[ThatUp!GTI]

If it's 2018, we should be driving non-fossil fuelled cars

Give me a viable alternative and i would. And before you go on about glorified milk floats please tell me how i charge it overnight when i'm not guaranteed the same parking spot every night?
The problem with electric cars is really simple, they don't suit the people who should be driving them most, inner city dwellers. I had this debate with a friend of mine who works for BMW when the I3 came out and they said it would be ideal for someone like myself. I listened to the good points with interest and then I asked "is it solar charged?". When the answer came back in the negative i asked "how do i charge it?". Basically i'm supposed to run a cable out of my house down and maybe across the street.
And there's the crux of the problem.
There was another great article i read a while ago about how someone wanted to take a 250 mile trip to a meeting in their Leaf so they set off, planned for the stops to charge and left a good amount of leeway in there for stopping. Both of the places on the motorway with charge points were not operational leaving the person stranded and to abandon the car and ask for someone to collect them to continue the journey. And that's not the first time this has been reported.

The world could have gone hydrogen car based but instead we choose the easy way and burn more dinosaurs. Progress?

 

[BTC]

I’ve ordered a fossil powered car.
There’s a wink at the end of my post.
I don’t give a toss about emissions.

Saying it’s 2018 isn’t a valid reason. Crap headlights is.

Hence why I asked.

 

[SiJ2000]

Guys, live and let live... I like the e-up and I liked my petrol up... There is room for all of us on the road...

Re hydrogen fuel cells, the high pressure takes a humongous amount of energy to produce, so in reality is probably not as efficient as pure electric...

We should all enjoy our UPs and have lots of fun with them.

If it makes you feel better, I accept that the e-up is a total rip off, but it's fun to drive...

 

[Rough]

I asked "how do i charge it?"

Some countries such as Netherlands make an effort to actually encourage transition - loads of on-street charging points available. it's often inconvenient to charge in the city as you said.

 

[SiJ2000]

ThatUp!GTI does have a perfectly valid point re the charging... It is a pain sometimes. I'm lucky as I have a charger at my house, however I know someone in Brighton (only green party constituency) who would like an electric car, but there is no provision for charging (ironically) and also, he doesn't have a driveway to plug it in.

 

[ThatUp!GTI]

ThatUp!GTI does have a perfectly valid point re the charging... It is a pain sometimes. I'm lucky as I have a charger at my house, however I know someone in Brighton (only green party constituency) who would like an electric car, but there is no provision for charging (ironically) and also, he doesn't have a driveway to plug it in.

Personally speaking I’d love one for my daily commute but I’m in the same predicament as the chap in Brighton in having no driveway and the added bonus of not having a fixed parking spot.

So my options would be either asking my work to install a point (lots of red tape and wouldn’t be that quick to happen) or sitting at a charging point somewhere for however many hours while it charges and that’s not going to happen.

This is sort of my point about electric cars. The government obviously wants us to shift to them and living in London more and more pressure is put on us to get rid of older cars and get new compliant ones. But when you can’t actually physically charge the thing then it’s a no-go straight away.
The only solution would be to give a space outside your home and a charge point to anyone with an electric car and that won’t happen as it will cost them silly money.
As I said earlier the main people they need to use them can’t, ironic really.

 

[SiJ2000]

Spot on... I Agree...

 

[LiamRS]

I will post pictures of my 'H4 Philips X-Treme Ultinon' LED Headlight Bulbs before i fit them at weekend.
As i said before... awesome bit of kit by looks of things and after taking further advice on them, i also bought the Philips LED Headlight Canbus Adapter kit.

Not so much for any error codes but i believe totally eliminate any flicker that can occur at startup and intermittently thereafter.

 

[Lightning]

If it's 2018, we should be driving non-fossil fuelled cars /forum/images/smilies/wink.gif

Give me a viable alternative and i would. And before you go on about glorified milk floats please tell me how i charge it overnight when i'm not guaranteed the same parking spot every night?
The problem with electric cars is really simple, they don't suit the people who should be driving them most, inner city dwellers. I had this debate with a friend of mine who works for BMW when the I3 came out and they said it would be ideal for someone like myself. I listened to the good points with interest and then I asked "is it solar charged?". When the answer came back in the negative i asked "how do i charge it?". Basically i'm supposed to run a cable out of my house down and maybe across the street.
And there's the crux of the problem.
There was another great article i read a while ago about how someone wanted to take a 250 mile trip to a meeting in their Leaf so they set off, planned for the stops to charge and left a good amount of leeway in there for stopping. Both of the places on the motorway with charge points were not operational leaving the person stranded and to abandon the car and ask for someone to collect them to continue the journey. And that's not the first time this has been reported.

