Electric Vehicles

Status
Not open for further replies.
"The batteries have to be thrown away after three years!"

Don't think this has been posted before, apologies if it has


Toyota City, Japan, October 27, 2022―JERA Co., Inc. (JERA) and Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) announce the construction and launch of the world's first (as of writing, according to Toyota's investigations) large-capacity Sweep Energy Storage System. The system was built using batteries reclaimed from electrified vehicles (HEV, PHEV, BEV, FCEV) and is connected to the consumer electrical power grid. It begins operation today.
Click to expand...
 
Today marks one year of ownership of our Model 3 LR. 26,600 miles to date.

It’s been a wonderful car, quite sporty in its handling, but a pleasure on long drives. And we’ve done lots of long drives: at least 4 to Florida, 2 to Indiana, 1 to DC and one longer one all the way to Ottawa. We charge exclusively at home unless on a trip, as reflected here:

52670184806_88bc5d98cf.jpg


Note: “Work” here is our N GA home. “Other” is friend’s homes or in just one case a Destination charger.

The only mechanical issue has been the rear defroster going inop. It was fixed under warranty, but it was noticed after our hit & run repair, so it may have been related.

Have rotated the tires twice. They appear to be good for at least 10,000 more miles.

So far, we have still never had to wait in line for a Supercharger. Have never come close to running out of juice on trips, usually trying to hit the next Supercharger with at least 15% remaining, and charging until we show at least that much remaining at the next Supercharger. That usually takes between 15 and 25 minutes, which for us is not a burden.

At home in TN we charge from a 240V 30A receptacle yielding about 24 miles of range per hour. We charge overnight to 80% for local driving, yielding about 265 miles of range, plenty for any conceivable local driving. Typically takes less than 4 hours to “top off” after a day’s running around.

I know it’s not uncommon to hear reports of new Teslas having quality control issues. Ours was delivered in perfect shape, and to date no rattles or clunks or other problems.

Another very nice feature is the Over-the-Air updates, gradually improving the car’s functionality over time.

In short, it’s a great car and we’d definitely consider another Tesla in the future. Maybe even the CyberTruck we have a deposit on!
 
But it must have caught fire at least seven or eight times over the year?

Coming up to five years on the Leaf and one on the eNiro and the only problem we've had is the infotainment system on the Leaf going nuts. That required the car going away for two weeks, but came back with a better system.

Currently on a long trip to the south west of England (from Nottingham). Rapid charging has been fine and managed a complete top up overnight in Torquay.

Hope to never have to run an ICE car again
 
Fast Eddie B's post highlights to me how efficient that Tesla is. Over the whole year and with mixed driving he's averaged well over 4 miles per kwh.

Mrs Don was achieving that (with a very light right foot) with her Fiat 500 over the summer but over the winter that has dropped considerably. The Fiat is quite blunt so I wouldn't expect it to be a good high speed cruiser but the vast majority of Mrs Don's driving is moderately paced on rural roads.

Then again, even in the depths of winter, thanks to judicious timing 75%+ of Mrs Don's "fuel" is free :)
 
Next month will mark four years that I’ve had my TM3 LR. I still smile every time I climb into it and drive off. Fantastic car.
 
My regular commuter car is fading fast. I think there's a head gasket leak, repairing that would probably cost more than the car's resale value.

Add to that I might be transferring to a work at home position, I'll find out in the next few weeks.

Add more to that, my son will get his driver's license in a year or so.

So car shopping is a thing. Current U.S. federal tax credit for a new EV is up to $7500. My state (Colorado) also offers a $2500 credit. And Chevy has dropped the price of the Bolt down to around $30,000 (give or take). Cost includes installation of a 220v charger station on a 40 amp breaker on an existing breaker panel. That may be a catch, because I don't think my fuse breaker panel thing can accommodate a new 220v breaker - those take two slots and I only have one open slot left on mine.

Still that's really in consideration. We'll wait until I find out about the work at home thing before moving forward though.

Chevy is discontinuing the Bolt in favor a new EV standard across all GM brands. But I'm happy to snatch up one of the last ones if they are discounted as much as they are.
 
