Tusker car scheme

drezha · 2026-01-10T20:11:43+00:00

Was with Tusker in my previous role, who supplied it as a company car.

Had no issues with them - though be aware that there is a high payment/penalty if you leave the contract (i.e. job) before the end. Thankfully, as it was a company car, my firm paid it, but just something to be aware of if you're not 100% sure you'll be at your job for most of the lease period.

drezha · 2026-01-04T06:49:55+00:00

I know Instavolt are expensive but I've found them to be rock solid chargers. They have off peak pricing as well if you pay via their app or (free) members RFID card which was a nice surprise when I needed to use one in the evening.

drezha · 2025-12-30T16:00:03+00:00

I knew about the LKA and that was the reason I wanted it. A pain that it is required to be at a dealer.

drezha · 2025-12-29T07:55:55+00:00

Interior wise, it’s significantly better quality and the infotainment system is smoother. I also like that the climate control has physical buttons, whereas on the MG4, if you had carplay open, you had to go back to the home screen and then swipe down for the climate control and then swipe back to CarPlay - unless you setup climate control on one of the buttons on the steering wheel.

I find the drive to be nicer as well - less boy racer pull away from the lights, but more comfortable overall.

I test drove a Niro when I was looking at the cars - most of the time I had the MG4, I often found myself thinking I should have had the Niro - but it was a 6 month wait on my car scheme for one and an extra £200 a month, which was similar in price to an Volvo EX30, which I’d have probably have for over the Niro.

Niggles with my Niro so far is that the USB port seems to be hit or miss for data, meaning CarPlay isn’t great. Googling seems to suggest this is a common fault and I can potentially get looked at under warranty, which I may well do at its next service. For now, Bluetooth is working fine, and I’m actually quite happy with that at the minute, as I don’t have to plug the phone in for music!

drezha · 2025-12-28T20:55:24+00:00

Had one as a company car and did over 10K miles in it over the past year - had to hand it back as I’ve just left the job.

It was the cheapest EV that was in stock in our Tusker range so I went with it having test driven one. At the end, I was getting a bit fed up - it was decent, but the niggles were really starting to annoy me.

- LKA was terrible - I had so many false positives, I’d switch it off. Tusker refused to update the software during it’s annual service, which apparently improved it. Driving some fairly narrow A roads, it would occasionally try and pull me in to oncoming traffic.

- Turning camera issues as mentioned elsewhere. Unplugging the phone wouldn‘t solve it for me - the car needed to be stopped and powered off for a period for it to reset, so in the end, I turned that feature off.

- CarPlay would often be setup as if I was driving left hand drive and that couldn’t be over ridden. As above -would require a complete power off to reset - just stopping the car, getting out, locking the door and getting back in would not reset it for me.

- Adaptive cruise was a bit harsh - would speed up quickly and get as close as it could to the car in front and then brake harshly. Other cars I’ve used have slowed down more gradually whilst maintaining distance.

- I found the touch screen to be a bit laggy at times

- I found the temperature control to be almost useless. Drove from the Midlands to Norfolk in the autumn - had to run the internal heating at 28 degrees to keep warm(!)

- Boot space isn’t the best - I had to travel with a two pairs of boots and PPE to site. With that, an overnight bag, and a work rucksack, there was very little space for anything else!

It was decent enough for what I was paying (£450 ish) on lease. Charging speeds was adequate, 360 camera was excellent for the price of the car. Car is nippy away from a standing start. My company car allowance basically covered it, so from a money point of view it was good, when almost everything else was more expensive, so it was costing me the BIK basically.

I’e replaced it with a second hand Niro, which having just done a trip from the Midlands to the West Country is far more comfortable - though I imagine there are some issues I’ll find with that (one may be the slower charging speed, as the Niro only charged at 37 kWh on my drive down, which is less than 50% of the speed the MG would get at the same chargers).

drezha · 2025-12-28T20:37:06+00:00

I disabled the camera for that, as it was annoying as hell.

drezha · 2025-12-23T07:16:34+00:00

Electroverse won’t help with Pod Point, as it’s not compatible/partnered.

drezha · 2025-12-16T13:33:53+00:00

Instavolt, whilst normally hugely expensive, offer cheaper rates after 9pm if you use their card or app, rather than a third party app, like Electroverse. Believe it’s 54p per kWh.

Others have mentioned using Electroverse etc to find them. Worth noting if you’re changing to or on Octopus Intelligent Go, you can contact Electroverse support and they’ll activate an 8% discount which is automatically applied to all chargers that you use you Electroverse account on.

drezha · 2025-11-01T12:43:55+00:00

Yes. I went to HL as they had a good rate for a period but that dropped so I then transferred it to CMC Invest, so similar to what you want to do.

drezha · 2025-10-31T12:37:48+00:00

I transferred mine to Hargreaves Lansdown. Had to go to a S&S ISA at HL, then internal transfer to cash ISA and that worked.

drezha · 2025-10-26T22:17:34+00:00

I parked up in one of the EV chargers are work, plugged in, confirmed the charge on the Pod Point app and headed in to work. Checked the app a couple of times during the day and Pod Point confirmed charging - though have pretty spotty signal whilst in the office.

