IDD15

MG5 looks as if it will hold up well across wear & tear, mechanics/electrics, and drive battery metrics… Efficiency is looking good too. Cleveley MG5 report With its recent facelift think it’s going to be more popular. Certainly these Cleveley mobile workshops dispel the myth that EVs are only good for shopping imho. And you can do a Frunk conversion too!😀 idd

Well the new nozzle has arrived and all is good in the world of Bosch glue guns with it working a treat. So my thanks again to Keith for the heads up on the one from Amazon. Might try dismantling the old nozzle to try and work out what went wrong with a view to preventing it happening again. Cheers idd

Excellent, just ordered one from Amazon. Thanks for your help. idd

This is depressing, and spoiler alert it gets more depressing at the end.. Electric Mini production moving to China idd 😢

Agreed, it is going to take a lot more than EV's to save the planet. However, by making a choice in using my discretionary spending power to drive an EV I can at least make some contribution. Sadly in this day and age I think peoples wallets have more power than their vote. As for veganism and saving the planet, well I think it would be best to start another thread/topic for that. 😃 TTFN idd

Gotta be a wind up, who sprung this on us?

Moving on… The only available EV estate in the UK has had quite a nice facelift and a few other tweaks. Spoiler alert, rear seats do not fold flat. MG5 Estate James who works for specialist EV shop Cleveleys likes it as his travelling workshop. 40000 Mile MG5 idd

But it’s not just CO2 is it? You would never work on your landy with the engine running in an enclosed space, it would be just too dangerous. Fundamentally burning stuff is bad for all of us: Asthma Link Dementia link Cancer Link We didn’t know the half of this 30 odd years ago, but we do now. It’s time to move on and do things better IMHO for everyone’s sake. idd

SMMT have reported the September Sales figures for new cars and according to them there are now just over 1M cars with a plug (BEV and PHEV) on UK roads, a significant milestone. Interestingly the Tesla model Y was the second best seller last month. Given that Tesla is ramping up production at its plants in Shanghai and Berlin were the cars are built it will be interesting to see if it maintains such a good position. Charging infrastructure is also continuing to improve with Zap Map reporting: "1,126 new charging devices were installed across the country in September. This brings the UK total to 34,860 devices, across 20,888 locations. It also represents a 35% increase in the number of charging devices since September 2021. Furthermore, last month saw 256 new rapid and ultra-rapid charging devices installed, bringing the total to 6,411. This includes an increase of 76% in the number of ultra-rapid devices – capable of adding from 70 miles in as little as 15 minutes – since September last year" In summary the numbers for EVs continue to move in the right direction. Cheers idd

Lidl have a hot glue gun on offer at the moment at £7-99 with 3yr guarantee. I bought one to replace my £10 Hobbycraft gun which I have found a bit naff. It had been bought to replace my relatively expensive Bosch version that packed up during a build and I think needs a replacement nozzle at £20! After a spot of testing the Lidl gun is looking very promising. The gun can be used corded for continuous use, or cordless for a comfortable 4-5 minutes of gluing. The nozzle is quite long making it easier to use on FT designs. Importantly it does not appear to drip when in the stand so your not pumping the trigger to fill the chamber between gluing steps and wasting adhesive. It also comes with a stand, carrying case, 3 glue sticks and the power cord is a useful 2m long. All in all I think it is good value, here’s hoping it doesn’t pack up on me! cheers idd

Seems like a good idea, when you consider the amount of land given over to storing cars you double the use of the land. As a bonus cars under the canopy will be cooler so the a/c won’t be working as hard either when it’s driven off. It won’t make the PM feel sick either, bless. Win win win! 😀 idd

Yes it does and I’ve found them very effective. It also has a good reversing camera as well. However, I do find the view out the rear window a bit restricted compared to other cars I’ve owned. Quite understand where GM is coming from with that particular reversing noise though. We have found that horses and cows don’t like the forwards warning sound much either, so am very cautious when overtaking riders and horses. Audi eTrons have a really cool sounding forward warning noise, Nissan take note. idd

My September 2019 Leaf does not generate a noise when reversing, and I have a button next to the charge port flap release were I can turn off the forward warning noise when travelling below 20 km/hr. So I'm guessing it was built just before the legislation came in. Welcome to the Leaf owners club, hope it all works out for you as well as my Leaf(s) have for me. 👍👍👍 idd PS. Don't forget you can use your overnight leccy rate for other things than charging the car. They don't know (yet!) what you are using the electric for! 😉

My vote would be for a Swiss scheme, but of the three above the top tropical scheme would be my choice. Cheers Idd