I've had my Kia e-Niro for just under a year; it had 6000 on the clock when I got it, I've just booked it in for its 20,000 mile service. No problems so far, and I still enjoy driving it (doing more of that than I expected when I got it, I'm doing a 100 mile round trip twice a week to attend college). Averaging better than 4miles/kWh, even at this time of year; now charging mainly at home on a granny charger. Until recently, the charger at the car park for college was free (though slightly unreliable), but the costs now make using that uneconomic.
 
crescent said:
My regular commuter car is fading fast. I think there's a head gasket leak, repairing that would probably cost more than the car's resale value.

Add to that I might be transferring to a work at home position, I'll find out in the next few weeks.

Add more to that, my son will get his driver's license in a year or so.

So car shopping is a thing. Current U.S. federal tax credit for a new EV is up to $7500. My state (Colorado) also offers a $2500 credit. And Chevy has dropped the price of the Bolt down to around $30,000 (give or take). Cost includes installation of a 220v charger station on a 40 amp breaker on an existing breaker panel. That may be a catch, because I don't think my fuse breaker panel thing can accommodate a new 220v breaker - those take two slots and I only have one open slot left on mine.

Still that's really in consideration. We'll wait until I find out about the work at home thing before moving forward though.

Chevy is discontinuing the Bolt in favor a new EV standard across all GM brands. But I'm happy to snatch up one of the last ones if they are discounted as much as they are.
Click to expand...

I think if you have a 100 amp main, you should be able to put a 50 or 60 amp subfeed breaker in the box, and run its output to another small box adjacent, to expand your number of available circuits.

Another possibility, depending on brands, is to get a double breaker for a couple of 120 volt circuits, and thus free up another for the 240. Square-D has these. I have a couple in my vastly overcrowded box, as well as a 50 amp subfeed. Similarly, in my shop I have two subfeeds to adjacent outbuildings, each of which has its own panel.
 
bruto said:
I think if you have a 100 amp main, you should be able to put a 50 or 60 amp subfeed breaker in the box, and run its output to another small box adjacent, to expand your number of available circuits.

Another possibility, depending on brands, is to get a double breaker for a couple of 120 volt circuits, and thus free up another for the 240. Square-D has these. I have a couple in my vastly overcrowded box, as well as a 50 amp subfeed. Similarly, in my shop I have two subfeeds to adjacent outbuildings, each of which has its own panel.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I didn't know those were a thing. I've got to take a look at the breaker box this evening. I'm not sure if it is 100 amp or not. My house was built really pretty cheaply.

But what about the three-wire 220v lines running to my oven and to my clothes drier? The house was built literally only a year before they changed the codes on that. Current standard is 4-wire, from what I understand, if they do any 220v work they might also be required to replace the existing three wire lines.

Can't have a 4-wire line to the car charging port but 3-wire to the other stuff. Right?
 
crescent said:
Thanks - I didn't know those were a thing. I've got to take a look at the breaker box this evening. I'm not sure if it is 100 amp or not. My house was built really pretty cheaply.

But what about the three-wire 220v lines running to my oven and to my clothes drier? The house was built literally only a year before they changed the codes on that. Current standard is 4-wire, from what I understand, if they do any 220v work they might also be required to replace the existing three wire lines.

Can't have a 4-wire line to the car charging port but 3-wire to the other stuff. Right?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about that. I don't know of a requirement to enact codes retroactively, but don't know what prevails where. My guess is that you could do it, but my guess is predicated partly on the fact that in my case I'd be doing it myself, and the fact that I live in a place where codes are entirely theoretical.

With the right hardware, a new four wire installation is no harder than a three. The only difference is that the ground and neutral on a four wire system are separated, even though they rejoin at the distribution box. The ground, which is a chassis ground, thus passes to the neutral/ground bar and does not share a path with the neutral, which is one side of the 120 volt circuit that often cohabits with the 240, to run stove clocks, dryer timers, etc.

If your house was built any time in recent years, it's almost certainly at least 100 amp service if not 200. I don't think any place has been done with 60 or less in many years, and even 100 is considered pretty wimpy these days.

