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It worked absolutely fine when I got the car last September but subsequent updates have screwed it up.
I actually think you're better off with the charger not being able to talk to the car because that way you just Configure a default charging schedule in the ohme app to add 100% every time you plug the car in, and io will give you loads of slots outside the usual off peak hours so your house gets cheap elec for longer. If you can, just set a charging limit in the car to 80%.
My car doesn't have an api for the charger so this is how I do it, and I'm always getting cheap elc for the house in the early evening when I plug it in.
And the Leaf is now charging at 7.5p/kWh, and hence the rest of the house is too… Nice!
how does that work then ? I have IO, a BMW i4 and a Easee charger. As normal the IO App takes control and has the car ready at 100% by 0700 as per the IO App settings. I have just plugged the car in , at 55%, and it has mapped the charging from 11pm till 0600 tomorrow.
So from now till 11pm we are paying normal rate, not cheap rate, then whole house goes to 7.5p in charging window
I have IO, a BMW i4 and a Easee charger. As normal the IO App takes control and has the car ready at 100% by 0700 as per the IO App settings. I have just plugged the car in , at 55%, and it has mapped the charging from 11pm till 0600 tomorrow.
That is because io knows the current state of charge, your desired state of charge, and the time you want it at that state of charge by, and knows that it can hit those targets just in the fixed off peak window.
If you said you needed it full by say 7.30pm and you plugged the car in at say 2pm, then it would have to give you more cheap slots outside the usual hours to achieve it.
I actually think you’re better off with the charger not being able to talk to the car because that way you just Configure a default charging schedule in the ohme app to add 100% every time you plug the car in, and io will give you loads of slots outside the usual off peak hours so your house gets cheap elec for longer. If you can, just set a charging limit in the car to 80%.
Yeah, I think I'll give that a go. It's frustrating as I had 3 different charging schedules set up in the app depending on what trips I had coming up but I have started stressing that I'll get in the car one morning and find it hasn't charged at all.
I had 3 different charging schedules set up in the app depending on what trips I had coming up
I've got the same
I have one schedule set with a target of adding 10o% by 8am, another to add 40% by 12pm, and another to add 40% by 4pm
So depending on what time of day it is when I plug the car in it gets a different scheduke, most of the time the car gets plugged in after 4pm,so it's on the add 100% by 8am schedule, but occasionally I plug it in in the morning for a quick boost.
Also..I THINK the tariff times may be different in different areas?
Both octopus and ohme have asked for my postcode for this apparent reason.
I may, however, be talking BS...
DrP
Thanks for the comments on my previous question about buying a new EV. I guess it confirms what I thought; that buying any new car (EV or not) as a cash purchase isn't the option it was when I was last in the market.
I still don't know if I'd go for an EV over an ICE car when I get round to replacing the current car, but no harm in understanding how it all works.
I've noticed whenever people talk about home charging it always seems to be intelligent octopus. I'm up is Scotland (if that makes a difference) and get my electricity from SSE, now owned by OVO. They offer what they call the "charge anytime EV add-on" which they claim is "the UK's cheapest home EV charging". Basically 7p/kWh "any time you like day or night" (but presumably only a set schedule). So how come I never seem to see this mentioned?
They will also install a compatible charger from Ohme (Home, Home Pro or ePod) or Indra (Smart Pro or Smart Charger V3). Are these decent options and do people usually get the charger through their electricity supplier? I guess it's one way of making sure it's compatible with your tariff.
So how come I never seem to see this mentioned?
Because with the ovo charge anytime the cheap rate is limited to only the electric consumed by the car, whereas with io the whole house gets cheap electric along with the car when the car is charging, plus between 11.30pm and 5.30am regardless of whether the car is charging, so overall io works out loads cheaper even though the cheap rate is 0.5p more than ovo
OK, thanks, that makes sense. My charging (if/when it happens) would likely be in the dead of night. So I guess it depends how comfortable I'd be running other appliances overnight and whether I would bother (almost certainly not if I'm honest). But good to know the reason for their claim and why io is still preferred by many.
