Well, overnight granny charging was a success!

The car charged to 100% and 244 miles of range.

Yippee!

#MG5 #EV

Checking the weekend rally results, there were three Alpines entered. Two electric A290s and a petrol A110. One of the #EV A290s beat the A110. The other was only fractionally behind. They're quite different machines, but that's pretty cool.

Genuinely interested in who is using InstaVolt chargers at a frankly still-absurd £0.89/kWh - how are they even still in business? Are that many people using them off-peak at £0.60/kWh or are there some sort of further discounts for fleet users or something? #ev

Edit: I have signed up to the Octopus Electroverse card, and Sue has signed up to ZapMap.

Thank you all for the advice. There may be more questions to come in due course.
_______________

UK EV owners.
Which charge card do you use/recommend, please?

We can only charge on a granny lead at home so will need to be able to use public charge points, urban and motorway.

Thank you.

#EV #Charging

@stefano @mwl as much as I want electric vehicles – not least, for the long-term economy (and, arguably, the environment) – I simply cannot afford one.

My 2005 Mercedes-Benz E 320 CDI (W211, estate) is relatively costly for fuel, tax, and the parking permit, but the purchase price was super low. Maybe £1,100 around five years ago.

I feel genuinely sorry for work colleagues who have much more modern vehicles that are shockingly expensive when maintenance and repairs, sometimes botched, are required.

My most recent annual MOT test: fail-free. Nothing more than the cost of the test.

As joyfully reliable as a W124? I had three of those in the past. Five years with the W211 is too soon for me to judge.

<https://goo.gl/photos/oeMVRzEDPCUi1YtD7> my first W124.

#Mercedes #EV

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W124 driver's view of the interior.

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W124 seven-seater, rear-facing seats up.

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1980s classic.

@nick Switching to #EV was one of my best decisions of 2025. I haven’t gone so far as to charge it on solar for free, but the cost savings in maintenance and off-peak electricity costs vs gasoline are huge. #MME

#EV promised cleaner air. Satellites say it’s finally happening.
"A pretty small addition of cars at the ZIP code level led to a decline in air pollution," said Sandrah Eckel, a public health professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "It's remarkable."
The headline number is modest but measurable: for every 200 #ZEV added in a neighborhood, #NO2 levels fell by about 1.1% between 2019 and 2023.
https://electrek.co/2026/01/26/evs-promised-cleaner-air-satellites-say-its-finally-happening/

We’re in the market to upgrade our remaining non-EV car to an #EV. We’d like 200-300 miles range, large hatchback or small SUV is about the right size. Would probably look at 2-3 years old. Any recommendations or models to avoid? Currently on a Merc A Class and the EV is a Mini Cooper.

2026 Honda Super-One electric car transitions from concept to production unchanged

It’s not unusual for car brands to pull back from the more fanciful elements of a concept car for the production version, but the Honda Super-One arrives faithful to pre-production show cars.

https://www.drive.com.au/news/2026-honda-super-one-electric-car-transitions-from-concept-to-production-unchanged/

Fuck yeah purple!

#WeirdCarMastodon #EV

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Purple Honda Super One EV

#FleetManagers across the whole country must take note of this incident and build in sufficient slack time for a #driver to try any unfamiliar #vehicle *before* they are expected to drive it with time pressures, and create #WorkCulture where they aren't afraid to say "I haven't driven an #EV or #automatic #car / #van before"

Ideally a colleague can sit in passenger seat with them and check they are using safe techniques - a go-kart or computer racing game is *not* suitable training, they often encourage left-foot braking which is exactly how someone more used to a #manual vehicle could make this dangerous mistake (its also a common problem with #seniors who get their first two pedal car after a lifetime of having 3 pedals to deal with) #RoadSafety #UK #Europe

@vfrmedia

Encourage and facilitate development in #EV #charging infrastructure to point its as easy to find and transparently priced as #petrol and #diesel

Price caps on EV charging points on motorways would help here. These are amazingly useful at the very high speeds: plug in the car, pop in for a quick biology break. But they're also 4x or more the cost of charging elsewhere. 2x would make EVs noticeably cheaper to drive long distances than petrol or diesel, but at the current motorway service station prices they're about the same and less convenient.

Invest in training and education of #mechanics (both for conventional and EV cars) and #electricians where private sector is lacking

Strengthening right-to-repair laws would also help: make sure that local mechanics can service these things without paying huge amounts.

If #GreenParty #UK wants to succeed, they need to reformulate #transport policy to offer more #carrots instead of sticks..

