Mr Fuji

I went to a VW dealer to talk to them about an ID.3 at the weekend, and they said the entire first run had been sold and due to Covid19 it would be unlikely to get one until the end of 2021

The ID.3 seems to be a big move by VW as it's generally around the same price for a similar spec Golf. And, it's RWD and 200BHP

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Reminds me of a Citroen. The lack of supply will severely dent their market penetration.

There are several EVs with better spec, lower price in which ID3 is pitched with its variant models.

The high end is not a patch on the Tesla model 3 and low end Hyundai Kona, Nissan 40kW and Kia Niro

My wife next week will be doing a 1000 mile trip in her Model 3 . The hotel stop on the first night has 8 150kW CCS superchargers. Ive only ever seen the Hilton at Heathrow with similar charging facilities.

I anticipate she will pay £40 for charging for the trip.

IdonthaveaScooby

Could she not taken the train , and saved the environment !

Government’s crying out peeps to use public transport

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Not practical with family and luggage plus not safe to use public transport

scubascooby

One day I may convert my Legacy diesel to an EV.

Pricey but I wonder if it could be eligible for EV subsidy and some sort of diesel scrappage ?

R666ORY+1

I’ve suggested this before but got blazed for it (not suggesting it’s not entirely valid but tech always moves past what is the present norm). Not simplistic but a full ICE conversation to EV will in time be commonplace and someone will
make a fortune from it. Give it 5/10 years when people truly start tearing apart Tesla and the like. Potentially, stylistically we can potter around in our Scoobs environmentally free (on a basic level). Amongst many Renault sport gave you the option of piping in engine noise via the speakers. It has been talked about that EV should make external noise to prevent clowns being run over. If we all got a conversion that pumped in and out “dumf dumf dumf dumf dumf” fake engine noises would we be happy? (Please excuse poor representation of engine noise!).

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Conversion, can work well with older vehicles that don't have electronics for dash. It becomes a whole lot more complicated trying to keep a modern ICE features and have a EV conversion. I looked into having my Raptor converted, but its not viable. I may sell it when Rivian or Ford bring out their EV trucks.

There are people already stripping, repairing and modifying Teslas. Check out Rich Rebuilds-You-tube, he restored a model S from two damaged vehicles.

He has setup up a garage(electrified garage) to repair, service and modify Tesla cars. His latest being a power upgrade to model 3 which out performs Tesla's performance model.

He is a bit of a thorn in Tesla's side, but he has brought some good from highlighting some of Tesla's protocols re parts supply and customer relations

The issue is Tesla keep a tight rein on parts and disable any write off vehicle rapid charging ability, unless the car is re certified by Tesla. Rich rebuilds knows a way to enable supercharging again, but Tesla have threatened legal action for anyone attempting or doing it, unless it passes Tesla safety certification.

The problem now is write off Teslas were cheap to buy initially but now its becoming popular to repair prices have shot up. It has become not viable to repair a majorly damaged Tesla. Though parts command excellent prices on the secondhand market

Mr Fuji

I think Tesla have done a great job of making the mainstream manufacturers take EV seriously, but now they have the first proper from the ground EVs are coming through, they will start to struggle. Tesla still suffers from build quality issues and still too many other issues being reported. OK, they will get better, but for the price, what are people going to go for, a brash soulless US car or something with a bit of heritage?

andy97

iTrader: (1)

The model S did have build issues in the early days, they have got much better in recent years.

My MS had tailgate alignment, but was quickly sorted. The wife's M3 is excellent in quality, this has been reported by just about every journalist, build issues are sorted now.

What Tesla have done is you don't need expensive service shops/showrooms. Their over the air updates/upgrades are superb. Car servicing is about once every 3-5 years.

The large but simply laid out display with seamless interface with an excellent app, google maps, internet, Netflix, games.

Coupled to a class leading supercharger network, legacy car manufacturers are years behind in matching Tesla for build and profitability.

Then we come to performance, these cars a ballistic, matching hyper-car performance with family practicality.

Even now legacy car firms are making EV's built with ICE layout body shape. Mercedes' new EQ has a naff long display which allows you to change dials and colours-wow on a £65K car. If you call that heritage- go for it.

Ev design does away with engine bays, motors and batteries slung lower, freeing up space. This is why the like of Tesla and Rivian will transform the vehicle industry, with low er mounted and even wheel mounted motors to allow vector steering.

Ford and Amazon have invested over a $1bn in Rivian, they can see the design has huge multi vehicle applications.

Legacy Manufacturers have tens of billions invested in ICE and like a supertanker cant stop or change direction quickly.

I look forward to seeing more EV's , but they need to up their game immensely

IdonthaveaScooby

Copy n Paste ?? or You work for them

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Research before and after purchases

Mr Fuji

I have done a load of research, and still Tesla is delivering poor build quality on M3s in 2020, even after lockdown, so it's not historical. I saw one last week, a guy could fit his mobile phone in the gap between the door and the pillar on on side, tight fit on the other.

I don't like the sparsity of the Tesla, but I accept that is a personal thing, but I also don't like the fact you cannot use Apple Carplay or Android Auto, you have to use their proprietary OS/app.

I'm not saying they are bad cars, quite the contrary, they sell a ton of them, but at the moment, there isn't much else, so it's not hard to the the best. All the big boys have been making cars for a hundred years or more, they're not fools, and they have deep pockets. They may be slow to react, but then again, so was the USSR in WWII, but........

Obviously, if I had serious money, I'd have a roadster, no question! I think the acceleration on that would hurt!

