Guides
Guides: what to settle before buying a car
Long-form answers to the questions that get three sentences on a landing page — from importing through the viewing to the handover when you sell.
Electric
Tyres on an EV: why they wear faster
You often hear that electric cars go through tyres faster, usually without an explanation. Three traits of the drivetrain work together. Know them and you choose the right tyre, make it last longer and notice sooner when something is off.
7 min read
Electric
Servicing an EV: what stays and what goes
An electric car has fewer parts that wear out, but not none. Knowing what actually happens at a service lets you read the invoice, judge the appointment properly and ask the right questions about the service book when you buy.
6 min read
Electric
Bidirectional charging: V2L, V2H and V2G explained
An electric car's battery often stores as much energy as a household uses over several days. Giving some of it back seems obvious. Technically and legally, though, these are three different things, and they have come different distances.
6 min read
Electric
EVs in the heat: charging, cooling, parking
In winter you lose range; in summer the battery ages. Heat is less noticeable in an electric car than cold, but its effects last longer. A few habits when charging and parking catch much of it.
6 min read
Electric
Breaking down in an EV: flat battery, towing, moving on
Breaking down in an electric car is rarely dramatic, but it is different from a combustion car. There is no jerry can, towing has its own rules, and after a crash everyone involved needs to know there is high voltage on board. The details are in your car's owner's manual; this piece covers what applies to nearly all of them.
6 min read
Electric
Buying an EV abroad: plugs, software, warranty
An electric car is a vehicle with a computer, an account with the manufacturer and a battery whose value depends on a warranty. All three come in a country version, and a cross-border purchase decides whether that version comes along.
7 min read
Electric
Consumption, not range: the number you actually work with
A listing quotes a range; daily life runs on something else. Once you know the consumption figure you can derive any range yourself — including the January one, which no listing ever quotes.
10 min read
Electric
Charging where you arrive: a socket, a hotel, a campsite
A car spends most of its life parked. Use those hours and you will barely need a rapid charger en route — provided you know in advance what is actually on the wall where you are going.
10 min read
Electric
Charging abroad: what your card, app and account are really worth
At home charging is a habit. Two hundred kilometres past a border it becomes a transaction with four parties again, three of which do not speak your language — and it fails not over money but over authorisation.
11 min read
Electric
Planning a long drive through several countries
A journey in an electric car rarely founders on the technology and frequently on the choice of planning variable. Think in range and you are planning the car. Think in state of charge on arrival and you are planning the trip.
11 min read
Electric
An electric car in the mountains: the pass, and what comes after
In the mountains an electric car behaves unlike a combustion car, and it does so in both directions: the climb is alarming, the descent is not. Once you know the arithmetic, it is the calmest way to cross a pass there is.
10 min read
Electric
Plug-in hybrid: the arithmetic that comes before the purchase
A plug-in hybrid is either the most sensible car for a particular life, or the least sensible car on the market. What separates the two is not engineering but a habit — and the habit can be calculated before you buy.
11 min read
Electric
When an electric car stands for a long time
Three weeks away, a winter in a garage, a car waiting at a port for shipment: standing still is not a neutral state for an electric car but one with rules of its own.
10 min read
Electric
A wallbox at home: what it gives you and what it asks for
A wallbox is not an accessory, it is an electrical installation. What it does for you day to day depends less on the box on the wall than on the cable that feeds it.
9 min read
Electric
Winter range: how much you actually lose
That an electric car goes less far in winter is well known; why it does usually is not. The three causes differ in weight, and only two of them can be worked around.
9 min read
Electric
Understanding the charging curve: why 150 kW is not 150 kW
The charging power in the brochure is an instantaneous value and on its own says little. What counts is the area under the curve — and that depends on physics you cannot get around.
10 min read
Electric
A heat pump in an electric car: when the option pays back
The heat pump is the most discussed option on an electric car and the worst explained. Its benefit is real but depends on two conditions anyone can check for themselves.
8 min read
Electric
Checking battery health before you buy
On a used electric car a single figure decides a substantial part of the price: the state of health of the battery. It can be established — and a seller who refuses is already telling you something.
7 min read
Electric
A used electric car: the battery is half the purchase price
On a used combustion car you check a dozen things. On an electric car one of them decides almost everything — and it can be read out rather than guessed at.
6 min read