Thread: Personal EV journey.

Originally Posted by BobL

Brake lights constantly flickering on-off on an EV are a sign that the driver is not experienced in driving that EV.

I don't think this is a fair comment. It will depend a lot on the vehicle software. I noted when following my Cupra Born being driven in B mode (one pedal driving) the brake lights always come on when regen braking occurs. Following such a car was like being behind a driver who constantly rides the brake pedal and is a type of driver I generally try to avoid following.

From my limited experience the Polestar's brake light activation seems to be similar, but I haven't noticed it when behind Teslas.

While I played around with B mode initially I prefer to drive the Born in D mode now. The energy recovery is no different. B mode might be useful in bumper to bumper traffic but I'm not in that sort of traffic much.

Originally Posted by BobL

sometimes it feels like I'm sitting in a computer that has motors and wheels.

like this one

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

... Following such a car was like being behind a driver who constantly rides the brake pedal and is a type of driver I generally try to avoid following....

I don't like following such a driver, and I don't like to think I am one either. To that end, when I got my first (ICE) car with Adaptive Cruise Control, I was so concerned about the brake light behaviour on slowing when approaching slower traffic or dropping to a slower speed limit, that I bought a cheap suction mirror and mounted it inside the rear window pointing up towards the centre brake light. Worked a treat and revealed that it behaved very much like natural driving, which I was relieved to find. That is, it emulated lifting the accelerator most of the time.

Bob

A comparison of two similar vehicles, one EV and one ICE, on a 900Km trip. Not a perfect situation but interesting.

900km (560 mile) electric v petrol challenge: Same cars, same driving, which was cheaper? (msn.com)

Clearly charging on route is not ideal if there is an alternative. I am sure you will have some comments on this.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Clearly charging on route is not ideal if there is an alternative.

Certainly not, considering the EV cost more per km than the ICE car which was fuelled with 98RON fuel.

Here is my road trip experiences.

I've had my vehicle now for some 6 months and have done 13000 km of driving including 10 country trips and have used 3 different charger types on the road; WA Govt EV network (60c kW/hr), Tesla Super chargers (70c kWh), and an RAC charger (45c kWh).

However, the majority (>65%) of my charging for these trips has been done at mains electricity prices (8c/kWh at home for Solar ,and 30c/kWh for non-solar). I fully charge at home before I take off, then when I get to my destination - which have all had a 240V sockets, and then again when I return home. When I need to charge at a public charging facility I also only ever charge up enough to get me to my next 240V socket, so most of these on the road charges up I do are in the ~25 kWh range. The result of working this way is it saves time at the charging stations and the overall cost of my road trips borders on peanuts.

I still believe EVs are not for everyone, especially not for those who are not prepared to do things somewhat differently.
Anyway in the long term, despite what that article says, electricity is only going to get cheaper or at least not go up, while fuel is only going to get more expensive and more beholding to international political situations.

Why is the WA Govt charging double the retail rate per kWh for EV charging? I thought they were supposed to be encouraging EV uptake?

Originally Posted by jack620

Why is the WA Govt charging double the retail rate per kWh for EV charging? I thought they were supposed to be encouraging EV uptake?

Someone has to pay for the cost and installation of the chargers especially in remote locations - See below.
The new chargers connected to Mains are 150kW so can't exactly be plugged into a 240V outlet and thus need a fairly serious transformer.
Some of the chargers in very remote locations are only 50kW and are stand alone and include a solar array and battery and some will have diesel back ups.


Here's a map of the WA Govt EV network, 26 of the 50 odd fast chargers completed and half dozen are under construction.
I've used the ones at Jurien bay (pop 1600) and Walpole (pop 336).

I'm hoping the proposed chargers all the way to Broome will be ready later this year as I want to take a trip up there where my sister has a beach house.
Screenshot 2024-01-31 at 12.32.34 pm.jpg

There are of course many more fast chargers than this but they are all nearly located in the lower south West.
For example there RE already Tesla fast chargers at Bunbury and Margaret River.

NRMA and the Feds have started on this network.
Screenshot 2024-01-31 at 12.48.58 pm.jpg

Bob

I thought these were a couple of interesting links from Jason Fenske. Firstly on efficiency:

Why EV Efficiency Is So Important For Getting The Most Electric Range (msn.com)

Secondly on charging regimes:

How To Ruin Your Electric Car's Battery - 3 Common Mistakes (youtube.com)

I hope you don't mind me including these as although the thread was on your own vehicle, I felt it was intended as a general discussion on EVs ultimately.

