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nooo,
I was only joshing.Taff wrote: Fri Jan 16, 2026 6:16 pmnooo,
it's a company car so I'm not buggering about with it like that.
I have 'Connected package professional', is that the same thing?KungFooBob wrote: Fri Jan 16, 2026 6:30 pmI was only joshing.Taff wrote: Fri Jan 16, 2026 6:16 pmnooo,
it's a company car so I'm not buggering about with it like that.
I assume it comes with a BMW Professional Services subscription, when you've got her in doors in the passenger seat say "Hey BMW, activate passenger ejector seat"
Some of the jokes are ok.
If you ask it to tell you a story it starts to tell you about BMW's racing history.
And forget about all that connecting package and adaptive cruise bollocks and get it on some stancey 19s.
It's quite addictive, but it's not just the power, it's how instant it is.Taff wrote: Sun Jan 18, 2026 10:06 am Smooth and quiet is the only way to describe the drive, no fuss, just bimble along, 70 on a dual carriageway feels like doing 30. At one point I had a 'barry boy' up my arse for a few miles on a by pass with a series of roundabouts, until the last roundabout opened up to a dual carriageway and I booted it leaving him way behind, the fun of that isn't going to wear off any time soon
Our Tenth Winter Of Electric Airport Transfers
Itās a sad day at Cool Bus HQ. The time has come to say goodbye to a long standing member of our team. A quick scan of our driver roster this winter shows that over half have worked more than ten seasons for us. All of our office staff can say the same but this is the first time weāve had a vehicle make it into double figures.
T1 is our oldest electric car. It still drives just as smoothly as the day we bought it. Still does 0-100kmph in under 4 seconds. The aluminium bodywork, which has been under 3M vinyl wrap since new, is in excellent condition. It has done 300,000 km but the original battery is still working fine with just 17% degradation. The electric motors continue to provide a smooth power transfer to all four wheels and the leather interior shows little sign of wear. So why sell?
In the late 2010ās, when we bought our three Tesla Model Xās, we were running a fleet of twenty four vehicles. These days we are down to ten and, with a lower volume of work, we also have less demand for transfers of four or less passengers. The Model X is a 7 seat vehicle but we keep the two rear seats folded to allow for baggage space.
Ten years ago there really was no other electric vehicle on the market that suited our needs ā lots of space for baggage and people but also 350 km+ battery range. These days the Mercedes EQV and E-Vito minibuses have filled that gap perfectly and make up 60% of our current fleet. As such, we really only need one Model X to fit our current business mix.
T1 joined the Cool Bus fleet in 2016. It was one of the first Model Xās to be sold in Europe. When I ordered it there were no vehicles available to test drive. It was all based on photos, some stats and a drunken conversation with a Tesla employee at a friends wedding ā certainly a leap of faith. I was twitching a little on those first few transfers while we figured out what the real world range was, how many people and suitcases we could fit in and how the charging was going to work.
But it all came together and after clocking 40,000 km in that first season I decided to buy a second, and then, another year later, a third Model X. Between them they have driven nearly a million electric kilometres (965,000 km to date). We have had one battery failure in that time, actually on the newer of the three. This was replaced for free under warranty by Tesla with a unit that had been recycled. Our original battery went off to be recycled might now be fitted in someone elseās Tesla.
Buying that first Model X was a gamble and certainly not a cheap one. T1 set us back an eye watering 120,000 euros. The same vehicle can be bought today for 100,000 and thatās often how these things work. A company has a new product to bring to market that they poured millions of dollars of R & D into, so they set the price high for the first models but offer additional benefits to early adopters. For the Model X this included free supercharging for the life of the vehicle. This benefit will be transferred over to the new owner when we sell it along with the free data contract. Over the course of the last ten years this has saved us more than the 20,000 euros in charging costs.
Back in 2016, Tesla supercharging really was key to making electric transfers work. The charging infrastructure we used consisted of a 3-phase socket at our base in Bourg and one Tesla station at Archamps near Geneva airport. That was literally it. Frankly, the idea of relying on just these two brings me out in a cold sweat today. Fair to say that things look very different now. There are Tesla stations in and around all the big towns and cities we drive through. Our nearest is just 15km down the road in Aime. We even have high speed charging in Bourg. The days of worrying about getting to the next top up are long gone.
