Confused & Thinking of Buying

All Honda E related discussions
Catcave
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Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:26 pm

Post by Catcave »

Okay, live in the Manchester area, work is 6 miles away and most days that’s the only trip I do. I can occasionally (once a week) up that to 70/80miles. I’ve test driven a Honda E and a Type R (yep I know). I’m desperate to go electric and I’m conscious that in reality my mileage is limited. I want my next car to be Japanese and being a complete petrol head (eeek) I love things that are different and quirky. If the Honda E had a range of 200miles I’d jump at it. I’ve read and read on forums and looked at reviews and I think 90% of the time it would have me covered. It would be cheaper and as interesting as my M140i and I do love the tech (especially as I could plug an Apple TV into it and a mini SNES!). So, has anyone made that sort of plunge, worried about the range or driving experience and can report? Have to try and perhaps address taking care a bit more of the planet!

darrenj1
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2020 12:20 pm

Post by darrenj1 »

My head said no, but my heart said yes. It's so cool and different to many cars. Range is manageable with 50kw charge point's just takes a bit of extra planning and time for those long journeys
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londiniumperson
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Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:37 pm

Post by londiniumperson »

I think that most of us that have bought an e, took the jump just as you are considering with regards the limited range also I suspect that for the majority of us, this will have been our first EV.

Why do you need a range of 200 miles, when you do such short trips?
2022 Advance in Crystal Black Pearl on 17's - 08/2020-Current
2015 VW Tiguan (Pure White) - 04/2018-Current
1991 Honda Beat PP1 (Festival Red) - 11/2022-Current
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Marmite
Posts: 240
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2020 12:44 pm
Location: Bucks UK

Post by Marmite »

:D Go for it!
For me at least, e's range is much better than my previous (and first) EV. I hardly use outside charging point, go out come back, charge at home. Perfect for my life range.
2020 e Advance : Modern Steel Metallic + blue accent :mrgreen:
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Highanddry
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Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2021 8:03 am

Post by Highanddry »

I think you like me, reading and reading reviews and then still being confused on what to do :-)
But you said you like tech, Japanese and electric, don't need the range, so the choice is actually really simple, I cannot see what other car you could possibly buy with same coolness factor?

Stop worrying and take the plunge!
Catcave
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Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:26 pm

Post by Catcave »

I suppose the range anxiety comes from wondering if I can go from here to work (6miles) work to parents (55miles) via the shops (10miles) in Winter without having to stop and charge if I leave with a full battery. On reading some of the winter range reviews, seemed to suggest people were getting 70miles from a full charge....or is that if you live in Oslo!

Secondly, just for my understanding, town driving is very positive for town driving, if I do 20 miles on the motorway at 70 or 80, does that just knock 20miles off or more?

Thanks Guys. Comments appreciated. I love this car, it’s quite a jump head wise given my love of hot hatches.
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londiniumperson
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Post by londiniumperson »

Catcave wrote: Sat May 01, 2021 8:53 am I suppose the range anxiety comes from wondering if I can go from here to work (6miles) work to parents (55miles) via the shops (10miles) in Winter without having to stop and charge if I leave with a full battery. On reading some of the winter range reviews, seemed to suggest people were getting 70miles from a full charge....or is that if you live in Oslo!

Secondly, just for my understanding, town driving is very positive for town driving, if I do 20 miles on the motorway at 70 or 80, does that just knock 20miles off or more?

Thanks Guys. Comments appreciated. I love this car, it’s quite a jump head wise given my love of hot hatches.
I'm in the UK.
It all depends on your driving style, outside temperature and how you use the HVAC (this is the biggest power draw), heated seats & heated steering wheel.
My daily one way commute is 25 miles with approx 20 miles of that on 70mph roads on which I usually set the ACC to 70. Since Aug last year, in winter the worse case scenario with HVAC set to 21.5C, heated seats & wheel on my m/kWh was 2.6 on only one day, usually I got 2.7 to 2.9 over the winter months. Over the last couple of weeks I've been getting about 3.4 to 3.9m/kWh depending on how much I use the interior heating.
In short this equates to a worse case of 74 miles and best 111 miles assuming an available battery capacity of 28.5kWh.
I used to check the battery status constantly during every journey, now I get home after work (50 mile round trip) and realise that I've only checked it just as I left home and then again on my return as I switch off. As long as I've got 75% charge when I leave home, then I know that I'm ok even on the coldest day and can still make a short detour if needed without worrying about running out of charge.