The world could have gone hydrogen car based but instead we choose the easy way and burn more dinosaurs. Progress?

I am right with you there.
All electric cars do is move the pollution elsewhere.
Solar charging would help, but you’ve still got the battery manufacture/disposal
And the cost of the car to buy, the E-Up is about £25,000

 

[ThatUp!GTI]

I am right with you there.
All electric cars do is move the pollution elsewhere.
Solar charging would help, but you’ve still got the battery manufacture/disposal
And the cost of the car to buy, the E-Up is about £25,000

I did work this out once and it would take something like 60 odd thousand miles of motoring to get the initial cost difference back between an E-Up and a base spec Gti. Say you do an average of 10000 miles a year and that's 6 years of motoring before you get to breaking even, that takes a lot of commitment for the average person.

So let's say the difference is £10k between a decent spec Gti and the E-Up, here's the maths:
£10000 divided by £1.30 a litre (i know it's cheaper now) = 7692.31 litres
7692.31 divided by 4.55 = 1690.6 gallons
1690.6 times by say 40mpg = 67,624 miles before breaking even, and that's assuming you don't pay for charging

And the cheaper the Up is the more it doesn't stack up.

 

[Chrisgti71]

Is it possible to utilize the street lights and turn them into docking stations, it's just a thought and I know some of you would probably have a neighbour who would hog one charge point.

 

[Miitoo]

i've got some in my Mii, and well they are way better than nightbreaker lasers, super clean cut off, so far a month in no one has flashed me thinking i had full beam on, and they take a while to get used to, as most are used to the yellow from halogens.

here's the ones i've got they also allow you to twist them to get them set up properly to accommodate the reflector.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Novsight...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Did you have to modify the dust cap to install these?

 

[Lightning]

TBH I found the standard headlights on our GTi to be fine.
How fast are you driving at night?

 

[jamesbilluk]

I will post pictures of my 'H4 Philips X-Treme Ultinon' LED Headlight Bulbs before i fit them at weekend.
As i said before... awesome bit of kit by looks of things and after taking further advice on them, i also bought the Philips LED Headlight Canbus Adapter kit.

Not so much for any error codes but i believe totally eliminate any flicker that can occur at startup and intermittently thereafter.

I purchased a set of these recently (and just purchased the canbus kit due to flickering) Really pleased them, much clearer, great build quality. I’ve used them on a number of occasions, and had no other drivers flash.

 

[Miitoo]

TBH I found the standard headlights on our GTi to be fine.
How fast are you driving at night?

Edinburgh city bypass is too dark at night even within speed limits and I'm driving with Philips white vision now. Thinking of upgrading to LEDs also for their longevity and was looking at these from ledperf although they are quite expensive. https://www.ledperf.co.uk/high-power-bi-led-conversion-kit-for-seat-mii-p-13673.html

 

[bumbleMii]

Did you have to modify the dust cap to install these?

i just took them off and stuck them in the boot.

 

[LiamRS]

I’ve now been running my Philips LED setup with the canbus adapters since collecting the gti on the 8th December.
Lights work perfectly and have a great long distance piercing standard beam in these dark nights. No other cars have flashed me and my wife followed me in my car the other night and they look like any other led headlight in the rear view mirror.

If anyone is swithering about them or looking at cheaper alternatives.....don’t as these are the ones to go for, the ballasts and the canbus adapters all look oem quality and it’s a nice simple yet effective mod.

 

[Freddo]

i just took them off and stuck them in the boot.

Not sure if that is a good decision. As far as I have seen, each headlight is one single big chamber with the reflectors for headlight, DRL and turn indicator sharing the space. Not using the big rubber grommet at the H4 bulb in the rear will leave the chamber wide open at the rear for humidity and dust to settle inside gradually.

 

[bumbleMii]

the rubber boot doesn't fit over the heatsink, and headlights have ventilation holes already, so i reckon the boot is just to protect the ground around the bulb fitting, to stop it shorting out, and even after being in a ton of rain, and a decent pressure washing, the engine bay is completely dry, and been almost 6 months now, and no issues.

 

[Freddo]

the rubber boot doesn't fit over the heatsink, and headlights have ventilation holes already, so i reckon the boot is just to protect the ground around the bulb fitting, to stop it shorting out, and even after being in a ton of rain, and a decent pressure washing, the engine bay is completely dry, and been almost 6 months now, and no issues.

It's of course your call. I installed IPF H4 LED conversion on my up. Bloody expensive but they fit like a glove even with the OE grommet in place since they have exactly the same shape as H4 sockets before the heat sink starts. No canbus adapter needed, they were very plug and play, albeit a bit fiddly to fit due to the short space between the lamp and the strut tower. Had there been 5cm more space it would have been a two minute job.