Which begs the question, why arenāt there more electric transfer vehicles on the road? Our fleet is now 80% electric. It would be 100% but our main summer work involves long distance mountain bike tours. Right now there are no suitable electric minibuses on the market that have the ability to tow a trailer but also sufficient battery range, weight being the limiter.
After ten years I think itās safe to say weāve proved that electric vehicles can work within the constraints of the airport transfer market and yet there is still only one other company in the valley which operates EVās at a similar scale. Infrastructure is no longer an issue so what are the other factors?
A typical driving shift for us works something like this ā drive up to a ski resort (our most popular are Tignes, Val DāIsere, Les Arcs, La Plagne, La Rosiere and Ste Foy), collect clients, drive to an airport (Geneva being the most popular though Lyon, Grenoble and Chambery all work for electric transfers these days), drop clients, charge vehicle for 45-60 minutes, collect clients, drive to a ski resort. We have to schedule in up to 1 hour for charging between each transfer. At first glance this looks like a big disadvantage to using EVās but in practice the opposite is true.
An average driving shift can be anything from 7 to 12 hours long depending on traffic and flight delays with up to 10 hours of that spent behind the wheel when traffic is bad (as it frequently is on Saturdays). After 4.5 hours a driver should be taking a break of at least 45 minutes. When you operate with diesel vehicles itās very easy for this essential consideration to fall by the way side.
This can happen in the planning stage ā āwe could fit in this extra new booking if we reduced the drivers turn around at the airport by 20 minutesā or on the day. I was reminded of this on the first busy transfer day this winter. As sometimes happens, traffic was worse than expected. We forecasted 4.5 hours with the expected traffic for a drive that might normally take 3 hours but it actually took 5. We donāt have the option to reduce the breaks of our drivers as the charging time at the airport is non negotiable so even on this busy day, all of our drivers had the full breaks that they needed. Worth noting that standing in arrivals waiting for customers for 45 minutes is not a break
Once you discount the extra paid time spent charging then operating costs for an EV are actually pretty similar, possibly slightly cheaper. We mainly use Tesla charging stations which are very reliable and where costs are in the 30-40 cents per kWh bracket. Maintenance costs on our newer Mercedes EQVās have been close to zero. Naturally that increases as vehicles age. T1 recently had a new air compressor fitted for itās air suspension at a cost of 2000 euros for example. Averaged across the fleet however, this balances very similarly to diesels.
Vehicle insurance costs are similar between the Tesla and diesel VWās but considerably cheaper for the electric Mercedes. Why? This is down to the all important āpuissance fiscaleā figure (power rating). A VW Caravelle comes in at 9 whereas the Mercedes are only 5. This absolutely does not translate to lower performance, in fact the opposite is true. The EQVās accelerate quicker and show much less loss of power when climbing up to resort fully loaded. So why is the puissance fiscale lower? Not sure and Iām certainly not going to contact our insurer to query it so Iāll just say āblah blah torque vs horsepower blah blah scienceā and hope you are happy with that!
I believe the key factor putting other operators off is vehicle cost. We pay around 50% more for our Mercedes than we would currently pay for a diesel VW Caravelle. On the plus side, they are certainly a more luxurious vehicle. EQVās come in full leather with individually reclining seats and EVās in general just give you a smoother ride. The level of service we offer these days has certainly increased but that has come at a cost. One of the many fallacies you see online with regard to EVās is that they depreciate more than their ICE counterparts. This has not been my experience, however the maths clearly shows that an EV costing 75,000 euros, depreciating 25% over the first year is costing you more than a diesel minibus costing 50,000 euros and depreciating by 25%.
Obviously this is going to have an effect on your profits. Actually let me rephrase that, this is going to have an effect on how easy it is to break even each year. Profit feels like more of a Pre-COVID concept to be honest. To put it very simply, you have diesels on one side offering better return due to lower vehicle costs and EVās on the other offering a better level of service (including better rested drivers) and lower impact on the environment.
