Henry Catchpole - Carfection review

[Leonard]

Another non Emira video out. Henry be teasing us now ...

 

[Tonyshepp]

Another non Emira video out. Henry be teasing us now ...

Probably beefing up home security in case it’s a bad Emira review…

 

[VL3X]

Probably beefing up home security in case it’s a bad Emira review…

I have a feeling they were paid to delay the review and might combine some of the initial V6 roadtrip footage with future i4 review content.

 

[Cutting42]

To be fair, it's the same with any car. We just don't think about our "range" as much with gasoline.

Towing will obliterate EV range, same as gas mileage, that's not really surprising. The heater is the biggest draw in an EV, and cold temps can exasperate it if the driver doesn't take time to precondition. Everything else is negligible feature-wise. Range will fluctuate for the same reasons gas mileage does: aerodynamics (bike racks etc), weight, terrain, lead foot, tire pressures, etc.

Charge times depend on the car, but are only 40 minutes if you have a lower peak charge rate and want to wait for 100%. Most people never will. A car like a Tesla or Hyundai with 250+ kw charge rate will get 80% back in 15-20 minutes and be on their way. Charging slows way down for that final 20% of juice, which is why you see 40 minute times. It often makes more sense for an EV to make multiple stops to get 80% back than one stop to get 100%.

In the US, the Tesla network is excellent and lines are uncommon (mostly happening on the west coast). Here's a charging station in South Carolina:

View attachment 7534

Other charging networks are worse but growing fast. It's true that many chargers are broken I've experienced that in my 6 years of driving electric. This will get better as more plugs are added.

"For right now, it looks like electric cars are mostly useful in the city and daily commutes, as long as they aren't long distances at a constant speed, but they're really not a practical replacement for ICE vehicles in every situation. Not yet anyways."

For most people who can charge at home, EVs are fine. As long as a car has a strong peak charge rate they're perfectly fine for long distance travel. I've driven mine from Tampa to Nova Scotia and back with ease on multiple occasions. If you're towing that distance, don't sell that ICE engine yet.

"And of course now we're seeing warnings in Texas and California, for people to not charge their cars and cut back on their electric usage during the day to avoid blackouts because the system can't handle the load."

Many chargers are solar with local energy storage, but it's true that more need to be. We aren't going electric overnight. It'll take 10-15 years to transition and that's time to upgrade what needs to be upgraded. Most EV charging happens off-peak, so the current grid can actually handle it reasonable well. Texans may vary.

Maybe a relevant time to mention, this was my pandemic project:

Your Electric Vehicle Journey Starts Here | EV.Guide

Find an electric vehicle that fits your life. We'll help you understand your EV needs, and search for vehicles that work for your lifestyle and habits. We cover what you need to know before buying an electric vehicle. EV basics, charging, batteries, range, buying & leasing, and what to expect...

ev.guide

I was rehearsing my reply to Eagle 7 and then I saw you had taken if from my head and written it down for me, many thanks.

Only thing I would change is around broken chargers. I have never seen a broken Tesla charger, quite a few "other" chargers broken. I had the choice of the M3 against a loaded eTron and chose the M3 purely down to the charging network. It is the main reason to buy a Tesla, the cars are OK, fast and a nice interior but not that well made. I will jump to another brand in a heartbeat when the charger network is as good as Tesla's

 

[GetawayDriving]

I was rehearsing my reply to Eagle 7 and then I saw you had taken if from my head and written it down for me, many thanks.

Only thing I would change is around broken chargers. I have never seen a broken Tesla charger, quite a few "other" chargers broken. I had the choice of the M3 against a loaded eTron and chose the M3 purely down to the charging network. It is the main reason to buy a Tesla, the cars are OK, fast and a nice interior but not that well made. I will jump to another brand in a heartbeat when the charger network is as good as Tesla's

Agreed that Tesla chargers are broken less often. I have encountered broken ones on multiple occasions, but they're not a big deal because there is always a different plug to use in the same location. With the CCS / CHAdeMO network, that isn't always the case.

