The EV fact thread

[SmartAmg]

I have no words...
Parking

I do, total F****** ****holes!!!!!

 

[ToeKnee]

My mate Dave might or might not be assembling a panel to participate in some very early consumer testing of cars retrofitted (with full manufacturer support) with new battery and charging technology.

It’s already running in LHD prototypes of the Porsche Taycan/Macan, Mercedes EQA/EQS and these will be the basis of the initial fleet. Neue Boxster and a secret city car will be available later.

Naturally the full cost of the car - including repairs, maintenance, public charging and insurance - will all be covered. Charging must be using the public network only, no charging at home/work.

Participants must sign an NDA and will be screened. The key criteria is that they must have a use case which they believe cannot be fulfilled by an EV. - the most challenging will be favoured.

Participants must also agree to having an app installed on their smartphone (device not provided) which will be used for passive and active data collection including location.

The main testing will be performed by professional test drivers. Measured objective data generated by what we’re calling “real world” drivers may or may not be used, their role is subjective assessment.

I can’t disclose details of how different the technology is, however the purpose is to gauge whether that difference is material enough to switch production models for 2028 MY.

Final thing is you must agree to use the car provided for every journey which you would use your own car for over 24 months, unless there’s a fault in which case an equivalent will be provided.

I’m guessing that it won’t be of interest to MBClubbers matching the criteria, but I thought I’d post it anyway to see if anyone bites. The NDA means you can’t disclose participation if selected.

PS There will be a quarterly 2-night trip to Stuttgart, which a 1-week induction and two 1-week debriefing sessions at the end. Oh and there is a 6 month lead time on RHD cars.

PPS The cars can be used for aocial, domestic, pleasure and commuting, but not for business use. An individual claiming mileage expenses is fine as this is not considered business use here.

: D​

No taxi drivers then.....

 

[markjay]

I do, total F****** ****holes!!!!!

Metal thieves is my guess... the same people who nick cables from the railways.

 

[SmartAmg]

Metal thieves is my guess... the same people who nick cables from the railways.

We can only hope, that one day, they'll get fried.

 

[BTB 500]

Metal thieves is my guess... the same people who nick cables from the railways.

Yup. High charging currents require hefty cables (lots of copper) to reduce losses due to resistance. Easy to take too, as presumably they're not carrying much (if any) voltage when not in use.

 

[BTB 500]

We can only hope, that one day, they'll get fried.

As above I'd assume the cables are quite safe until a car is hooked up, the 'handshake' with the charger is completed, and charging starts.

 

[SmartAmg]

As above I'd assume the cables are quite safe until a car is hooked up, the 'handshake' with the charger is completed, and charging starts.

So cutting the cable, won't see them off.
That's a shame.

 

[190]

We can only hope, that one day, they'll get fried.

When I worked at a very large industrial site, cable theft was a real and very expensive replacement problem. The fact that they were live cables didn't trouble them provided that they knew what they were doing. The act of severing a large cable will automatically trip the circuit because any metal implement first passes through the outer steel wire armouring which is earthed before it contacts the power conductor. This will either blow the fuse or trip the circuit breaker for larger cables.

This principle is actually employed during maintenance as a safety device. If we were going to cut a cable and particularly an 11KV cable and there was the slightest doubt that it had been correctly identified for isolation, then we would first spike the cable to ensure it was dead A spiking gun is a device that is fitted around the cable with a metal spike that is driven through the cable by various means included hydraulics, an explosive cartridge or in the old days simply hitting the spike with a sledge hammer. Of course it's not a safe operation close up so our spiking gun was actuated remotely via a lanyard device. With one of these live cable theft could be tackled safely.

 

[markjay]

So cutting the cable, won't see them off.
That's a shame.

Unless they do it when it's raining (taking a punch at the anti-EV brigade.... )

 

[poormansporsche]

Well a surprising bonus of EV ownership ..........

Pi££ing off "Corporate"

So us £1 over minimum wage workers that start at 5.30 am on a Sunday can cadge all the plum free EV charger spots at work.


So leave work at 3.30 PM to find a certain £150,000 German EV has parked 3 inches away from my drivers door in next non EV spot. Obviously pi££ed that us pleb workers who can actually get out of bed have used all the free charging points..........

Funnily enough a EV charging lead is quite a weighty substantial bit of kit when dragged all along the side of a inconsiderately parked car ...................

 

[Bellow]

Well a surprising bonus of EV ownership ..........

Pi££ing off "Corporate"

So us £1 over minimum wage workers that start at 5.30 am on a Sunday can cadge all the plum free EV charger spots at work.


So leave work at 3.30 PM to find a certain £150,000 German EV has parked 3 inches away from my drivers door in next non EV spot. Obviously pi££ed that us pleb workers who can actually get out of bed have used all the free charging points..........

Funnily enough a EV charging lead is quite a weighty substantial bit of kit when dragged all along the side of a inconsiderately parked car ...................

To be clear, you left your car connected between 05.30 and 15.30 - ten hours - yes?

 

[poormansporsche]

To be clear, you left your car connected between 05.30 and 15.30 - ten hours - yes?

Yes, like everyone else who works there, we have no choice, it's how the shift patterns work. On the rare occasion that I do return to the depot mid shift I do move my car to one of the other 200 bays that the Corporate bod could have parked in, but he decided he wanted to be a *****.

 

[poormansporsche]

To be clear, you left your car connected between 05.30 and 15.30 - ten hours - yes?

Also thinking about it I've never actually seen a high end car in our pleb car park before, perhaps there is a corporate car park elsewhere on site that I've never seen, it's a possibility as our site is massive. I can't see the suits putting up with our ding a day, tiny sized bays. Perhaps that was why he was pi££ed, having to park with the hoi polloi and not being able to charge.

 

[poormansporsche]

We can only hope, that one day, they'll get fried.

Does anyone remember this, grrrrrrr

‘Neighbour from hell’ jailed over Lancashire gas blast that killed toddler

 

[BIGDOG]

Well a surprising bonus of EV ownership ..........

Pi££ing off "Corporate"

So us £1 over minimum wage workers that start at 5.30 am on a Sunday can cadge all the plum free EV charger spots at work.


So leave work at 3.30 PM to find a certain £150,000 German EV has parked 3 inches away from my drivers door in next non EV spot. Obviously pi££ed that us pleb workers who can actually get out of bed have used all the free charging points..........

Funnily enough a EV charging lead is quite a weighty substantial bit of kit when dragged all along the side of a inconsiderately parked car ...................

You scratched his car?

 

[poormansporsche]

You scratched his car?

I don't know and I didn't look. All I know is if someone parks 3 inches away from my car to make some pathetic nonsensical point (well over the white line as well, I might add) when I have to squeeze though with my charging lead I'm not going to have it on my car side of my body am I or chuck 300 quids worth of lead over my bonnet and hope it doesn't hit the car the other side that had parked considerately ????

 

[Deleted member 55947]

Anyone for negative equity?

EV owners facing negative equity
The Mail

 

[markjay]

Anyone for negative equity?

EV owners facing negative equity
The Mail

That's bad news for private buyers who used finance to buy a new EV. It could mean that after the initial loan has been repaid, they still own money to the finance provider, which is something that they were clearly not expecting.

Obviously, it won't affect business users, or anyone who got their new EV on a lease, or on a deal with guaranteed future value.

But clearly some (many?) will ne caught out.

And, at the same time, there will be much rejoicing among second-hand EV buyers.

I guess it's like the housing market.... when house prices come down, first-time buyers cheer the availability of affordable housing, while those with existing mortgages weep as they are plunged into negative equity.

There will always be winners and losers... that's how the economy works.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Anyone for negative equity?

EV owners facing negative equity
The Mail

This has forever been the case and will equally be the case for ICE too. I suspect there will be more cases of negative equity in recent times and in the near future though as during the used car price bubble some finance deals may have assumed that the market would remain buoyant but all car prices have slumped and so the GFV will be high. That’s not because EV values have “crashed” it’s because all car prices were artificially high, both ICE and EV.

Unfortunately when the car market cooled down and prices softened and then slumped, at the same time interest rates shot up and so cars sales cooled. A monthly car budget would not stretch so far meaning that people bought less expensive models (as they now cost the same as the relatively more expensive models they had before), and finance deals were based in optimistic GFV as it effectively reduces the monthly repayment.

In practice the majority of car finance agreements are PCP which enables the customer to hand back the car protecting them from negative equity. The same is true for cars which are leased, and so only a small minority will have been financed using traditional HP, and guess what. negative equity won’t apply to them as by definition the outstanding balance at the end of the term is zero, nil, nada.

So not lazy sensationalist journalism at all

 

[markjay]

This has forever been the case and will equally be the case for ICE too. I suspect there will be more cases of negative equity in recent times and in the near future though as during the used car price bubble some finance deals may have assumed that the market would remain buoyant but all car prices have slumped and so the GFV will be high. That’s not because EV values have “crashed” it’s because all car prices were artificially high, both ICE and EV.

Unfortunately when the car market cooled down and prices softened and then slumped, at the same time interest rates shot up and so cars sales cooled. A monthly car budget would not stretch so far meaning that people bought less expensive models (as they now cost the same as the relatively more expensive models they had before), and finance deals were based in optimistic GFV as it effectively reduces the monthly repayment.

In practice the majority of car finance agreements are PCP which enables the customer to hand back the car protecting them from negative equity. The same is true for cars which are leased, and so only a small minority will have been financed using traditional HP, and guess what. negative equity won’t apply to them as by definition the outstanding balance at the end of the term is zero, nil, nada.

So not lazy sensationalist journalism at all

Shame on you - you've just ruined yet another Daily Mail scaremongering article!