EV (electric vehicle) News & Discussion

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#1926205 28-Dec-2017 16:03

Electrek takes a look at the new EVs that should come to market in 2018.

Of particular interest to many will be the crossover Hyundai Kona EV and KIA Niro EV.

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BuzzLightyear

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#1926208 28-Dec-2017 16:50

Linuxluver:
Electrek takes a look at the new EVs that should come to market in 2018.

Of particular interest to many will be the crossover Hyundai Kona EV and KIA Niro EV.

There are finally more nice looking EV’s coming on. Good to see. Let’s hope the price point makes them viable to most mainstream new car buyers,

frednz

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#1931146 6-Jan-2018 09:06

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11954346

The above article is titled "Electric car sales take off in New Zealand" and it provides a really good update of the current state of the EV scene in NZ.

Here's a short extract from the article:

"It's a magic carpet ride" is how Steve Withers describes driving a Nissan Leaf plug-in electric car.

The Auckland IT trainer was driven to an electric car by the inaction on climate change by the previous National Government.

"Sure it saves us money, sure there is less maintenance, but for us it was all about getting rid of the carbon emissions and what we had control over," says Withers, who purchased his first electric car 18 months ago.

He has since upgraded to a top of the range Nissan Leaf import from the UK with a Bose stereo, leather seats and longer driving range that cost $45,000.

Good work Steve on helping to get the EV message across! Steve is an appropriate name for an EV enthusiast, i.e. St EV e.

Linuxluver

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#1931149 6-Jan-2018 09:12

frednz:
Good work Steve on helping to get the EV message across! Steve is an appropriate name for an EV enthusiast, i.e. St EV e.

Thanks. The photo is me, my Leaf and my charger in Opotiki.

"St. EV e"

Lawl.....

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frednz

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#1931153 6-Jan-2018 09:27

Linuxluver:
frednz:

Good work Steve on helping to get the EV message across! Steve is an appropriate name for an EV enthusiast, i.e. St EV e.

Thanks. The photo is me, my Leaf and my charger in Opotiki.

"St. EV e"

Lawl.....

Great, I thought this could be the case, keep up the good work!

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#1931162 6-Jan-2018 10:34

I've noticed that Meridian have added more lines companies AND published their rates. Previously you had to call or email them to get the rates (which was the case when I first posted about this).

These nightrates go from 9PM-7AM instead of the usual 11PM-7AM. These provide a bit more certainity than other retailers like Flick (although you can probably save more with Flick if you manage your usage and have favourable spot pricing).

https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/your-home/pricing-and-rates/electric-car-plan

https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/assets/PDFs/Electric-car-plan-rates.pdf

I'm on it myself and find the pricing reasonable good (we've been able to shift the majority of our power usage to >9PM)... but your milage might vary.

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tdgeek

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#1931163 6-Jan-2018 10:41

Linuxluver:
frednz:

Good work Steve on helping to get the EV message across! Steve is an appropriate name for an EV enthusiast, i.e. St EV e.

Thanks. The photo is me, my Leaf and my charger in Opotiki.

"St. EV e"

Lawl.....

Nice article Steve. The keywords are silent revolution, siting on the fence, and 20 moving parts.

Is a retro fit an option, as it was when LPG was the rage? Im looking at that comment as a cheaper way to people to make the move. I assume the EV engine is a similar size to an ICE? Remove engine and transmission, fit EV, need a custom arrangement for connection to the front wheel drive. Not so many cables, hoses etc to deal with. Fit some batteries in engine bay, some in boot, some maybe in spare cavities.

What gets me is I see no TV ads, its still a soft launch. Silly.

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PhantomNVD

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#1931172 6-Jan-2018 11:16

cokemaster:
I've noticed that Meridian have added more lines companies AND published their rates. Previously you had to call or email them to get the rates (which was the case when I first posted about this).

These nightrates go from 9PM-7AM instead of the usual 11PM-7AM. These provide a bit more certainity than other retailers like Flick (although you can probably save more with Flick if you manage your usage and have favourable spot pricing).

https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/your-home/pricing-and-rates/electric-car-plan

https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/assets/PDFs/Electric-car-plan-rates.pdf

I'm on it myself and find the pricing reasonable good (we've been able to shift the majority of our power usage to >9PM)... but your milage might vary.

