EV (electric vehicle) News and Discussion

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › EV (electric vehicle) News and Discussion

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#3312464 24-Nov-2024 18:11

Technofreak:

If that floats your boat all well and good. I don't need apps just for the sake of them, especially if there's other less hassle ways of doing the job which in this case there is.

Always nice to have several ways to do the payment, and I agree that paywave/card payments should be added as well on all fast chargers.

In NZ I tend to use the RFID tag I got from ChargeNet for all the different services, where it is possible to add the tag ID.

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Scott3

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#3312465 24-Nov-2024 18:29

I don't feel the current App's and fobs system is much of an issue for EV owners. Seriously it has to be way down the list of EV ownership pain points.

It is more of an issue for those with rental EV's (especially those not in their home country). The one time I have rented an EV in NZ, it was super easy to just use my existing charge.net account and fob, but for somebody with a rental EV, it means they need to sign up to an app potentially for a single charge (depending on their trip, they may need to repeat this 3+ times). And, While I haven't tried EV charging overseas, I have tried several other apps which (despite being the kinds of things tourists would use), have failed to work on my NZ location phone account.

That said, I would still prefer that EV charging providers focus on adding charging bays and capacity, instead of adding tap & go capability...

jarledb

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#3312472 24-Nov-2024 19:06

The issue you are raising with a rental EV can be fixed easily by the rental company making a little bit of an effort and leaving a tag and information about how to use it in the cars they rent out. They could then charge it to the customer when the car is returned.

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#3312504 24-Nov-2024 23:36

We rented an Atto3 for 3 weeks through SIXT in Perth earlier this year and the 'payment'/fob situation couldn't have been easier when we used the Chargefox network. That included several RACWA and some small independent chargers and was extensive enough for our needs. Many of the chargers were lower power (7 - 20 kW) but there were sufficient higher power ones around. Perhaps with one exception, the chargers we used were all in the 120 kW - 350kW range (think the max charging rate of the car was something like 60 - 80 kW, so the latter did not provide any benefit to us).

Couldn't have been simpler because the rental cost not only included unlimited kms, but also free charging. They provided instructions and a fob that worked flawlessly on the Chargefox network. Didn't need to sign up for anything (other than the rental car!). Just rolled up to the charge point, plugged in and swiped the provide fob (or vice versa, don't recall now). Unplugged when 'full' and that was the last we heard of it. Think we may have struck it lucky rental cost-wise, as the Atto3 (booked through Booking.com) was the cheapest rental we found, at least for that size vehicle. And by cheapest, I mean cheapest before accounting for the 'free' electricity. We hadn't even registered that until they told us when we picked the car up. Maybe it was a special they were running. By the time we got back home, the daily rental cost (including through Booking.com) was quite a lot higher than we paid. They are still offering free charging though.

The 'free electricity' included other chargers but in that case we would have had to pay up front then claim back from SIXT. Sounded like too much hassle. Simpler just to stick with the Chargefox network. And of course, because it was free, no requirement to top up before returning the vehicle.

https://www.sixt.com.au/magazine/fleet/free-charging-when-renting-a-sixt-ev/

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#3312505 24-Nov-2024 23:45

Oh, on reading that link, I do now recall that we needed to DL the Chargefox app. Didn't have any concerns about that & was in any case fairly essential for knowing where there were chargers available at any given time (real time info). Only about twice that we had to wait more than a few minutes to get access to a charger. We were happy to go a little out of our way to get a charger that was available. Didn't cost us anything to add a few extra km's.

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#3312563 25-Nov-2024 09:47

Seems that price has bottomed?

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#3312568 25-Nov-2024 09:56

I managed to get a test drive on Saturday (albeit I had to drive over an hour to Rotorua!). Sadly I didn't realise they shut at 2pm so only got 25 mins. Compared to the Nissan Leaf we had years ago in the UK, this felt like it drove more like a 'normal' car, whereas the Leaf really felt like something different. I'll try and get back there on Saturday for another proper drive and look over the car.

As for price, seems that used RWD version are now around the $40-$45k and the few AWD I can find are $55k+. Seems like I missed the boat on the special deals.

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#3313038 26-Nov-2024 13:05

Surprising how quickly the price premium for EV over ICE is rapidly diminishing ...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/360499915/affordable-chinese-electric-suv-gets-even-cheaper

HarmLessSolutions

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#3313041 26-Nov-2024 13:10

Seems to be an EV battle coming up in California with Tesla at risk of being collateral damage . https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-25/california-pledges-ev-buyer-rebate-if-trump-kills-7-500-credit

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

fastbike

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#3313043 26-Nov-2024 13:14

dafman:

Surprising how quickly the price premium for EV over ICE is rapidly diminishing ...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/360499915/affordable-chinese-electric-suv-gets-even-cheaper

Yes I've just taken the plunge back into car ownership after 34 years being car-free. A two year old NZ New (Japanese brand) EV with the balance of the manufacturer warranty is only 42% of what it retailed for 2 years ago. Even allowing for the rebate the original owner has suffered a dreadful rate of depreciation.

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#3313182 26-Nov-2024 17:14

HarmLessSolutions:

Seems to be an EV battle coming up in California with Tesla at risk of being collateral damage . https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-25/california-pledges-ev-buyer-rebate-if-trump-kills-7-500-credit

With all the baggage associated with Musk, there'll be plenty of others to choose from & gut the Tesla monopoly.

https://insideevs.com/features/730046/best-tesla-alternative-evs/

https://www.independent.co.uk/cars/electric-vehicles/best-tesla-alternative-electric-cars-b2641165.html

https://chargelab.co/blog/best-electric-vehicles-2024

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dafman

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#3313240 26-Nov-2024 18:15

HarmLessSolutions:

Seems to be an EV battle coming up in California with Tesla at risk of being collateral damage . https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-25/california-pledges-ev-buyer-rebate-if-trump-kills-7-500-credit

Pretty much a certainty that Tesla wont be selling new consumer vehicles in five years, possibly sooner.

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#3313247 26-Nov-2024 19:16

I think the EV buyer segment that cares who owns Tesla is somewhere between small and insignificant.

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#3313320 27-Nov-2024 02:48

johno1234: I think the EV buyer segment that cares who owns Tesla is somewhere between small and insignificant.

I am in that category, couldn't care less.

fastbike

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#3313322 27-Nov-2024 06:31

MikeFly:

I am in that category, couldn't care less.

By commenting in the thread, you have shown it is of interest to you, regardless of your protestation.

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