#electric-car — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #electric-car, aggregated by home.social.
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Range anxiety? Yeah, nah.
This was mostly intentional. It is recommended, every now and then, to run the battery down to under 10% and then charge to 100% in one go. This gives the battery management system an opportunity to recalibrate its state of charge measurements, ensuring it will give accurate percent remaining readings.
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If you read the first sentence of that and are thinking, "hang on, do BYD Seals come with a dashcam or not?" the answer is they do come with one. In China.
To avoid potential privacy concerns BYD leave out the dashcam camera module when assembling export Seals, but the missing modules are readily available from AliExpress, etc., for about $100. I just had to buy one, pop open the windscreen electronics housing, click the camera into place, plug in the cable that was already there, and stick a microSD card in the slot below the centre console.
The video isn't great, it only records from a single camera, and only when the car is turned on (no "sentry mode" here), but it's cheaper and less faff than getting a 3rd party dashcam wired up.
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I finally remembered that our Seal has the OEM dashcam installed, so there would be video of our wallaby encounters between Tenterfield and Glen Innes during our drive back to Sydney from Brisbane. They hadn't been overwritten yet so I was able to grab the relevant bits.
The video quality is pretty rubbish but it's better than nothing, and the data overlay is neat.
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So, I just posted this on Reddit, the info here is stuff I've shared in replies here and on my Friendica about the cost of doing gig work in an electric car.
So, since I was talking with someone about this on my Friendica, I pulled together the numbers for the last billing period of what it cost me to be doing gig last mile delivery work using a Bolt. Even thought I expected there to be some savings, its still rather mind boggling just how cheap it is. Right now I'm running a 2023 Bolt EUV Premier that I kinda inherited when my husband passed, but before that was a 2020 Bolt LT (or whatever the base is).
So, I drive a lot, if'n you don't want to bother doing the math on the second pick, that's 1733 miles during that billing period. As well as the $35 the power company sees in the first pic, there was one public charging at a GM Energy station which didn't cost me anything, but would've been around $12, and I really didn't even need to charge that much, I just wanted to have some extra on the trip home in case I decided to pick up some hot shot work along the way. As to maintenance, $0 regularly scheduled maintenance. I did have some tire related expenses, but since those aren't standard maintenance (and also hard to calculate), I'm not counting that. The original tires, well the fronts, needed replacing so I swapped the tires and wheels I'd saved from the 2020 when I sold it, steelies and regular all season tires on, and yes, those do impact range, but the low repair/replace costs are worth it in my opinion considering the likelihood of damage in my job.
To make these savings even more impressive, before I went electric, I was driving a base model 2018 Subaru Crosstrek with a 6 speed manual. Fuel with discounts ran at least $50 a week, most repair parts are dealer only (seriously, even wiper blades are hard to come by), and oil changes required full synthetic 0W30 every 6K miles at $110 from Jiffy Lube.
So for anyone wondering if'n going electric is worth it, I'd say yes, even without the rebate.
#Electric-Car #Costs #EV #Delivery #Driving -
Bonsoir Alphonse :)
Maybe one shouldn't be happy about getting a new car. But honestly this year hasn't been very kind so far.
The first hour of driving my own #electriccar was wonderful, even if I got caught in a Freiburg traffic jam. -
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Home again. Our road trip from Sydney to Brisbane totalled 2616.9 km over 17 days. I noticed that the media were running their "long queues at EV chargers" stories again over the Easter long weekend so I'll just note that during our entire trip we had to wait for a charger a total of once, for 15 minutes. Most of the times I charged the car ours was the only car charging.
Today's drive from Glen Innes to Sydney went smoothly. We drove to Armidale where we charged and had an early lunch (including, for me, a massive coffee), then drove Thunderbolt's Way through Gloucester to Raymond Terrace where we topped up the car again and had dinner. After that it was just a boring drive down the Pacific Motorway to Sydney.
Minor rant again about the stupid Tesla chargers. Tesla took government subsidies to build these chargers and in exchange had to open them to non-Tesla cars, but they still insisted on placing the chargers between parking bays. The cables are just long enough to stretch across to the other side of the bay for cars that have their charging port on the other side but the main problem is that Tesla makes no effort to make it clear which charger is supposed to be used from which bay. No signage, no markings on the ground, you're just supposed to know. Consequently a lot of drivers of non-Tesla cars who either don't know or don't care just plug in whichever charger is nearest to their car's charging port, and if they use the wrong side then they effectively occupy two spaces. I saw two cars doing this today.
Tesla should put the chargers in the middle of the bay so the cable can easily reach either side and it's obvious which charger goes with which bay, but failing that they could at least put up some signs.
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So far so good. Charged at our favourite AmpCharge before leaving Brisbane, topped up at the awkward wrong-side chargers in Tenterfield, and made it to our motel in Glen Innes in time to go get a chicken parmi at the Railway Tavern.
In hindsight it would have been good to leave Brisbane about an hour earlier so that we'd have arrived in Glen Innes well before sunset. As it was we ended up driving the last half an hour or so during dusk and had several close encounters with wallabies between Tenterfield and Glen Innes. Nothing requiring full on emergency braking fortunately, but at one point we did have to quickly stop due to a group of 3 wallabies just standing in the middle of the road in front of us.
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The drive back to Sydney begins tomorrow. About 1000 km with an overnight stop in a motel in Glen Innes.
We could potentially save about 25 minutes by going back via Gloucester instead of Tamworth. There's some nice scenic bits that way, but more demanding driving and fewer good places to take a break. I'll see how I feel on the day.
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Gosh I love to see these in the wild. They did a great job on its restoration. Would you believe me if I told you there’s one in our backyard?