* Keep same timescale for bans of *new* #petrol and #diesel cars as rest of EU

* Encourage and facilitate development in #EV #charging infrastructure to point its as easy to find and transparently priced as #petrol and #diesel

* Invest in training and education of #mechanics (both for conventional and EV cars) and #electricians where private sector is lacking

And only *after* they have got power start advocating such things as full bans of #petrol / #diesel cars and #scrappage schemes - reality is many suburban motorists are going #electric anyway without having to push too hard, and 20 year old cars are often unrepairable due to lack of spare parts..

In Germany, due to new government subsidies for electric and hybrid vehicles, you can now buy a new Dacia Spring for €5900 (list price is €16900, minus state subsidy €6000 minus Dacia special EV discount €5000 = €5900) or a new Citroën ë-C3 for less than €9000. (The subsides are income dependent and capped at €80k yearly household income, earn more than that, no free money)

#JustSayin #GoodNews #EV #Germany

TL;DR Most EV batteries will last longer than the cars they’re in. Battery degradation is at better (meaning: lower) rates than expected. Slow charging is better. Drive EV and don’t worry about your battery.

„Our 2025 analysis of over 22,700 electric vehicles, covering 21 different vehicle models, confirms that overall, modern EV batteries are robust and built to last beyond a typical vehicle’s service life.“

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/

#GoodNews #EV #Battery

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Key Insights Average degradation rate: The average annual electric vehicle degradation rate is 2.3%. Power: High-power DC fast charging (>100kW) is the single largest stressor, leading to degradation rates up to twice that of the low power charging group (3.0% vs 1.5% per year). Climate: Hot climates impose a penalty on battery life, with vehicles operating in hot conditions degrading 0.4% faster per year than those in mild climates. Utilization: The increase in degradation from high daily use is a measurable but worthwhile trade-off for the gains in fleet productivity and ROI. State of charge (SOC): For most EV use, there's no need to worry about avoiding fully charging or emptying the battery. Degradation only speeds up when vehicles spend over 80% of their total time at or near-full or nearly empty charge levels.

Electrified vehicles have officially outsold petrol cars in Australia

Petrol power is quickly losing popularity against more fuel-efficient hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electric vehicles in Australia

https://www.drive.com.au/news/electrified-vehicles-have-officially-outsold-petrol-cars-in-australia/

#WeirdCarMastodon #EV

I'm sending big thank you vibes to the random woman at the EV charging station who, upon seeing us struggling to charge our car, offered to switch chargers with us. And then, as our problems continued, used her app to connect our car (and consequently paid our charge). She told us not to worry and pay it forward.

#kindness
#PayItForward
#EV
#EVcar

#Norway reaches 97% #EV sales as EVs now outnumber diesels on its roads
In 2017, Norway set a formal non-binding target to end fossil #car sales in the country by 2025 – a target earlier than any other country in the world by several years. Norway was already well ahead of the world in EV adoption, with about a third of new #cars being electric at the time – but it wanted to schedule the final blow for just 8 years later, fairly short as far as automotive timelines go. https://electrek.co/2026/01/02/norway-reaches-97-ev-sales-as-evs-now-outnumber-diesels-on-its-roads/

If you're a tech tinkerer and you're in the market for a discount #EV that requires some rolling up of sleeves, the Fisker Ocean is looking like a hell of a good deal right now. Open source EVERYTHING, wholly managed by the owner's club!

https://youtu.be/hD0HOUCqLJo

(I'm looking at you, @neil ... 😁)

"Alexa, defrost the car"

Yes, that actually works from the comfort of the house with the BMW Connected skill on Alexa Echo 👍👍

Remote heating as standard is one of the best features of electric cars ! #bmwi3 #ev

An oddity with the new tax in the UK is that someone with a hybrid car doing 20 miles a day and never buying any fossil fuel will pay half as much tax as someone using a pure EV to do the same journeys.

#ev #budget2025 #ukpol

Cold winter weather means EV range plummets with battery and car heaters.

Arrived here with just 5 miles left, but glad I have that little rex engine as backup (40 miles)

#bmwi3 #ev

Once again had to download a stupid app and spend ten minutes by the side of the road faffing with my phone to charge the car. This is such a huge barrier to entry for so many people, I do not know why you cannot just plug your car in and swipe a bank card, it is ridiculous. No wonder people stick to petrol cars, at petrol stations you can just swipe your card and fill up. It's inexcusable that it isn't the same experience for electric, there's no good reason for it. #ev #rant

These are very popular in Spain, with good reason. 75km range and plug in anywhere. Dry, space for shopping, fits through small gaps.

Disadvantage is that they are not 90% of cars on the road. F=m.a

Also, the choice is grey or grey.

#weirdcarmastodon #ev #microcar #citroenami

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A small box car with flat front and little wheels. In moulded grey plastic with two goggle headlamps