 

[emiraspain]

Well, many/some EV's will tell you the difference in your range if you were to switch off the AC or whatever other device you have and in my experience, its maybe 4% at best, so not a huge amount in reality, its certainly not 10/20%. For my honda e or my now ionic 5 it means maybe another 7-12 km from 350/400.

Telsa not only has a better charging network *although not where I live or in Spain in general, its terrible, but they have the best maping software to get you where you want to go charging on the way and this is a huge benefit, BUT as Tesla is slowly but surely opening up its charging network to none teslas, well that could soon not be a huge benefit for tesla only.

I honestly dont think the use of the stereo has any negligible effect on range at all, I wont even hazzard a guess, but its irrelevant IMO.
Certainly going up hills, or into the wind, or HIGHER speeds on the highway will run your range down, but I personally find I do tend to tether / feather the throttle and drive more sensibly in my EV and I get about 400km or close to. I will be driving the ionic 5 about 1800km to the UK at the end of the month and thats without tesla chargers, but famous last words, I dont think it will take me that much longer. I would want to be stopping every 2/3 hours max anyway, for the bathroom or the dogs, especially in this current heat wave and if you make all your stops at a charging station, then its not adding that much time to the journey.

It would be bad if a few were broken, but in France and the UK, it really isnt too bad of an issue I think... its not ideal, but unless you are generally on a deadline, then its not too bad. And with current gas prices, I am quite happy with my car as locally I can charge it for free...

 

[FlyNavy01]

At this point, I'm not convinced Catchpole's review is coming out. Too little too late... Happy to be wrong though!

Also agree with those above about EV charging. The people saying they're still far off are typically those who haven't owned one. Tesla's network has been there for years, and other (albeit lesser) options are popping up everywhere fast. I got the first Model 3 Performance to arrive in Florida mid-July 2018 and it's still my daily. 90% of my charging is done at home in off-peak hours, which actually helps balance the grid.

Last summer I drove from Jacksonville to Seattle (4,200 miles total with some National Parks in between) and charging was never once an issue. Charged for 15-30 minutes every 3-4 hours and it cost me less than $300 in electricity. Average temps were 105-110F (40C+) everyday the first 2k miles and range was fine. Whole trip took about 10-20% longer than it would in a ICE car, but I wasn't going for time. 10+ track days and 45k miles later it's still very enjoyable and dirt cheap to drive and own. The Emira will be the driver's car for Sunday mornings.

 

[EspritGuy]

Yeah I've been reading tests by various journalists and the electric cars don't really have the range that's advertised or people think they have. Apparently the test procedure for determining range doesn't include any real world conditions like elevation changes, towing anything, using the air conditioning or the infotainment system.

There was a recent report where a review team only got something like 85 miles on a full charge when towing a camper trailer on a trip. The problem apparently is on a steady trip, the regenerative braking doesn't come into play to help recharge the batteries like it does in stop and go driving in the city. Driving with the A/C on and listening to music while towing a camper was devastating to the battery charge levels. Another journalist traveling from one state to another found that many of the charging stations don't work, so those that do are backed up with lines of people waiting to charge their cars. This was on the east coast of the U.S. It takes at a minimum, 40 minutes to charge, so if you have a few people ahead of you, it's going to take hours just to charge your car. For right now, it looks like electric cars are mostly useful in the city and daily commutes, as long as they aren't long distances at a constant speed, but they're really not a practical replacement for ICE vehicles in every situation. Not yet anyways.

And of course now we're seeing warnings in Texas and California, for people to not charge their cars and cut back on their electric usage during the day to avoid blackouts because the system can't handle the load. The world isn't ready to go all-electric, and that isn't going to change anytime soon. Certainly not soon enough to abandon ICE vehicles. I won't be surprised if in the next 3-5 years we see some of those deadlines getting pushed back, but then the manufacturers will have already abandoned their ICE production to go all-electric. The road ahead definitely looks challenging.

