I am quite keen on the idea of an electric car.

[philcowans@universeodon.com]

@neil - I have a 2021 Kia Niro which I'm generally happy with, although I've probably done less due diligence on the privacy than I should have done. I can get comfortably get from Cambridge to London and back on a single charge, or Cambridge to Oxford if I charge while I'm there, and I'm very conservative about how close to 0% I'll let it go. For normal driving we change it about once a week, but we could get away with much less.

Kia have recently made the associated app much shittier, but there's no real need for me to use it. Annoyingly, at the same time the Ohme (charger) platform stopped being able to connect to the Kia platform which means my charger can no longer automatically schedule charging to get the battery up to a specific level - I have to manually tell it the starting value each time.

[otfrom@functional.cafe]

@neil @wendyg my electric bicycle spies on me a fair bit, but I think I can defeat most of it

[stephen@nerdout.club]

@neil I had a 2018 Hyundai Kona, it and the Kia Niro from that year, and possibly 2019 model too didn't have apps, so no onboard SIM, etc. The original Hyundai Ionic was the same. All of them very decent cars IMO.

[nowster@fedi.nowster.me.uk]

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk @sarajw@front-end.social I had a 2009 model Jazz. Kept it for eleven years, then got a 2021 Jazz Hybrid. The EV charging infrastructure is not great in the extremities of rural NW Wales.

[jsbarretto@social.coop]

@nabeards @not_a_label @neil Out of interest, where are you getting those numbers from? Here in the UK £10k seems about the minimum for the draw conversion kits themselves, entirely ignoring fitting/equipment/labour costs.

[kim@fedi.social]

@fooflington@infosec.exchange I appear to have neglected to take a photo of the dashboard indicating 60mph while stopped in a car park, but you can pretend I've replied with that.

[radicalabacus@hachyderm.io]

@neil I'm lucky in that I have almost no need of a car. My current car is an old diesel, which is not ideal, but it moves very rarely (walk/bike/public transport covers almost everything I want to do) and seems likely to be the last car I own. At my rate of car use, renting one a few times a year would make more sense.

I did consider a cheap small electric car and might end up getting one if my needs change. The Dacia Spring is pretty basic and not very surveillance encumbered, I believe; not luxurious or exciting but maybe worth a look? The VW e-up looks quite nice too, not sure how creepy it is though

[kim@fedi.social]

@MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk Neither has anyone else...

[kim@fedi.social]

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk @steve@mastodon.nexusuk.org Yes. I refuse to pay £8/month to enhance the functionality of the buggy app to checks notes turn the pre-heating on, flash the headlights and unlock the doors. (Without the subscription, it logs trip mileage (except when it fails to), and presents you with a battery charge gauge in 'miles' which reflects the state of charge when it last successfully connected over Bluetooth.)

IMHO all three of these could and should be done with buttons on the keyfob. Two of them already are.

[victimofsimony@infosec.exchange]

@neil

Do you have the engineering skill to retrofit an old car with an electric motor?

You could be the guy fixing up a car in their garage AND the kook tinkering on something in their garage!

[thejikz@infosec.exchange]

@neil I pulled the fuse for wireless tech/onstar in my chevy bolt, so its a "dumb car" but still a sparky car.

[kelpana@mastodon.ie]

@etchedpixels @neil last time I looked something that would replace my Diesel is well over €25k even second hand.

[babble_endanger@freeradical.zone]

@neil I'd really vibe with a stick-shift BEV.

Or a hybrid where I could somehow control the power split myself.

Or an automatic with throttle-by-wire and an ECU which simply didn't spy on me

[gabrielesvelto@mas.to]

@neil you can get a good idea of what each vendor collects here: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/privacynotincluded/categories/cars/

[ross@crikey.social]

@neil The thing with the old leaf is they have a different charging socket (Chademo) that’s harder to find chargers for.

I’m really glad we didn’t buy one on that basis alone. We were in a toss up between a long-range Leaf and a Hyundai Ioniq.

We are really happy with the Ioniq.

It’s probably spying on us.

[ross@crikey.social]

@neil I made a little terminology cheat sheet if that’s helpful:

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/06/my-simple-ev-terminology-cheatsheet/

[ross@crikey.social]

@sarajw @neil Yes to all this. I ran the numbers a lot when looking at EVs. If you can do it, not having a car is clearly the best thing. Even if you hire a few times a year.

If you don’t need it for work or mobility, you mostly buy a car for sheer convenience.

Our hand was forced when our old car only just got us home from a holiday!

Having an EV makes me feel much better about all my dad-taxi journeys. (Ask me about teaching a neurodiverse kid to cycle if you dare!)

[nabeards@hachyderm.io]

@jsbarretto @not_a_label @neil a mechanic here in CR that does these conversions

It’s possible prices are fluctuating rapidly with the state of the world, this was about four months ago.

[ams@infosec.exchange]

@neil Later eGolf (the range went up 2017+)? The 3G modem doesn't work anymore and uses the ABS for tpm so no radio sensors.

[nabeards@hachyderm.io]

@jsbarretto @not_a_label @neil another difference may be the needed travel distance. Mine is pretty short here, around 100 KM per charge.