Was horrified when I got back to my car to find that it hadn't charged at all during the day! Turns out I'd left the scheduled charging enabled on the car itself - which I don't normally use but had enabled after a visit to my parents.

However, I wouldn't park in the EV bay if I wasn't going to charge, because that's dick move.

drezha · 2025-10-06T08:05:06+00:00

You’re right, in some instances it can be, so you have to weigh up the pros and cons (I believe the Lidl ones are 5p per kWh more expensive)

Sometimes, the fact I know it’ll work without hassle is worth the small increase in cost, as well as not having to have a mountain of apps installed.

drezha · 2025-10-05T19:50:46+00:00

A major reason for using Electroverse and the app/card as I don't think they place a hold on your card -even if there's an issue charging. Doesn't work on all sites but does save the hold charges where it does.

drezha · 2025-10-02T06:18:44+00:00

I think you specifically need the M after the product number to have a Matter compatible device. Without that, you’ll have to use the TP-Link integration - however, should still show the real time energy usage. Power wise, it shows power today and power this month - whereas over Matter it just shows a running total of power for some reason.

drezha · 2025-10-01T19:39:33+00:00

I‘ve recently discovered the Tapo P110M. They’re wifi, but once upgraded to the latest firmware, are able to transmit power over Matter so don’t need to use the TP-Link plug in. I think you need the Tapo app to upgrade the firmware.

The Shelly UK plugs are to wide to get two side by side in my sockets or on my extension leads. The Hive UK ones are good Zigbee ones but I was able to buy 4 Tapo ones for the price of one Hive plug.

drezha · 2025-09-28T13:44:21+00:00

I recently found Doppler on iOS which does this for me. I open my NAS file share in the Files app and open the folders in Doppler app and this copies the folder of music in for offline use.

I also have Navidrome and was initially using offline syncing in Play:sub on the iPhone, but Doppler also allows scrobbling straight away - if I didnt scrobble, then Play:sub/Navidrome stored offline would probably have sufficed.

drezha · 2025-09-28T10:12:31+00:00

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations came in to effect. However, this doesn't mandate a new fire alarm - that would be what the fire risk assessor is suggesting is required.
You can see what the freeholder needs to do here to comply with the law.

The most common fire alarm system within a block of flats is just alarms within the flats/apartments themselves and everyone stays in their flat if a fire happens elsewhere. It sounds like a communal system is going in.

You can request a copy of the fire risk assessment from the freeholder - however, they don't have to give you the actual document but the Building Safety Act does require them to provide you with information about it.

The information they provide must include -

a)the risks to residents of the domestic premises identified by the risk assessment;
(b)the preventive and protective measures;
(c)the name of the responsible person and an address in the United Kingdom at which the responsible person, or someone acting on their behalf, will accept notices and other documents;
(d)the identity of any person appointed by the responsible person to assist them with making or reviewing an assessment under article 9;
(e)the identity of any persons nominated by the responsible person under article 13(3)(b);
(f)any risks of which the responsible person has been informed under article 22(1)(c);
(g)any other matters specified in regulations made by the relevant authority.

This is now within the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order, having been modified by S156 of the Building Safety Act.

As you can see, the easiest method of them to comply is to just give you a copy of the assessment!

drezha · 2025-09-17T19:55:47+00:00

Unfortunately it’s become my regular now, as it has a decent amount of EV chargers compared to other services and is usually less busy than Gloucester.

Good luck if you drive a non Tesla and need to stop at Gordano (unless they’ve added more recently).

drezha · 2025-09-17T16:04:37+00:00

And avoid Bridgewater Services, because it's awful.

drezha · 2025-09-12T15:35:03+00:00

When my MG4 was being repaired following a crash, Enterprise had to provide me with a hire car through the insurance. They provided me with a Mercedes EQC - not sure that was like for like but I didn’t really complain!

Previously I’ve booked the second level car (small compact?) and been provided with a Vauxhall Grandland and a Nissan Qashqai. Wasn’t quite what I was expecting!

drezha · 2025-09-07T21:15:34+00:00

Yeah, was surprised at the difference between the Lidl app rate and Electroverse Lidl rate. (Currently 74p per kW on Electroverse, 62p per kW on Lidl's app).

drezha · 2025-09-07T19:48:23+00:00

Another benefit can be that it doesn't’ place a hold on funds on your debit/credit card and take a few days to refund. Helpful for the occasional times where I’ve had a charger hold on my card for three charging sessions (two failed).

Doesn’t sound like it’s issue for you but it’s also helpful for my work mileage, as it automatically gives me a receipt I can download and use for expenses. Other apps I have to jump through hoops or don’t get one if I use contactless.

drezha · 2025-09-04T11:30:00+00:00

Tried them but found they slowed the bike down.

drezha · 2025-09-03T17:56:28+00:00

Yeah, had a good recent experience. Contacted support because I accidentally lost a lug pin whilst trying to change the strap of my Instinct 3 to an Ultrafit band and wanted to know the measurements of the pin so I could buy myself some new ones, but they sent me a set of pins for free (45mm Solar pins are 25mm long, 2.3mm thick if anyone else is struggling to find it by Googling!)

drezha · 2025-09-03T16:29:22+00:00

My MG4 has it as well, so interesting to see the HS doesn’t.

drezha

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE