Electric cars and the grid..... it has begun.

[fizzy]

Newer cars have far more involved thermal management, they will warm the batteries

Yes whilst turning the heating off in the car to increase range!
Our Postie is back in his diesel van. Said several of the new electric vans in his depot had to be recovered yesterday. Postmen not able to finish rounds. He said on his last shift he got back to the depot with 5 miles remaining - a quarter of his round still to go. Van shut off the heating when it reached 30 mile range. Problem wasn't so much him being frozen through but the windscreen kept icing up.

 

[Kayos]

Again, we seem to be heading down the route of winter blackouts and the grid not coping. Admittedly in exceptional circumstances this does happen at a local level.

Just a reminder, the people who manage the grid do NOT get their information from the Daily Mail

 

[pressbrake1]

I not sure how common this is. My neighbour has a Nissan Leaf.
I asked him why he was defrosting his old focus.
His reply.
The battery mobil was telling him the battery was t9 cold to operate.

Leafs run in Norway, Canada and other **Language**ing cold country’s fine!

 

[pressbrake1]

This thread is funny
Questioning the source of battery minerals is valid
Being fearful of battery life for the second hand buyer is a real concern
Grid infrastructure again because of the charging is real . If everyone in my hamlet had a 6kw charger the transformer would need to be tripled.

But to question the engineering of the vehicles and driving experience is just daft. They’re faster , smoother quieter etc
And they definitely don’t have skinny dangerous tyres like mad fizzy has stated
The mrs humble leaf has bigger tyres than her late c220 merc
Milk floats , how ridiculous!

 

[Morrisman]

This is because 2000 people could potentially plug in 2kw heaters 4000kw is a lot of juice to add on a whim.

At the point Evs are in wider use I'm confident the infrastructure will be in place.

I woke up today, coldest day so far this winter, to no electricity. I boiled a cuppa on the gas hob, checked Facebook local group on my phone, and the power is supposed to be back on by midday.
There are old people around here who don’t have gas, they’re all electric, so hopefully it does come on soon. We have no mains gas to my village, mine is bulk lpg. Some have oil though.

 

[Mick Annick]

Like Caterham meets - I turned up in a Caterham with the hood up, having slid my way there over the ice and all the grit - and I was told off by for being soft and having the roof on . . . as they climbed into Discovery's etc . .. I didn't bother again.

Morgan meets are the same. Did go to one once in the winter, had a great run back down the M40 roofless with a mate, though he’s much tougher than me - just aero screens on his car!

 

[fizzy]

This thread is funny
Questioning the source of battery minerals is valid
Being fearful of battery life for the second hand buyer is a real concern
Grid infrastructure again because of the charging is real . If everyone in my hamlet had a 6kw charger the transformer would need to be tripled.

But to question the engineering of the vehicles and driving experience is just daft. They’re faster , smoother quieter etc
And they definitely don’t have skinny dangerous tyres like mad fizzy has stated
The mrs humble leaf has bigger tyres than her late c220 merc
Milk floats , how ridiculous!

Nissan leaf is on 205 tyres and weighs 1700kg. Insignia at the same weight has 225 or 245 tyres.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

You are mistaken, they treat everybody the same, unless you're saying you drive your van like you stole it?

Maybe the 'Vark was referring to being parked up?

 

[daleyd]

Nissan leaf is on 205 tyres and weighs 1700kg. Insignia at the same weight has 225 or 245 tyres.

 

[500e]

May have different firmware for these country's as they expect that sort of weather, a route in battery to switch a heating circuit if temp is -** for a predetermined time
I am glad we are out of the motor trade

 

[fizzy]

View attachment 375958

I had one on 225s - understeered a lot and reduced braking - 245 was much better.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Maybe the 'Vark was referring to being parked up?

The quote was from a local native.

I have seen the local plod in action.
It was clear they targeting company cars, vans and a moped.
In Wales I took extra care .

 

[brewdexta]

It was -5 here overnight, our Leaf is fine. Takes a couple of minutes to get toasty warm inside and defrost the windows. Comes with a remote app to turn on heating/defrosting so by the time the monosyllabic kids have got their coats and shoes on, the car is ready for the school run.

 

[daleyd]

It was -5 here overnight, our Leaf is fine. Takes a couple of minutes to get toasty warm inside and defrost the windows. Comes with a remote app to turn on heating/defrosting so by the time the monosyllabic kids have got their coats and shoes on, the car is ready for the school run.

I’m surprised you could get it off the drive with those tyres

 

[dobbslc]

My Renault 5 had something like 145's on it! The door handles would scrape on the road before the tyres lost grip

My Surf has 265's on it and I would / have been looking the wrong way up the road before I could get the steering on full opposite lock
Orses for courses.

 

[DAPPH]

Reducing the range even further.......

Isn't the battery being kept warm whilst the car is connected to the charger on a floating trickle ? That would explain a half discharged battery unconnected to the mains showing on it's displays that it's too cold to operate.

 

[fizzy]

I’m surprised you could get it off the drive with those tyres

Of course in the snow skinny tyres are much better to bite through to the tarmac underneath. So you are quite right - there was a time I got stuck on a petrol station forecourt with the fat tyres not biting. An old Citroen 2cv with bicycle tyres had no problem at all

 

[brewdexta]

Little known fact. If you turn on heating/lights on ICE cars, their range reduces too! Who would guess? I thought they were magic. Evidently its something to do with some bloke called Newton I believe, I think he said something about the square of the hippopotamus being inversely proportional to the section of the car tyre, or something like that

 

[pressbrake1]

Nissan leaf is on 205 tyres and weighs 1700kg. Insignia at the same weight has 225 or 245 tyres.

It has 225 , I know I’ve got one

 

[DAPPH]

This thread is funny
Questioning the source of battery minerals is valid
Being fearful of battery life for the second hand buyer is a real concern
Grid infrastructure again because of the charging is real . If everyone in my hamlet had a 6kw charger the transformer would need to be tripled.

But to question the engineering of the vehicles and driving experience is just daft. They’re faster , smoother quieter etc
And they definitely don’t have skinny dangerous tyres like mad fizzy has stated
The mrs humble leaf has bigger tyres than her late c220 merc
Milk floats , how ridiculous!

Only if all chargers were on exactly at the same time & all going full belt. I suspect that the load soon drops once the initial switch on boost has taken place , juice is going into the batteries on diminishing demand as the batteries become more charged .
At a guess less than one third ( According to Smart Meter data usage ) will be on each day or night and even then if you are like me, the load can be held off till off peak rates become available