programme.

[Ron Ron Ron]

28 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

There's also tales doing the rounds that there's a vast mountain of unsellable three or four  year "old" BEVs because their batteries are carp and it'll cost too much to replace them, so no one will buy 'em.....

 

 

Old wife's tale or urban myth?

Apart from early, primitive designs, like the early Leaf, batteries should be good for anything from 200 to 500k miles plus.

 

Also consider that the battery warranty on most of these EV's is 7, 8 or even 10 years, so a three to four year old car's battery should be replaced under manufacturers warranty, if it's kernackered.

 

 

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[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Also consider that the battery warranty on most of these EV's is 7, 8 or even 10 years, so a three to four year old car's battery should be replaced under manufacturers warranty, if it's kernackered.

 

I'm kind of tempted some day to buy a Renault Fluence. There's a fourteen year old one on Autotrader right now for fifteen hundred quid.

Battery is leased so Renault are obliged to keep it about 70% SOH

 

Edit: Boo that one's an imported diesel.

Edited May 8 by 30801

[GrumpyPenguin]

[BR traction instructor]

Our 2022 VW ID3 is still ticking the boxes in NW Cumbria...electric costs for 7kWh home charging currently 19p per kWh.  A lot of public fast chargers are still around 80p per kWh with a scattering around 65p per kWh, therefore most trips are moderate out & back charge at home ones (or carefully planned longer ones avoiding the 80p per kWh charging) with long distances mostly done on the train (£14 - £19 Carlisle to Crewe by booking in advance). At 40,000 miles and two years old the ID3 is currently booked into a VW garage for its upcoming first service. The only money spent maintaining it so far has been two sets of Michelin cross climate tyres that managed 25,000 to 30,000 miles each (£282 per pair recently to replace). Most charging is within the recommended 20% - 80% range and 200 miles is the current predicted range at 80%.
 

No complaints from me.

 

BeRTIe

Edited May 11 by BR traction instructor

[Metr0Land]

Public chargers are a ripoff.  May I ask why you're paying as high as 19p for home charging?  Octopus Intelligent Go is 7.5p during the 6 hour overnight window.

 

EDit: IIRC non-intelligent Go is still 9p for a 4 hour window if your charger isn't compatible with Intelligent Go.

Edited May 11 by Metr0Land

[BR traction instructor]

...ours is a fixed commercial anytime rate...our landlord isn't allowed to profit from energy costs by law.

 

BeRTIe

[Ron Ron Ron]

On 08/05/2024 at 14:04, melmerby said:

I now have 3 neighbours with BEVs.

Next door to my left, opposite (they also have a hybrid) and their next door neighbour.

However there have been several new diesel SUVs acquired in the road as well.

 

I wonder what proportion of new BEVs are private and what are company cars or company sponsored purchases?

The chap next door got his through his company's purchase scheme.

 

There are 6 houses in our road.

All have 2 or more cars.

3 houses now have one EV and one has a plug-in hybrid.

The family with a Jaguar i-Pace have ordered one of the facelifted Tesla 3 (Highland) to replace a 6 year old BMW 4 Series coupe, so they’ll become the first all-electric car owning family in the road.

Their very regular trips from Hampshire down to their holiday cottage in Cornwall, with the i-Pace, has convinced them they don’t need to hang on to ICE power any longer.

 

The guy with the plug-in hybrid, says he’s going all-electric when the personal lease is up on his current car.

He says the amount of time the petrol engine is used, is minimal and therefore the servicing costs are a waste of money.

They just completed a return trip from the south coast, up to the Lake District, for a week’s holiday.

Having thought this was where the petrol engine would come into it’s own, he’s now realised they could have easily managed to find charging facilities to see them through the week and long journey.

 

We are one of the 2 houses in the road, yet to own an EV, but it’s just a matter of time.

We had a test drive in the new Volvo EX30 the other week and plan to look at a few other EVs later in the summer.

 

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[melmerby]

36 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

We are one of the 2 houses in the road, yet to own an EV, but it’s just a matter of time.

We had a test drive in the new Volvo EX30 the other week and plan to look at a few other EVs later in the summer.

There's 40 houses in our road and with a bend half way up, I cant see what's in the other half.

The one next door is a VW ID3, the one opposite is a Polestar along with the Porsche Hybrid and the one next to them is a Volvo.

