Forum menu
I agree that the short / medium term option of punitive charges for leaving the car when full*, combined with some form of future “just plug it and wait for your turn in the queue” would be good - I.e. the “more plugs than actual chargers” approach.
* maybe something to discourage charging all the way to full as well. Tesla don’t allow (or certainly discourage) charging past 80% when the charge station is full. I’m. It sure how to do this fairly. Making the total charge to be X £/kW + Y £/minute could work.
Probably this is there the long term “more plugs than chargers” approach wins out, as this doesn’t matter any more - you’re no longer “hogging a charger” but just drawing less charge, as as your charge speed drops it allows another person to connect and start charging.
@garagedweller I will one day get an EV and tow with it. Range would be short, but with quick charging I could put up with it to get the benefits the rest of the year. Much as I love my diesel car the thought of putting 60l of hydrocarbons in it just to burn it and spread the fumes around the place starts to feel a bit horrific.
Quite agree on the dirty diesel and that's where I hope to be in the next few years. I could live with the regular electric top ups by frequency/ distance if provision for pull through charging and higher speed charging once off the motorway network was less patchy. It's the combination of that combined with the range impact of external loads that's stopping me.
The place we've been staying in Devon this week had whole sections of the park with lodges that had a dedicated charging point for each plus chargers in a couple of other places around the park. More of this sort of thing at campsites etc would be good.
The long term answer is widespread destination charging. If there were loads of cheap to install and cheap to use 7kw chargers at workplaces, retail outlets , cinemas, train stations, anywhere where lots of people park for more than an hour at a time then the super expensive rapid charging network would only be required for the main road network to accommodate the long journey
I charge almost exclusively at work where we have 6 11kw chargers which is plenty for the 30-odd EVs in our office. I have a charger at home that Ive never used because Ive never needed to.
Workplace charging seems to be very variable in control, costing and regulation. I don’t think many employers want the administration burden of selling electricity to their staff, and I expect that a 3rd party model will emerge, where employers pay a kit rental for the hardware and software to pass the electricity cost, plus profit, onto staff.
I think free electricity is probably a taxable benefit, which again, will be a burden on payroll administration.
I think free electricity is probably a taxable benefit
It isn’t….currently.
My employer pays for it but I pay back my private mileage on a n HMRC pence per mile basis in exactly the same way that I did when I had an ICE car
+1 for destination charging being the main way forwards. Rapids are only for journeys too long for one charge. Currently for me that includes rounds trips that are too long, but if there were destination chargers in every car park, house, lamp post etc I don’t think I would ever need to fast charge.
Destination chargers are also relatively really cheap to install as they’re just a feed directly off the existing 240V network. The just need to be commoditised as the existing ones (BP Pulse, Connected Kerb, Pod Point etc) are a bit too expensive, but changing the installed volume from thousand to many tens or even hundreds of thousands should fix that one.
Destination chargers aren't enough when your destination is further away than your car's range.
“ Destination chargers aren’t enough when your destination is further away than your car’s range.”
Correct. Which is where the rapids come in.
Even then, having the destination charger means you’re using the rapids for a top up to get there and a top up to get back, rather than having to do a large charge.
Extra capacity in destination and rapid charging is a great idea but while private enterprise owns the charger network there will always be the imperative for profit. Plentiful supply of chargers Vs number of vehicles on the roads risks pushing revenues per charger down and hence return on investment down. That's potentially going to put the brakes on some investment and see less profitable routes and areas get short changed.
That needs some real political influence and potentially grants/tax breaks to make sure those areas don't get left behind.
One of the annoyances in my trip to the Netherlands earlier this year (Eftelling) was that although there were LOADS of slow chargers in the accommodation car park, which would have been PERFECT as once parked you leave the car there for days, I couldn't get them working with an app or bank card... Seemed they needed an RFID card.
This mildly scuppered plans as then needed to find a motorway rapid charger before leaving.
I think it's just an 'early issue' with EVs...
Soon they'll all have a way of just paying via a centralized app, or a tap of a bank card.
Tbh I didn't mind that it would have been 50c /kWh... But hey ho...