I certainly couldn’t see it easily available on any of the EVs I’ve been in (Tesla 3 – without a 24 hour diagnostic test at least, Kia eNiro, MG 5, some others i’ve forgotten). In fact I don’t recall ever seeing it readily displayed except on an old Leaf.
The data is mostly available/readable with the manufacturers diagnostics tool *today*, with continuous monitoring/diagnostics on a few cars, others need to do a slow charge and drive/discharge cycle as they don't monitor closely enough during use due to fluctuations in charge and discharge rates from what i understand.
There is legislation in a couple of markets next year and a couple the year after to have customer readable battery health data. There is talk of (almost) real time monitoring by manufacturer coming up, which is tricky...
I’ve noticed whenever people talk about home charging it always seems to be intelligent octopus.
That's because Octopus are a great company in a market populated by crap ones. But yes other tariffs are out there.
The Polestar.. No idea!
You can request a battery health report when it's in for a service - bit crap really, especially if you're wanting to buy one second-hand and the owner hasn't had it serviced
mert
There is legislation in a couple of markets next year and a couple the year after to have customer readable battery health data.
Didn't know that, thanks.
Road trip to the Netherlands has begun!
<b>I</b> really like the Google maps/battery state integration... Very good to know the battery charge on arrival...
Left Hove with 100%... Quick McDonald's stop, and got to le shuttle with 53%.
Smash in a few electrons at the Tesla chargers..and just about to enter France with 83%!..
One stop planned about 2/3 of the way (estimated 25% on arrival there), then will just slow charge to full at the destination!
The car is a dream to drive.. lane assist and ACC make it super chilled...
DrP
Had an email from Tusker last week suggesting that with only six months left on the lease I need to start hunting for a replacement. Decided not to go electric second time around and will just grab another used 5-year-old V60 (diesel or petrol) towards the end of the summer.
I love the experience of driving electric cars, like the get in and go, instant heat, refuelling at home at cheap rates, but there have been some changes in the last three years that I don't like.
The first one, obviously, is the price increase. Even with the salary sacrifice tax dodge the higher BIK and £800/yr road tax knock much of the benefits away. That applies to any new EV, really. Need 300 mile range? Pay £50k+. Teslas are particularly expensive on the Tusker scheme, whether down to insurance or poor residual values, I don't know.
The new Model 3 has the same crippled automation as the current one, and I'm not going to spend another £4,000 for an automatic lane change that doesn't work much of the time and which can be removed whenever Tesla deliberately interpret UNECE rules incorrectly to make a point. Still no parking sensors.
Other main reason is public charging. It was 20p/kWh when I bought the car, but is now 50p/kWh at Tesla stations and between 80p-99p elsewhere. I know there's an upfront cost to building new chargers, but there's a balance to be struck and it feels like the equivalent of having to refuel at motorway service stations everywhere. Even slow chargers are astronomically expensive.
Landowners are taking advantage of the increased demand - not by building more chargers, but by applying onerous access and parking charges. The last two Tesla chargers I used had a minimum £5 fee just to get into the car park. Could you imagine paying a fiver to drive into your local Esso station?
You'd think the Tesla network brings an advantage, but now they're opening more and more sites to all EVs, you hit the problem where the car navigates you there thinking that there's an empty space, but in reality there are just 4 non-Teslas taking up 8 spaces. You've also wasted £4 in electricity pre-heating the battery in a pointless exercise.
And, fundamentally, I don't want to buy another Tesla because of Elon Musk.
So I know this sounds depressing from someone who was an EV evangelist a few years ago, but it's clear that neither the incumbents or Labour have any intention of pushing the green agenda over the next few years so I might as well take advantage of the bribes they're giving to ICE owners.
Edit: just to clarify a couple of EV myths. Over the last 30 months I've never come close to running out of electricity or worried about finding a charger en-route. I've had to wait for a space a couple of times, and occasionally the charge rate has been irritatingly slow at only 50kW.