 

I would like an EV and have no qualms about the price but I don't do much mileage these days so it seems an extravagant luxury.🙂

[melmerby]

46 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

the facelifted Tesla 3 (Highland)

I was looking at a review and the tester wasn't impressed with the steering wheel mounted buttons rather than column stalks, commenting that getting the correct indication when turning is a challenge, especially if the steering wheel wasn't at straight ahead.

Edited May 11 by melmerby

[Grovenor]

Seems to me that those reviewers are just looking for something to complain of, I always understood that you indicate before turning to give warning of your intentions. If you have the wheel more than a few degrees round then you are to late. Even indicating left to leave a roundabout the wheel should not be far round.

[stewartingram]

Shouldn't be round at all. The indicator is used as a intention before taking action.  3-4 flashes minimum, I usually signal at the direction sign before the junction, and before even taking action such as braking, or moving more to the side of the lane.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Grovenor said:

Even indicating left to leave a roundabout the wheel should not be far round.

Depends on the size of the roundabout. On big multi lane ones, yes.

I was taught you start to signal as you pass the previous exit.

On small islands the wheel is still definitely far from straight ahead at that point

[Ron Ron Ron]

It does seem crazy, that having raised the bar and made so many improvements and enhancements to an already good Model 3, they do something so off-the-wall as removing the steering wheel mounted stalks.

Hopefully they’ll have a change of heart and don’t drop the stalks on the forthcoming Model Y facelift (Juniper).

 

 

.

[Guest]

Top Tesla tip.

[Suzie]

I just moved to new house, and noticed that there was an outside socket so thought I would get away with using the granny charger for a few weeks while waiting to get a more substantial charging system installed - but after moving in I find that the outside sockets are wired to one of the 6A lighting circuits! It did charge at 10A for twenty minutes or so before tripping, but some things are sent to try us.

[Hobby]

10 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

It does seem crazy, that having raised the bar and made so many improvements and enhancements to an already good Model 3, they do something so off-the-wall as removing the steering wheel mounted stalks.

 

Buttons like that are cheaper than stalks and "people will get used to them"...

[GrumpyPenguin]

3 hours ago, Suzie said:

I just moved to new house, and noticed that there was an outside socket so thought I would get away with using the granny charger for a few weeks while waiting to get a more substantial charging system installed - but after moving in I find that the outside sockets are wired to one of the 6A lighting circuits! It did charge at 10A for twenty minutes or so before tripping, but some things are sent to try us.

I may be wrong here but I thought that the house vendor had to provide an "Electrical Installation Condition Report" - if that is still the case whoever signed off the report clearly missed something & maybe you have some recourse.

 

At least the breaker did it's job !

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

At least the breaker did it's job !

Although if the fuse box has an RCD it won’t do anything on a lighting circuit.

Certainly worth a good looking over for what other nonsense might be lurking.

[Suzie]

22 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

I may be wrong here but I thought that the house vendor had to provide an "Electrical Installation Condition Report" - if that is still the case whoever signed off the report clearly missed something & maybe you have some recourse.

 

At least the breaker did it's job !

 

Yes, a proper consumer unit with twin RCD and MCBs. It could have been a lot worse if it was an old Wylex with fat copper wire instead of fuses!

 

22 hours ago, 30801 said:

Although if the fuse box has an RCD it won’t do anything on a lighting circuit.

Certainly worth a good looking over for what other nonsense might be lurking.

 

Lighting circuit is on a RCD, but yes probably a lot more lurking about somewhere. I will have to get in the loft and poke around a bit.

 

Well, I have a temporary solution which is not a bad compromise. I have fitted a 32A commando socket with 6mm cable back to the consumer unit and repurposed the breaker for the garage. There was just the bare wires dangling from the wall in the garage which was not a good thing.

 

Tesla charged overnight at 32A using the supplied granny charger so it looks like it works O.K. without any fires breaking out. Just need to get some more clips to better restrain the 6mm cable.

 

 

 

Left one is the existing switched fused spur for an outside LED floodlight, middle one is the existing 13A socket (now spurred off of the commando socket), and right is the new 32A commando socket.

 

I would have used 10mm cable, but the terminals in the Commando socket are not big enough. I think they must all be a similar size - I made quite a nuisance of myself in the electrical distributors trying all they had.

 

Got there in the end.

 

Edited May 13 by Suzie

[Ron Ron Ron]

The cheaper, smaller and more affordable EV's that we've been promised for the last few years, are starting to arrive in the showrooms.

Within the next 2 to 3 years, there'll be quite a number of different models to choose from.

 

Citroen's new e-C3  (starting at around £23,000) is currently getting motoring press exposure, ahead of going on sale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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