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I was rather disappointed on charging the Funky Cat that the predicted range was just 147 miles. I wonder if this is down to the cold weather we’ve been having, combined with using the heater.
The last time I charged to 100% it was 157 miles. Usually it is higher, and has been 185 miles.
I have now had my Funky Cat for four months. This means I have been driving an electric car for four months, driving a car with no gears and an automatic transmission, driving a car with an electric automatic handbrake (well a parking brake). I’ve also had to get use to not having a rear windscreen wiper.
Prior to getting the Funky Cat I drove manual petrol (and diesel) cars for over thirty years. These had gears, manual transmission, a manual handbrake, and a rear windscreen wiper.
As a result, it isn’t too surprising that in some instances I still do things that I did driving a petrol car that I don’t need to do with the Funky Cat. I still have muscle memory based on those thirty years of driving experience.
For example, driving off from a roundabout, sometimes my left hand drops to change gear. Now and again, I try and put the handbrake on, where there isn’t one. When it’s raining, I still try and turn on the rear windscreen wiper. I smile when I do these things when driving the Funky Cat.
When I got my Funky Cat I found it useful to fold the side mirrors into the car when I parked.
Looking through the manual, I realised I could set this automatically when I locked the car.
You can set the side mirror functions in
【Vehicle Settings】→【Body】→【Side Mirrors】on the multimedia screen.
【Fold Side Mirrors】: Set the side mirror folding mode to automatic mode.
When set to automatic folding mode, the side mirrors are automatically folded and unfolded when the doors are locked and unlocked.
This made life much easier. It also gives me a visual cue that the car is locked.
No, I still have my Funky Cat, the story is that Ora are losing the Funky Cat moniker. Ora 03 is the new (European) name for the Ora Funky Cat.
I liked the fact that the car was called the Funky Cat. For me the quirky nature of the car, the name and looks was why I got the car in the first place. I was a little disappointed that my Funky Cat didn’t have Funky Cat on the back.
It also looks like the Lightning Cat will also be renamed to Ora 07.
When I had stayed in Ealing before I had parked my car in the Q-Park at Dickens Yard. On those visits I had remembered seeing the EV charging spaces as I drove through the car park to park.
So on my most recent visit to Ealing, driving there in the Funky Cat, I needed a place to park, so I decided I would try out the charging points in the Q-Park Dickens Yard Car Park.
Having first parked in a space with a non-functioning charger, I moved my car to a different space and, using my own cable, plugged the Funky Cat into the charger.
The process is different to other chargers I have used, you need to walk towards the pedestrian exit and there is a machine there. To be honest I nearly missed it. You then scan the barcode on your ticket and select the right bay on the screen. Then the charging starts.
The bill for the charging is added to your parking charge. So when you come to pay for your parking, your EV charge is added to the parking charge. This is nice and simple. The charge is 35p/kWh. These are Type 2 (7kW) chargers so won’t be charging your car that rapidly, but useful for adding charge to your car whilst shopping (or as I was eating). I got something like a 25% charge in just under two hours.
I had charged to 100% on Friday, with a resulting 159 mile predicted range.
After a weekend of local driving and a 50% charge left, I once again charged to 100% and the predicted range rose to 185 miles
Did some driving after charging, and as I write this, I have a 80% charge with a predicted range of 155 miles.
This is an interesting figure as 80% of 185 is 148 miles, so I am driving more economically than predicted. Of course if you inverse 155 miles at 80% to 100% you get 193 miles. This is the published range of the Funky Cat.
The other day I charged up to 100% and had a predicted range of 168 miles.
Yesterday I charged to 100% and this range went up to 185.
Today I charged again to 100%, but the range dropped to 159 miles.
Despite the driving being quite similar, I still don’t quite get why it varies quite so much.
Charged to 100% today and now have a predicted 168 mile range.
Went off out. I originally planned to go to a National Trust property, but decided it was probably a little too far away, so went to Portishead instead.
Parked on the road, but as I walked towards the marina I saw an EV charging station in the Parish Wharf Leisure Centre car park.
It had four spaces and was on the Revive network. The car park it was in was free for three hours. I didn’t need charging (urgently) so didn’t use it. Useful though to know it was there for a future visit to Portishead.
I have been using the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) on the Funky Cat quite a bit. I quite like using ACC when travelling through urban areas with a 20mph speed limit. It keeps me within the speed limit and obviously slows me down when there is traffic.
I did though have an issue with it yesterday when it failed to activate. I don’t know the cause, but with all the rain we’ve been having, I wondered if there was water on the sensors, which would mean that it wouldn’t function properly.
It wasn’t an issue I just had to drive without it.
I checked later on my journey and it was working again.
Maybe one to watch, just in case it happens again.