Jumped up 40 cents overnight here for regular unleaded.

Yep, Martin, $4.40 per gallon. 3.95 the night before.

In the UK do you guys witness something that I've seen here a number of times, which is, 2 gas stations directly.across the street from each other. 1 station has 9 pumps and 5 to 8 cars in a line at each pump. The other day the line of cars spilled about 5 cars deep into the street.

The other gas station Whose gas costs $0.35 more was empty. In my town there's 2 gas stations across the street and 1 for years now has been nearly empty while other has lines that look like they could cost a person a 45 minute wait.

I filled up with super-unleaded at Sainsburys for 169.9p last night.

Our customers are very important to us
Only their money is more important

About 8 weeks ago the Kia dealer emailed to advise us that the EV6 delivery had been brought forward to June from July, super we thought.

Then 4 weeks later another email arrived to inform us that Kia had advised:-

"Unfortunately, due to global events having an impact on supply, KIA are now predicting EV6 orders to arrive in quarter 4 this year.
I know it is frustrating, but KIA are still in a much better position than most other manufacturers, some of which are now quoting end of 2023.
I will continue to monitor the estimated dates and will inform you of any significant changes."

After a long discussion with the sales manager I did some investigation myself. This involved a number of calls to various manufacturers, dealers, car forums, and internet searches.  It became clear there are currently four major issues, the microchip shortage persists, there is now a semi-conductor shortage (some manufactures are having to stop certain car line production), there is a growing Lithium shortage, many car wiring looms are/were made in Ukraine. BMW or Mercedes are not delivering any new cars for new orders to customers until end of 2023, I cannot remember which, and the other is Aug/Sep 2023. Porcshe have shut down their manufacturing for a number of weeks, it is not clear if they will be able to restart it soon. VW have similar build/delivery issues. There are various shared mechanical car components that were sourced from the Ukraine or Russia, which is very problematic. 

The above made us wonder if the EV6 would ever arrive and if it failed to turn up that we might then face escalating used/new car prices, especially with EV's. Our ageing Honda Jazz, 20 years old,(2nd car) has seen better days and we cannot not rely on this to continue forever.

So after careful consideration we looked at the alternatives, and decided a nearly new Tesla was the best option with as low mileage as possible. I had considered one previously but always felt it was out of our affordability. So I found this baby below, 8 months old with just over 2900 miles on it, it was with a Tesla dealer near Derby, a bit far from us but worth the trip. The previous owner was disabled and according to the dealer purchased it as he wanted a higher range EV to his current one, but found he could not get on with the Tesla. It was an excelent price saving over £10K on a new Dual Motor Model 3 of the same specification, so we are very pleased. 

We both like it very much, and so far have no grumbles or niggles with it. I drove it home from Derby (198 miles), on 31 March, starting with 95% battery and an estimated 318 miles of range, it was also only around 1C outside, and snowing when I got there, great! I came down the M42, joining the M5, and just because I was in a new car the M5 was closed at J13-J14, range anxiety came on, so I pulled in the services near J10, had a comfort break, a coffee and worked out an avoidance route, off at J11 over to Gloucester then down the North side of the River Severn and then over the old suspension bridge to rejoin the M5. I also gave by myself a talking to as the Tesla still had 205 miles of range and the re-route was 125, so plenty left. Off I went, the sun came out and I had a great relaxing drive, arriving home an hour later than planned but still with 85 miles of range left on the battery. So all those people who tell you that Tesla's do not do the mileage published they are either not talking from experience or are more likely gunning them at 80-90mph on the motorways, and are heavy right footed. I kept to the speed limits and drove in a normal manner. It is a very easy and lovely car to drive, very quiet and comfortable, and yes it is very fast if you provoke it. 

For those interested in such stuff here are the mileage stats so far. The initial re-charge at home to 100% took 58.5Kwh, 20Kwh from Solar/Battery and the rest from the grid at a cost of £8.47. Then an interim top up at home of 35Kwh after a few trips locally, costing £5.50. Last weekend we did a round day trip to Hampshire to see friends and once again it did what it says on the tin, returning 4.2Mile/Kwh. We did try out the Tesla Supercharger at Winchester to get familiar, and a 20 minute re-charge to 80% battery took 18Kwh at 42p/Kwh, costing £7.46. After the trip a re-charge at home took 32Kwh (free from Solar/battery). So far we have done 577 miles costing us around £21.43 or 4p/mile, if it had all been from the grid then 143.5Kwh would have cost £31.57 (0.22/Kwh on our fixed rate) or 5.5p/mile. If it had been a petrol car averaging 40mpg, then 577 miles would have been 14.42 gallons at £7.50 is £108.18 or 18.75p/mile. So it bodes well for the future. 

And here the Tesla, it is a tight fit length wise. I had to remove the cupboards that were under the worktop and re-site them in the shed. The tall unit on the floor has gone on the other garage wall. 

Loving it so far Mike, nicer than the EV6 I think.

I read up on them and earlier ones had some panel fit issues due to poor quality control, but seems sorted now, it is very well built. It is weird getting software updates for the car, and being able to connect to it remotely from your mobile phone. The car is quite simple to use, and once you have set it up how you like it very easy. We drove over 250 miles and did not touch the screen once.  There are some very nice features, for example voice command for most features you might want to use on the controls(lights, mirrors, navigation etc). pre-heating the cabin before departure, scheduling when to charge, adjusting charge rate to fit in with your home system (both beneficial if you have Solar PV or cheap rate electric). Sat-Nav looks at the current battery status and works out for you where and when you need to charge on route, and the car pre-conditions that battery as you get closer to the Tesla Supercharger to maximise the charge speed, all very clever. The safety features are also very good, if you find them too much then you can switch off what you don't like, such as collision avoidance/warning.

If you are thinking about an EV go and have a test drive of one.

Keep on posting. Very interested to hear your ongoing story

Not planning to replace my car at the moment but electric would be a serious option

Had another car meeting at Denbies Wine Estate yesterday and the weather was glorious, true t-shirt weather. With 8 GT86s, my BRZ, a guest Supra and another guest 370Z, it was a mini Japfest. Great camaraderie, a selection of turbo and supercharger modded cars, lots of suspension and wheel setup variations, good breakfast and a general good time had by all.

It's nice to drive a clean shiny car in the sun with the windows down, too.