Interesting report on how charging infrastructure is improving all the time in the UK. ZAP Map Half year charging report Having just done a 650 mile road trip to the North East without any "charging issues" I'd agree things are starting to look quite good for EV's there. With the SMMT reporting that there are nearly 1M cars on the road with a plug (500,000 BEV and 400,000 PHEV) demand is going to keep rising and solutions such as the new large charging hub at Oxford are welcome news. More local charging facilities are also starting to roll out at a pace now with both Cornwall and Gloucestershire councils significant numbers of chargers as just two recent examples. idd

As a follow up to the Lightyear super efficient car above Mercedes have a development vehicle that has achieved quite staggering levels of efficiency as can be seen from this video. To put it into a bit of context if my Leaf were as efficient as this vehicle I'd be doubling its effective range, and 300 miles is way beyond my comfort capacity! 😀 I'll take this as a positive sign (optimistic?) that Mercedes are going to move away from the "bung a bigger battery in it" design approach that does tend to characterise their current line up of EV's IMHO. Mercedes EQXX idd

Might be worth checking the lipo packs separately under load first to make sure you don’t have a duff cell in one of them. You’ll need a multimeter, wattmeter, or battery checker for this. I’d also check the esc settings as well for low voltage cut off and number of cells. It can be all too easy to enter program mode when you’re setting things up as I’ve found to my cost! What have you used to configure the esc’s? If you have a multimeter you can also use it to measure the resistance of the cell windings and that there are no shorts to the motor case. Doesn’t sound as if you fried the esc because you’ve not said anything about smoke and smells, and on a 12s system if something went that wrong I think you’d let the magic smoke out! HTH idd

Yes an EV uses some cobalt but by far the biggest use of cobalt is for the desulphurisation of petrol and diesel fuels. Cobalt Institute Strangely “Big Oil” never seems to come up in this argument… There have been a number of initiatives to reduce “child labour” including legislation in Europe, the USA and China which hopefully will reduce the problem, but in all probability will not eliminate it. There is also huge investment going on for reducing the need for the likes of cobalt in the production of EV batteries and other components. For example: Tesla Cobalt Free LFP batteries I guess the best we can do as individual consumers is ensure we buy from “certified “ sources and always recycle as best we can. idd

This chap should know if there’s going to be enough electrons to go around… Chris Harris talks electricity In respect of the Lightyear in winter, then yes you would be charging it more frequently then in the summer. But it would still be using those electrons 3 times more efficiently than some of the heavyweight vehicles from the “premium” brands. The whole point of the Lightyear and it’s attention to detail is to do a lot more with less, so less battery, less weight, less electricity. At the moment the design trend from the traditional car makers appears to be “just chuck a bigger battery in it”. A second super efficient vehicle called the APTERA is supposedly close to production in the USA. However, it has had a somewhat “checkered” history so I’m not so sure. It is also pretty radical in terms of looks so may not be accepted by the market, but that is a difficult call to make. idd

I’ve been following the Lightyear story for quite a while and it looks as if it may become reality, albeit an expensive one for now. So thought this alternative approach to EV design may be of interest. For reference I am on average achieving 4.2 m/kWhr in the Leaf. YMMV. Lightyear gets closer. Will the technology make its way into a cheaper EV? I Hope so as I’m not a big fan of the mahoosive battery approach. idd

Meanwhile the Ami may go a bit roughty toughty with added Tupperware.. Ami goes suv like what was that said earlier about design students? idd

Probably a better option than the Ami for the UK city car market. The specs remind me of my first and only mini! We just need Dacia to bring them over here… Fully Charged Dacia Spring review. idd

Is that with or without whistle sir? idd PS Etrons have a really star trekkie pedestrian warning noise which IMHO sounds ? We Leaf drivers merely have a sort of low whistling sound, very boring!

My reasoning is quite simply the cost of the battery, it’s often quite a bit more for the larger battery option which you may not use 95% of the time. Also having seen and experienced encouraging signs that fast charging infrastructure is finally getting better (yes I have adopted a glass half full approach here!) then the need for a mahoosive battery diminishes further. In terms of fast charging capability when you are “road tripping” I think the faster the better, my constitution can only handle one McDonalds and a couple of cups of coffee a day! ? You may not have experienced this given your Leaf can fast charge twice as fast as mine, envious Moi? ? Clearly if someone decides that all they want to do is 300 plus mile round trips with no fast or destination charging then all of the above goes straight out the window and they buy a big Tesla… ? All of the above is of course IMHO and what I have found suits me may not work for somebody else. Really glad you’re enjoying your Leaf BTW. ? idd

No problem. Yes that's what I mean but it also works for the Aircon. Obviously I cannot be too specific as car choice is very personal but I think the Kia eNiro may suit your needs. Very capable vehicle. Also be aware MG5 is due an update this coming November. MG's previous update on their MG ZS SUV was very significant so the 5 update hopefully will be good to. Cheers Idd