I’m with Meridian on the EV plan (just joined last month from Powershop)... will they switch/update my plan to 9pm (from 11pm) automatically do you know?

Was actually planning to switch back to Powershop next month as 11pm is a pain to sometimes wait for to offset dishwasher/washing machine etc, vs PowerShop’s 9pm off peak, so this is perfectly timed!

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#1931235 6-Jan-2018 13:20

I know when they first launched the EV plan, they only covered Vector and Wellington areas... although they've been adding new lines companies to the fold. I believe if you fell out of their supported areas areas, its likely they'd put you on traditional Night and Day rates.

I think it'll pay to check if they've migrated you to new rates. In my experience - I did need to follow up after joining to get my meter replacement order placed. I suspect they probably won't unless you ask them to.

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Linuxluver

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#1931549 7-Jan-2018 03:05

tdgeek:

....

Is a retro fit an option, as it was when LPG was the rage? Im looking at that comment as a cheaper way to people to make the move. I assume the EV engine is a similar size to an ICE? Remove engine and transmission, fit EV, need a custom arrangement for connection to the front wheel drive. Not so many cables, hoses etc to deal with. Fit some batteries in engine bay, some in boot, some maybe in spare cavities.

What gets me is I see no TV ads, its still a soft launch. Silly.

It's possible to convert ICE cars to being EVs. Some lend themselves to it better than others, I'm told, because of the way the ICE vehicle is configured internally. Stuff needs to both fit and be mounted in a durable, solid way. I've seen a Honda Insight converted to a 300km-range EV by a German guy in Dunedin.

You want to be able to do CHAdeMO or CCS 2 fast charging. You also want to be able to AC charge at home.

You need a BMS (Battery Management System) and hardware that talks to it. These tend to be proprietary but there are some available via Open Source or for purchase. Some programming skills may be required.

Hobbyists do this stuff. I'm told it takes a lot of time (6 months or more as a hobbyist effort) and $40,000......and mistakes are made. :-)

Ideally, a team with the skills would offer a service based on their skills and experience.....and be able to do it in a week or two. But that's a lot of time, a high level of skill and the parts are expensive if ordered custom. The battery could be up to $15k-$20k if you want long range. It's definitely cheaper if you can do it.....but I know I don't have the skills, so I'd have either learn (months or years) or pay someone else (money).

I have in mind it could be viable to pick a popular car in a price range where the owners may have some money and the awareness of "why"...and develop a volume-based business that assumed 100 conversions / year (for example)...and see if any economies could occur.....though I suspect it would need to be several thousands....at which point you're major business with major business expenses.

As is often the case in NZ, to start anything at large scale from scratch would require capital in large amounts and local people ("investors") tend to just import what they need and don't really invest in NEW large businesses based here. To fill that gap usually falls to the government or a foreign multi-national who already know how to do it, they just want a cheap place to do it in.

If the MoT or MBIE or some other govt body spent several hundred million backing a conversion business for a set menu of popular cars, that might work. Add finance packages so it could be done via low-interest credit..... and would it make sense to spend $15k/$20k/$30k? converting a $15k ICE car? I'm thinking you'd do it because you wanted to and the planet needs us to......and not for profit.

Ongoing... the original manufacturer would void the vehicle warranty and you're in new territory as the car owner....though the conversion shop could / should have general auto skills.

Cars are hard.

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WyleECoyoteNZ

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#1932015 8-Jan-2018 10:06

A couple of EV\PHEV stories. The stuff story from David Linklater isn't too bad. A good, honest report. Good comments from the story in relation to PHEV range, these comments are much like the claims manufacturers give for fuel consumption of a ICE vehicle.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/99657465/the-highs-and-lows-of-living-with-an-ev

Interestingly, David's comments on the Tesla, as a drivers car, are very similar to those of Chris Harris (Top Gear & YouTuber) and his review\opinions on driving the Tesla Model S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhZ9jk-DrU

And Hyundai to showcase it's next generation fuel cell vehicles, amongst other things at CES.

