Today's drive

I think a software update made it 74 but yes, something of that order.

I can’t imagine replacing seats could be economically viable in these days of airbags and active head restraints. Perhaps you do need that larger EV now after all. 😛

Yes, the iX 40 is more than adequate in range terms, especially for a genuine five-seater. We did 185 quite speedy miles yesterday and the car only popped up its 40 Miles Remaining warning as we trundled back into town in the evening. If I don’t mind a 15-minute stop at a 150kW charger, the day-trip radius becomes 150 miles, which is as much driving as I’d want to do in a day, at an energy cost of about £23. A 105 kWh iX 50 would do that all on a home charge — but the £20,000 price difference buys a lot of DC charge stops. Whereas a 95 to 105 kWh Audi, Mercedes or Jaguar can’t outdistance my 74 kWh iX.

Coincidentally, we’ve been talking about trip that way too, although probably in early spring and at least partly by train.

Not that it matters, we all see things mostly through our own lens, and I certainly respect that others see distances and journey times differently to me sometimes, but if we’d limited ourselves to 300 miles a day on our recent French trip, it would have taken us 3.5 days each way. Instead, it was just a long-ish day each way that neither of us found too taxing and actually quite enjoyable.
I guess it helps quite a bit that I’ve spent a lifetime being in cars for extended periods of time punctuated by work commitments in between.
250 miles before breakfast, followed by a day’s work and a similar return journey in the evening, if not a daily occurrence, was not unusual, so a lengthy leisure trip doesn’t feel all that pressured by comparison.

Of course, but like I said, we enjoy a long road trip. Always have. If you like doing things, they are much less effort.
Some might find a long walk or swim tiring, we wouldn’t. Some might think a 20 mile off road bike ride was too far, we wouldn’t.
However, for example, watching other people play football or cricket for more than a few minutes would send both of us to sleep in short order. Standing around in a pub listening to people becoming increasingly incoherent would almost certainly induce a catatonic episode in both of us.
We’re all different I suppose.

Not the point I was aiming at, Humph. Of course we’ve done 400-mile driving days on holiday trips, when travelling was the only item on the agenda. As we’ve discussed many times, with two drivers, an EV like mine would cope just fine with those too.

As for five hours of solo driving either end of a working day, most people would think of that as something you got away with. It would be illegal for someone employed only to drive. I’d probably find myself on a disciplinary at my employer if I tried it.

But I was thinking of day trips, starting and ending at home, with an activity in between. (Partly because my home charging now costs about 2p a mile.) My point is that it’s easy to extend the capability of the car beyond what the humans would actually want to do. In 2016 I drove to South Wales and back in a day for a funeral, about 300 miles in total. Wouldn’t fancy that — the funeral or the drive — again.

Among all the EVs I’ve auditioned, I’ve never driven a Y. From what I’ve seen and read, I wonder how many do and get out saying, “Yes, I’ll have one of those, please.”