Social Electric Vehicles

[tajhay]

Pretty sure I've read others on here owning EVs. I'm joining the list with mine expected delivery within next two weeks. Pros/Cons of owning one?

I hardly drive (maybe once a week if that) given i live in the city and walk everywhere so i am ok with range anxiety.

 

[Kestrel84]

Pro is definitely not having to top up with fuel and the insane prices for it. Plugging in at home overnight is just so convenient and easy - super cheap also.

Con in NZ is that there are still plenty of places across the country where minimal charging stations are available. We'll do a couple of domestic trips a year, and while nothing is impossible, it does usually require some pre-planning about when and where we should stop and charge - or whether the accommodation we've booked will have an accessible power point to charge over night. Not a massive deal, but can have some influence over where we might go, because we're more likely to choose convenience when it comes to a trip.

Will depend on the EV you get, I suppose - but I think it feels great to drive them

 

[tajhay]

Pro is definitely not having to top up with fuel and the insane prices for it. Plugging in at home overnight is just so convenient and easy - super cheap also.

Con in NZ is that there are still plenty of places across the country where minimal charging stations are available. We'll do a couple of domestic trips a year, and while nothing is impossible, it does usually require some pre-planning about when and where we should stop and charge - or whether the accommodation we've booked will have an accessible power point to charge over night. Not a massive deal, but can have some influence over where we might go, because we're more likely to choose convenience when it comes to a trip.

Will depend on the EV you get, I suppose - but I think it feels great to drive them

Yeah i checked the charging networks before i got one. In Aus its fairly good and only getting better. Charging from 0-80% in 18mins in pretty good as well.

Yeah i plan on just doing the trickle charge (i think it takes around 40 hrs to fully charge from 0-100%).

Assume you have Tesla? I tested a few different brands and models before settling on EV6 GT. The performance on that is insane. The range on that is pretty low compared to other EVs though. Will neither confirm or deny it was the drift mode that got me.

 

[Tragic]

Got the missus a missing outlander phev this year. We live 25km from articular city and battery lasts a return trip no worries, so she can go to work and back. Battery data it can do about 75km which is about right. Take ages to charge but we do it overnight so not a biggie other than power costs more then. Done 4500 kms or thereabouts and used a tank and a half of petrol. Power bill probably up $100 a month though I reckon, so far happy with it, good car. I still prefer to drive our manual golf gti from early 2000s coz I got boy racer genes.

 

[Kestrel84]

Yeah i checked the charging networks before i got one. In Aus its fairly good and only getting better. Charging from 0-80% in 18mins in pretty good as well.

Yeah i plan on just doing the trickle charge (i think it takes around 40 hrs to fully charge from 0-100%).

Assume you have Tesla? I tested a few different brands and models before settling on EV6 GT. The performance on that is insane. The range on that is pretty low compared to other EVs though. Will neither confirm or deny it was the drift mode that got me.

Yep, Tesla Model 3. Amazing to drive and I'm not left wanting for anything. Range was important to us because we do trips down to Napier from Auckland at least once a year to see family and we ideally wanted to only charge once each way - so we stop in Taupo and charge for about 15 minutes and then hit the road again.

We bought in mid-2021, and even since then there are a lot more EV's out there that should suit most people. I think we realistically only had 4 or 5 options at the time and the rest weren't even close to the Model 3.

Was tempted by the Hyundai Ionic 5 before the 80s retro stylings, but that was a stretch too far for my wife.

 

[tajhay]

Yep, Tesla Model 3. Amazing to drive and I'm not left wanting for anything. Range was important to us because we do trips down to Napier from Auckland at least once a year to see family and we ideally wanted to only charge once each way - so we stop in Taupo and charge for about 15 minutes and then hit the road again.

We bought in mid-2021, and even since then there are a lot more EV's out there that should suit most people. I think we realistically only had 4 or 5 options at the time and the rest weren't even close to the Model 3.

Was tempted by the Hyundai Ionic 5 before the 80s retro stylings, but that was a stretch too far for my wife.

yeah theres quite a few choices now, and more entering the market. Tesla holding its value pretty well compared to the other EVs.

Interesting to note that Toyota saying they are moving from producing 40k EVs a year to 3.5m a year. Also expecting range to be around 1500km per full charge by around 2026-2028. Big change from its prior statements in how they werent going into EVs.