The battery degradation doesn't seem to be a thing - it was showing a range of 333 miles when I bought it and now has 321. I've been charging it to 95-100% every time against the guidance and it doesn't seem to care.
so I might as well take advantage of the bribes they’re giving to ICE owners
what are these bribes? as far as I can tell an ice car has a lot of the same issues you mention about EV's - (eg high tax, high public fuelling costs etc),but I dont see any bribes, but maybe I'm missing something.
Road tax on a new Model 3 from next year: ~£650/yr.
Road tax on an old V60: £30/yr.
Tax increases on fuel have been held year-on-year for fear of upsetting Tory voters.
Road tax on a new Model 3 from next year: ~£650/yr.
I guess those of us on salary sacrifice leases are going to see a hike in our monthly payments ...
That appears to be incorrect. EVs registered on or after Jan 2025 will be £10 per year for the first year and £180 per year after that. The supplement for cars more than £40,000 has been scrapped.
There is always the issue of previously low charge / free tax cars being unreasonably cheap.
Edit sorry you may be right about the £40,000 thing but apparently it’s still likely there will be pressure to remove this - the exemption is due to end in 2025 as you said.
Unrelated note, saw my first Fisker Ocean driving today. Did not look as huge as I'd feared. More of an Evoque/Macan size than Range Rover/Chav pickup.
Anyone been in one/driven one?
I guess those of us on salary sacrifice leases are going to see a hike in our monthly payments
It will only apply to new ev's bought after the introduction of the luxury car tax in 2025, it wont be applied retrospectively to older ev's.
road tax on a new Model 3 from next year: ~£650/yr.
Road tax on an old V60: £30/yr.
Road tax on an old model 3 (or any other ev regardless of list price from before april 2025) from next year : £180.
I dont actually think its as black and white as that , I think (but cant be bothered to dig) that older ev's (maybe before a certain date) are still £0 tax.
If your lease is up in the next 6 months, you can still lease a brand new ev and just pay £180 per year road tax because it'll be registered before the april 2025 deadline when the luxury car tax starts to apply to ev's.
I mean ultimately if an ev doesnt work because of range, charging speed or cost to purchase, then it doesnt work thats just a fact of life, but If one worked for you for the past 3 years, then one can surely work for the next 3, especially if you get in before the new luxury car tax rules.
The road tax is a relatively small element of my decision.
road tax is a relatively small element of my decision
do you do a lot of public charging? I can completely understand that there's little point in going ev if you have to use the public charging infrastructure a lot. I think the infrastructure itself is getting there no for most of the country, but the costs are stupid.
I find it kind of horrifying now how much diesel I pour into the tank of my car and the fact it all gets spewed out of the exhaust into the air.
do you do a lot of public charging?
About half of the charging I do is on a public charger. The rest is at 7.5p/kWh with Octopus.
About half of the charging I do is on a public charger.
Yeah, that'd probably make an ev pointless for me too, would tip the balance to being too long waiting for the car to charge instead of driving like I would be if I were in the ICE car, combined with the costs of public electricity .
would tip the balance to being too long waiting for the car to charge instead of driving like I would be if I were in the ICE car
See earlier in the thread regarding charge times with the Hyundai platform. I was weighing up the EQC versus Ioniq 5 earlier, then I realised the latter could charge at least twice as quick. The charge numbers discussed are pretty remarkable and certainly in line with the time I'd spend stopped anyway.
Pinch of salt required regarding the Hyundai / Kia / Genesis platform charging speeds.
Yes,they are realistic and entirely achievable but the big speeds are dependent on finding a powerful enough charger which, currently, are few and far between.
On anything much less than a 150kw charger the difference in charge times will be much less pronounced.
It’ll still be faster because the curve is more favourable but not spectacularly so.
Most of the time the charger is the limiting factor especially if there are other cars there and the bank of chargers are load sharing between them.
Subject change, but for anyone interested in lead times for new EV’s, I ordered an Audi Q4 eTron in December and have a ready date of 31st May. It enters the production line on the 19th February, so a fairly long build and customs process.
Now going through the process of trying to switch to Octopus and order a home charging point.
