24 minutes ago, iantt said:

If I were to visit the Yorkshire dales national park from my hometown , it's 160miles approx  So I would either get there with around 140 miles to visit the area and find a charging station

Most of the ones within the Yorkshire Dales National Park area are Podpoint 7kW, so be prepared for a long wait or preferably top up at the last Motorway stop.

As I mentioned, the electricity infrastructure in the area is not brilliant. When I joined the industry, there were still a lot of properties up there with no electricity at all. The rural electrification programme was still ongoing and was based on supplying fairly low demand - lighting, the odd electric fire or cooker, etc. It is heavily reliant on long lengths of wood pole overhead lines which are very vulnerable to weather - a lot of reinforcement is needed to cope with extra loads 

Best option for me, if I were to go BEV at present, would be home charging.

 

1 hour ago, unofix said:

Exactly just the right distance with room to spare! 👍

You spend two hours charging at the little dinky 3.5kW station which gives you just enough range to get you to the rapid charger. Then you can wait some more while you get a bigger boost 🤣

I think thats the idea actually, it's more an emergency thing. The nearest "proper" chargers I'm aware of are about 17 miles further on.

I really don't know what the permanent locals are supposed to do though. There are only those two 3.5kW chargers and one 7kW in the National Park car park, and I'm pretty sure if they all started home charging the local network wouldn't take it. As it is we often have localised blackouts round there.

In my senario there's 18 rapid charging locations within 30 miles of the centre of the dales I could call at . But think using 140 miles driving round the dales may be too much?? The all the  national board carparks have 7 kw chargers if your that stupid not to charge outside the area first .

The board are encouraging visitors to use public transport , bikes etc to explore so it's no wonder there's not any rapid chargers. 

3 hours ago, iantt said:

The board are encouraging visitors to use public transport , bikes etc to explore so it's no wonder there's not any rapid chargers. 

Lol, if you mean the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority they seem to see things differently to most of the locals. Taking the nearest settlement to our caravan (Hawes in Upper Wensleydale) they last saw a train in 1959 and the bus only runs on Sundays, apart from a community run minibus.

Bicycles are not very practical as a normal means of transport in that area but we get lots of mamils since the Tour de France ran a stage in the Dales a few years back. They often turn up in cars and then get the bikes out to annoy people trying to go about their normal business.

I mentioned the podpoint chargers in the National Park car parks, normally one per car park. As the YDNPA do say, they are really emergency only and you have to pay the parking fee while charging.

But yes, I think visitors with EVs can get away with it if they plan ahead carefully.

The issue is really for the locals if we are going EV. Lots of homes there have nowhere for home chargers, they will need public rapid chargers and the electricity infrastructure will need substantial upgrades to cope.

 

 

 

 

Excuse the pun but I see Barnard castle has new rapid charger. So charge and eye test at the same time.  🤣🤣

1 hour ago, iantt said:

Excuse the pun but I see Barnard castle has new rapid charger. So charge and eye test at the same time.  🤣🤣

Nice one, Ian!😀

Volkswagen was created by a mandate. We can ignore the name of the individual that issued the mandate. He is dust in the dustbin of history. VW group has a great history of engineering. But, the EV’s they have developed are a huge disappointment from several perspectives. 
If the current product is the pinnacle of their capability, then they are in deep trouble given that the competition is not standing still and have advanced so much in the past two years.

A continued high rate of cash burn will be the end of both Ford and VW if they don’t get a huge pot of gold at the end of the next two years.

I strongly suspect that they both are in agreement that they have no wiggle room and that is the reason for the dissolved partnership agreement between the two companies. I believe It was a smart decision to not do that joint venture. One guy who is drowning cannot reasonably expect to be rescued by another guy who also can’t swim!

20 minutes ago, Scottman said:

that is the reason for the dissolved partnership agreement between the two companies

I've seen some very confusing reports on that, with suggestions that the partnership is "growing" while simultaneously mentioning that the collaboration on AI has been discontinued and they are both developing new EV platforms to succeed MEB independently of each other. Bit of double-speak there, I think.

