Electric Vehicles: General topics

[User.45]

Here's a good article on 22 "most anticipated" EVs for 2022, though many of these won't realistically see a release till at least '23:

22 of the most anticipated electric vehicles coming in 2022

A list of some of the most exciting or interesting electric vehicles currently planned to arrive sometime in 2022, along with details...

electrek.co

Many of these appear already obsolete. I think the new standard minimum range is 250. Mazda's MX30 with 100 mi? It such a harsh miscalculation it's impressive.

DCFC (DC Fast Charging) is a consideration for travel, in particular if your destination is out of single charge range, or you don't have a way to charge at home (or work) in any capacity.

If you've got a 50a (or a few) at home, you're golden. Generally you'll want to charge at ~80% of the max rating of the circuit, so for those 50a circuits, that would be 40a, and outlets (vs. a hardwire setup) have a max spec of 50a which is why you see 40a plugin style chargers (which are technically called an EVSE, it's basically a switch, the charger is built into the car).

Those 50a outlets should either be an N6-50 (3-prong, 240v only), an an N14-50 (4-prong, 2-phase that can support 120 and 240). Either is fine as you'd only be using 240v anyway. Depending on the car, you should be able to get up to 36-37 miles per hour charging rate on those outlets with a 40a Level 2 charger. The thing with a BEV, is you "refuel" incrementally, it's a totally different use model vs. an ICE vehicle.

Like if I drive over to the Apple store and back, when I get home, I'll plugin and the battery loss for that ~70 mile round trip is replenished in ~1:55 (for comparison a Supercharger would take about 7-8 minutes )

If you want to get a good sense of the public charging situation, Level 2 destination chargers (which are basically like 40a home chargers) and DCFC stations (Tesla Superchargers, Electrify America, etc.) I'd highly suggest checking out A Better Route Planner:

ABRP

A Better Routeplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.

abetterrouteplanner.com

It's a free service, there's an App, web UI, there's a paid tier that will actually use your car's data to better prediction, but you can plot routes for travel, select a car, see what kind of time, charging costs you might encounter.

Again, this is a place where Tesla just kills it, our common route to Orlando International has like 8 convenient Supercharger locations (a couple at great stop spots like a Wawa), and only 1 non-Telsa DCFC. Apparently Tesla is going to open up Superchargers to non-Tesla vehicles which would really change things a good bit, time will tell, they'll need some kind of CSS retrofit to stations, or new CSS only stations, things will only improve in this area.

Thanks for the planner. It looks pretty phenomenal.

I test drove one back in September and posted about it. In the end I ordered one because I feel it's the best non Tesla option out for there for an EV at the moment. The styling and the fast charging is what won me over in the end. The price is decent too (in the UK)

So what made you settle with the IQ5 if you hated the seat that much? I think we the same height issues...That 90-95th percentile in height appears right at the cut-off point of design ergonomics where furniture is a major hit or miss.

 

[User.168]

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[DT]

Oh yeah, PlugShare is good too, especially for getting the low-down on specific destination chargers. People rate them, post photos, it was through PlugShare where I discovered the L2 chargers at two resorts we frequent, plus amazing, out-of-the-way parking It's kind of like Yelp for EV chargers

 

[User.168]

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[Eric]

The paid option for ABRP also gives you access to Apple Carplay, so you can use it directly on the vehicle's screen. Personally I think I will continue to use Waze for navigation (the mobile speed trap reports are impossible to beat and I would not drive anywhere without it) and use ABRP to plan out the route.

And I was about to mention the other useful app, Plugshare, but I see @DT beat me to it.

I have always been a fan of waze but they've implemented some "calming" feature where they say "now take a deep breath" type of thing every single time it gives instructions, I dug around for an option to turn it off and finally just said fuck it and quit using the app entirely, very annoying and should be something you need to opt in for. When not using the default with Tesla now, I stick with Apple Maps.

 

[DT]

This made me realise just how old and boring the basic X3 shape is and the fact that apart from extra tat, it hasn't actually changed all that much in nearly two decades.

Yeah, they're still holding on to / sharing a lot of ICE design elements. Makes sense from a company standpoint, but leaves the consumer with something that doesn't feel as fresh as the ground up EV designs.

 

[User.168]

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[User.168]

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[Citysnaps]

DCFC (DC Fast Charging) is a consideration for travel, in particular if your destination is out of single charge range, or you don't have a way to charge at home (or work) in any capacity.

If you've got a 50a (or a few) at home, you're golden. Generally you'll want to charge at ~80% of the max rating of the circuit, so for those 50a circuits, that would be 40a, and outlets (vs. a hardwire setup) have a max spec of 50a which is why you see 40a plugin style chargers (which are technically called an EVSE, it's basically a switch, the charger is built into the car).

Those 50a outlets should either be an N6-50 (3-prong, 240v only), an an N14-50 (4-prong, 2-phase that can support 120 and 240). Either is fine as you'd only be using 240v anyway. Depending on the car, you should be able to get up to 36-37 miles per hour charging rate on those outlets with a 40a Level 2 charger. The thing with a BEV, is you "refuel" incrementally, it's a totally different use model vs. an ICE vehicle.

Like if I drive over to the Apple store and back, when I get home, I'll plugin and the battery loss for that ~70 mile round trip is replenished in ~1:55 (for comparison a Supercharger would take about 7-8 minutes )

If you want to get a good sense of the public charging situation, Level 2 destination chargers (which are basically like 40a home chargers) and DCFC stations (Tesla Superchargers, Electrify America, etc.) I'd highly suggest checking out A Better Route Planner:

ABRP

A Better Routeplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.

abetterrouteplanner.com

It's a free service, there's an App, web UI, there's a paid tier that will actually use your car's data to better prediction, but you can plot routes for travel, select a car, see what kind of time, charging costs you might encounter.

