Getting Cozy

The UK's top selling car in March was the Jaecoo 7.

The US's top selling car at the turn of the Century was the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.

Click on that link for a very amusing article from Car+Driver.

Although I'm not sure of the picture they have chosen - it is a black lad serving a white girl.  Bit of racial stereotyping going on there I think.

The story isn't about car sales in the early 2000s though.

It's about how Little Tikes are now producing an EV version of the foot powered sit-in car.

It takes 3 AA batteries for the pretend charging unit to provide lights and "charging noises."

The commenters underneath the story seem to get the joke.

Apart from one tosser who states, "It's downright crazy to drag toddlers into the EV Car drama with plastic peddle cars, don't you think? It's more of a adult topic. Over the top on this, toy designers."

He's got 18 downvotes, zero upvotes and various comments basically confirming that he is a tosser.

And wrong. 

He also can't spell "pedal" and The Crazy Coupe doesn't have pedals so isn't a pedal car anyway.

Right, I'm off now to watch Driving Miss Daisy.

Shocking Name

I keep hearing a Toyota advert on the radio.  They are trying to make it exciting.

It isn't.

It's an electric SUV.

I mean, just look at it.

But to make it even more difficult for the woman doing the voice-over, the car is called the bZ4X.  You can tell she is struggling when she says it.

Anyway, talking of electric cars and stupid naming, would you name a charging network after what happens when you get an electric shock?

Jolt have.

And they're giving away free electricity.

And their charging points look exciting.

No Offence

Etiquette is described by The Cambridge Dictionary as "the set of rules or customs that control accepted behaviour in particular social groups or social situations"

Or by Wikipedia as "the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a society, a social class, or a social group."

So who is the expert on etiquette?

Vauxhall apparently.

Although they have had some help from Debrett's.

They have produced this handy guide for polite behaviour at electric vehicle charging stations.

I'm surprised that a Debrett's guide would include such a common word as "bollard" but there it is in the "Be Streetwise" section.

I am also surprised by the "Be a Good EV Guest" section which states that, "it is quite likely that your host will not have a home charger, so you will have to rely on using a standard three-pin plug cable."  Surely anybody consulting a Debrett's guide wouldn't have friends without an EV home charger!?

But then, I'm not known as a diplomat.

Unlike Vauxhall:

Has the shooter been charged?

Not yet - and we don't know if his car has been either.

I'd seen this story on drive.com.au and was planning a light-hearted little post about it - "Two Tesla drivers have been involved in a skirmish – with one driver shot after being sprayed with mace – during a dispute at a charging station near Denver, Colorado."

Maybe I'd have done something about mild-mannered electric car drivers or perhaps something about the ridiculous number of shootings that happen every day in America.

Unfortunately, when I researched this a little further, it became clear that no only was his car charged (he drove away) but the other man died of his injuries.  ABC have the latest here.  Not really "a skirmish" then.

Water and Electricity

They aren't supposed to mix are they?

Well Tesla are absolutely encouraging it.

This story from Drive.au explains how they have put a mini swimming-pool at one of their recharging stations in Germany.

It is heated - by solar energy of course.

It only accommodates four people though.

But there are some branded balls to play with:

I wonder if they also supply diving gloves?

Trailing Sockets

Car+Driver have raised an interesting question today:

How do you charge a electric truck that happens to be towing a trailer?

Gosh that looks strange.

 

Is it a horsebox?  Is it a caravan for shy people?

 

Just two of the many more questions that the article throws up.

 

Such as:

 

How much weight can an electric vehicle tow?

 

What does it do to the range? Can you trust the range computer on your dashboard?

 

Are caravan sites going to have to have extra charging sockets next to where you connect your caravan to the mains electricity?  Or will you have a cable running from your electric car or truck through your caravan window and plugged in next to the TV?

 

Car+Driver's main concern though is, given that charging point bays are designed to be driven into by cars, do you have to unhitch a trailer and leave it somewhere?  That trailer in the picture looks a bit hefty to be manhandled.

 

It looks like the manufacturers of electric trucks haven't thought that one through either - apart from Rivian - their agreements with charging companies specify that they will need space to accommodate vehicles that are towing trailers. They say that they will also make sure there is room for this type of charging in its own charging network.

 

Final question:

 

What is the best thing to carry in a trailer pulled by an electric vehicle?

 

Answer:

No Charges Were Brought

Not for trespass anyway.  It doesn't say about anything else - like theft - but I hope there were.

What am I talking about?

I'm talking about this Car+Driver story - A Florida Tesla owner claimed that his car's battery had died on the way to a friend's house around midnight. So, he parked on a stranger's front lawn and plugged his charging cable into an external outlet for 12 hours.  Here's a photo:

The wording of the article implies to me that the author is not a fan of electric cars but he does have a go (quite rightly) at this particular electric car owner and concludes with the advice, "...when you screw up, you call AAA"

 

I'm presuming he means the American Automobile Association - but I suppose that in this case, he could be suggesting getting hold of some of these:

Talking of Donald Trump...

I've never posted twice on the same day before but Donnie's favourite news channel covered a car story about his favourite activity.  (That's Fox News and Tweeting, by the way - Meryl Streep overrated? - what a childish prat he is!)

Anyway, I'll not post the link to Fox because they have taken it word-for-word (albeit correctly crediting the item) from this Newser story.

The gist is that a Twitter user complained to Tesla founder Elon Musk about people leaving their cars at charging stations after they had charged up which prevented other electric car drivers from using the stations to charge up their own cars.  Within minutes, Musk replied: "You're right, this is becoming an issue. Supercharger spots are meant for charging, not parking. Will take action."

Six days later he had introduced a 40-cents-a-minute charge if the car is left there once charged up (with a five-minute grace period). This doesn't sound a lot but works out at about £10 for half-an-hour which I most certainly wouldn't pay for car-parking.

Hopefully enough to stop the selfish twits.