I have a referral code which gets each of us £50 if you haven’t got one already.
So we arrived in Eftelling earlier today....
Left the chunnel with 83%...
Planned a lunch stop about 1hr 40 down the road..
Stopped for about 40 min, and added 43kWh at a 150kw charger...
However I can't get the slow ones here to work! I've 4 days to figure it out!
It seems the VAST majority of chargers en route (inc Tesla) top out at 150kw... So the point above makes sense.
DrP
It seems the VAST majority of chargers en route (inc Tesla) top out at 150kw…
That’s not the charger. That’s the car. Polestar 2 maxes out at 150kW innit.
Unless you meant that there were mostly 150kw chargers everywhere which is exactly what you meant now that I re-read it.
As you were.
Carry on 😀😀😀😀💪🏾
Yeah... Chargers were 150... Well.. The tesla at the chunnel was 175... But.... Whatever...
DrP
Back on bottom of Page 135 I posted up about taking an MG EV XPower out for a test drive (quite nippy) and ordering my new MG HS 1.5 DCT motability car as my VW Tiguan was due to go back, I picked up my MG today and drove it 30 miles home, if anyone is thinking of buying one………Don’t, just don’t, take the bus instead. If you could buy a car on temu the the MG HS is what I imagine you’d end up getting delivered.
I would have ordered another Tiguan specced as mine was but they are now £3299+ down payment which I don’t have, I also checked every other car/suv manufacturer on motability that had a similar seat height and spec to my Tiguan and the cheapest was £2000+, again out of my budget. The MG had a very similar spec to my Tiguan and similar seat height but was £0 down payment, so was the only option.
Cool story eh? 😉
ps, don’t buy one, don’t even bother test driving one, if you walk past an MG showroom then I advise turning around and finding another route
And, fundamentally, I don’t want to buy another Tesla because of Elon Musk.
I wouldn't either for the same reason but there's plenty of good alternatives now. Also if you register it before April 1st 2025 you won't be paying the additional £390 luxury vehicle supplement (at least not until they change their mind). I agree though lease costs are insane for mid-high end EVs and very difficult to justify unless you're doing a lot of miles but can home charge/cheap away charge for most of it to claw some of the money back.
@Flaperon - your experience is unfortunately now the same as mine. I have become so disillusioned with the EV market that i have bought an ICE car again. I have been an early adapter of EV's and on my second Tesla over 8 years. I have noticed the Tesla charging points getting busier and busier and have queued twice this week at Marks Tey in Colchester, i've queued at numerous services up and down the UK, something that didn't happen even two years ago.
The time saved by not queuing at chargers or waiting 40 minutes to get enough charge to get home is now noticeable. I have a Toyota Hilux Invincible now that i use which runs Adblue Diesel so as clean as it comes all things considered. I get practically double the mileage from it compared to the long range Model Y and it's slightly cheaper than electric. A real shame, but 8 years averaging 30k miles a year i feel gives me enough experience. to comment..... if someone could do a real world 550 mile battery (in winter) then i'd consider them as a viable alternative
I have a Toyota Hilux Invincible now that i use which runs Adblue Diesel so as clean as it comes all things considered.
Lol what
I get practically double the mileage from it compared to the long range Model Y and it’s slightly cheaper than electric.
Umm...
Always enjoy reading (most of this thread). Lots of experience on here. So let me ask a question. We have one EV (MG4) and my 4 year old Skoda Koraq which is PCP/due back Sept. Things we know/need
- can't go down to one car (I know someone will say you can, but it's a no for this next car cycle. Maybe after that)
- replacement for the Skoda needs to have towbar but only for bike rack (and no I do not want to put dirty bikes in cars, been there do not want to re-do, other reasons I need towbar as well but not for any heavy towing)
- 10,000 miles a year, we have a home charger, I rarely nowadays do over 200 miles in a day but sometimes away at universities around that distance so would need to charge somewhere. I'd say tho based on analysis of last year 90% charging could be done at home with a range of 250-270ish
- Don't need to buy new. Not interested in owning. So Molgrips PCP thread was helpful.
