Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

[G-CPTN]

A twist on this story.
One of our vehicle field engineers faced a 'problem' with a vehicle in a mountainous south American country.

Brakes were wearing out rapidly.
The vehicle, a truck-based 'bus' that transported passengers and freight (including animals) had been modified by the operator with water tanks that were filled at the top of the route which then discharged over the brake drums as the vehicle descended the steep, tortuous route in order to cool the brakes and resist the overheating,

Of course the vehicle was seriously overloaded before the addition of the water tanks - which exacerbated the overloading and the rapid brake wear - though the operator didn't see it like that.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Where's our resident Scottish based Tesla dude, the man who, rightly called me out on my ability not to fly a meandering flight path?

[admin2]

On holiday. See 5 posts back?

[Rwy in Sight]

On holiday. See 5 posts back?

I don't see anything 5 posts back but I like to comment your way of announcing our Tesla specialist resident.

[ribrash]

On holiday. See 5 posts back?

I don't see anything 5 posts back but I like to comment your way of announcing our Tesla specialist resident.

He's been banned again.

[admin2]

Correct. Due back on June 7th. Documented on site. To add to his achievements he has been recently banned on the TOP military forum twice as well for 'trolling'.

[llondel]

Correct. Due back on June 7th. Documented on site. To add to his achievements he has been recently banned on the TOP military forum twice as well for 'trolling'.

Getting banned from TOP isn't that exceptional, I think an awful lot of people on this site have been awarded some variant of that badge.

[OFSO]

I'm seeing more and more local-numberplste Teslas on the road. Someone must have found a source of cheap electricity. It's not coming out of my wall sockets, that is for sure, even though I have the "Tarif of Tranquility".

My last €84 fill-up of diesel took me over 960 kms. Refilled tank when 1/4 was left, so more.

[Rwy in Sight]

OFSO, don't be surprised if you give electric car owners a subsidy written somewhere in the high tariff. I am on the lowest income scale yet I pay a subsidy on my electricity bill for people who can showed a lower income to the tax-man.

[OFSO]

Spain has subsidised owners of cars running on liquid fuel with 20 cents a litre off the pump price. No such subsidy to owners of electric cars.

[Wodrick]

I have thus far seen five Teslas, one I see regularly is Dutch registered and must be living close.

Trying to decide whether to return to UK or move in Spain one was perusing new build bungalows in Herefordshire I think which were offered with overnight chargers.
Fust time I seen that.

[OFSO]

Although it's one of the most expensive areas around London, our preferred location has such extensive train (every fifteen minutes) and bus connections (both free for us) that a car is unnecessary. We even have a Waitrose in the same building as the train station one stop along. The savings in not owning a car are considerable.

[ribrash]

Correct. Due back on June 7th. Documented on site. To add to his achievements he has been recently banned on the TOP military forum twice as well for 'trolling'.

Getting banned from TOP isn't that exceptional, I think an awful lot of people on this site have been awarded some variant of that badge.

I was once banned from a forum that I was'nt even a member of.

[Rossian]

I haven't seen C16 around for a few days, I wonder if he ever got his Kia EV6 sooperdoopermoboil. I believe there were some delivery "issues".

The Ancient Mariner

[llondel]

Spain has subsidised owners of cars running on liquid fuel with 20 cents a litre off the pump price. No such subsidy to owners of electric cars.

I'm sure they could get the same subsidy at the pump if they chose to...

[OFSO]

The subsidy has run into trouble. It was meant to help the residents of Spain. Unfortunately in this area, eight out of ten sutomobiles are French from across the border. To the West, they are Portuguese. There is no question of subsidising owners of electric cars for obvious reasons.

[Rwy in Sight]

I was referring to a special tariff.

[OFSO]

We have high, medium and low electrical tarifs during the day, and at weekends and on public holidays, but these apply to all households and could not be modified specifically for owners charging electric cars at home.

[VP959]

Can I step in as a substitute for our temporarily absent, and slightly provocative, EV enthusiast?

I've been driving an electric car since 2013, never had a single issue with any of them (now on my third, a Tesla I've owned since 2019). Driven around 80,000 miles or so in that time, including holiday trips up to NW Scotland (from SW England). Not once had any problems charging, or had to wait for a charge, in fact the biggest single issue has been making sure I get back to the car in time after stopping to charge, get refreshments, dump ballast, etc, without incurring overstay charges for the charge having finished before I've got back to the charger and moved the car so someone else can use it.

The experience has been so fantastic in that time that my wife swapped her old petrol car for a smaller Renault EV a year or so ago. She's now a convert, regularly makes a ~300 mile round trip to see her ageing mother, never had a problem either, and reckons she could never go back to anything as crude and clunky as a petrol car, that takes time to warm up in winter, costs a fortune to run and is far noisier and smellier.

The very best thing is that at least 80% of our driving each year is completely free of charge. Both cars are sat on the drive right now, 100% charged, and the charging cost us nothing at all, as our solar panels provided all the energy. Last time either of us paid to charge either car was in March, and in all probability we won't have to pay to charge them, other than the few quid when on a long trip, until around October. Even in winter, when we need to charge the cars overnight at the off-peak rate, a full charge is never more than about a tenner, a far cry from the £1.40/litre that fuel now costs around here. We're off on holiday again next week, hotel has free charging, and the car has far more than enough range to get there without needing to charge, so that'll be another thousand miles or so of driving for free.

Absolutely magic driving around not paying the government any tax, too. Like driving a magic carpet, albeit one with around 434hp on tap, that gets to 60mph from a standstill in around 4.4 seconds, and makes the silly boy racers in their noisy dino juice chariots look extremely sluggish.

The future is bright, the future is electric - petrol and diesel are for Luddites . . .

[admin2]

Can I step in as a substitute

Always welcome.