BMWhere?

I'm not sure the traditional manufacturers are being slow to react, I think they see EVs as just a stopgap to Hydrogen, hence they are not overly investing in EVs but are quietly building up their H2 technology so they can quickly ramp up production when the fueling network becomes available.

Mr Fuji

I read a very interesting article about this the other day (I wish I could find it again), about why HVs never took off. It would seem that Hydrogen, despite being the most abundant element in the Universe, ironically, is very expensive to produce, and at present (and for some time) simply not economically viable. However, it did also say that you can get loads of power out of Hydrogen, but store it like a fuel, so it was being developed for trucks, big diggers etc, as they simply (with present technology) cannot use batteries, as the batteries required would be so big and heavy it would be impractical.

Of course, technology improves and costs come down, but with everyone investing in battery EVs, I can see a split for EV and HEV along those lines.

As for planes, there has been some very interesting developments for electric jet engines recently

BMWhere?

The car manufacturers are hedging their bets a bit at the moment. They know that hydrogen production is currently relatively expensive and the lack of a filling network is also a problem, but ultimately they see HEVs as a better solution than BEVs, so the real investment is going in the HEV direction and only half hearted in BEVs. The German government is really pushing HEVs which certainly the German car industry is listening too and where the German manufacturers go, the rest will follow! There have been some massive improvements in Hydrogen production efficiency in recent years that should be scaleable to industrial production. There is also a good chance we'll see more home hydrogen production with solar/wind energy which will also drive the market.

BEVs will continue to have their place, but the large-scale market will be hydrogen, which is why the traditional manufacturers are not too worried about Tesla just yet!

andy97

iTrader: (1)

One benefit of Battery EV, its not tied exclusively to source of charge. You can charge it at home, from the grid or solar/wind, access is universal, every building has power. No immediate need to visit network charging.

Hydrogen is and will be like hydrocarbons, produced by major companies with control on supply/cost.

Until the future prospect of hydrogen being produced at home or on the move hydrogen scavenging, then BEV will be more appealing

IdonthaveaScooby

Appealing for dreamers / rich ones who have few acres of solar !

BMWhere?

You can already buy a hydrogen home station from Honda

andy97

iTrader: (1)

I think they need to work on miniaturisation aswell as cost per kg

It will come but not for a long long time

Mr Fuji

Not much good for all those people who live in flats in cities! At least they can go out and fill up with hydrogen like they can with petrol. But I agree that BEVs will be the mainstream for the next decade, possibly more

scubascooby

I don't like the Tesla virtual dashboard. Useless on an bumpy road. I don't like Musk either.

I have thought about the issue of the ecu and electronics in the dashboard. I am sure someone can figure out a way to either replace the ECU or feed it some fake data to keep it happy. All it would then have to do is run the instruments and warning lights. I believe the airbags are separate.

I put some numbers/costs over on uklegacy a few months ago

andy97

iTrader: (1)

The display is run by the MCU, the car functions by the HW (hardware cpu). The cars functionality is unaffected by a glitch or even failure of the MCU.

In fact you can reboot the MCU whilst driving and all essential driving features are functional whilst the MCU restarts.

To access alot of the functions, you can use voice recognition, navigation, calls, heating/cooling

For other more in depth features you should not be touching the screen whilst driving, that would be reckless to say the least

You could if activated use autopilot to control car distance, lane keeping whilst you stupidly take your attention from driving.

Its obvious you dont know much about how Tesla's function and which systems are critical and what's peripheral

IdonthaveaScooby

Does the car let you think for yourself at all ?

just sounds grim

andy97

iTrader: (1)

Its actually the most pleasant, relaxing vehicle to drive. I find adaptive cruise one of the best features-many vehicles have adaptive cruise also.

scubascooby

I'm with Douglas Adams. It sounds like the most hateful place to be. Tracked, monitored and bugged.

andy97

iTrader: (1)

So you don't own a phone, laptop, have a bank account, debit cards, loans, Netflix account, you live in a secret cave with no communication with outside world, grow your own food in darkness and use dried grass for central heating.

BMWhere?

This is something that worries me with many modern cars. There are more and more assistance features which make it more relaxing to drive, but in turn result in drivers paying less attention to the road and putting blind faith in computer systems which are not developed to robust safety critical standards.

The Auto industry uses MISRA-C standards (although I'm not sure Tesla even meets that) which are OK for a vehicle ECU but never designed for safety critical functions and are way off what is needed for adaptive cruise or lane assist. The industry is self regulating, so there is no assurance that software meets the standards that they purport to adhere to. As the industry continues down the road of self automation, it is critical they adopt a new set of safety standards along the lines of DO-178C as used in the aviation industry and they need to use a more robust programming language such as Ada, rather then almost guaranteed to be buggy C! Then they need an independent certification authority to check that the driving death traps are safe!

andy97

iTrader: (1)

I believe the contrary, more relaxed equates to more alert than being fatigued. Driver assistance is a 'secondary' backup, just incase you dont keep full attention.

My wife doesn't like driver assistance, but recently admitted it saved her from an accident, when a car at the last moment exited a junction, the car emergency braked faster than she reacted.

I on the other hand use adaptive cruise just about everywhere. Its fantastic in town and slow moving traffic, stopping and restarting the vehicle autonomously

BMWhere?

For you it may be contrary, but for most of the idiots on the road it is not!

andy97

iTrader: (1)

VW plant switching to 100% EV production

Ebikes VanMoof- nice

So many new EVs being released