In the case of your current 240V circuits, although there is very little risk, if you really want to minimize the risk without upgrading wiring, consider running a chassis ground from your dryer and range to some existing ground point, such as copper pipe line if you have copper plumbing, or a separate wire to a ground stake. A direct line from chassis to ground, not otherwise shared with any electrical components, ensures that current passing through the neutral line owing to some fault will never cause the chassis to become hot.
 
crescent said:
But what about the three-wire 220v lines running to my oven and to my clothes drier? The house was built literally only a year before they changed the codes on that. Current standard is 4-wire, from what I understand, if they do any 220v work they might also be required to replace the existing three wire lines.
Click to expand...

Ugh. Those things can kill people when a wire gets frayed. You might want to fix those anyway. Here's a nice thing, in U.S. code, you're allowed to pull ground from another circuit as long as it's sized properly. If your dryer line is run in a wall, but there's a sufficiently-sized ground on the 120 outlet nearby, that can be brought over. So you can add a 4-pin outlet without pulling the old wire.

However, inspectors won't normally worry about it as long as you're not touching that particular circuit. If you're adding a new one and the old one was code when it went in, won't have to touch it.
 
We recently bought and renovated a house to rent out. We paid for an electrician to replace the 100 box with a 200 and run new lines so that we have grounded plugs in every room. It was about $1000 and worth every penny.

Don’t need renters bitching about janky wiring.

ETA: upgrading the box can also provide long term savings if your old box was from a brand that is no longer making breakers. I’ve had a few of those over the years. No bueno.
 
Last edited:
Fast Eddie B said:
Note: “Work” here is our N GA home. “Other” is friend’s homes or in just one case a Destination charger.
Click to expand...

You’d think Tesla would have a setting for “mountain retreat”, “ski lodge”, “beach house”, “vacation home”, “hangar”, “stables”, “second home”, or at least “cabin”.
 
Dr. Keith said:
You’d think Tesla would have a setting for “mountain retreat”, “ski lodge”, “beach house”, “vacation home”, “hangar”, “stables”, “second home”, or at least “cabin”.
Click to expand...

I'd have thought so, but so far no dice. They do allow you to rename either of your trip meters, so I hope that they eventually update allow a similar renaming option to charge locations, and possibly having more than they do now - handy when we someday have our beach house!
 
Dr. Keith said:
We recently bought and renovated a house to rent out. We paid for an electrician to replace the 100 box with a 200 and run new lines so that we have grounded plugs in every room. It was about $1000 and worth every penny.

Don’t need renters bitching about janky wiring.

ETA: upgrading the box can also provide long term savings if your old box was from a brand that is no longer making breakers. I’ve had a few of those over the years. No bueno.
Click to expand...
i've read some horror stories of older, as well as off brand, breakers not doing their job. Definitely worth checking out.

Alas, I think upgrading my 100 service would require a complete new drop and overhead lines, so not likely to happen soon.
 
My brother, who owns one of the early Tesla 3's, is encouraging me to buy an EV. I tested a Bolt, but was completely unimpressed with the Navigation demo.

When brother suggested that I buy a Model Y, I told him he should upgrade to the Model Y and sell me his Model 3 instead. To my great surprise, he is considering it. With a new base Model 3 costing +$45k, I could save a lot when buying my brother's car, but used Model 3's are going for over $30k.

I don't think I can talk my brother into a "twin brother discount" on his car. :)
 
The UK tabloid press has got it in for electric vehicles, I guess because they represent change and progress which is anathema to the proprietors of those newspapers. Today in The Sun the headline is:

Drivers ditch electric cars in droves to return to petrol vehicles due to lack of charging stations
Click to expand...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/21359344/drivers-ditch-electric-cars-lack-charging-stations

The evidence ?

Petrol cars saw the largest growth in new car registrations compared with last year, with 58,973 being registered this January compared to 51,468 at the same time last year - a rise of 7,505.

But new battery electric vehicles saw a smaller growth in new car registrations compared to last January rising by 2,861 from 14,433 last year to 17,294 this year.
Click to expand...

Petrol vehicle sales have increased by 14.6%

Electric vehicle sales have increased by 19.8%

....and yet people are switching to petrol cars in droves. :rolleyes:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top Bottom