Category: funky cat

Posted on

Well that was expensive!

I should probably point out that I wasn’t too surprised by this, but does show how varied pricing is when charging an electric vehicle.

On Monday I charged my Funky Cat using the Tesla superchargers at the Mall at Cribbs Causeway near John Lewis. Tesla have recently allowed non-Tesla electric vehicles to use them. Having said that I had originally planned to charge the Funky Cat using the superchargers at the Tesla dealership close to Cribbs on Lysander Road. However upon arrival, despite their being plenty of free chargers, the cables were very much on the short side. Add in road bumpers in the parking spaces to stop people knocking over the chargers, I was unable to plug the Funky Cat in to charge. The Funky Cat charging port is on the front passenger side of the car, whereas the Tesla charging port is at the back of the Tesla. I had planned to charge there as with their dynamic pricing it was just 35p per kWh. Having failed to charge there I, as I said, went to the Tesla superchargers near John Lewis. These though at the same time were 42p per kWh. Parked, and plugged in, the Funky Cat charged without any issues. I did a full charge taking the car from just under 20% to 100%. The total cost of this was just over £14.

Having done a fair bit of driving on Monday and most of Tuesday, I was down to an 18% charge when we went out for dinner at The Landing Light. In their car park they have two Osprey chargers.  Plugged the Funky Cat in and set it charging. As with the Tesla charging, I let it charge to 100%. The time to charge was similar, but the cost this time was over £30 as the price was 79p per kWh.

Unlike petrol, the price of EV charging can be so variable. It’s not just about the power (speed) either. Also unlike petrol, you can charge at home using your own electricity. I can’t say I understand the variable pricing of EV charging, but it does mean you need to think differently when you want to charge.

Posted on

171 miles

Used the revive chargers at Worle Railway Station and at 100% charge I had a predicted range of 171 miles.

Noticing that recently my 100% charges have been less than the 185 I got a year ago. It is colder, but I don’t think it is that cold.

Over time any EV battery will degrade, so will keep an eye on the battery performance.

Posted on

Mapping it badly

I have noticed a glitch with Apple Maps on CarPlay on the Ora Funky Cat ever since I upgraded to iOS 18.

Starting CarPlay, opening Apple Maps I am in completely the wrong location.

I upgraded to iOS 18, the previous evening and when I tried Apple Maps and it came up as a blank map and crashed CarPlay.

Upon restarting, Apple Maps showed I was in Biggin Hill, which is 160 miles away…. it never corrected.

Should add that Waze and Google Maps showed the correct location.

On my next attempt, Maps did correct itself and the next day it was working as expected.

And this evening none of it was working properly.

I can’t seem to find the setting in the car, on CarPlay, or on the iPhone to force the car to use the phone GPS. 

The “error” appears to be the same error with the location of the car on the Ora app. That error has been with the app ever since I got the car, it places the car about a hundred miles to the East.

I am wondering if I open the Apple Maps app on the phone before going to the car, will that make a difference?

Posted on

Revived at 180

I used the Revive chargers at Worle station car park and charged to 100%. The predicted range was 180.

Back when I first got the Funky Cat, I would often get 185 miles as the predicted range. Both nowhere near the WLTP range of 193 miles.

Posted on

Ten years old…

I was doing some background reading for a blog post I was writing about CarPlay, when I realised that CarPlay was ten years old. Not sure why I think that is surprising. My previous car was built in 2015 and it didn’t have CarPlay. Though I got my Funky Cat in 2023, though promised, it didn’t at that time have CarPlay. So, my first experience of CarPlay was with a Nissan Juke earlier this year. Of course my Funky Cat now has CarPlay.

Posted on

I finally finally haz the CarPlay

Ora Funky Cat CarPlay

After waiting for a fair while, Apple CarPlay is now available for the Ora Funky Cat (or should I be calling it the Ora 03) as a dealer installed update.

CarPlay is a smarter, safer way to use your iPhone while you drive. You can get directions, make calls, send and receive messages, and enjoy your favourite music. All on your car’s built‑in display. And CarPlay now features more app categories and custom wallpapers for your CarPlay Dashboard.

It was announced on the 20th May and I booked my car in for the update with my local dealer. I took it in on the 24th May and left it with the dealer.

Well the CarPlay update to the Ora didn’t go to plan…

The dealer had the car for the whole day, but didn’t start the update until close to the end of the day. The update failed, so they needed to keep the Funky Cat to try again. Alas it was a bank holiday and I was working away in London this week. So the plan is to pick up the car on the following Friday.

In the meantime I was given a courtesy car, a Nissan Juke. After spending ten months driving the Funky Cat, it was quite disconcerting to go back to a manual petrol car. I had to remember to change gear.

Unfortunately failed update was a lot more serious than just a failed software upgrade. The update failed for an unknown reason and essentially bricked the head unit in the car. The head unit needed to be replaced, and it had to be sent from China.

Eventually the part arrived and was installed.

I was finally able to pick up the Funky Cat on the 20th August, just under three months from when I had dropped it off. You could tell it had spent most of the time parked somewhere out of the way, as it was covered  with cobwebs and a fair amount of bird droppings. The first thing I did was take it to a car wash.

After all that they still didn’t do the CarPlay update.

Spent time re-learning how to drive the Funky Cat, remembering there is no clutch nor a gearstick. I also realised how much I had missed driving the Funky Cat and the whole electric vehicle experience. I also realised that the Funky Cat was bigger than the Nissan Juke, but thought the Juke felt cramped inside, the outside felt huge, like an armoured car.

After sorting things out with the dealer, I booked in the update for the 6th September.

They did it in the morning and I am really pleased with the update. I had used CarPlay a fair bit with the Juke, so knew what to expect. It looked really good on the Funky Cat dashboard. Waze worked, as did my music apps. 

Both happy and relieved it is all done now.

Posted on

Unsuccessful Charge

I was visiting IKEA in Bristol and according to the Tesla app the Tesla chargers at the Eastgate Retail Park work with non-Tesla cars.

Alas, despite success with other Tesla chargers across the UK. I was unable to get a successful charge with these with my non-Tesla EV. I tried two different chargers without success.

Plugged in and the charger was unable to “find” my car. I had to manually release my car from the charger.

I got home with 8% left, so popped to the local MFG for an emergency top up charge.

Posted on

Problems at Sand Bay

Sand Bay

I have used the Revive chargers at Sand Bay before, and had a few issues. I was back at the car park, it wasn’t critical that I charged, but I thought I am going to be a couple of hours, let’s put it on charge. I have a Revive account now, and use it on a regular basis at Worle Railway Station.

I plugged it in and it all seemed to be going okay, but due to poor 4G, I was having issues with the Revive website.

I left thinking I had it sorted. The Ora app, said it wasn’t charging, but that happened last time.

Came back after a lovely walk, to struggle once more to access the website, but managed to stop the “charge”. I said the “charge” as it failed completely to work.

At least I wasn’t relying on getting a charge.