I use the following rule of thumb to give a small safety factor:
Max range = 100 miles (1 mile per battery percent point)
Reduce by 15% on coldest day of year.
Reduce by additional 10% if using HVAC at 21.5C.
Increase by 15% in summer.
Heated seats & steering wheel have no appreciable impact on range, so if you think you're cutting it fine to make your destination/charge point then switch these on and the HVAC off.

If you do a lot of short journeys on a single charge and leave the car to cool down each time and then repeatedly set the interior cabin temp high, this will have a large impact on the driving range, however very few people have this scenario, the average person that does a home>work>home commute with a stop off at the shops won't be adversely affected.

If you're making an additional 10 miles detour to the shops, then why not top up for the few minutes that you're there so not adding any time to your journey and then that will also help with reducing the range anxiety.

You may have seen a couple of YouTube videos where people have driven something like 10+ miles beyond 0% battery in Honda e, personally I wouldn't rely on there being much range left beyond zero, but I have driven mine down to 0% once on purpose and it still pulled like a train, so power wasn't reduced unlike some EVs.

Why not contact a dealer and ask to take one out on 2 separate occasions, once to get used to it and enjoy a planted right foot, then with the second drive to check the efficiency in normal driving.
2022 Advance in Crystal Black Pearl on 17's - 08/2020-Current
2015 VW Tiguan (Pure White) - 04/2018-Current
1991 Honda Beat PP1 (Festival Red) - 11/2022-Current
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Isow
Posts: 188
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2020 6:16 pm
Location: South Manchester

Post by Isow »

I also live in the Manchester area.
I agree with the above .
I have only ever charged my E at home via a 3 pin plug in the garage.
My energy supplier is Octopus and as most people know they have a tariff called
Octopus Go.
Between 00.30 and 04.30 they charge 5p a KWh.
It costs such a small amount to ‘fuel’ this car.
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Marmite
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Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2020 12:44 pm
Location: Bucks UK

Post by Marmite »

I once did my very unscientific experiment, using exactly the same journey attitude on purpose. I live in UK outside London & my e has 17' tyres.

My midday round trip has 56 miles total (28 miles x2), both way includes 7 miles on M25 @ 50-60 speed + 13 miles on M1 @ 73-78 speed, I left air-con @ 20 degree with 2 fan speed bars, one pedal mode all the time.

On 14th Feb 2021, outside temperature 5c, e had 84 miles. Back home it had 16 miles left, therefore extra 12 miles lost (84-56 being 28)
On 12th Apr 2021, outside temperature 13c, e had 92 miles. Back home it had 28 miles left, extra 8 miles lost (92-56 being 36)

I can't say how much was lost by which (eg. outside temperature/air-con/motorway/and my bad driving habit...!?) however I roughly know my own range limit without charging outside these days :mrgreen: I'm going to do the same once more, on very hot summer day!
2020 e Advance : Modern Steel Metallic + blue accent :mrgreen:
HeartNotHead
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Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:39 am

Post by HeartNotHead »

It’s in my forum name. I love it, my wife loves it, we fight over it. It never fails to bring a smile to our faces, whether toodling or going for it. BUT we have a second car or two. As our only car the low range would be impossible to live with. Secondly, as others mention, the price is too high for it to make the grade with those who put store by VFM. Two pros not often mentioned, it is a fabulous charger through country lanes and on B roads, especially with the single pedal driving button activated. And it soaks up poor road surfaces surprisingly well.
As far as I’m concerned (which I know is not a majority view), if I was Honda I’d release a significantly more reasonably priced Advance without much of the Geekery. And as has been mentioned, some of the safety modes can be positively dangerous. And the gizmos are a real distraction. I’ve been dangerously distracted more than once.
Lastly, depreciation: get ready for it. It hasn’t sold nearly as well as Honda hoped - the competition - on price new and range.
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