DrP
We were in Holland in Easter and solely used electroverse app or electroverse RFID card and that was predominantly at slow chargers in small towns where we could leave overnight and then a couple of fast chargers which are way more frequent than here. Looking at our routes in France for summer hols and seems fast chargers lot further apart
Ignore
@davy90 The Tesla auto wipers are camera based rather than sensor based.
Have you had the Spring update yet? When you press the wiper button at the end of the stalk, you now scroll up and down the left wheel/button for the wiper settings , same as you set up recently.
Because this is now a standard feature, I have set up the long press on the left wheel to save dash cam video on demand.
The Spring update has several other new functions including speed camera notification, a function that indicates your average speed in average speed motorway sections, plus increased detail on the autopilot display, which I find is a gimmick anyway.
@tenfoot, believe we're up to speed on updates but will check, the stalk button pops the wiper menu up at the bottom right of the screen, which is slightly less faff to adjust. Having spent a bit of time in the car, I do feel that some of the 'minimal design elegance' is plain old cost efficiency, which is good design when it works.. the wiper system is just a bit poo.. Otherwise very impressed with the thing..
Amusingly, having badgered EDF into finally switching our tariff over to their GoElectric tariff, the unit rates showed correctly in the App for a day or so, currently it indicates I'm paying -infinityp per kWh on peak and plain infinityp per kWh off peak!
Tesla wipers are definitely not their best feature! They do appear to have improved though, and the latest update where the button brings up the scroll wheel to change setting is an improvement.
I believe there have been rumours for a while that the AI behind it is about to get a major upgrade, which means it will probably take over the car and start off judgement day.
currently it indicates I’m paying -infinityp per kWh on peak and plain infinityp per kWh off peak!
Just make sure you leave the oven on for a few hours during peak time and don't plug the car in that night, you'll become the richest person in history with a net worth of £infinity
EDIT wait no, you'd need to turn off the main switch just before peak time and not use any power that night, otherwise it'll cancel out and you'll get zero.
That the engineers at Mercedes Benz prioritised charging speed over cup holders.
I said this about 50 pages ago and was told i was talking rubbish by at least half a dozen people.
Faster charging will benefit more people than larger batteries/longer range will.
I said it 50 pages ago, and it's based on what people actually use their cars for, rather than what they think they do, and i still stand by it.
Faster charging will benefit more people than larger batteries/longer range will.
Absolutely. Which is why I chose my car based on the charging curve first and the actual car second.
I’ve followed the principle that the car, which is a stationary object for the vast majority of it’s existence, should charge whilst parked when charging speed is pretty much irrelevant….unless you need to charge mid-journey in which case it should charge as quickly as possible.
Noticed the Merthyr Premier Inn (default choice for BPW trips) has a Geniepoint rapid now according to zapmap.
I'd still love to see the carpark flooded with slow overnight chargers but I do see the logic of what Whitbread are doing given the all-day restaurant/pubs on site too. Geniepoint charge overstay fees so hopefully anyone who needs it can get on during their stay.
home yesterday from a 4 day break in Aviemore area. Left home on Sunday (central belt) with a full battery, drove up, then lots of daily running around, and went for a top up Tue before driving back yesterday.
There are quite a few chargers in Aviemore itself, and the Tesla ones which are hidden away behind the MacDonald hotels were empty, and are open to all (with the Tesla App). A 25 min charge took it from 25% to 80% and cost £20, which got us home with 12% remaining. A full charge at home on IO costs £7, so in all, fuel cost for the trip were about £27, which is approx 1/3 of what it would have been in previous diesel car 🙂
averaged 3.6m/KW over the 450 or so miles, which was ok considering i had a bike on the back on a towbar rack for 330 of those miles, up and down the A9 etc with cruise at speed limit and ac on all the time. (BMW i4 40)
We drove about 1200 miles give or take ten on our trip, we spent £173 on leccy. That works out roughly 15p a mile.
We could have tried a bit harder to save money by seeking out Tesla chargers or Electroverse affiliated, but in the end I couldn't be bothered. The only supercharger we tried in Ft William wouldn't work for me.
Just out of interest, when you rock up at the superchargers in a none Tesla, how do you know how much they're charging you p/kwh?, they don't seem to advertise it anywhere that I can find and where they do, it says things like, "typically" and "prices vary" etc
On the app?
Yup..the app.
I think the price can vary depending on the time of day.
DrP
yeah, if you register for the Tesla App as a non Tesla driver (it asks you what you drive) it seeks out available chargers and gives you a rate for the specific charger for various time slots - cheaper in am than pm often and always cheaper outside rush hour periods I think. The Aviemore ones seem a bit slow compared to others I have used, but mid morning price was around 40p/kwh so decent enough.
yeah, if you register for the Tesla App as a non Tesla driver
Ah ok cheers, maybe I didn't get far enough within the app, I downloaded it and registered and put in card payment details, but never actually found any third party charging options ie a map, route planner or whatever.
Thanks for all of the replies, very helpful. Can anyone recommend me an electric car. Budget 12k max. Recently retired and pootle about the SW -Dorset, Wilts, Somerset but would like to explore more of the UK car camping with a bike in the car. In the past 3 months my longest journey has been a 150 mile roundtrip.
Why is the Zoe or Leaf not recommended? Is the range too low? Older tech? Other issues?
Corsa e for the cheap ev if you don't need a roof rack or a tow bar. Charges quick on dc. reasonable summer range. Winter like all evs not so good but it should do 130+miles. Splash out on the top spec model and get matrix headlights, heated seats and a warm steering wheel on the colder days.
Ah ok cheers, maybe I didn’t get far enough within the app, I downloaded it and registered and put in card payment details, but never actually found any third party charging options
It’s the first thing you see when you open the app? “Find a charger”. Are you sure you got the right app?
Why is the Zoe or Leaf not recommended? Is the range too low? Older tech? Other issues?
They are both first gen vehicles and very old hat now. Zoes are small city cars, Leafs are not but they don't have any battery heating or cooling so the range is quite variable between summer and winter. That makes the range meter unreliable, which is a much bigger issue than I thought it would be. We had one, and for me it's just not that good of a car. The ride is unpleasant. We had previously had an Ioniq, we sold the Leaf for another one (the first time I've ever got rid of a car because I didn't like it) and it's so much better. For us the range on our Ioniq only drops to 170 or so at worst in the winter, from 190 in summer. And the Premium SE spec has cooled front seats, which is fantastic.
I don't know about the Corsa, but they have always been small cars, whereas the Ioniq can fit four adults in comfort. However, it does charge slowly and it's not a fast car although quite fast enough. That said, the spectacular efficiency of the Ioniq offsets the slow charging speed, we go from 20-80% in about 40-45 mins which gets us up to 150 miles of range. We just went to Scotland and back in it from South Wales and we stopped four times on the way back for 30-40 mins each time.
Corsa e has a decent sized boot for a small car. Bigger than a Kia picanto which is what I sold to get the Corsa e. Should get 4 medium people in it with ease. Seats folded down has a decent boot space. For a daily driver, quick city car with fast charging when further from home it's pretty good. Local miles efficiency is around 4.5m/kWh so I'm not grumbling.
I'm going to get rid my Skoda roomster which is having age related issues and get another electric car. Corsa e that I bought last year is used daily by my other half so I can't use that apart from weekend trips out.
I had sort of convinced myself to buy a large battery, big range, roof rack and v2l capable car but I'm now considering the Hyundai ionic 38kwh. It doesn't meet most of the requirements above but they are pretty cheap. Cheap being relative to spending significantly more on a car with the above features, mg5 being another option.
So my questions to @molgrips are:
Rear seats flat how long is it from the boot lip to the passenger dash/behind front seats? For the occasional time I put lengths of wood in I would like to think I could fit 2.7m 🤔. Current roomster is 1.6m with the rear seats removed, 1.4m folded up.
Have you encountered any of the 12v battery drain problems that seem to occur and feature on the ioniq forum(s)? Might only affect some cars?
DC Charging speed shouldn't be an issue. I think I will be able to plan my few longer trips around chargers.
Have you stuffed any bikes in the back? I'd like to think it could hold 2 MTBs with both wheels off? Seats down capacity seems to be pretty big volume wise, similar to an mg5?.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
I have an ioniq 38kwh. It’s a nice car. As you mention, it doesn’t meet the requirements you set out, but I do like it.
I discovered it is not rated or approved for a roof rack for some reason. They are available for the hybrid version, and probably fit but legally it’s not approved.
12v issues - I had the car from nearly new, and had a period where the 12v battery would randomly go flat when the car was on charge. After a few months of back and forth to the dealers, with a replacement 12v battery, I eventually got to the bottom of it and has not happened in the last 40k plus miles.
the issue for me was related to the Bluelink app the car uses. The charger I had (rolec- I don’t recommend) used its own app that connected to Bluelink via its API. This app would continually access the cars state of charge to determine whether to charge, and did this via pinging the car which ‘woke’ it up and then drained the 12v system, bricking the car at the most critical moments. Once I stopped using this, it’s been fine.
one thing to look for is that the car has had the coolant replacement recall / service carried out at 40k / 80k. There was an issue on a number of Hyundai evs with the battery coolant, where the coolant would turn to jelly and not circulate correctly. A special service was needed to force flush this out and replace with a different coolant. I had some errors with this but the recall perfectly matched my service and again been fine since. This improved the cars range and charging speed, likely due to being able to properly heat and cool the battery.
servicing costs are reasonable (around £100) even at main dealer although they seem to only look at it and wash it, and it’s every 10k miles. But this keeps warranty and that has been very important as above. The 40k / 80k coolant replacement service though is quite expensive.
We got it October 2021 with 5k on and currently has 65k. Other than the above issues it’s been good.
It drives nicely, is much more efficient than all of them newer EVs my colleagues have but the range can be frustrating for long journeys and the charge rate is slow. However we bought knowing that 95% of journeys are shorter trips in range and from home charging so accept those issues.
Thanks Matthew for the in-depth review with some good questions to ask about maintenance and service history to raise with the seller.
My search for a car will begin in a few weeks...
Rear seats flat how long is it from the boot lip to the passenger dash/behind front seats?
I'll measure it tonight.
Yes the coolant flush is expensive at I think £450 for the service when it comes up. Annual services are I think £75/£150 from my main dealer.
I haven't put an MTB in the back but I have put my road bike in with both wheels on, it just pops straight in. I would expect it to easily swallow wheels-off MTBs.
I got 5.3 miles per kWh yesterday on a trip about 2/3 dual carriageway, driving at the speed limit with four people in the car. Range is indicating 199 miles, so no sign of degradation at 77k.
I think 12V issues on these cars are just down to the battery being small and a bit under-specced given some issues with blue link services being over-used as above. When we bought ours the 12V was dead at the dealer at only 3.5-4 years old, however the car wasn't bricked. It told us there was an issue before that point and we just dropped in a new one for £100. You don't know what dealers have been doing with doors open whilst cleaning etc. Some people are fitting AGM batteries or Li-ion but I didn't want to do that as the charging specs are different.
Thanks molgrips for your additional info.
Good to hear that it can stuff a road bike in easily enough. 👍
It's about 2.65m from the boot lip to the nearest part of the dash in a line parallel to the length of the car. A little longer on a diagonal of course. However the front seat doesn't lay flat.
Thanks for the measurement. Seems like it'll be good for occasionally transporting long bits of wood. 👍
Potentially silly question for those that run more than one electric car and charge at home. Do you get any breakdown of charging from Octopus or other electricity company (do they know what's going through the charger compared to the house)? If they do, can it differentiate cars or is it just "car charging" on the bill?
just 'charging'.
we've 2 EVs. just plug them in, and electricity runs into them. Charger can't tell which one is plugged in. A tesla MAY communicate back, but a polestar and Nissan Leaf don't.
It's just like plugging in 2 different phones in a USB C cable really.
DrP
They also can't really tell what's charging - it could be an EV or house batteries, or warming a hot tub, etc, but if you're pulling 7kW for 11 hours, that's pretty much a sure sign it's a car.
Re the 12v batteries, Tesla have gone over to Lithium for the 12v battery. There are lots of aftermarket Lithium 12v batteries available too but the teardown videos of the non brand name ones are pretty shocking. I'd stick with a brand name lead acid battery if you need to replace.
Thanks both, as I expected. Mrs Biscuits asking "how will we know who's car cost what" but I guess its a mindset change from petrol filling.
Mrs Biscuits asking “how will we know who’s car cost what”
Your car app will probably give you a comprehensive breakdown of energy usage and mileage. Having said that, I can only get historical mileage from Bluelink - the energy efficiency is only for the current day. But it also gives me the average eficiency over a period so I can approximate. You also need to add on about 10% or something for charging efficiency losses.
OK, thanks. I think it'll probably just get absorbed into the electric bill, especially since I do double the monthly miles than she does.
Does anyone have any opinions on an Audi Q4? She's got a Q2 which is too small and I'm trying to sell her on an electric model. Lightly used ones are pretty good value on PCP compared to what she's paying now. It'll be a harder sell to prise her away from the four rings.
Our EV does something like 7-9k a year and it's less than a tenner on the electricity bill, on which we are paying £100 a month (and are in credit currently). We would have spent about £80/mo on diesel alone.
Around £10/month in electric for the Corsa e using intelligent octopus. Would have been £40+ in petrol for the Kia it replaced and it has saved around £200 in diesel for the trips which the roomster would have done.
If I get an ioniq I'll be occasionally charging it up on the off peak part of the intelligent tariff where the Corsa e lives and the rest of the time I'll be using the agile tariff at my house and a 3 pin plug charger for the limited miles that I drive. That said I think I'll be using the electric car more on early and late shifts when the weather is poor as it would be cheaper and more comfortable to use than my petrol scooter which costs around £1.25 for a commute round trip.
Colleague has a Q4 and loves it, he says his electirc bill is less with the car on octopus than previous supplier without the EV, think he's moved dishwasher/washer to different times of day as well as charging overnight, he catches the train to work so only really uses the car for weekends away and ferrying his kids around so not a high mileage user.
I have a Q4 Quattro Sport Back Black Edition, had it since end of March. Love it!!
Such a nice vehicle to drive. Super comfortable for long runs. I don’t use it for putting bikes in or anything like that, but for typical family usage I’m really impressed.
I am getting about 3.5 miles K/h. That’s typically a 70 mile commute mainly dual carriageway and motorway.
Let me know if you’d like any specific info about the Q4.
If they do, can it differentiate cars or is it just “car charging” on the bill?
I think the Ovo EV tariff does; it charges all your consumption at the normal rate then gives you a rebate for the power used by the car to make that cheaper. This depends on them being able to talk to a particular kind of charger iirc.
Octopus doesn't, in the cheap periods everything is cheap.
Octopus does give you a daily break down, so if you kept a record of what was charged and when then you could work it out.
Here’s the weekly view, you can also see an hour by hour breakdown. It just doesn’t tell you what was being used.
My Ohme charger app gives a nice list of charging sessions, inc. cost as it's tied into Octopus tariff data. I'd be using that rather than my Octopus app if I wanted to tot up who used what charging wise.
you can also get the same info from the octopus compare app, which is nicely laid out and easy to view
[url= https://i.postimg.cc/3xM09DhQ/Screenshot-2024-06-18-14-05-37-251-com-m4consulting-octopus-comparison.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/3xM09DhQ/Screenshot-2024-06-18-14-05-37-251-com-m4consulting-octopus-comparison.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
Just to add, I'm currently keeping a spreadsheet to compare Agile tariff against Intelligent/Go to determine whether Agile is financially worth the extra effort (I'm not convinced the app itself would give true comparisons as your electric usage patterns would completely change depending on what tariff you were on). I find the octopus compare app is much easier than the octopus website graphic to quickly get your kWh and £ data from. If anyone's interested I'm currently achieving on Agile Octopus 7.10p/kWh car, 13.15p/kWh house. 9.84p/kWh combined (all figs include 5% vat). If I can maintain the same over 12 months then it's possibly going to be a saving of £400 pa over intelligent Octopus. That's on an estimated yr 3500/2500kwh car/house
How are you controlling usage to hit the Agile cheap times? Are you manually starting and stopping the car charging or using some automation?
@molgrips I've got a dumb untethered Rolec charger, the ohme cable I had has stopped working (ohme want £200 to fix it). So, I'm using the Tesla app to schedule a start time, I then use an app called 'EV charging time calculator' to help determine when to set the end percentage in the Tesla app. I use the calculator app to speed the process up in getting the correct end time I want, that's if I'm not charging to 100%. What I can't do is cherry pick half hour segments like you can do with ohme. At some point I'll probably get another ohme
What I can’t do is cherry pick half hour segments like I think you can do with ohme.
I think the deal with Ohme is that it does that automatically. You could in theory save even more if you created your own automation. I think if you were hacky enough you could do it with a smart plug and a granny charger; or if you are even hackier you could fit a smart relay to your dumb charger. I'm not that hacky mind.
I've watched YT vids on fitting the smart relays for dumb chargers. I've also looked into smart rcbo /RCD 's (?). I'm not confident where electricity is involved tho. I do have a couple of smart plugs turning items off 4pm-7pm.
he says his electirc bill is less with the car on octopus than previous supplier without the EV, think he’s moved dishwasher/washer to different times of day as well as charging overnight,
I've said this too... I reckon i'm actually getting paid to drive the EV, because if sone smartly, not only do you charge the EV at 7.5p/unit, but the whole hose is billed at 7.5p/unit whilst the EV is charging (i.e 1/4 of the normal unit price).
The ideal would be for the polestar to update to run V2H - it feels shameful having 80kWh of batter just sat there doing nothing most of the time. I'd love to charge at cheap rate, and discharge back in the day.
DrP
The lack of V2L on the Polestar is the one thing that causing me to hold off getting one.
25k get you a lot of 2nd hand Polestar but an EV6 might be the more sensible option (coming from a eNiro)
The other day my sister was adamant that you cannot tow an EV out of a muddy field without damaging it, because she was recently at a festival where EVs had needed towing with a tractor and they were damaged. She even showed me an article that said that you can't tow one because the wheels are always connected to the motor, so that would cause damage.
I don't think either of these things are true. My car has a neutral setting on the transmission, presumably for this reason, but even if you don't select neutral then towing it is no different to going down a hill. I have read many times people who've recharged EVs by towing them in D. All I can think of is that the cars had dead 12V batteries so were unable to be moved out of P; or some how they were dragged over something hard and the batteries were damaged.
You're right.
You need to slip the EV into neutral somehow, and then it'll just roll.
I guess the challenge is figuring out how to do this.
I suspect that, because it's not as easy as just wiggling the 5 speed gear stick to neutral, numpties in nice EVs say it's impossible!
DrP
Sadly your sister has been taken in by the anti-EV fossil-fuel funded mafia. You can tow an EV, just not for long distances as the motor(s) may overheat depending on whether they’re permanent magnet or not.
Funnily enough you can’t tow an automatic car either for similar reasons.
Ultimately though if your car is stuck in a muddy field it makes no odds. Either the wheels don’t turn and it just slides, or it’s so slow and short that nothing can heat up anyway. Or as others have pointed out… just put it in neutral.
Add this to the existing pile of motoring urban rumours:
- having the interior light on will cause a crash.
- using the headlights will drain the battery.
- stop/start is a scheme to sell more starter motors and uses more fuel than leaving the engine running.
- sidelights should be used as dawn and dusk.
I have definitely seen a TV article with the AA who changed the rear wheels for some clever wheels which allowed them to tow electric vehicles so she is not totally wrong, but you might be able to tow a short distance possibly
Possibly something to do with neutral not actually being the same as an ICE and it builds up kinetic energy which damages the battery or something as it does not completely disengage from the motor.
Corsa e recommends towing with the front wheels up on a tow truck. If it was broke rather than stuck.
I'm almost certain the manual did mention neutral for very short distances of needed.
Stuff like anti rollback probably makes dragging the car backwards whilst not in reverse and not pressing the accelerator more complicated? The car will probably lock the rear wheels if it thinks it is rolling backwards?
If I was going to a fields often to park my car I'd invest in some skid plates too slide under the wheels. 🤔
So I've read the manual for my car. It does say not to tow it with the front wheels on the ground - but it then goes on to say this:
If towing service is not available in an emergency, your vehicle may be temporarily towed using a cable or chain secured to the emergency towing hook at the front (or rear) of the vehicle. Use extreme caution when towing the vehicle with a cable or chain. A driver must be in the vehicle to steer it and operate the brakes. Towing in this manner may be done only on hard-surfaced roads for a short distance and at low speeds.
Limit the vehicle speed to 15 km/h (10 mph) and drive less than 1.5 km (1 mile) when towing to avoid serious damage to the reduction gear.
Rory Reid recently drove a 430,000 mile Tesla Model, Y still on its original battery, until it ran out of juice. The car stopped about 10 feet from the charger. Fortunately a helpful Tesla driver showed him how to put the Model S into tow mode and they pushed it onto the charger.
I think the issue is as above with permanent magnet motors. It says in mine there is a fire risk if you tow it fast for a long time so it must be to do with eddy currents induced somewhere. If you don't have a permanent magnet motor you wouldn't have that issue.
I press the button marked N…
Oh...you know this ... I know this....
But have you MET the general population?!
DrP
Just getting ready for my new EV which should arrive in the next month or so. Currently have a Sync EV charger which ive had for about 4 years along with a plug in hybrid/diesel C Class. Its worked well for me but going full electric next.
Preperation has included changing to British Gas EV tarrif (7.9p) between 12.00 & 5am. I have also had an app update on the charger which has suddenly added scheduled charging. Have tested it on my current car, setting it at 12.30-5am and i am able to plug in when i get home from work, plug it in and when i get to it the next morning its ready to roll. I can also set a maximum charge if i desire. I quite like the fact i dont have to rely on the car for charge settings for doing all this as Mercedes have a habit of dropping app functionality and making them chargeable. I will probably average about 10kw per day in useage so this shortish charging gap will suit me fine. Work has 50kw chargers they are allowing us to use for 22ppkw for when we need it.
Not that its relevant but we have also got the washing machine instructions out and discovered it can be put on a timer delay of 1hr blocks so setting it to go at 9pm with 4hr delay is working out well. Dishwasher is doing the same.
Plan to purchase a smart plug for the heated airer for the winter too.
Anything to save a few quid.
It saves quite a lot. I also added a timer to our immersion heater to use 7.5p/kWh electricity instead of gas. Of course gas is about 8p per kWh but at the temps needed to heat the water the boiler is only about 90% efficient because it can't condense; then there are significant losses in the pipework. Also makes the house cooler in summer without hot pipework.
Pressing N usually leaves invertors and motors "live". You'll still get eddy currents, depending on what car, you might have roll away and autobraking functions active as well. Can also have weird effects in an AWD if on a suspended tow.
Most manufacturers have tow modes either in progress or in volume already.
Has any switched to Octopus intelligent while using a 3 pin charger?
I am currently on Octopus agile but the rates have been really poor recently. I usually just plug car in when it's a home apart from 4pm to 7.30pm as rate are always above the price cap price then
My car is compatible while Octopus intelligent but is there a max amount of time it will let me charge at 7.5p for? If I am only going to get 6 hours I think I would be better staying on agile
You get 6 hours guaranteed. But usually end up getting longer once IO has decided when to charge. In my experience it’s rare not to get as much charge as you need in a night.
In fairness 6 hours per day = 150 miles or so per day so you’d need to be driving a lot for this not to be enough.
Thanks for the reply, sorry should of made it clearer than I am currently using a granny charger so require more than 6 hours charging most nights
They've been doing some promo video work and pictures of this in town the last couple of days. At a casual glance it looks very smart. Not the greatest of names though!
https://www.mgcyberster.co.uk/
Agile tariff for me when I get my EV.
I'll take the occasional 15pkwh and offset it against all the times it goes below 7.5pkwh and negative.
I'll be maxing out on cheap electric house heating as well this winter.
Above 7.5pkwh I'll consider using gas.
If I'm at home during the evening I might light the 🔥 🔥 .
This could be my cheapest winter yet apart from the EV cost. 🤔