New P300e Hybrid ordered

[RedFive]

Ordered the hybrid between Christmas and New Year. Delivery due late March.

Test drove the I-pace as really wanted to go full EV and the performance blew me away. Not been in anything like that since my youth when I had a string of perfomance hatches and cars including a very tricked up Impreza WRX.

I run my own company and the new BIK rules mean I can now get my business to pay for the car without being double whammied by BIK. 0% - 3% over the next 3 years for EV will see a masive uptick in sales of these cars, but still too compromised for my driving right now.

Hybrid is my stepping stone on a 3 year business lease. My office is a 10 mile round trip so most driving will be EV only but then dashes to the Lakes / Scotland or picking the son up from Uni in Oxford mean I don't have to plan my charging points with military presicion. 10% BIK is workable on the numbers - helps I'm an Accountant

I've had over 40 cars and motorbikes over the last 25 years. won't list them all but highlights include 3 Defenders, a proper one (TDi300), the best one (Black 110 TDi XS) and the last new one (90 XS transit engine). Disco 3 (lovely), Impreza Turbo, Impreza WRX STi, Clio Wlliams, Pug 205 GTi, VW Golf GTi MK 4 and 5, VW Passat R-Line, Triumph Daytona 955i motorcycle, kawasaki ZX 636 so I class myself as a petrol head not some EV fanatic but it's the future innit?

I'll be plugging it in to a Rolec 7kw tethered home charging point every night as while day to day fuel costs don't bother me so much, the thought of driving in silence and not polluting my town and local countryside is starting to outweigh my need for speed. Must be an age thing. And I know they pollute as much as leccy is powered by fossil fuels on many days but here in Northumberland that mix is increasingly becoming wind led. Anyway let's see when the three years is up will EV be up to 450 miles (my cut-off) on a single charge and will we have many more cars and charging points available, yes I'm sure we will. At that point hopefully a new Defender fully EV will be ordered. One can dream!

[Jonnyvtec]

Great well measured post there! Keen to see how you get on with the car.

[RedFive]

Thanks jonnyvtec

Presume you are a Honda fan? Honda NSX is still on my bucket list.

[PHEV]

Good choice RedFive
Similar to the spec I've ordered - but I've gone Byron Blue without the black roof and standard rear seats...
We have a Rolec untethered 7KW home charger and it works great with the other half's A250e PHEV. Her typical commute range is between 5-8 miles each way plus a 60mile round trip once a week and so far with 2000 miles covered, she's managed 80% on pure electric ! so I hope we can do similar for the environment... We've filled the petrol tank only twice since September... My monthly electric DD is up about £25/month so still saving v pure ICE petrol costs...
Interesting how covid has forced many people to re-evaluate their lifestyles and make conscious environmentally beneficial decisions - diesel-gate helped accelerate my decision - so like you, I'm looking forward to doing my bit to contribute..
Finally, re fuel cost comment, when I last switched energy supplier, I chose Shell Energy at the time as they guaranteed a 100% green energy supply tariff and the charges were extremely competitive when I moved across...

[IluH]

I placed my order in May when that was first possible. I was supposed to get the car in October but that didn’t happen for several reasons, as you know.
Today I heard my car will arrive in Finland Feb-05 and can be delivered one or two weeks later.
The Finnish winter is not the optimal time to drive your PHEV but I can take it as an ultimate use test.

Some specs: (NO R-Dynamic) Namib Orange, Black Pack, black roof, smallest wheels available.

I don’t like it how my current Firenze Red / black roof has now joined the vast army of red / black roof SUVs so I opted for the Namib Orange to stand out of the crowd. But now orange/black seems to be used with every new car model release.

[FabzSnr]

I also have my P300e on order! Local dealer already had something pretty close to my ideal spec on order so (hopefully) will be with me by early March (scheduled for the 5th as things stand).

Had looked at going full BEV but, despite a relatively short commute (back in the days when I commuted!), I was worried about charging infrastructure for some of our longer family trips. When a friend who works in Formula E then gave me a heads up on what is happening around battery development I decided to hedge my bets on the PHEV for the next three years.

Now trying to wade my way through the home charging point swamp. Seen Rolec mentioned a couple of times. Having discounted "Chargemaster" option I am currently looking at PodPoint and the EO Mini Pro 2. Anything else I should be looking at?

Anyway, hoping delivery stays on track (since my birthday is on the weekend after it is due to arrive!). Is there a specific PHEV forum on here?

[Dashnine]

When a friend who works in Formula E then gave me a heads up on what is happening around battery development

Do tell...

[FabzSnr]

In his opinion (which is more informed than mine) mass EV adoption is based around three things - battery cost, charge levels and speed of charging. Everything at the moment is a compromise across those three things but really is about the effect on cost.

The work that the manufacturers are doing (and testing parts of through their EV racing teams) is two fold - premium cars where they can hold the cost but increase capacity and 'mass market' at a lower cost but that can recharge faster. The premium end would, of course, also benefit from the fast charge technologies.

His call is that, within three years, the EV differential in the premium market will be much smaller, the range will be pretty much equivalent to petrol ICE ranges and almost every lamppost will be a charger. Build in the energy recapture advances they are working on as well and full EV will start to become the sensible choice around 2023/2024. As most of the 'final' conversion away from ICE will be in the late 2020's, so resale values from 2025 onward will be pretty good as long as they are on, what should be by then, a 'stable' battery platform that has a good runway in front of it (and doesn't get usurped by hydrogen!).

While I used to do lots of miles I am now (in the 'normal' world) doing short commutes, airport runs or ferrying around my boys to football matches. Chances are that 80% of my journeys could be full EV but the PHEV (and the size of the DS for football kit) just seemed more sensible to me than the i-Pace as we stand. Kind of hoping there is a DS (or Disco) BEV around by the time my PCP ends in Spring 2024.

[sandbox]

When a friend who works in Formula E then gave me a heads up on what is happening around battery development

Do tell...

Tesla tabless batteries... they are certainly a huge improvement when they come out.

https://www.autoweek.com/news/technolog ... -promises/

I actually hope they make cars with smaller batteries and less range to make them cheaper. This issue of range anxiety should hopefully pass (like it did with battery life of mobiles).
The other change people need to make is that charging your car should be your secondary task i.e. you go to the shops and charge while you are there. As opposed to the current (pun intended!) primary task of going to a petrol station to fill your tank.

[FabzSnr]

Quite agree but the challenge is that making it a secondary task (at scale) requires infrastructure (pop ups in the car park?) which the manufacturers can't control. In order to get the right economies of scale the manufacturers need to start shifting units. Range anxiety works against that so they have to focus on (expensive) batteries (that they can control) until the infrastructure catches up.

It is actually analogous to mobile phones. The first thing they did was change the battery technology so they could run hungrier apps. Now you can recharge on a plane or via an external battery pack.