Local journeys ? I have driven over 600 mile round trips in mine. Even taking it to The Netherlands last December. Yes, a battery can always be bigger, but whilst an excellent car for within Kent, mine regularly goes to Devon or Dorset or Southampton…
Best colour and most important the “s” version.
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Is your’s a Range Extender version?
I was under the impression that Ford had tied up with VW to use the VW MEB platform for its range of cars and VW were using the new Transit platform for the new VW transporter range.
The following extract is from (Volkswagen | Electrek) Richard please remove link if it’s breaking forum rules.
The Explorer EV is a five-seat family SUV aimed at the European market. Ford combined classic American design with superior German engineering to create the fully electric mid-size SUV.
Ford’s all-electric Explorer is based on Volkswagen’s MEB platform, the same one used for the ID.4. It’s the first of a 2020 partnership to revamp the Ford brand in the region. With 470 liters of storage and a massive 15″ movable touchscreen (with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support), Ford’s new electric SUV is built for family trips.
The Explorer EV can also fast charge from 10% to 80% in about 25 minutes, allowing you to get back on the road quickly.
Although production was expected to begin before the end of 2023, Ford last summer to meet new global safety rules.
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They decided to use Lithium Fe Phosphate batteries so it had to be retested and homologated-again, hence the delay. Hopefully the time was well spent tweaking the car-even more. Reviews seem to suggest that most customers would not be able to notice VW cues, and the software seemed to work OK. Time will tell……but it is bloody expensive.
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Thanks for the update, I’ve just seen who you used to work for!
Agree about the cost, not just the new Explorer, but new EV’s in general.
I have a Kuga Plug in hybrid which is about £20k less to buy than the top EV Explorer. Yet, the Kuga is more complex having a 2.5 litre petrol engine, plus the EV motors, batteries etc…….the EV should be much cheaper to build. I am lucky being on the Ford retiree lease scheme. But it is noticeable there is no EV offer……HMRC make sure the scheme makes no loss. The EV depreciation makes it unaffordable even on our own scheme.
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No. 42Kwh i3s.
These can be had for about 15k euros here.
That’s what they call the i3 120 in UK at least. The max range on a charge during the summer is about 180 miles so a 600 mile find trip means three full charges, which would take many hours. Not really practical long distance vehicle unless you have a lot of time to spare.
But it’s an excellent car as a first fully EV for local use. There were two reasons I didn’t buy the s model. Firstly the six month old model on sale at our local BMW dealer wasn’t an s and the s models all have dark window glass in the back as standard. I have that in another BMW and I think in town it gets in the way of seeing what’s going on around me. But if it had been an s, I would probably have bought it anyway.
The range, I assume, is 160 in the summer and 130 in the winter. It’s not ideal, but after two hours of driving, I need a rest, so a charge takes about 35 minutes. The i3 is fortunate in that its charge curve is flat from 20% to 93%.
I would always suggest that anyone ask for a plot of the charge curve for the EV they are considering. Most don’t publish them, but there is a reason for that.
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Interesting! How many kW do you use to charge it for 30 mins? My experience is totally limited to charging through a PodPoint charger at home, which is limited to 7 kW if you have a single phase supply, which I do have. To go from 20-90% would normally take us maybe 5 hours.
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When away from home it will pull 50kW dc. So 30 to 35 mins is about 30 Kwh or 120 miles of range. Enough time for a coffee etc. Just do this every 2hrs. The ac on board charger will do 11kW 3ph or 7kW single. 98% of all my chargingnis at home on the 7kW charger at 7p/ kWh. About 2p/mile.
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I would definitely have range anxiety. Is this in UK that you can rely on 50 kW dc charging being available? I don’t think I could in Surrey.
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I’m not an expert yet, but I think you need to have the CCS connector and not just the type 2 connector.
Yes, but the i3 120 does have a CCS2 connector I believe.
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Yes and yes. When i travel from Kent to Southampton i tend to go via the A3. Guildford has Tesla chargers, liphook into Hants too. Every dc charger is at least 50Kw. No need for anxiety unless you don’t plan
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I live in Guildford. Where are the Tesla chargers? I’m not aware of them.
CCS2 I think. An EV without a rapid charger of at least 50kW really does confine you to home charging or hours away at a 7kW charger. Now that is no fun.
But, i3s do come with 42kWh batteries and 50kW dc charging. IMO, the only ones to have.
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Parkway GU1 1UP.
Their app tells me 9 of 12 are free right now. Get 'round there and try it out.
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