And here we come to the big elephant in the room. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the debate on how much better EVās are for the environment still rumbles on. Most of the arguments against electric vehicles have been debunked over and over again (you may have spotted a few of these in bold above) but still seem to resurface regularly.
As such, I thought it would be useful to finish off this post with a few sums to show the estimated CO2 emissions of T1 during itās Cool Bus lifespan versus a diesel SUV. In all cases I have taken the most conservative figures I could find. Reference articles are show at the bottom.
Great, every other effort by Ford to make things cheaper has been a cascading clusterfuck*. Not expecting this to be any different.Horse wrote: Mon Jan 12, 2026 9:32 pm It seems news of petrol head US manufacturers withdrawing from the EV market were a bit incorrect, in some cases rationalisation to reduce production costs (and total vehicle cost) rather than ending EV production.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/ford-pl ... tric-truck
Ford Plans to Build the Worldās Cheapest EV Motors for Its $30K Electric Truck Platform
Fordās chief of EVs says the American automaker can beat China on cost by hiring expensive people for its skunkworks team.
Ford is designing what it claims will be the cheapest electric motors in the world to power its next-generation electric pickup that will go on sale in 2027. Doug Field, Fordās head of EVs, told MotorTrend that the Ford-built motors will cost less than any motor his team could find, including those made in China where immense economies of scale, cheap labor, and highly automated manufacturing have given carmakers an advantage that Western companies have struggled to match. The low-cost motors are one of several engineering efforts Ford has undertaken to unlock a $30,000 starting price for its so-called Universal EV.
You just need a faster EVTaipan wrote: Tue Jan 20, 2026 10:14 am Its why I don't think I'll ever be a full convert to EVs. Yeah, amazing power with absolute instant grunt, but its a very clinical, even boring, way to make power. I miss the more tactile experience of an ICE. Maybe I'll appreciate the EV more in time though...
Isn't it just. Saw one on the road a week or so ago. A dull, mid-range bland SUV. What a travesty.Noggin wrote: Tue Jan 20, 2026 1:15 pm I saw a new electric Ford Capri on Saturday.
Fucking hell it's boring.
I think the VWs get touch sensitive slidy heater controls, think laptop touch pad, which are supposed to be terrible to use. Never tried it myself. Also, I never change the temp in my car anyway.v8-powered wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:16 pm I'm going to tak a look at a VW ID4 in a main stealer tomorrow.
My financial controller (wife) is happy i get a new car as long as she likes it, bit she's not going to get rid of her XC60. Basically we need 2 mid-sized SUVs
Have heard of some criticism of the whole MMI experience, but considering I only drive to the station 2 or 3 days a week I'll hardly touch it.KungFooBob wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:19 pmI think the VWs get touch sensitive slidy heater controls, think laptop touch pad, which are supposed to be terrible to use. Never tried it myself. Also, I never change the temp in my car anyway.v8-powered wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:16 pm I'm going to tak a look at a VW ID4 in a main stealer tomorrow.
My financial controller (wife) is happy i get a new car as long as she likes it, bit she's not going to get rid of her XC60. Basically we need 2 mid-sized SUVs
Going forward, VW are getting rid of the haptic and screen controls in favour of proper buttons and knobs.v8-powered wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:22 pmHave heard of some criticism of the whole MMI experience, but considering I only drive to the station 2 or 3 days a week I'll hardly touch it.KungFooBob wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:19 pmI think the VWs get touch sensitive slidy heater controls, think laptop touch pad, which are supposed to be terrible to use. Never tried it myself. Also, I never change the temp in my car anyway.v8-powered wrote: Mon Jan 26, 2026 4:16 pm I'm going to tak a look at a VW ID4 in a main stealer tomorrow.
My financial controller (wife) is happy i get a new car as long as she likes it, bit she's not going to get rid of her XC60. Basically we need 2 mid-sized SUVs
I'll poke and stab at things tomorrow and see what I think....