Thomas Schafer, the new(ish) VW CEO, has pledged to "fix things" at Volkswagen , starting with a revamp of the Mk 8 Golf and it's somewhat disastrous screen/touch pad controls. Some interesting sounding affordable EVs also promised over the next few years, including apparently a Mk 9 EV only Golf on their new SSP architecture.

We'll see how he gets on...........

As for Ford, from this and other forums they seem to have succeeded in pi**ing off a large proportion of their customer base. If we wanted to buy/lease an EV, why would we bother with them?

 

45 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Thomas Schafer, the new(ish) VW CEO, has pledged to "fix things" at Volkswagen , starting with a revamp of the Mk 8 Golf and it's somewhat disastrous screen/touch pad controls....

Today on a long drive (for me) I had need to use my standalone Garmin SatNav on the go. The experience of touching a screen whilst car in motion is just horrendous. Buttons are infinitely more tactile, and function over form is supreme. Automotive engineers should remember, sometimes, just because you can, doesn't mean you should...

18 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Today on a long drive (for me) I had need to use my standalone Garmin SatNav on the go. The experience of touching a screen whilst car in motion is just horrendous. Buttons are infinitely more tactile, and function over form is supreme. Automotive engineers should remember, sometimes, just because you can, doesn't mean you should...

Voice control is the way and proper buttons. I've got combination of all three methods inc touch screen. Touch screen is ok if your stationary. My climate control are all buttons and knobs. Sat nav, radio are easiest via voice control and works supprisingly well 

https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/08/ev_growth_gartner/

Power grids tremble as electric vehicle growth set to accelerate 19% next year

49

Gas-guzzling US favors hybrids while Europe prefers battery power

20 hours ago, StephenFord said:

The experience of touching a screen whilst car in motion is just horrendous.

Sure is. Even worse for me as my injury some years back left me with very little sensation in the fingers of my left hand. Knobs and buttons I can cope with, but touchscreens are basically a matter of pulling over and using my right hand if I need to adjust something!

Lots of people have similar issues from various causes. Voice control is suggested as an alternative but that's not much use for a lot of people with voice problems. 

8 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

not much use for a lot of people with voice problems

Not any use for anyone with a Geordie accent 🤣🤣

21 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Thomas Schafer, the new(ish) VW CEO, has pledged to "fix things" at Volkswagen , starting with a revamp of the Mk 8 Golf

That's a major career change from presenting the weather. 

Not sure if you've seen it but Seat won't be bringing out any new models now.  They're just sticking with the current range until an unconfirmed end date.  The brand itself will disappear after that.  Unsure whether that's been 'pushed' from the VW group or not at this stage.  The Cupra brand will continue producing full EV's.  

There are a few Cupra Born's near me now, more than ID3's ever have been!

41 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

That's a major career change from presenting the weather. 

You missed out the naker!

Yes, seen that about SEAT, looks like Cupra is the thing now.

Same here with the Born, far more popular than ID3 it seems.

2 hours ago, unofix said:

Not any use for anyone with a Geordie accent 🤣🤣

Lol, coincidentally just back from a week in Northumberland.

Amazingly the satnav alerted me several times to fixed cameras in that rather haughty ladies voice these devices use. I was thinking it would be good if it adapted to the regional accent as you move round the country! 

Wonder if they'd be able to distinguish Geordie and Mackem?😀

I cannot imagine what a traffic camera warning in a Cornish accent would sound like! It’s the only English dialect that I have an ongoing struggle to comprehend.

2 hours ago, Scottman said:

I cannot imagine what a traffic camera warning in a Cornish accent would sound like! It’s the only English dialect that I have an ongoing struggle to comprehend.

Keep at it Scott - I'm sure you'll get it dreckly!😀

Audi have done a similar calender, here's January 1st and Jan 2nd but in Germany they feel the need to represent ice car fires by the day to represent the percentage of ice fires compared to ev. 🤣🤣🤣

 

Those cars look hot! Perhaps the government should inform the EV makers that smoking in public spaces is not allowed?

I think in the Wild West they call them Trail Blazers 🤣

1 minute ago, unofix said:

I think in the Wild West they call them Trail Blazers 🤣

I wonder if they burn down in the ULEZ zone, do they incur an extra charge? LOL

3 hours ago, StephenFord said:

do they incur an extra charge?

Krazy King Khan would probably stick a parking ticket on them 🙄