Moving to an electric C40…

[Automatic Only]

Originally Posted by Kugaman1

Thanks all for your valid comments, but dont worry, Ive done plenty of research!

Our caravan is 1500kg so weight isn’t an issue.

Our normal short breaks away are never more than 100 miles from home so that’s not an issue. Also, we always use caravan and motorhome club sites - they do allow you to charge through your caravan for £7 per day. Camping and Caravanning club allow the same for free!!
I normally drive at 50mph when towing so am expecting around 130 miles to a charge with a 20 mile buffer. (Highly realistic based on chatting to other c40 and xc40 twin recharge drivers who tow).

On our annual longer trip away, we can happily get there in stages, either staying overnight at various sites and top up charging or just unhooking at public chargers and charging up there. No problems and all part of the adventure! We are normally in Northen England or Scotland and generally pretty upto date with where there are public chargers that have room to park a caravan nearby….(the wife can make lunch while the car is charging).

I’m expecting it to be pretty effortless at towing - our xc60 was amazing and the c40 is heavier with DOUBLE the torque.

Looking forwards to collection next week.

I’ve asked the Forum moderators to look at adding an Electric Volvos sub forum as they are getting more common now!

Ah OK, fair enough! I always assume that people towing caravans are always heading to the south of France or similar!

[Kugaman1]

Just to respond to a few comments….

We haven't chosen Evs to be green, save the planet, blah, blah…..sorry for all the tree huggers, Im just being honest but really these were not a consideration at all.

We bought my wife an EV as she works 2 miles from home and all of her driving is almost exclusively within our small local town.
Previous ICE cars have proven pretty uneconomical and troublesome doing so many cold start short trips. Her Cupra Born is amazing in this scenario, happy to run around town all day and give amazing miles per KW/h.

After buying her car its totally converted me! It’s an amazing car, so smooth, quiet, economical, punchy and effortless to drive.
We bought it down in Chesterfield then drove it 450 miles home…again, totally effortless - never had any charging issues at all, each charge was done with plenty of miles in reserve and at a natural point for a tea break/toilet stop.


As mentioned, most of our caravanning is done at sites within 100 miles from home, so again, this really isn't an issue.
With regards to charging through the caravan….again not an issue. Its a modern caravan and charging 10 amps overnight through it is no problem whatsoever.- in fact its recommended by the caravan clubs! As I mentioned previously, if you did happen to trip your hook up, you will only trip your hook up, not anyone elses as each connection point has its own MCB at all of the sites we have ever used.

Once a year we will venture further afield and do a trip with the caravan down to Yorkshire. Ive done plenty of research on this, and combining the trip with a couple of overnight stops plus maybe a 50 minute unhitch/charge/rehitch while the wife makes lunch in the van, really no issues whatsoever, all part of the adventure.

I totally get that electric cars aren't for everyone. For me personally, after getting my wife's new car Im totally converted…..However, granted like my wife, I only live a few miles from work - anything further is a 60 mile round trip to see grandkids a couple of times a month.

As per my first post, my XC60 is getting expensive to run…the c40 by comparison is peanuts. I can charge it at work for free or at home for 7p kw/h. Its incredible to think I can drive a car with BMW M3 level of performance and VW Touareg V10 diesel levels of torque and it costs me less than £8 to charge it and do circa 270 miles! Whats not to love about that?

I bought the C40 at £15k below list price, so I feel Ive taken the sting out of new car depreciation.


If you do high miles, then I would definitely agree that a BEV is probably not the car for you…..but if you are an average or below average mile user and can charge at home then I wouldnt listen to the unbelievable BS that is spread continually by EV haters (the chargers never work, they rip up the roads as they are heavy, they set on fire, they eat tyres, etc…..all BS)….

Please, go and try one….most people who can make one work within their lifestyle are totally converted….I know my wife and I are, as are the tens of people at my work who got them on salary sacrifice….they all enjoy their cars.

[OldEngineer]

The Cupra does eat tyres (read their forums) so you will see a benefit there. The VW Group cars are still sold on previous conceptions of quality and they should be experiencing lower sales levels than they are getting.

[James77]

So what you're saying is EVs work because you don't really go anywhere.

I think that sums EVs pretty well.

Fantastic it works for you I am sure they're very smooth and relaxing to drive.

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by James77

So what you're saying is EVs work because you don't really go anywhere.

I think that sums EVs pretty well.

Fantastic it works for you I am sure they're very smooth and relaxing to drive.

EV seems to work OK for me and I go plenty of places. In fact I have done nearly 3500 miles since taking delivery 7 weeks ago.

[OldEngineer]

Having tested a number of EVs over the years I think the Tesla Model 3 is still the benchmark. Last week I did back to back on new and old Model 3 and the lack of stalks is a problem but the newer version is so much quieter.

There seems to be a lack of discussion on the 'Efficiency' of EVs. The Model 3 is testing at 4.7 Miles per KWh The Germans struggle to get over 4.0, mainly because of the weight they carry.

If we can get EVs to over 5.0 Miles per KWh and accept a range of 150 Miles then it's possible to run a 30 KWh battery. This will be much lighter (and improve efficiency). Then the time to charge a battery of this size can be very quick.