@Eagle7 Curtail charging in Texas and California to avoid blackouts:
Not so home on the range, after all.

 

[Eagle7]

To be fair, it's the same with any car. We just don't think about our "range" as much with gasoline.

Towing will obliterate EV range, same as gas mileage, that's not really surprising. The heater is the biggest draw in an EV, and cold temps can exasperate it if the driver doesn't take time to precondition. Everything else is negligible feature-wise. Range will fluctuate for the same reasons gas mileage does: aerodynamics (bike racks etc), weight, terrain, lead foot, tire pressures, etc.

Charge times depend on the car, but are only 40 minutes if you have a lower peak charge rate and want to wait for 100%. Most people never will. A car like a Tesla or Hyundai with 250+ kw charge rate will get 80% back in 15-20 minutes and be on their way. Charging slows way down for that final 20% of juice, which is why you see 40 minute times. It often makes more sense for an EV to make multiple stops to get 80% back than one stop to get 100%.

In the US, the Tesla network is excellent and lines are uncommon (mostly happening on the west coast). Here's a charging station in South Carolina:

View attachment 7534

Other charging networks are worse but growing fast. It's true that many chargers are broken I've experienced that in my 6 years of driving electric. This will get better as more plugs are added.

"For right now, it looks like electric cars are mostly useful in the city and daily commutes, as long as they aren't long distances at a constant speed, but they're really not a practical replacement for ICE vehicles in every situation. Not yet anyways."

For most people who can charge at home, EVs are fine. As long as a car has a strong peak charge rate they're perfectly fine for long distance travel. I've driven mine from Tampa to Nova Scotia and back with ease on multiple occasions. If you're towing that distance, don't sell that ICE engine yet.

"And of course now we're seeing warnings in Texas and California, for people to not charge their cars and cut back on their electric usage during the day to avoid blackouts because the system can't handle the load."

Many chargers are solar with local energy storage, but it's true that more need to be. We aren't going electric overnight. It'll take 10-15 years to transition and that's time to upgrade what needs to be upgraded. Most EV charging happens off-peak, so the current grid can actually handle it reasonable well. Texans may vary.

Maybe a relevant time to mention, this was my pandemic project:

Your Electric Vehicle Journey Starts Here | EV.Guide

Find an electric vehicle that fits your life. We'll help you understand your EV needs, and search for vehicles that work for your lifestyle and habits. We cover what you need to know before buying an electric vehicle. EV basics, charging, batteries, range, buying & leasing, and what to expect...

ev.guide

Some of you guys should submit your experiences to the media, because the reports for non-Tesla owners are showing very different experiences. Here's a few of the ones I've recently read:

Colossal Failure: EV Charging Stations Face Mechanical Problems - Over Half Inoperable in 1 Area

Many EV charging stations in two Colorado towns have recently faced widespread mechanical issues, local electric car owners complained.

www.westernjournal.com

Writer Posts Video of Electric Car Charging Nightmare in CA - Imagine Waiting in This Line

As Biden pushes for electric vehicles, he has conveniently omitted the many problems that come with them at this time.

www.westernjournal.com

Fan of Electric Cars Takes One on Road Trip, Ends Up Exposing How Bad They Are - Now She Won't Buy One

The road trip showed her reality instead of validating her assumptions about the joys of owning an electric vehicle.

www.westernjournal.com

Driver Exposes Huge Problem with Electric Vehicles When It Takes an Entire Day to Drive 360 Miles

A driver's video of his 360-mile round trip in a Hyundai Ioniq 5 revealed the frustrating limits of electric vehicles.

www.westernjournal.com

There are others from other publications, but it would be nice to have a balanced perspective between good and bad.

 

[Eagle7]

As for Henry's review; there's no way it's stuck in editing. These guys are pros. They've been doing this awhile and can get other reviews edited and published in the meantime, so there's obviously something else going on. Was the customer car Matt said was behind him in that video Henry's? Or did they give him a production spec car to drive and test and he's holding that review until customer cars are shipping?

