Poll: Which engine/transmission are you looking at, or have purchased?

All Volvo XC40 related discussions
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Which engine/transmission are you looking at, or have purchased?

D3 FWD MANUAL
10
2%
D3 FWD AUTOMATIC
24
5%
D3 AWD MANUAL
0
No votes
D3 AWD AUTOMATIC
11
2%
D4 AWD AUTOMATIC
68
15%
T3 FWD MANUAL
54
12%
T4 AWD AUTOMATIC
70
15%
T5 AWD AUTOMATIC
92
20%
Petrol - Other specs not included above
123
27%
Diesel - Other specs not included above
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 452

aj05
Posts: 96
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:11 pm

Post by aj05 »

There are eight operating hydrogen refill stations in the London/greater London area and one planned for Gatwick so just needs a little more effort from car manufactures and perhaps a little help from the government.
Hydrogen is a solution for a lot of people who are unable to charge the car at home also so much easier to fill the car at a station and drive away without waiting for battery to be recharged.

johnd
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:58 am

Post by johnd »



is an interesting watch for anyone interested in hydrogen.

But I'd quibble with some of the EV facts in that video. for instance, once everyday EV cars can routinely reach a charge rate of 10-12miles/minute (which is reasonably close to happening even now) then a 200 mile recharge (ie total weekly driving distance for many owners) will take no more than 15-20 minutes and be done during a weekly visit to supermarket, gym, shopping centre etc. So even for EV owners who can't charge at home then there is a ready solution. Granted it will take a slight change in perception or habit to charge while you're visiting some other activity centre rather than a petrol station, but over 10-20 years I can't see that as a major hurdle.
hdasmith
Posts: 392
Joined: Thu May 10, 2018 7:16 pm
Location: UK

Post by hdasmith »

It’ll also take a massive change in our electrical infrastructure. To sustain this, our National Grid doesn’t have anything like the capacity. We will need to move to more local generation, and the DNOs will need massive investment in their infrastructure.

We’d probably looking at installing something like submarine reactors in most major towns and cities as neither solar nor wind can power this sort of infrastructure.

We’d also need to move away from batteries to supercapacitors. Partly because of the availability of materials to manufacture the batteries, partly to increase charging speed and longevity. The problem then becomes power density. They’re good, and getting better, but still don’t have the power to weight and size ratios required.

A 10-12 mile/minute charge might be possible on an empty battery, but you have to slow the charge rate as they reach capacity.
Inscription Pro | Pine Grey | Amber Leather | D3 FWD Manual
Ordered 11th May 2018
Delivered 6th November 2018
hdasmith
Posts: 392
Joined: Thu May 10, 2018 7:16 pm
Location: UK

Post by hdasmith »

I should probably clarify a DNO is a Distribution Network Operator. The likes for Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern, UKPN, Northern Powergrid, Western Power Distrubution, and Electricity North West.

To help manage this, they’re moving to DSO, or Distribution Service Operators, which will allow them to, for example, send requests to your car charger during peak times to ask them to switch of the charger, and switch it back on when demand has reduced. This will take more than a smart meter in your house.
Inscription Pro | Pine Grey | Amber Leather | D3 FWD Manual
Ordered 11th May 2018
Delivered 6th November 2018
johnd
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:58 am

Post by johnd »

Really, if you look into EVs you'll see that these are not major issues. consider, for example:

1. A change to EVs will not happen overnight - it's more like a 20-year period over which much generating capacity and distribution structure will be renewed and re-planned anyway.

2. You have to think about when EVs will be recharged, which will, to a large extent, be overnight (and/or will be so-called 'smart-charging', ie moderated/modulated by an 'intelligent' charge controller that can interact with the local grid). There is already plenty of excess capacity overnight to cope with a very considerable expansion in the EV fleet.

3. A 10-12 mile/min rate will tend to slow somewhat once you're past 60-70% SoC but the slowing doesn't become too noticeable with a modern EV (eg an I-Pace) until you're at 80+%, which is probably the maximum you want to charge to routinely anyway, with preparation for longer trips an allowable exception.

Apologies, I didn't mean to hijack this thread and turn it into an EV one, but I guess there'll be scope for a separate EV thread to discuss these various perceived EV issues once the XC40 EV gets closer to launch.

