Electric Car Experiences

[uer166]

is a reliable system or a flaky system best?

Think about the DCFC CCS case: using the mechanical release and (potentially) pulling the plug during charge under load will result in a big 800VDC zorch, destroying both the charger cable connector and EV inlet, not to mention the risk of eye damage/shock. I'll take the reliable one with occasional issues, thank you.

I'm quite sure neither CCS nor Chademo depends on the mechanical locking alone for disconnect safety. They surely must use control signals, pins of which disconnect first and quickly open the HVDC contactors (in the car/battery pack and in the charger).

Correct, they have some hardware to kill power as you pull the plug so it would need to be a double fault, that's why I used the word "potentially".

In the AC EVSE case, you can pull the plugs out faster than the relays disconnect (standard is 100ms from loss of control pilot to opening relays), I'm not sure if same is possible on CCS; if it is then you'd only need a broken latch to arc it.

[stryker]

Hi everyone,

We just returned from a 2700km long weekend trip from Brisbane down to Temora for the air show in our 5+ year old Model 3 SR+ so thought I'd share here.

The car was flawless - still trying to work out the pack degradation but it's minimal and didn't impact the journey. Traveling down the Newell we got to try the new NRMA sites, with mixed experiences. Two were great (one quite fast), Parkes was down (with just an apology on the NRMA app) and the Temora one stopped a few times & required restarts (though it entirely forgot to bill us too). After finding Parkes offline we called forward to a Forbes motel with a destination charger who accepted my offered payment without renting a room for an hour and a half top-up which got us to West Wyalong. It's a reminder electrons are available basically everywhere...but you'll just need to wait longer for them.

The drive home was up the coast via Evie and Tesla sites, where the Evie ones did have 2 of 4 stalls down but at least they had redundancy, and the Tesla ones were flawless as usual. We saw upwards of 170kW initially at both Evie and Tesla sites. The NRMA advertise 50kW but delivered 40-50 even from very low SoC. Navigating to 3rd party charger sites now starts the preconditioning battery heating which used to be limited to just the Tesla ones - that's an improvement since my last long trip now the in-car map shows many of the non-Tesla charge sites. Evie at Sutton Forest with the 2 stalls out was the only time we had to queue for other cars, but the free charger at Warwick on the way down had others waiting for us before we departed.

I'd pre-planned the trip on abrp and navigated using the in-car and that combo worked fine. I was hoping to use abrp this time, but managed to smash the screen on my phone night before we left...tldr: didn't bother; maybe next time.

Overall, loved it. We'll be doing it again when Warbirds Downunder returns (plague and floods notwithstanding) in 2 years time.
Cheers! Geoff

[f4eru]

Nice

still trying to work out the pack degradation but it's minimal and didn't impact the journey.

I recommend doing the official Tesla battery degradation measurement, in the service mode.
1) Come back home with very low battery on a day you don't need the car in the next 24h
2) connect charger, get into service mode
3) select HVBattery, start SOH test
4) let the car do itßs stuff uninterrupted for 24h
5) at the end of the test, read the SOH
6) drive the car to not stay at 100%

I got 12% degradation after 105 000km on a SR+ from California, which is OK (keep in mind the first year has a few percent more degradation)

https://youtu.be/Hc7jI3BsQYQ?si=vA_b4hhXIhad7fQU&t=187

[mikerj]

I got 12% degradation after 105 000km on a SR+ from California, which is OK (keep in mind the first year has a few percent more degradation)

That seems rather high?  The data from Plug In America suggests that level of degradation would typicaly be seen in cars with ~125k+ miles on them.

[stryker]

I recommend doing the official Tesla battery degradation measurement, in the service mode.
1) ...

I got 12% degradation after 105 000km on a SR+ from California, which is OK (keep in mind the first year has a few percent more degradation)

Thanks for the tip. I'm in no hurry, as our deg hasn't impacted trip planning at all so I'd be surprised if it's as high as 12%. Sparky is a first Australian shipment California build so one of the oldest 3's in the country, but since new we only charge to 60% nightly on AC so in those 5+ years she's been 100% SoC only a handful of times, and fast charged maybe 20x which I think has contributed. On the highway I tend to set the limit to 90% to avoid the final slowdown, and still get regen too. We're about to hit 80k on the odo for comparison.

[f4eru]

it's a bit on the high side, but keep in mind that most cars in the study are probably 80kWh.

On a SR+ (50kWh), the battery does more cycles per the same odometer reading.
Those older SR+ is also a NMC/NCA, newer ones get LFP, which is better also in terms of lower degradation

[coppice]

it's a bit on the high side, but keep in mind that most cars in the study are probably 80kWh.

Why would you think that? Aren't the cheaper models the high volume ones?

[f4eru]

my impression was that for early model 3, much more LR and AWD were sold, because people could.
Also, high mileage cars tend to be the ones who selected more range.

[OldBeginner]

Hi everyone! My son bought a Tesla Model Y. I wanted to find out some useful information...

[EEVblog]

Hi everyone! My son bought a Tesla Model Y. I wanted to find out some useful information...

I'd learn the manual override on the door handles, just in case you get trapped inside.

[OldBeginner]

I'd learn the manual override on the door handles, just in case you get trapped inside.

Thank You very much for your advice, maybe you right 

[EEVblog]

I'd learn the manual override on the door handles, just in case you get trapped inside.
Thank You very much for your advice, maybe you right 

Hmm, looking at your posts, are you a bot?

[OldBeginner]

Sorry , I am not a bot! I am not good speak English and it is my first time chatting at the forum in English;)

[Teknow]

In English am, is, are and their mother (be from which or from her am are is come) are followed by names, adjectives and adverbs:

I am a robot, he is a human being, she is a woman.
I am happy, he is intelligent, they are lucky.
I am here, he is away, she is abroad etc.

but when we talk about actions and deeds  we use verbs:

I speak, I do speak, I don't speak English well.
He knows, he knows that well, he doesn't know.
They know, they don't know, they do the work.