- Sizewise, me and the better half mostly now. Occasionally collect a grown up offspring and all their belongings but Koraq was a good size. Could prob go smaller. Hatch for dog useful, or estate. No need for SUV, would rather have estate but not so many EVs.
I'm torn between getting something like an Ionic or even the MG electric estate or thinking maybe better to wait a few years and either buy Koraq at end of PCP deal (it's been fine) or chop it for something else ICE.
I'd rather go electric but for all the new models etc, I'm just not finding anything that's making me think 'yep that's the solutoom'
I have a Toyota Hilux Invincible now that i use which runs Adblue Diesel so as clean as it comes all things considered.
All things? Really?
Alex -- hybrid possibly, and then re-evaluate in another couple of years time.
Towbar and the like are a big hassle as far as I can see -- not impossible, but likes of VW ID3 can't even support roof bars and > 4 travellers, as it's not rated for that (as far as I understand).
if someone could do a real world 550 mile battery (in winter) then i’d consider them as a viable alternative
I think I see where you are coming from. The longest trip I "regularly" do is to see the in-laws (e.g. at Christmas) and it's a 530 mile trip. So a 550 mile (winter) range EV sounds like a winner.
But the battery is always going to be the most expensive and heaviest component on an EV. Does it really make sense to spec that to cope with the journeys that only happen a few times a year?
In truth, even the most efficient 530-mile trip to the in-laws involves at least two stops with a total stopped time of at least an hour. (and that's pushing it). If public chargers were plentiful enough that I could immediately plug in at every stop and charging were fast enough that I could do, say 10-80% in 30 minutes, would I really need more than, say, a 250 mile range?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that long range sounds desirable but isn't that just because the charging infrastructure isn't there (yet)?
This is all from the point of view of someone who has never owned an EV though, so I'm happy to be corrected by those who have.
I get practically double the mileage from it compared to the long range Model Y and it’s slightly cheaper than electric.
Umm…
Probably means the range, it's probably 600-700 miles for a diesel hilux.
And 'slightly cheaper', i guess it's possible if you're doing long journeys and having to charge at 85p/kwh regularly? It's just not quite the right tool for that job just yet.
Probably means the range, it’s probably 600-700 miles for a diesel hilux.
Yes, but the range of an EV and the range of an ICE are different concepts, really. It doesn't really matter for ICEs, and it doesn't really matter for an EV if you can home charge, and it's over abou 250 miles. Because you can stop and recharge. It almost sounds like they didn't realise you don't have to stop and queue at Tesla chargers - you can charge anywhere.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that long range sounds desirable but isn’t that just because the charging infrastructure isn’t there (yet)?
I think it is. On my regular stretch of M4 we had two or three chargers at each service station a year ago, now we have probably 50 in a 100 mile stretch, plus maybe 30 Tesla-only ones. And there are loads and loads more just off the motorway.
The biggest annoyance is reliability, which is improving as most new charger are new units; and the reporting of which chargers are free as this often seems to crap out.
the charging infrastructure isn’t there (yet)?
It is and it isn’t.
Stick to the motorway network or built up areas and there are usually plenty of chargers.
Motorway ones are highly dependent on how busy the network is.
I’d happily drive the 600 odd miles to Cornwall on a Tuesday in February but wouldn’t dare on a Saturday in July or August. There just aren’t enough chargers to cope with peak demand yet.
The longest trip I “regularly” do is to see the in-laws (e.g. at Christmas) and it’s a 530 mile trip. So a 550 mile (winter) range EV sounds like a winner.
But the battery is always going to be the most expensive and heaviest component on an EV. Does it really make sense to spec that to cope with the journeys that only happen a few times a year?
at least two stops with a total stopped time of at least an hour.
Also add in the several hours if not longer that the car is stopped whilst at the in-laws. As EV adoption becomes more common it's not too far off in the future that you'd be able to plug in whilst you're there more often than not, so the battery is full again for the return journey. If you're stopping for a couple of days then a granny charger is perfectly viable assuming you've got access and a long enough lead etc.