There's something going on there. It doesn't make any sense that Henry would just ignore publishing his review when everybody else has published theirs. It's like a lot of things with this car; no communication combined with wait and see.

 

[eriegz]

I follow Henry on Instagram, and he posts occasionally (only 4 posts in the past 6 weeks, including his post about the forthcoming Emira video). Today he posted a "regular post" and a "story" about his upcoming Huracan Technica video, and I left a comment on each one asking about the Emira review, but haven't received a reply unfortunately.

 

[VL3X]

I follow Henry on Instagram, and he posts occasionally (only 4 posts in the past 6 weeks, including his post about the forthcoming Emira video). Today he posted a "regular post" and a "story" about his upcoming Huracan Technica video, and I left a comment on each one asking about the Emira review, but haven't received a reply unfortunately.

I responded back too. He's commented back to me in the past... Hopefully we'll get another update.

 

[Cutting42]

Some of you guys should submit your experiences to the media, because the reports for non-Tesla owners are showing very different experiences. Here's a few of the ones I've recently read:

Colossal Failure: EV Charging Stations Face Mechanical Problems - Over Half Inoperable in 1 Area

Many EV charging stations in two Colorado towns have recently faced widespread mechanical issues, local electric car owners complained.

www.westernjournal.com

Writer Posts Video of Electric Car Charging Nightmare in CA - Imagine Waiting in This Line

As Biden pushes for electric vehicles, he has conveniently omitted the many problems that come with them at this time.

www.westernjournal.com

Fan of Electric Cars Takes One on Road Trip, Ends Up Exposing How Bad They Are - Now She Won't Buy One

The road trip showed her reality instead of validating her assumptions about the joys of owning an electric vehicle.

www.westernjournal.com

Driver Exposes Huge Problem with Electric Vehicles When It Takes an Entire Day to Drive 360 Miles

A driver's video of his 360-mile round trip in a Hyundai Ioniq 5 revealed the frustrating limits of electric vehicles.

www.westernjournal.com

There are others from other publications, but it would be nice to have a balanced perspective between good and bad.

From my admittedly very brief reading of the Western Journal, balanced is the least appropriate word to describe its stories on most topics. It is a publication with very definite views on a lot of subjects.

 

[GetawayDriving]

Some of you guys should submit your experiences to the media, because the reports for non-Tesla owners are showing very different experiences. Here's a few of the ones I've recently read:

Colossal Failure: EV Charging Stations Face Mechanical Problems - Over Half Inoperable in 1 Area

Many EV charging stations in two Colorado towns have recently faced widespread mechanical issues, local electric car owners complained.

www.westernjournal.com

Writer Posts Video of Electric Car Charging Nightmare in CA - Imagine Waiting in This Line

As Biden pushes for electric vehicles, he has conveniently omitted the many problems that come with them at this time.

www.westernjournal.com

Fan of Electric Cars Takes One on Road Trip, Ends Up Exposing How Bad They Are - Now She Won't Buy One

The road trip showed her reality instead of validating her assumptions about the joys of owning an electric vehicle.

www.westernjournal.com

Driver Exposes Huge Problem with Electric Vehicles When It Takes an Entire Day to Drive 360 Miles

A driver's video of his 360-mile round trip in a Hyundai Ioniq 5 revealed the frustrating limits of electric vehicles.

www.westernjournal.com

There are others from other publications, but it would be nice to have a balanced perspective between good and bad.

From the article:

Colossal Failure: EV Charging Stations Face Mechanical Problems - Over Half Inoperable in 1 Area

Many EV charging stations in two Colorado towns have recently faced widespread mechanical issues, local electric car owners complained.

www.westernjournal.com

I'll just pretend I didn't see the strongly editorialized headline ("Colossal failure") because that already signals the intent of the article.