Regards
Paul

Thanks Paul, yes some good pointers there.

Perth has had several strings of 40C+ days and I'm loving the automated climate control on the EV. Today I had to use trailer to pick up a large spit AC system for a family member from one side of Perth and deliver it across to the other side of town. When I set off at ~10am air temp was already 35C and the car cabin would have been >40C but I had programmed car to precool the car cabin to 20C using my EV Mobile App while it was still plugged into mains, which at that time of the day was primarily solar. Then when I got to the pickup point there was the usual phaffing about before I could pick up and just before take off I again got the car to precool the cabin so when I got into it the vehicle it was at pleasant 20C. Then headed of to a suburb south of Freo, where outside air temp reached 41C, and left the AC running while I off unloaded the AC units and then headed off across town to my sons place to pick something up from his place. Same again, just left the AC running during pickup, and then headed home. It was on the way home that the outside air temp reached its max of 43C. The most uncomfortable part of this exercise was connecting and disconnecting the trailer and tow bar.

Towing a trailer definitely chews on the battery but the vehicle's AC is super efficient using about 1.5kW over a few minutes to initially cool down the cabin from about 40C to 20º, and much less to maintain the cabin temp. When I got home I recovered the total of 19kWhr used up in this exercise in about 5 hours via my solar PV system. Total energy cost for this was $1.52.

FWIW despite towing an 8x5 trailer containing the big split AC system I found I was still able to drag off everything I encountered at the lights.

Originally Posted by BobL

despite towing an 8x5 trailer containing the big split AC system I found I was still able to drag off everything I encountered at the lights.

developing a taste for lead footedness are we ??

Originally Posted by ian

developing a taste for lead footedness are we ??

Dunno about developing I've always liked a quick take off but for most of my life the vehicles I've used have not been suited to this sort of thing.

Originally Posted by ian

developing a taste for lead footedness are we ??

Nah, just like most people around here with ev's who have still not come to the understanding the foot is furtherest from the brain meaning the foot has been planted for some time before the brain reacts to the fact the vehicle is travelling faster than it should be for the conditions.

Yesterday my BIL and I had a go at repairing the rim rash (kerb scrapes) on my EV wheels which have now done over 15000 km.. This was the first time BIL and I have attempted this but I should add that he is an experienced Al boat builder and has considerable familiarity with repairing Al painted surfaces. I bought a 50mL bottle of the liquid and a spray can of the wheel paint from a specialty paint store in Wangara where the sales guys were very helpful and had the correct wheel paint in stock which shows how often this happens on these vehicles with these rubber band low profile tyres.

The rim rash on my wheels ranged from a few cm long scrapes on the two drivers side wheels to almost all the way around the rims on the passenger side wheels. The worst wheel is show in the following photo in which the purple dots show the extent of the scrapes and the red dot shows a couple 2 mm sized divots with raised edges ‘punched" into the rim.
RimsBefore.jpg

We used small pieces of 120 grit sandpaper hand remove the small scratches and to take the edges off the large scratches and divots. Then we used 180 grit to smooth everything out. It proved unnecessary to use finer grits or sand any further ie completely remove deep scratches and divots, as this ends up removing a lot of metal which would then require filling, and the liquid paint is quite thick and very forgiving as it provides some fill. To further help fill the divots and deeper scratches we applied dabs of the liquid paint, waited for it to dry and then sanded lightly with 180 Grit. Then we applied coat of the spray paint which blended in well with the existing wheel finish. All up it took us two hours to complete these repairs but next time should be quicker.


Here is the after shot of the same wheel.
RimsAfter.jpg
Close up I would not call the result “perfect" but it’s far better than the clearly visible damage, and from standing position in front of a wheel its very difficult to see it has been touched up.


Some tips.
We tried repairing a wheel rim while it was on the vehicle but proved easier to repair rims, especially on the wheels with a lot of scratches, with the wheel off the vehicle.
A cardboard mask that slips into the shallow gap between the rim and tyre will prevent spray paint getting onto the tyre.
Good lighting was needed to see this what is going on - we used a bright LED lamp.


I'm getting better at avoid the kerbs but I reckon I can now do this by myself and will touch up the wheels if required on tyre rotation which happens every 10k km.