I was talking to the service guy at Kia yesterday, particularly about battery preconditioning, and he said the “sweet spot” is between 30% and 70%, and don’t charge past about 80% on a DC charger. Shouldn’t let it go below 20%, and you should precondition the battery every so often. Realigns the cells etc.
1 Like
Yeah i dont even have that. Im not going to run extension cables out my window to my communal strata parking lot.
If i had power where im parking my car each night id shop for an EV for my next vehicle.
That being said we put SFA kms on a car each year and often when we do its a road trip.
Still think EVs are for people jumping in the car everyday and can charge them from home predominantly.
1 Like
One step ahead of you! I’m already saving up for a Kenworth prime mover.
4 Likes
And that’s the problem. Some people don’t have the facility to charge at home, especially if they live in apartments, which is increasingly likely in this day and age. Public charging infrastructure must become as prevalent as petrol stations are now for EVs to be a feasible option for the majority of the population. Petrol is far easier to access, and the time taken to refuel negligible when compared with charging a car.
I dont think you want to charge a car at a public station though.
It’s actually not as competitive as it should be price wise.
Your also often waiting around at a place you dont want to be for 15-30 minutes. Or longer if theres a queue.
Nah the solution has to be electric charger retro fitting in apartment blocks.
Perhaps EV charging should be rolled out like the NBN.
Im sure in the long term costs can be recouped simply by levies on electricity prices to those units. Eg you get a ev charger electricity plan
1 Like
There are a growing number of shopping centres with EV charging while you do your shopping. Some are also cut price as well.
New supermarkets will all install EV charging and also at Fast Food places like Maccas. Not sure the the typical Petrol station will pay for the infrastructure.
What about people that don’t go to the supermarket to get groceries.
Thats where I see people queueing
Everytime i head to my local woolies I notice both chargers in use and a couple of people sitting in their EVs waiting for a charger to become free.
Instead of small numbers of rapid chargers they would be better off with stacks of simple power points to drip charge.(and everywhere you stop).
So as soon as you arrive guaranteed to charge at rates
conparable to charging at home.
Banks of fast chargers should be left for highways - where they are needed because your driving further than your cars range in one go.
There was an article of a bus lane somewhere with a surface charging as you go.IDK how it worked
Guess it depends when and where you go. Never had to queue, maybe just lucky.
Im just thinking if you get to the point where every second car sold is an EV then there going to have to get smarter about infrastructure.
The electricity grid and cost means you can’t saturate a place with DC fast chargers.
If you could imagine a caravan park with hundreds of powered sites.
Thats kind of what carparks need to look like now.
Not one or two car spaces with fast chargers in them.
1 Like
It will get to the point in less than 10 years where the only cars sold are EV and some will fly.
Batteries will evolve to be larger, longer lasting and rapid charging, and infrastructure will follow. Petrol stations will develop to be EV charging taking minutes, and many roads will have charging as you drive built in for buses and maybe all vehicles.
Then it will all be redundant by 2050 when Star Trek transporter devices will arrive.
1 Like
But in all seriousness. A lot of what EV manufacturers are doing today isnt new.
And battery technology whilst getting better isnt breaking through…yet.
If the end goal is 100% evs then the infrastructure public and private doesnt really stack up.
They are finding that out in much more mature markets than ours.
And its probably a mindset shift.
Big fast chargers in a few places like servos are for fuel
Or lots and lots of plain jane power points to drip feed everywhere you stop.
I think the latter probably needs to win out in an urban environment
One thing that does ■■■■ me as an EV owner, is the lack of or slow response to maintenance of chargers.
It’s problematic on several levels. The Northcote Aquatic centre for example.
10 x 11kW chargers (free)
When it’s busy, you’ll get 1-2 taken up by ICE drivers. There was even a woman and her son down there actively damaging the chargers when they were first installed.
Every now and then, the charger will only charge for 10 minutes, then stop. So you return to the car and it’s done nothing.
Recently there were chargers not working, first it was 1-2, a week later 3-4 then 5 not working. There’s no contact info on the charger (there is on the fast charging network that you pay for) so you don’t know if you need to call the manufacturer or go into the gym and tell them. No one bothers to put a sign on it to say it’s been reported.
They remained broken for quite some time, at which point you just end up with people parking there in any vehicle.
I have seen elsewhere chargers that have been in for about 5 years string that they aren’t working, and can’t be repaired.
It boils down to how these public use chargers are paid for, and maintained for their full life. I get the impression places sign up to get them in and attract people, but don’t commit to the service agreement or preventative maintenance, or it doesn’t really add enough value for them.
But if you double the number of EV on the road, there won’t be enough chargers getting rolled out and repaired to keep up with demand.
2 Likes
who has experience with the 2024 Tesla 3 updates . I’ve read a few reviewa canning the park assist . I’m looking at making the plunge latest 2024 update reviews aren’t all complimentary . tesla now seems to be the best bang for buck for a quality ev car. I’m a bit concerned qbout the 2024 update review tho
Well i think basically every park should or could have a power point at it in a car park.
Thats what id plan for.
If you can put those red green light sensor things to help you find a spot over every space at say a westfield, well you can put a power point.
Doesnt have to be fast charging at all. Just enough to give the average driver a few kms back that they used getting there.
Multi level carparks are perfect for it because they have all the tech to charge a driver coming in and leaving already.
1 Like
We do all the updates as they arrive, doing one at present… Park assist just gives an overhead depiction of what is around the car. It is not perfect, but I find it handy in parking as it shows me where I am in the parking bay accurately. Some people are just never happy.
I have had my 3 nearly two years, and Mrs Fox has her Y for nearly 6 months. Nothing to complain about and they are great to drive.
1 Like
I reckon you should wait for the StarTrek Transporter to hit the market, as EV seems a bit hard for you.
Test drive the byd seal at the same time as driving a tesla 3.
That would be a good comparison I think.
power wise too you reckon ?
those Tesla’s seem to be pretty torquey
1 Like