 

[Christchurch_Warrior]

yeah theres quite a few choices now, and more entering the market. Tesla holding its value pretty well compared to the other EVs.

Interesting to note that Toyota saying they are moving from producing 40k EVs a year to 3.5m a year. Also expecting range to be around 1500km per full charge by around 2026-2028. Big change from its prior statements in how they werent going into EVs.

Toyota say they are near to mass producing solid state batteries. If that is true then having a car that can go 1200km on one charge will be great. Problem would be it would likely cost even more than existing EV's.

 

[Beastmode]

My wife bought the Toyota Highlander

It’s not a full EV but a hybrid

I think it’s electric when she’s in high gear then changes to fuel when low

No complaints

So far so good

she didn’t want to go full EV worried about having to charge when going long distance, having to replace the battery and she read somewhere about a customer getting trapped in the vehicle when the doors wouldn’t open )?)

My brother owns a Tesla

Loves it and said he’s never going back to fuel consumption

 

[Lord Gnome of Mooloolaba]

I have a Polestar 2 and a MG - both EVs.

Internal combustion engines are so last century.

 

[snake77]

We bought a new car earlier this year. Replaced our old Mazda 3 with a new one. The new one has all of the old mild hybrid functions like turning off the engine at the light etc. Like a lot of technology when you are looking at buying a new TV etc it is a matter of timing for example when that manufacturer will bring in electric, hybrid etc. Think we were a year off as it looks like Mazda have started bringing in plug-in hybrids.

It will also get better as now you need to be looking for petrol, hybrid + variants, and electric when purchasing. Where we were looking at specific models and then it was if they happened to be electric or hybrid.

The Hyundai dealer was pretty useless. We said we had a Tuscon as the family car and were looking at a small car so he started talking about Kona's and Tuscon's.

Corolla's are popular but they have a two-year wait. We looked at a second-hand one but it had only done 20,000 more kms than the car we were replacing.

My wife and I used to interchange cars quite a bit before we reconfigured our driveway. As the way we'd park would block the person arriving first in. We might need a specific car for whatever reason.

The conversations would often go:
Wife "Can I have the smaller car tomorrow it will be easier to park at my customers site.
Me : Sure"
Wife " How much petrol has it got as the customer is a bit of a commute".
Me "It's got a full tank, filled it up on the way home from work. How much has petrol the other car got in it?"
Wife "It's on E".
Me "Keep my dinner warm, I'll be back in 10 minutes".

I'd like an electric to limit conversations like the one above. Mind you it would likely change to asking her if she charged it.

 

[tajhay]

I have a Polestar 2 and a MG - both EVs.

Internal combustion engines are so last century.

How do you find the polestar 2? I didn't test drive it but had a look inside. Interior cabin felt a lil claustrophobic I felt.

MG ZS? How is that?

Anyone got BYD? The new Seal seems really good value.

 

[kos]

To me bev s dont stack up financially.
Unless the bev is on a business lease with tax concessions.
To justify an ev one needs to be doing high kms to negate a substantial petrol cost on an ICE car.
I wouldnt go Chinese just yet so any other bev is 60k plus.
However I could buy a nice three cyl Ford Puma for 33 k.
As 90 per cent of my 300 km s is urban I dont need a bigger or more expensive car.

So for me it is
33k v 60 k.
My fuel cost is about $50 a week or $13000 over five years.





I am still mega dollars ahead buying an ice car and not a bev.

And in the case of someone driving once a week I just dont see why you would outlay a huge sum of capital on a bev.

 

[kos]

(300 kms per week)

 

[Shogun]

I'm not yet sold on EVs. I don't believe you should have to plug them in. Why don't the 4 revolving wheels generate electricity?

If you know how hydroelectric power works (I think I do) instead of water, you use the tires. I just don't know if you can generate enough electricity this way to run the car indefinitely.

 

[tajhay]

Why don't the 4 revolving wheels generate electricity?

If you know how hydroelectric power works (I think I do) instead of water, you use the tires. I just don't know if you can generate enough electricity this way to run the car indefinitely.

They do. Thats the whole concept of regenerative braking that EVs used. The thing is that it cannot capture 100% of that energy, as regen loses say 10-20% of the energy in capturing process, and another 10-20% of the energy when converting it into acceleration.

Using that power to run a car indefinitely would never be possible though if you understand physics.