Advice regarding driving to France and Switzerland

[markjay]

When I saw his cheeky 120mph, it was the tyres on his 1.9 2.4 tonne EV that were worrying me....

It's a heavy car alright, but let's not get carried away..

 

[markjay]

Besides, the tyres are Michelin Sport EV 255/45 R20 105W Extra Load.... should be good for up to 168mph

 

[clk320x]

Would your range anxiety be different for example driving to Austria via the autobahns at 130mph as a good number of people I know do (their comments are even at 130mph there is always someone trying to get past them)

I drove to Germany in my last Tesla, usually sitting at around 120mph on the Autobahn - you can always add energy to the battery quicker than you can use it (on a supercharger) so my advice is to just drive as fast as possible . Plenty of Superchargers en-route.

 

[Dippo]

Are we there yet?

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Besides, the tyres are Michelin Sport EV 255/45 R20 105W Extra Load.... should be good for up to 168mph

So no problem to get that 115mph software speed limit chipped out

 

[markjay]

So no problem to get that 115mph software speed limit chipped out

As long as you reinstate it before the car goes back to the finance provider....

 

[markjay]

.
..so my advice is to just drive as fast as possible

Now, now....

 

[BTB 500]

The reason that ICE drivers don't get range anxiety is mainly because there are plenty of petrol stations everywhere, and not because they don't mind walking a couple of miles with a 10L fuel can

And because they can typically do 500-600 miles at motorway speeds (no, not necessarily non-stop) before they need to think about refuelling. And yes I know this doesn't apply to an ML63

 

[BTB 500]

so I drove at 120 mph using the adaptive cruise control.

When it was much newer I had our Vito up to an indicated 120 mph on a quiet and unrestricted autobahn, on a nice sunny day. That was just a one-off to try it out though.

 

[Bellow]

One good thing that might ensue from EVs is the disappearance of the egotistical 'need' for top speeds that are all but unusable and even when usable, hardly an all year round event for the vast majority of UK drivers. Might even lead to wheels/tyres/suspension configured for the reality of potholed roads.

 

[ALFAitalia]

There are still 200mpg EVs for sale....so I doubt it. People who buy fast ICE cars now will want fast EVs too.....If not all sports cars makers will go out of business.


This one does 207mph.....but with 1234hp it should!!

 

[markjay]

My guess is that anyone who buys a car for its top speed, be it a Lucid or any petrol AMG variant, won't care much about range anyway. The funny thing is that for an EV to have more bhp, it needs a bigger battery, which will also give it more range (when not driven at top speed), whether the owner cares about it or not....

 

[Dippo]

There are still 200mpg EVs for sale....so I doubt it. People who buy fast ICE cars now will want fast EVs too.....If not all sports cars makers will go out of business.

I may be wrong, but I think all EVs are far higher than 200mpg!

 

[BTB 500]

The funny thing is that for an EV to have more bhp, it needs a bigger battery, which will also give it more range (when not driven at top speed), whether the owner cares about it or not....

Not really. Power (watts) is voltage x current, so you can get more power by increasing the voltage or the current (or both). You can pull more current by simply fitting a more powerful motor (or motors) and using exactly the same battery. Or you can use a battery with a higher voltage to provide more power at the same current.

One of the fastest electric hypercars is the Aspark Owl - this produces close to 2000 bhp and does 0-60 in 1.69 secs, with a top speed of almost 250 mph. But it only has a 64 kWh battery (giving a claimed range of 280 miles).

Fastest electric cars of 2025

CAR magazine UK lists the fastest electric cars of 2025.

www.carmagazine.co.uk

 

[markjay]

Not really. Power (watts) is voltage x current, so you can get more power by increasing the voltage or the current (or both). You can pull more current by simply fitting a more powerful motor (or motors) and using exactly the same battery. Or you can use a battery with a higher voltage to provide more power at the same current.

One of the fastest electric hypercars is the Aspark Owl - this produces close to 2000 bhp and does 0-60 in 1.69 secs, with a top speed of almost 250 mph. But it only has a 64 kWh battery (giving a claimed range of 280 miles).

Fastest electric cars of 2025

CAR magazine UK lists the fastest electric cars of 2025.

www.carmagazine.co.uk

And yet, the faster Lucid (Air Grand Touring) has a battery pack of 112kWh and 500+ WLTP range....

 

[BTB 500]

And yet, the faster Lucid (Air Grand Touring) has a battery pack of 112kWh and 500+ WLTP range....

Sure - you can put a bigger pack in a high performance car to increase the range ... but it doesn't need this in order to generate high power levels. The new Tesla Roadster is supposed to have a 200 kWh battery

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

One good thing that might ensue from EVs is the disappearance of the egotistical 'need' for top speeds that are all but unusable and even when usable, hardly an all year round event for the vast majority of UK drivers. Might even lead to wheels/tyres/suspension configured for the reality of potholed roads.

A desirable thought, but the evidence is scant.

I used to think that my ‘98 E55 was fast with 300bhp. Quarter of a century on that’s family saloon numbers and now it takes 700bhp to win office bragging rights.

And bizarrely we can’t actually do 125 on the M4 or A3 in the way you could, back in 1999.

 

[keith of kent]

Isn't it time that the Mods moved this thread to the EV forum?
I am driving to France and Switzerland in a few weeks but not in an EV so this thread is of no use to me.
Shall I post up how far the car went before it needed refueling, how long to refuel, how many pumps at the filling station etc;
I doubt that anyone would be in the slightest bit interested

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Isn't it time that the Mods moved this thread to the EV forum?
I am driving to France and Switzerland in a few weeks but not in an EV so this thread is of no use to me.
Shall I post up how far the car went before it needed refueling, how long to refuel, how many pumps at the filling station etc;
I doubt that anyone would be in the slightest bit interested

The top of the thread will still tell you everything you need to know, from Crit’Air to how to avoid Paris, from toll tags to buying fuel off the motorway network, and from speeding camera fines to redundant requirements to have breathalysers, bulbs and prescription glasses in the car.

It’s a shame that no-one uses all those EV charging points, but the Dinosaurs do have a peculiar obsession with them. Which is odd because they themselves admit that they always drive 600 miles a day, without stopping at these busy service areas for food or a comfort break.

 

[nyssa7]

I still believe the main reason for range anxiety, at least in terms of keeping the speed down in an EV for fear of using the charge too quickly (ie lower fuel consumption) is because EVs give 100 graduations between empty and full, usually spelt out in big numbers on the dash, where on an ICE vehicle you might see 0-1/4-1/2-3/4-Full (although my Elise inaccurately states number of litres left as Refill, 11-33 & Full). You just get so much more accuracy of how the charge level/range is going down in a way that you do not so easily see a 10mpg difference between cruising at 50mph or 75 mph in an ICE car