Electric Vehicles

Electroverse is the Octopus Energy billing system where you charge using the app or card, rather than your contactless card, and it bills that energy use to your home electric bill. Previously companies such as Instavolt havnt allowed server access to other companies, but its the largest UK operator so its a real game changing approach which should allow EV drivers thousands more options. Most obviously McDonalds is partnered with Instavolt, so you can eat some shite while charging at many hundreds of their sites, and at the end of the month it will just show up on your house bill.

The next step is full plug and go, where you dont even use an app or card, just charge and leave. Tesla has this system and Ionity offers it to some vehicles. You have to set up the account at some level. The data transferred from your car to the charging unit is capable of handling billing, but as theres so many different EVs the coding required isnt there yet.

Powell Motor's 'The Homer' is the real peoples car

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2698651

Nissan have clearly set their trajectory, and aren't changing.

As far as I can tell, nobody asked for or wanted this...

... Except the Daily Mail

More exciting news for anyone with an EV driving the M4 frequently. All new V4 machine design sites have the capability to pay without the Tesla app, by using your contactless card on the reader. Previous units didn’t have this panel, but the law is changing next year so all UK machines are able to process contactless.

So, there are currently x2 v4 sites open. There are 20 Tesla sites open to all vehicles and the key component is, they are significantly cheaper than for example Gridserve who own the chargers opposite these ones at Reading Moto Westbound.

Also note, the cable is long enough for Tesla charge points on the left rear side. It’s also long enough for most EVs but you may need to park slightly uncomfortably if your port is rear right side.

You can see these sites in the pinned topic of this discussion group.

Pretty niche news, but Tritium and Chargepoint machines are reporting on the Elli app (ie the pre 2023 machines). For those on the service it offers very good discounts but significantly Instavolt is a) the largest by unit number operator in the UK and b) have thus far refused or were unable to join discount subscription providers. Potentially this can point the way for other large providers and should mean fairer pricing all over.

Next year or lerhaps in 2025 all providers will begin to offer subscription providers access to the unit’s billing systems so this is a major step forward

100 years? Really?

How many 100 year old cars so we see on the roads today? A handful - most are in museums or only rolled out for vintage car festivals.

You could argue that there were less cars back then. Fair enough, but how many even fifty year old cars are on the roads? Even pre-2000 cars are rare, and easily identifiable due to the older format registration plate.

I think in 100 years nobody (or very few people - less than ten) is going to be regularly driving a Ford Zetec to the shops. They'll be in museums or driven on special occasions or to vintage car rallies.

BMW has announced plans for a major multi-million pound investment this morning in its electric Mini plant in Oxford, securing the long term future of Mini production in the UK.

The German carmaker will transform its existing factory through a £600m investment, creating 4,000 high-quality jobs in the process, after the government agreed to spend £75m in subsidies.

The new plant will produce two new next-generation electric car designs, the Mini Cooper and the Mini Aceman, with a third model being made in Germany.

It marks a major U-turn for BMW, who in October last year confirmed that production of its electric Minis would shift to China, in what was seen as a major blow to the British automotive sector.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch hailed the news ahead of the announcement, which takes total investment into the UK automotive sector to £6bn over the last two years.

Rishi Sunak said “BMW’s investment is another shining example of how the UK is the best place to build cars of the future.”

“By backing our car manufacturing industry, we are securing thousands of jobs and growing our economy right across the country.”

Kemi Badenoch said “today’s announcement by BMW, coming a week after electric vehicle production started at Stellantis’s site at Ellesmere Port, clearly shows that the government’s plan for the automotive sector is working.”

Only available in Japan at the moment, but posted due to the "what happens to the battery? They only last {insert silly low number of years here}" question/comment EV owners hear.

I don’t work for tesla, I promise! But free miles are free miles and you’d be mad not to, if it’s possible.

Brand new machines at the Ravenside Retail Park as part of the new tesla service centre on the A406. These machines have contactless card payment, no app needed. Travelling from east to west, the site is under the flyover section.

50p is very decently priced. This is not on the app yet

Several charging points for electric vehicles at a motorway service station still aren’t hooked up to the power network after connection delays.

good little read, and worth noting she managed in a fairly old model. I do alot of EV miles in an older model also, and its totally fine.

My current EV beef is the price gouging on very slow charging points. Its the same electrons you mad bastards

Ive owned my EV since 2020, ordered in 2019 but held up due to the big sneeze. One of my favourite things about the EV ecosystem is the amount of data available and how you can really use your iphone or android mobile as a satnav or analysis tool for trips for work or something. Ive used Tronity which links to your car via the mobile data connection but unfortunately they are not doing anything for my EV anymore as its a little old.

ABRP is an EV map system which takes into account lots of different data than a normal apple maps or google maps carplay trip. Nearly every built in sat nav should be disregarded as Carplay smashes all of them and there is a debate going on wether car manufacturers even need to put in their own awful satnav systems as nobody uses them anymore. ABRP has live traffic and weather and a whole range of tools like live charger data so you can skip along to the next one, but my favourite one is elevation data. If you get the app and plan a route you can press the route on the screen to bring up the height profile of your trip. This is important because you can save a huge amount of energy by taking a flatter or slower route, or you can plan a charge to take account of a mountain which will inevitably catch many out as they adjust driving habits for their electric drivetrains. Driving through the peak district as I do often can be an amazing experience but you have to take weather and height changes into account if youre on the end of your battery.

You can also get a ODB analytics dongle for most EVs, and connect it to ABRP. Its possible through this plug to recode your led lights, car noises, adjust functions and so on but it gives you better data. If you watch Bjorn Nyland videos he uses various tools. The main point is you cant do this with apple maps!

I think its an essential app.

Not really. Safety wise, its a big problem. But the cost is minimal

How did you celebrate?

I've seen a 2018 Hyundai Ioniq Premium SE fairly local and under £14,000 and under 30kiles. I've no idea what to look out for when buying used.

Any advice or thoughts on used ev's? Does mileage mean much. I suppose battery condition would be the main concern?

Phone and communications titan announces plan to transform its streetside broadband boxes into EV chargers

Renault will cease production of its Zoe electric car on 30 March 2024. It was already clear that there would be no new Zoe generation, but now the date has been set for the end of production at the Flins plant. Zoe has blazed a trail in her time. The…

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2148364

EU passes law to blanket highways with fast EV chargers by 2025::The chargers must be placed every 60km (37mi) and allow ad-hoc payment by card or contactless device without subscriptions.

I'm in the process of renewing my car insurance with Direct Line, and it appears they've added this Zoom EV Benefits Bundle for free.

It's not that exciting, but there's £10 of Octopus Electroverse credit, and 25kWh of Osprey credit included which I've redeemed.

It's great to have this. Being bombarded with USA related EV news which has nearly 0 impact on our lives is pretty tiring.