Hello everyone

[Arch+ev]

Newbie here from east central Scotland. I’ve owned a bunch of cars over the (many) years starting with a Morris Minor which I wish I still had. My list so far has included one Peugeot, four Renaults and four Citroens. The cream of the crop is my current car, an electric Berlingo. I bought it in November and I’ve now covered 8000 miles with it as far as Applecross, Ardnamurchan, Skye and Yorkshire to name a few. It’s generally costing me just under 2 pence per mile and is an absolute dream to drive. I have had two diesel automatic Berlingo XTR’s and found them to be really good but you’ll not see me in a filling station again. I’m able to park at the side of the house so I can plug the car in to take advantage of the cheaper rate power overnight.

[mickthemaverick]

Hello and Welcome

The number of electric owners is on the up on the forum so I am sure you will find some like minded opinions on here. (I'm not one of them being a petrol head through and through!!)

[Paul-R]

Welcome and ditto although I'm a derv head!

[Gibbo2286]

The anti EV brigade keeps suggesting that it's no good owning an electric car in Scotland, lack of chargers, how to you find it?

[mickthemaverick]

As Gibbo has mentioned 'the anti EV brigade' I thought I'd make my feelings clear I am not anti EV but I believe that the BEV has been and will prove to be, long after I'm gone, the wrong path. I think the resources should have been ploughed into Hydrogen direct powered Internal Combustion engines as the move away from fossil fuels.

It hasn't been and probably won't be until the powers that be realise the vast grid enhancements that are necessary to support all current petrol and diesel vehicles being able to become Battery powered. Imagine having every car in your road wanting to charge on the same night?

[Arch+ev]

I find the ev utterly fantastic. The e Berlingo is my third ev after an MG ZS ev then an MG 5 ev estate. Both MGs were superb over three and a half years and around forty thousand miles. I’ve never encountered any trouble charging out and about. It’s more of a mindset thing.
I drove to SKYE via the Glenelg ferry for instance. Left home with a full battery and drove to the Tesla chargers at Fort William. While we had a comfort, soup and coffee break, the car charged back to almost 100%. We then drove via Spean Bridge round to GlenShiel and over Mamratagan Hill to Glenelg where we crossed to Skye on the grand wee ferry there. We then drove round to Kyleakin where, whilst we walked to a cafe the car again charged to over 80%. Comfort, coffee and biscuits later we drove round to Eilan Donnan castle where we spent a couple of hours sight seeing. Then back to the Tesla chargers at Fort William for a top up while we had a quick traditional dinner of haggis, neeps and tatties before driving back home. That was a ten hour day covering 425 miles without a second wasted waiting for the car to charge.
That whole excerise was to show off some of the delights of Scotland and Skye to my New Zealand Niece who didn’t think she’d see much during her day and a half here. We had a superb day out.
The e Berlingo has been absolutely fabulous. I have it kind of converted to a camper and have an awning / tent for the back so I sleep either in the car on a fold out bed, or in the awning where I can stand up to wash and dress. The awning can be left standing while I drive off sight seeing or shopping etc. I have a power bank battery which can be charged from the car cigarette lighter socket or from solar panels which I set up alongside. It’s surprising how much they recharge the power bank even on a slightly cloudy day. A few weeks ago in Applecross the sunshine was fabulous and it all worked grand. I cook on an induction cooktop so now I don’t even bother carrying a gas cooker as I used to (just in case).
So yes I have no hesitation driving off at the drop of the proverbial hat. The Berlingo is a really nice vehicle, my two automatic diesels were wonderful but I far prefer this electric one now. It’s so much quieter, smoother and if needs be faster although I only use it in the eco setting with max regen 99% of the time. It’s really quick enough at that and, of course, any time I lift off the accelerator the car immediately starts using the electric motor as a generator and puts energy back in the battery, that really gladdens my old mean Scots heart
The car has two other settings, normal and power. Normal gives things quite a boost especially at traffic lights if you want to. The power setting is just silly for normal driving ( Citroen only recommends it for fully loaded or towing work) I would agree - otherwise it’s really too fast for the standard suspension ask me how I know
In the tent I can have the tailgate open and either heating or air conditioning blasting away while I lounge, eat or sleep because of course there’s no exhaust pipe to worry about.
The battery etc isn’t noticeable in daily use. The same flat floor with the rear seats folding flat, the same space behind the rear axle for the spare wheel and its cradle. There’s an awfull lot of wasted space under the bonnet which would accommodate a storage box or “frunk” to carry stuff (and of course, there’s no hot engine, gearbox, radiator, exhaust etc giving off heat. I’ve proved this by carrying a chocolate bar under the bonnet for over a week without it melting or deforming in any way
Yes I have to say I’m converted. I’ll be glad to answer any questions if I can.

[wurlycorner]

Hello and welcome.
It is nice to see EV owners joining up here, rather than it remaining purely ICE driven

[Arch+ev]

I hear from a lot of people they are waiting for hydrogen powered cars and even house gas to be replaced with hydrogen powered to power their hydrogen capable boilers for home heating. Unfortunately this cannot happen until the entire infrastructure is replaced. Current gas pipework , boilers, cookers and fires are not suitable for burning hydrogen. The pipelines are porous to hydrogen and the gas actually degrades the current pipelines etc.
much of the clean hydrogen needs large amounts of power for its production and storage is also very difficult.
Transportation to a filling station would be much more expensive due to the amounts able to be carried on each truck.
The electricity grid is very different and much improved recently. Also cars, buses and trucks now appearing that can both charge from the grid and be used to supply power back to the grid
Like a petrol or diesel vehicle it’s very rare to need a complete 100% fill up in my working days I could cover an average of 200 miles per day. The diesel Berlingos were easily giving 500 miles and more per tankful. So I was topping up half to two thirds of the tank every other day roughly costing £50 to £70 every week (or more)
Compare that to now, OK I’m not working, but I plug in most nights to top up at home by around 20 to 30% costing pennies. Remember a full tank for 200 miles range would now cost me under £4.00 and it fills whilst I’m sleeping and is ready every morning if I want it.
Servicing is much much cheaper. For a start there’s no oil or filters to change. As I hardly ever use the brakes they’ll last a very long time. Yes the regen is really that good. It slows the car down superbly and of course at the same time is actually putting power back to the battery. Going over like the Cairno’ Mount, the Devil’s Elbow or the Bealach na Ba roads can regen about half or more of the power used to go up one side, when you’re coming down the other.