[OldBeginner]

Thank you very much for your convenience a little more learn English!
Cheers

[Teknow]

I learned English well from electronics. It has been my hobby ever since I was 10 years old. I got an Audels Radioman's in the 1970s. And started reading and using the dictionary. Now you can find videos in YouTube teaching English.

[bwiseso1]

Is there a reliable non western brand of EV that someone would recommend? Except for SK and Japan.

[Fred27]

I don't see any mentions of electric motorcycles in this thread. I've been very happy with my Zero SR/F since 2022, and a Zero FXS before that until some idiot wrote it off (and broke my ribs and shoulder blade in the process). Until recently I also had a Ducati Hypermotard 950 and when it came to getting rid of one of them I decided the Zero was more fun and kept that.

My wife's also very happy with her Model 3. I'm currently considering replacing my 20 year old VW Transporter with an ID Buzz too.

[snickers]

Hi everybody.

Audi A3 2026 PHEV 272hp.

In Warsaw public chargers are more expencive than pertol  .

[NiHaoMike]

https://capwolf.com/ev-demand-surges-amid-iran-war-oil-crisis/
Demand for EVs is way up thanks to the fragile nature of the oil supply chain.

[EEVblog]

Problems in Australia:
https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/on-the-road/disaster-ev-owners-left-waiting-for-hours-in-easter-holiday-chaos/news-story/a5ae4a1eea01e5a512f61881b9397f40
https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/australias-ev-charging-network-faces-disaster-as-surging-demand-outpaces-plugs/news-story/d0c18e419d6eee7c3513c381a4dec56e

[Siwastaja]

Problems in Australia:
https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/on-the-road/disaster-ev-owners-left-waiting-for-hours-in-easter-holiday-chaos/news-story/a5ae4a1eea01e5a512f61881b9397f40
https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/australias-ev-charging-network-faces-disaster-as-surging-demand-outpaces-plugs/news-story/d0c18e419d6eee7c3513c381a4dec56e

Non-trendy, unsexy type 2 "slow" AC charging, which is actually surprisingly fast, is the solution.

Car journalists hate it: it is colossally important that your charging time is below 7 minutes every 400km; if it exceeds the time it takes to urinate and grab a take-away coffee even by 1 minute, the car is ancient unusable crap.

And yet, real world has rush hours, peak power demands; even 160kW chargers are expensive, getting power for 20 of them is even more expensive; 50 x 400kW chargers is pure unrealism 99% of the time. That means quick charging infrastructure will be dimensioned for <99% duty cycle, period. It is not scalable to 100%. Yet people need near-100%.

For the cost of ten trendy 400kW quick chargers, you get like 200 or so 22kW AC chargers which charge most cars at around ~11kW (specifics depend on country, single-phase vs. three phase etc., but that's the ballpark). Basically you can just wire up every spot in the parking lot and even that isn't prohibitively expensive - that's what we have in Scandinavia, large parking lots full of those things equipped with a timer, socket and a lock mechanism, for engine block / interior heaters. The cost of 11kW EVSE is basically the same.

That 11kW is roughly 100-150km for 1 hour of charge. Nearly full charge in 2 hours. Yeah, unsexy. So we need to choose:
* wait 5 hours in line, having to sit in or near you car all the time so that the line can move; finally quick charge for 10 minutes, or
* park conveniently, plug in, go have a meal and do some shopping or whatever, come back after 1-2 hours and you are done.

AC charging infrastructure doesn't cost much anything and it also serves plug-in hybrids. It's the lifesaver in peak usage (holiday season).

[mikeselectricstuff]

Battery degradation and replacement cost is a real consideration

Not really - most EVs come with 8 years' battery warranty, and experience has shown that it will typically outlast the car, and then still have value for home storage etc.

[Siwastaja]

Battery degradation and replacement cost is a real consideration

Not really - most EVs come with 8 years' battery warranty, and experience has shown that it will typically outlast the car, and then still have value for home storage etc.

They absolutely had to do that, because if what princeexpert was really true, no one would buy an EV, it would be just too huge of a risk.

And yet still, to some degree that's still a concern - there are cases where relatively minor "scratch" in the bottom of the car results in total loss of the expensive vehicle - possibly so that owner is not even aware that something has happened, until an inspection reveals that now you need a 30k (€ or $) spare part, and can't legally do anything else but to obey.

But giving 8 year / 100 000 mile or similar guarantee against manufacturing errors, premature wear etc. patterns seems to be the bare minimum by which manufacturers have gained significant public trust. And anecdotal evidence of how rare HV battery problems actually are, and especially how little capacity loss there is, is now helping to build trust - generally the li-ion industry has done excellent job. Issues are mostly everywhere else in the car, making everything more complex, and changing everything "just because we can", and the component people were most cautious about, the HV li-ion battery, is the most reliable one.

[woody]

Car journalists hate it: it is colossally important that your charging time is below 7 minutes every 400km; if it exceeds the time it takes to urinate and grab a take-away coffee even by 1 minute, the car is ancient unusable crap.

Remarkably this is something I never hear people who actually drive an EV complain about. We tend to like the extra time needed for charging to take that much needed leak and getting a bite and a drink and before you downed these the car is good to go for another 300-400km. Rinse and repeat on long hauls, with the added bonus that you do not end up at your destination completely drained, like in olden days in the V70 that could do a 1000k on a tank which you were desperately trying to match in helmsmanship.

Might be me getting old, but I actually like the fact I need to get off the road every couple of hundred kilometers.