"It’s been said a progressive is someone who can be persuaded to touch a hot stove twice. They have such faith in their ideology, they believe reality will obey their preferences."

Starts article by taking a personal dig at this woman's political beliefs. Normally I'd stop reading there, because this isn't journalism.

"Emily Dreibelbis, a graduate student at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, recently did an admirable thing. She put her progressive beliefs to the test, and honestly shared the less-than-stellar results. However, she ended up still endorsing her fantasy, as opposed to learning from the experience."

Describes her "progressive beliefs" as a "fantasy".

As someone who has pursued a journalism degree myself, I cannot roll my eyes hard enough.

Here's the thing. This article DOES point to something valid. It's incredibly important to understand the EV you're buying. For example, this woman bought a Chevy Bolt, which is a shorter range EV that has a woeful peak charge rate of 55 kw. Compare to Tesla at 250kw, or Hyundai at 350kw, and you don't have to know much about charge rates to understand the Bolt is a MUCH slower charging vehicle. For this reason, the Bolt really isn't designed for long distance travel. People still do it, and it's still possible, but it isn't ideal. There's a trade off here, in that the Bolt is one of the cheapest EVs on the market, and serves a particular driver perfectly.

This article doesn't mention varying charge speeds, or the importance of choosing an EV that fits your life. It only bashes the fact that she had trouble and highlights her progressive naiveté.

My headline would have been:
"Local woman's EV road trip highlights importance of choosing an EV that fits your life"

This is exactly why I created EV.Guide. I saw that people did not understand EVs well enough to make a choice that fit their particular circumstances, leading to frustration. With articles like this out there, there's obvious bias cluttering up the web and making balanced info hard to find or parse. The bias also happens both ways. There are just as many EV evangelists who will sugar coat some of the problems like actually yes, sometimes chargers are broken and yeah, we do need to figure out better ways to recycle these batteries and honestly, if you can't charge at home an EV isn't going to be more convenient -- yet. That might be ok if you expect some extra inconvenience in exchange for the litany of personal benefits, but otherwise you're probably better off with some sort of hybrid. Plug-in hybrids aren't necessarily the answer either, it depends on your personal circumstance, since regular hybrids can be more efficient over long distances or if the driver cannot plug-in consistently at home.

So it's all about understanding what you're buying, which most people have no idea when they step into the world of EVs. I'm trying to help! lol

 

[FlyNavy01]

Some of you guys should submit your experiences to the media, because the reports for non-Tesla owners are showing very different experiences. Here's a few of the ones I've recently read:

Colossal Failure: EV Charging Stations Face Mechanical Problems - Over Half Inoperable in 1 Area

Many EV charging stations in two Colorado towns have recently faced widespread mechanical issues, local electric car owners complained.

www.westernjournal.com

Writer Posts Video of Electric Car Charging Nightmare in CA - Imagine Waiting in This Line

As Biden pushes for electric vehicles, he has conveniently omitted the many problems that come with them at this time.

www.westernjournal.com

Fan of Electric Cars Takes One on Road Trip, Ends Up Exposing How Bad They Are - Now She Won't Buy One

The road trip showed her reality instead of validating her assumptions about the joys of owning an electric vehicle.

www.westernjournal.com

Driver Exposes Huge Problem with Electric Vehicles When It Takes an Entire Day to Drive 360 Miles

A driver's video of his 360-mile round trip in a Hyundai Ioniq 5 revealed the frustrating limits of electric vehicles.

www.westernjournal.com

There are others from other publications, but it would be nice to have a balanced perspective between good and bad.

Tesla is the most shorted stock in history. Is it any surprise there are thousands of doom and gloom articles posted about them daily, and by virtue all EV's? Their very existence poses a severe threat to Big Oil. Not to mention an eccentric CEO that loudly questions the status quo at every given opportunity. I could just as easily find articles praising Tesla/EV's as the savior to all the world's problems.