Again, this is a place where Tesla just kills it, our common route to Orlando International has like 8 convenient Supercharger locations (a couple at great stop spots like a Wawa), and only 1 non-Telsa DCFC. Apparently Tesla is going to open up Superchargers to non-Tesla vehicles which would really change things a good bit, time will tell, they'll need some kind of CSS retrofit to stations, or new CSS only stations, things will only improve in this area.

Thanks for the tips and information - that'll get me started. Appreciate it!

 

[DT]

Agreed. On a similar note, I spotted the new BMW IX when we were driving up to Scotland just after Xmas. It's the first one I've seen in the flesh. I have to admit that it looks a lot better than in the photos and the videos. I realise that isn't exactly a great endorsement, since it looks like some kind of monstrosity in pictures, in my opinion.

On the roads when I didn't have to endure the front grill it actually looked almost nice from the side, rear and rear 3/4 views.

I really like the general design, some of the details, but it is hard to look past that butterface. And then they used if for their EV design, which not only makes it homely __but__ also doesn't even make any sense.

I think most enthusiasts would agree the M4 is a stellar sports coupe, but even the technically execution get overshadowed by this ...

For reference, the previous model M4:

 

[cloudflare420]

Has anyone tried to charge on these GE level 2 chargers before? We have them at a few different Whole Foods around here and they never work. Constantly cycling on and off. The Tesla just hates them.

 

[User.168]

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[Eric]

Has anyone tried to charge on these GE level 2 chargers before? We have them at a few different Whole Foods around here and they never work. Constantly cycling on and off. The Tesla just hates them.

Not sure what they say on the front but I pulled up to one a couple of weeks ago and the message on it said it still needed to be setup and configured, it was unusable.

 

[lizkat]

The thing about having an API, well... I guess it's good it can't do "just anything" like with steering or braking etc...

Teen hacker finds bug that lets him control 25+ Teslas remotely

David Colombo says it’s the owners’ faults, not an infrastructure vulnerability.

arstechnica.com

David Colombo explained in the thread that the flaw was "not a vulnerability in Tesla's infrastructure. It's the owner's faults[sic]." He claimed to be able to disable a car's remote camera system, unlock doors and open windows, and even begin keyless driving. He could also determine the car's exact location.

However, Colombo clarified that he could not actually interact with any of the Teslas' steering, throttle, or brakes, so at least we don't have to worry about an army of remote-controlled EVs doing a Fate of the Furious reenactment.

Colombo says he reported the issue to Tesla's security team, which is investigating the matter.

On a related note, early on Wednesday morning, a third-party Tesla app called TezLab reported that it saw the "simultaneous expiry of several thousand Tesla authentication tokens from Tesla's side." TezLab's app makes use of Tesla APIs that allow apps to do things like log in to the car and enable or disable the anti-theft camera system, unlock the doors, open the windows, and so on.

 

[DT]

The thing about having an API, well... I guess it's good it can't do "just anything" like with steering or braking etc...

Yeah, certainly a "connected" car introduces some additional complexities, so you really have to understand the implications of owning one. For example: if you're worried, don't generate any tokens for 3rd parties (which was likely the attack vector) and use really strong passwords + 2FA. If you're really worried, turn off remote access.

 

[DT]

Yeah, certainly a "connected" car introduces some additional complexities, so you really have to understand the implications of owning one. For example: if you're worried, don't generate any tokens for 3rd parties (which was likely the attack vector) and use really strong passwords + 2FA. If you're really worried, turn off remote access.

Just to follow up on this: the attack vector was through an open source app called TeslaMate, it's a data logger you connect to your Tesla. One of the options is to host it yourself, either through your own server setup or as a complete Docker image, and OOTB, it's notoriously "loose" on security, and some people just toss it up on a free cloud app service.

So basically a few people running this, exposed an API key to their car.

 

[DT]

No idea if this will make it to production, final specs, pricing, distribution and service network ... just that it's a really nice looking execution (love the side "mirrors"):

The most shocking thing about this EV is the manufacturer: Sony

 

[Eric]

No idea if this will make it to production, final specs, pricing, distribution and service network ... just that it's a really nice looking execution (love the side "mirrors"):

View attachment 11002

View attachment 11003



The most shocking thing about this EV is the manufacturer: Sony

Right now I have a Sony TV and a Sony mirrorless camera, both are excellent quality. If this thing is even close it should be an awesome car.

 

[DT]

Right now I have a Sony TV and a Sony mirrorless camera, both are excellent quality. If this thing is even close it should be an awesome car.

I just love the idea of the vehicle market opening up to all these new players, who even just 10 years ago you would've said, "Sony? You're crazy." I think cars are becoming a little more modular too, Sony can source the "skateboard" with a certain spec (battery, form factor), and do all the finishing implementation, and capitalize on the elements that are unique to Sony's strengths - like you said, electronics, optics, video.

 

[Eric]

I just love the idea of the vehicle market opening up to all these new players, who even just 10 years ago you would've said, "Sony? You're crazy." I think cars are becoming a little more modular too, Sony can source the "skateboard" with a certain spec (battery, form factor), and do all the finishing implementation, and capitalize on the elements that are unique to Sony's strengths - like you said, electronics, optics, video.

Cars appear to be moving into the tech sector and it has opened up a lot of opportunity. I know Apple is getting on board now but it feels like they lost the opportunity to get in at the ground level, as they did in with home automation, so now they'll have to deal with all the competition on a level playing field. In any case it's good for the consumer to see them all get in on it.