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These chargers at Ampol North Lakes are a good design. Long cables with hinged support arms, which means that despite the charger being positioned between the two parking bays you can use either side, park either way around, and still reach your charging port regardless of which of the four corners of your car it's located on.
They're 160 kW chargers which is no longer cutting edge, but our car can only handle a max of 150 kW anyway so that's a non-issue for me.
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The journey to Brisbane was completed in accordance with the plan. Charged in Tamworth while having breakfast and in Tenterfield while having lunch, and made a couple of other quick stops for driver swaps and toilet breaks.
Tenterfield was the only time we had to wait for a charger, fortunately just for 15 minutes. Tesla's lopsided charger designs are awkward for non-Teslas that have their charging ports on the correct side of the car, but fortunately the cable was just long enough to reach across.
Tesla cars were very much in the minority at these chargers while we were there, a reflection of the fact that there are no other good ones nearby. There are NMRA chargers in Tenterfield and Glen Innes, and a Chargefox in Stanthorpe, but they are all single chargers with max charging rates of only 50 kW for the NRMA chargers and 75 kW for the Chargefox. By contrast the 4 Tesla chargers in Tenterfield are nominally capable of up to 250 kW if your car is too.
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Today's plan: charge in Tamworth before we leave, charge again at the halfway point in Tenterfield, then push on to Brisbane. It's 620 km, which will take an estimated 8 1/2 hours including just over an hour of charging time. We'll have breakfast and lunch during our charging stops so it's not just wasted time.
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Road trip underway! We're taking our BYD Seal from Sydney to Brisbane via the New England Highway, with an overnight stop in a motel in Tamworth.
One recharge at Cameron Park on the way which we probably could have skipped, but since we wanted to stop to grab a quick bite to eat for dinner anyway I did take the opportunity to top up.
That's just under 400 km driven, tomorrow we'll do the remaining 700 km.
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Time to break free from the chains of motoring?
A modern electric bike will cost you far less, do much the same thing while taking up a fraction of the space and you'll get healthy in the process.
Did you know that around 70% of journeys in the UK under five miles are driven? This is where we can save fuel for when it's really required.
https://www.cyclingelectric.com/in-depth/buying-new-car-buy-an-electric-bike-instead
#transport #war #iran #costofliving #oilcrisis #oil #evs #electriccar #cycling #ebikes
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CW: EV charger recommendations sought, Australia
So one of our two corporate JetCharge ChargeMate units, not even three years old, has failed. JetCharge doesn't sell the units now and it's looking like they don't even repair units out of warranty any more. So,
Who can recommend a type 2 EV charger, available in Australia, 3-phase 32 A ("22 kW"), that can be operated in non-smart "plug it in and it charges" mode? Not Tesla brand.
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The one thing that makes this nonsense bearable is that most electric car owners rarely have to deal with this nonsense.
DC fast chargers are fundamentally different to petrol stations in that they are not the only, or even main, way that you can power your car. Most EV owners will either have a charger at home or, failing that, use cheaper, slower AC chargers close to home most of the time. DC fast chargers are only really needed for long road trips that exceed the range of your car, and most people do those fairly infrequently.
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Oh, maybe don't ditch the bp pulse app just yet. Apparently Chargefox charge you extra for using a bp pulse charger through them vs using the same charger with bp pulse's app. Sneaky bastards.
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Can you imagine a petrol station pulling this bullshit? Oh, you want to fill up with E10? Absolutely, please scan this QR code, install the app, enter your name, address, email address, phone number, car make and model, favourite colour and mother's maiden name, then check your email and click the link we've just sent you to activate your account, then enter your credit card details, then scan the QR code on the fuel pump, tap start in the app, and then you're good to start pumping. What's that, you can't get mobile signal? Yeah, sorry, bit of a coverage black spot here. Nah mate, you can't just pay by credit card.
The charger network operators will keep doing it unless they are forced to stop though, because like every modern company they want to hoard as much customer data as possible.
At least with some charger networks you can get an RFID card which means you can tap to start a charge without needing the app (or mobile signal). I've got one from Evie that also works for Chargefox. Some networks go further and set it up so the charger recognises your car so all you need to do is plug in. These still require you to have previously set up an account with all the charger networks you want to use, though.
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A small bit of good news for Australian electric car owners ahead of the Easter holidays: bp pulse fast chargers can now be used via a Chargefox account.
Edit: Maybe hang on to the bp pulse app, see differential pricing comments down thread.
One of the annoyances of road tripping in an EV in Australia is that you can't, generally, just pull up at a DC fast charger and tap your credit card to start charging. In most cases you need to have installed a phone app from the charger network operator, created an account, and registered a payment method. Consequently preparing for a long trip might mean installing and configuring half a dozen or so different charging apps.
bp pulse chargers being available through Chargefox means one fewer app and account is required, a small step in the right direction.
Ideally none of this nonsense would be needed, and all DC fast chargers would at least give you the option of just tapping a payment card, with no app or account required. I know from experience hiring an EV while on holiday in the UK that these apps can be a major problem for overseas visitors as they are often region locked and not available unless your phone is registered locally, and they also need mobile data to function. At least in the UK most of the chargers would just accept a credit card instead, not so here.
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Do you think that electrons taste sweet to an EV? I imagine it's like sugar water and the cars circling the chargers are like hummingbirds.
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Finally the sun has come out while the car is at home so I can top up for (almost) free using our solar power.
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Back at the BYD service centre in Mascot to get the clock spring replaced (under warranty).
When I arrived my car joined a herd of blue Seals, all checking in. Quite a coincidence since the Seal is not BYD's best selling car, and blue is the least common colour. In fact they even dropped blue from the list of paint options available in Australia with the 2025 refresh of the Seal. You can only buy a monochrome one now.