If you want a perspective, just go experience it for yourself and come up with your own. And I say this in the most respectful way possible. Too many people (in this country particularly) can't see through this heavily biased fake news garbage and base their opinions on what others say.

From my admittedly very brief reading of the Western Journal, balanced is the least appropriate word to describe its stories on most topics. It is a publication with very definite views on a lot of subjects.

5 seconds on google: "The Western Journal, is an American conservative news and politics website founded by political consultant Floyd Brown in 2008." I'd agree that's quite the opposite of balanced.

To get back on topic... Any wagers on the next major Emira review to come out? I think Carfection have missed their opportunity at this point.

 

[Pegasi]

The next reviews of any consequence will come from forum members and their Emira. In particular the ones who are getting DV.

 

[Eagle7]

As for balanced, there isn't any such thing in the media anymore. Each side accuses the other of being unbalanced and extreme, yet they all are. I read all of it with a grain of salt, but sometimes there are some parts that are interesting. As for Google, they're hard left so their results are compromised by their ideologue agendas. Everything in the media is nowadays.

In my post, I SPECIFICALLY requested that those of you with positive experiences, submit those to the media:

I then referenced a few articles showing other than positive things, to show what's being pushed out there. At the end I said it would be nice to have a balanced perspective, referring to the positive posts some of you have made of your EV experiences. What I was saying is it would be nice if your experiences would be submitted and published to show the other side of the EV experience.

There are some who seem to have a knee-jerk reflexive need to counter/oppose almost anything I write, and as a result, they don't always read everything in my comments, so consequently they often wind up countering and opposing things I never said. I don't have any personal experience with an EV, having never owned or driven one, but my step-son has an Audi E-Tron and he loves it. I myself don't want one, but I still read and follow the news about them.

 

[emiraspain]

I follow Henry on Instagram, and he posts occasionally (only 4 posts in the past 6 weeks, including his post about the forthcoming Emira video). Today he posted a "regular post" and a "story" about his upcoming Huracan Technica video, and I left a comment on each one asking about the Emira review, but haven't received a reply unfortunately.

could it be, he has a family and his kids are soon to be on holiday and he is actually not working....
Well no, as that would explain a delay into august, but up until now.
I agree, he is or they are holding back for some reason, be that for their own reasons or for Lotus reasons or because he wanted to post it at the same time as the "other special" lotus he was driving recently, which I think would have been the GT race car, that way he could do a this is what they have now and this is well, nothing to do with it.. unless Lotus do a road version of that car, one day...some how.

Either way he may get less views than expected due to having missed the boat

 

[frazzer]

I've rocked up at quite a few chargers (non-Tesla) and found them to be broken. I've downloaded apps and paid for charging only to find the charger is not working properly with the app. I've charged up at a Shell garage and it just charges me a flat £20 regardless of how long I'm charging. The charging network in the UK is rubbish in my experience. However I do have a 7kwh charger nearby that is free to use, so that makes up for all the failures! I effectively have free motoring which is very welcome at current petrol prices.

Of course this is not everyones experience, as we all know journalists tend to be naysayers

 

[Cutting42]

In my post, I SPECIFICALLY requested that those of you with positive experiences, submit those to the media:

View attachment 7550
I then referenced a few articles showing other than positive things, to show what's being pushed out there. At the end I said it would be nice to have a balanced perspective, referring to the positive posts some of you have made of your EV experiences. What I was saying is it would be nice if your experiences would be submitted and published to show the other side of the EV experience.

View attachment 7552

There is a huge amount of positive media about EV use, some of it messianic in its praise, especially the early Tesla adopters; they can be a scary crowd.If you like a YouTube experience I recommend Harry's Garage for offering a very balanced view on EV use and ownership amongst many other car reviews, road trips and general car stuff.. He is not politically motivated or an industry shill and started and ran one of the best car magazines in the UK - Evo. He not longer runs the magazine but is a farmer as well as running a very successful youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Harrysgarage/search?query=electric