http://www.autocar.co.nz/autocar-news-app/hyundai-s-vision-for-hydrogen-powered-life-beyond-transportation

It's all food for thought in the on-going discussion around the EV

wellygary

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#1932042 8-Jan-2018 10:31

WyleECoyoteNZ:

Interestingly, David's comments on the Tesla, as a drivers car, are very similar to those of Chris Harris (Top Gear & YouTuber) and his review\opinions on driving the Tesla Model S.

yeah, but with a NZ new price of at least $120K it should be,

Telsa are playing an interesting and possibly dangerous game by slowly ramping up their model S entry price (dropping the 60KWh and RWD options over the last few years)

I can understand why they would want to increase the gap between the S and the 3 to allow more 3 optionals without having a price overlap,

But given you wont be able to get a model 3 unless you are already in the reservation queue, Anyone who decides today they want a new EV and has less than the model S base price to spend is forced to purchase from another EV Manufacturer....

KrazyKid

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#1932049 8-Jan-2018 10:55

cokemaster:
I've noticed that Meridian have added more lines companies AND published their rates. Previously you had to call or email them to get the rates (which was the case when I first posted about this).

These nightrates go from 9PM-7AM instead of the usual 11PM-7AM. These provide a bit more certainity than other retailers like Flick (although you can probably save more with Flick if you manage your usage and have favourable spot pricing).

https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/your-home/pricing-and-rates/electric-car-plan

https://www.meridianenergy.co.nz/assets/PDFs/Electric-car-plan-rates.pdf

I'm on it myself and find the pricing reasonable good (we've been able to shift the majority of our power usage to >9PM)... but your milage might vary.

The Day rates seem very expensive. I'm paying 17.5c (incl GST) with Pulse here in Dunedin. And Electric Kiwi is also cheap down here. Worth shopping around still.

Saying that if you could shift most of your power usage to after 9pm then the 13.8c here in Dunedin would be a good deal.

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#1932239 8-Jan-2018 13:57

Indeed – the key thing is to offset the bulk of your consumption to after 9PM. For us, we ‘did the numbers’ which involved extracting power consumption by hourly period for a reasonable period of time (around 3 months) and then overlaying it with various pricing options.
Previously we were with Electric Kiwi with a good rate of $0.19/kwh and none of these twisted PPD/bills trying to hide the true cost per unit… and were also taking advantage of their ‘Hour of Power’ offer to great effect.

However we found:

· Charging the EV took about 7 hours (from 0%) so the majority of power would be consumed outside of the hour of power. Upgrading from an 8 amp to an 16 amp EVSE would half that time to about 3-3 ½ hours… but would cost ~$1000-$2000 to buy/install (thus not getting the WAF tick).

· Not everyone in the house hold took showers within a 60 minute period. Strategically turning off the hot water to maximise the ‘hour of power’ did NOT go down well with the wife and she was also unwilling to buy a bigger tank ($1000+).

· Other things such as the clothes dryer often took longer than 60 minutes – often 90-120 minutes.

Moving to this plan has allowed us to save about $200-250 per year. Looking at the spot prices, I’m fairly certain that we could save even more but mileage may vary… and the WAF is key when it comes to running children’s baths during peak times.
If a significant portion of your usage is during the day, then anytime rates are almost certainly going to be better value.

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#1932353 8-Jan-2018 19:00

This car looks pretty cool.

can anyone tell me what 5G actually is though, how does it differ from LTE-advanced? or are they just saying "we dont know what data connection its going to have, but we're calling it 5G!"

Byton's electric, 5G-enabled car blasts off at CES (short overview)

Byton shows Alexa-enabled EV at CES 2018 (reveal)

I'm not fussed on voice control, I think its weird and hardly ever does what i want it to do (siri) especially while I'm driving its even more distracting. Trying to get siri to understand what I'm saying is more of a mission than just pulling over or waiting till I'm at my destination.

but i do love the look of that big screen, imagine all the geeky EV stats you could display on there!

I wonder if it will have apple car play/android auto too.

I'm gonna cross all my fingers and toes that either NZ, Japan or the UK get it so that we can have it here!

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

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