Any maybe I should also add that I've come very close to pressing the button on an I-Pace recently so I've pretty much immersed myself in EV practicalities, myths etc over the past few months. As it happens, I've decided against the I-Pace this time around for a whole variety of incidental reasons, eg the I-Pace has various teething problems and it looks like JLR brought it to market prematurely (everyone agrees that it's a great car to own and drive, but probably needed another 6-9 months of in-depth testing and bug fixes); also I might be moving house in the foreseeable future and so I can't necessarily guarantee home-charging. These are just a couple of the reasons, but the process has totally convinced me about the benefits of EVs (not least the 0-60 of eg the I-Pace at 4.5 secs). Unfortunately there are no other comparable compact SUV EVs on the market right now (Tesla's are too big/expensive) so I'm having to stick with a new fossil car for now and subject to a satisfactory test drive then this very likely will be a Polestar'd T5 XC40. Hopefully the XC40 EV might be a good proposition when it appears, but that depends on whether Volvo make it dual motor (the usual way for EVs to have 4WD) or not, battery size, range, efficiency (probably not very good I suspect - the XC40 is too tall and blunt for good aerodynamics), 0-60 etc.
Last edited by johnd on Sun Dec 23, 2018 7:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
hdasmith
Posts: 392
Joined: Thu May 10, 2018 7:16 pm
Location: UK

Post by hdasmith »

Hi John,

With respect to point 1, the uptake is happening quicker than expected, and quicker than the DNOs can manage, some of them at least. Consumer electricity rates slow the ability to invest in network infrastructure.

2. With the high number of people that rely on on-street parking (including me and my last car, an Outland PHEV), there is a high expectation of charging at offices during the day time, which is what I did. It was a race to get into the office to access the chargers.

3. Constant fast charging like this, without topping the battery to 100% reduces the life expectancy of the battery. Better to charge slower for longer. I think it’s to do with the heat generated during a rapid charge. The aircon would come on in my Outlander to try and help amange this.

There was a huge amount to like about my old car, and its electric drive, but charging was a bit of a faff, and I do like the ease of filling up with diesel.

For what it’s worth, over four years, I averaged 51mpg in the Outlander. My driving profile changes in the summer against this though - more long journeys. My Volvo is averaging about the same on the new profile. I did manage 323mpg in January - that was very cold driving - no heating except to defrost the windscreen, and driving with windows down to stop them re-misting - I don’t miss that!
Inscription Pro | Pine Grey | Amber Leather | D3 FWD Manual
Ordered 11th May 2018
Delivered 6th November 2018
johnd
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2018 9:58 am

Post by johnd »

There's no doubt that EV ownership is less easy at present for those (36% of UK homes apparently) unable to home-charge - no dispute about that. But once the rapid charger network builds out more to public places like supermarkets, gyms etc, ie places where you might spend eg an hour a week anyway then you'll be able to recharge while you shop, exercise, spectate, enjoy other leisure activities etc. I suspect the charging landscape will look pretty different in eg 5 years' time.

Re heating effects on charge-rates: that only applies to EVs without active battery temperature management. Most modern full EVs (ie not hybrids) do have battery cooling/heating (with some notable exceptions like the notorious Nissan Leaf 40kWh 'Rapidgate' saga) and so the only limitation on charge rate is that resulting from the battery chemistry, ie in the 85-100% SoC region it gets progressively slower to force charge into lithium-type batteries even when temperature is controlled.
hdasmith
Posts: 392
Joined: Thu May 10, 2018 7:16 pm
Location: UK

Post by hdasmith »

I don't have enough knowledge about Tesla, Zoe or other full battery systems to know about battery temperature management being used, can only talk as an Outlander PHEV owner in that regard.

I agree that the charging landscape is improving, you only need to look at zap-map to see that, but I'm just not convinced that the infrastructure will be there in 5 years to support the wide adoption of EV. Add in things like the Tesla truck, and it'll make things very difficult - I would rather see a hybrid truck that used diesel on the motorways, and switched to electric in town for the short term, with the aim of full electric.

I'd also really like to see farm vehicles move to electric - great torque curves, low sustained speed, torque rather than power required, large chassis that can support a large battery structure without too much relative cost in weight or size. I know a few farms that are off-grid, and it seems to me these would be prime candidates for an EV revolution.

In truth, there's no easy answer to any of these. It used to be said that the car with the lowest lifetime CO2 emissions is actually the Series 1 Land Rover. Very simple to manufacture, massively recyclable, very easy to repair without throwing a lot of components away. Conversely, an MIT study found a Tesla Model S can have higher emissions that a petrol car when you take manufacturing and recycling into account (Austria would be better than the US or UK as they reckon they're 100% renewable energy, but then a wind turbine or hydroelectric dam don't come without CO2 cost).
Inscription Pro | Pine Grey | Amber Leather | D3 FWD Manual
Ordered 11th May 2018
Delivered 6th November 2018
Elegance645
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2019 6:13 pm

Post by Elegance645 »

I'm after a bit of advice. I have ordered and R design pro T4 automatic for my wife. She covers approx 5 - 6,000 miles a year mainly t/from work which is a 14 mile journey each way on quieter A roads. The reports of the poor fuel economy concern me so I'm thinking do I change the order to a T5 better oomph possiblest not as bad on fuel but the issue is we are £150 under the magical £40,000 limit so any additional costs are possibly going to be more than the fuel savings even if we looked at a D4
sanjaime
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:00 pm

Post by sanjaime »

Today just agreed a part exchange of our Savile Grey D5 AWD XC60 Auto for a Pine Grey T4 AWD XC40 Auto Inscription Pro.
Must remember to select the correct fuel hose when filling up in future. :mrgreen:
SJ.
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