[sandys]

Originally Posted by James77

What you describe an EV is not more convenient for you (or anyone), c100 miles towing is laughable.

If you go in with your eyes open and are prepared to plan a 100 miles is fine, I wasn't as I do tow further a field and like to do so in one day but plenty will.

Originally Posted by James77

What do people believe they are gaining moving to an EV? We know they do not save the planet and they aren't moving motoring forward I'm struggling to understand why people are moving them at all?
The only advantage I can see to an EV is when driving through a town centre no CO2s are being emitted thus cleaner air for pedestrians and towns apart from that I can see no further advantages.
They're not greener to any degree unless you plan to keep for 20 years no car is green, they do not offer cheap motoring, they don't go as far, on the move they're more expensive to charge and require more frequent charges than fill ups, they're far too heavy for roads likely contribute to accelerated surface degradation, they're not sporty and no one needs 0-60 in <3 seconds unless you want to take someone's life.

Not every car is for everyone, but they are greener, Volvo has done all the leg work to show that for comparable EV and ICE vehicle the EV is cleaner and their info is based on what are less efficient EVs compared to say a Tesla.

They have less maintenance and servicing requirements, they do cost less to run for most, I don't have a full EV just a PHEV and that alone saves me ~200/mth on fuel and we are low mileage users, our old ICE car was terrible at anything not towing as you might expect, a 4x4 ICE towcar being used around town as if it was a city car, it was v8 levels of fuel cost we didn't really care because still cheaper than other forms of transport for the family but when we got barred from Bristol (ULEZ) though we may as well get something that suits our use case.

Sure when we go longer distance in a PHEV like an EV we have to pay more for the privilege by fuelling up, when you no longer use petrol you realize petrol is a silly waste of money to be paying out for for your humdrum family day to day stuff, electric is perfect for that, now petrol is only needed a few times a year, rest of the time it just fills up with electrons on the drive, always ready to go, never have to even think about visiting a petrol station.

On the weight side of things, do you really thing a 2.1 ton EV is materially worse than commercial transport or a bus I mean a double decker can be 10s of tonnes, surely they should be fall through the road Your ICE XC60 is going to be nudging 1.9, there are plenty of ICE cars heavier but I'd consider that a tank, my personal transport is almost 50% less, MX5 FTW, my Abarth is quite light too, all these people driving around in heavy > 1.2 ton machines, planet killers

I do agree the focus should be efficiency rather than speed but trying to convince people of that is as hard as convincing some die hard ICE driver that you don't need 600 miles range just in case.

Originally Posted by James77

I just don't get it?
Personally think the future is super efficient hybrid engines but only time will tell.

Yes the combination of EV and ICE in one package will help those who need range efficiently but that's just more cost, more complexity, more weight, more maintenance and more things to go wrong vs a straight ICE or EV.

EVs are perfect for the average mileage user IMO, I like many things about their driving characteristics so I'm game having had most of the EV experience from the T8, just trying to find one that is enjoyable to drive from a petrol head racers perspective, despite ballistic missile speed, they've all been too dull for me, like my XC60 fine for family use but not something I want to go for a hoon in though it looks like Hyundai might have me covered with its ICE simulation in the 5N, though again I think that's too big (it's XC60 size) for a personal transport car, needs pinch zoomed down to a i20/i30 size.

[Kugaman1]

Originally Posted by James77

So what you're saying is EVs work because you don't really go anywhere.

I think that sums EVs pretty well.

Fantastic it works for you I am sure they're very smooth and relaxing to drive.

No, that’s not what I said at all. I said they work for US as we dont go far afield. However, next year when we take early retirement, we are planning a 3 month round the UK caravan tour, all by EV.
As I said before, it will take a little bit more planning than it would with an ICE car, but that’s part of the adventure. Additionally, I can top up charge every night by plugging in to my caravan….so in essence, we should never have to stop anywhere to charge, we will just move from site to site, charging overnight as we go…….certainly not something an ICE car can do!

But we digress…..the bottom line is that EVs are a perfect solution for some and a troublesome one for others.
If you do the sort of mileage we do and as I say, want a car with superb performance, incredibly cheap running costs and amazing torque for towing, they are the perfect choice.

It’s reported that the average car journey in the UK is 8.1 miles - if you can charge at home and do the average journeys, EVs are a perfect solution.

There are lots of EV haters out there, but also lots of people who are more open minded and willing to try without listening to the severely one sided negative press. EVs are rapidly gaining popularity from people like us who give them ago and then suddenly realise they are an excellent and cost effective option.

Sales are up 37% year on year and this will only increase as more and more chargers become available and more cars in the market drive prices down.

[Nippy]

Given how thirsty my T6 is, I wish I’d got the T8 Hybrid as about 60-70% of my travel is now under 20 miles or so. Also, given how short the journeys my wife does are, we could easily have hers as full electric.

[Automatic Only]

Originally Posted by Philip Fisher

EV seems to work OK for me and I go plenty of places. In fact I have done nearly 3500 miles since taking delivery 7 weeks ago.

Anywhere further than say 150 miles from home?
Whilst I'm glad it's working well for you I'm afraid EVs just don't cut it if you have to regularly do 400-500 miles a day (as I do) - In fact we did about 700 miles just a few weeks ago (and roughly 1,200 a couple of years ago).