Electric car charging – is it supposed to be this difficult?

If you want to slow charge, in my experience

Pembrokeshire is ideal destination charging territory though, plugged into a 22kw charger (pulling 11) for a couple of hours whilst you go to the beach gives a sensible top up whilst you’re there. And there are regular fast chargers all the way from Swansea to st clears.

Is parking free while you are charging usually or do you pay extra for that.

I’ll be on holiday in Cornwall in a few weeks, no plans to change my car yet but looking into it now and trying to work out how that would work. Assuming a 250-odd mile car like a Niro – I’d deplete the charge on the way down to Penzance from Surrey (260 miles) so would need to do a decent stop somewhere on the way which wouldn’t be any hardship, it’s a 5 hour schlep so way too much for my bladder. So assume I’d arrive with maybe 100 miles left on the range

We’re staying at an airbnb with no parking, instead have a permit for space in a town centre CP but no chargers there.

So I’d have to find another CP with a charger. Can you just park overnight and leave it plugged in, I understand the apps control the charging itself. Is it safe to just leave plugged in, what stops someone nicking your cable (does it lock to the car when the car’s locked for example?)

rest of the time would be visiting places (attractions, towns, etc.) so I assume I’d be able to keep topping up without stressing too much and then overnight as needed plus a decent charge for the journey home.

The cables lock when charging. As a rule of thumb (but you need to check as it does differ) fast chargers (50kw+) limit you to 1hr, 22kw to 4hrs and 7kw to 12 hrs before excess fees hit. Parking charges seem mixed as some charge others don’t so you need to check. I am new to public charging on this holiday too but have found most places I am going have chargers about so easy to top up most days needed. I have also gone to a nearby fast charger a couple of times if we were planning a long trip the next day and wanted 100%. I was worried about charging/range etc but it really hasn’t been an issue.
The only place I couldn’t really charge easily was St Andrews. We were going to be a few hours in town but all the 22kw chargers seemed to be on university sites (it wasn’t clear if public could access them too) and the only other charger I could find was a 50kw but limited me to 1hr and I didn’t want to have to go back to move the car so never bothered charging in the town as I had enough charge for the return trip anyway.

Anywhere I’ve been, you have to pay for parking as normal. One good thing though, in multi storeys EV spaces are almost always on the floor you go in and never very busy. Usually a bit larger space as well for fitting cables around. Much better than faffing about trying to find a space.
Zap Map is good for charging costs and conditions. Very easy to find out how long you are allowed to stay. As others have said, the faster the charger, the shorter the stay time.

My total household power cost is £18 a week for a family of 4.

In the UK?

If so, do you use pretty much zero electricity or have you a huge solar farm connected up?

If so, do you use pretty much zero electricity or have you a huge solar farm connected up?

We paid £600 for gas and electricity last year including running the car, so probably less than £5/month for electricity for 3 of us. That’s with 4.2 kw of solar panels and 6.4kwh battery system and doing ~8K miles year. Last summer was on Octopus Flux, this year I’ve been on intelligent go, not sure there is a massive difference between them but I think intelligent go is slightly better value if pushed.

@intheborders we live in the UK, North Wales. On IO. Here’s the costs over the last month:-
15 July-21 July, 11.24 elec 1.32 gas
22 July-28 July – 17.03 elec 1.64 gas
29 July-4 Aug – 17.44 elec 1.80 gas
5 Aug – 11 Aug – 15.69 elec 1.20 gas.

No solar power connected. Two adults and two teenagers. We are not attempting to be thrifty either, thats just general usuage. Looking at the colder weather the electricty usage in April was £74 and gas £11.24, I haven’t got any earlier readings – but I would average that we are paying about £80 a month on average throughout the year for both gas and elec.
I think the only thing we do to save money is use the timer on the dish washer and washing machine. I commute 70 miles a day, not quite 5 days a week every week. The car is topped up everynight. I also do the odd out of cycle top up, for example, when we come home after a long trip and need the car charging again for a few hours later.

4.6kW of solar, 10.6kWh of battery storage, using Intelligent Octopus. Heating is by oil but that will change this year. 7,000 miles of electricity go into the car each year at 7p/kWh (in fact all the electricity is at this rate as that’s when I charge the batteries).

My direct debit is at the minimum of £10/month and even with the outrageous standing charges I get a £500 refund twice a year. Could make a further £1000/year by force-discharging the batteries but not sure it’s worth the wear on the system.

Zap Map is good for charging costs and conditions. Very easy to find out how long you are allowed to stay. As others have said, the faster the charger, the shorter the stay time.

Sure, but in my holiday example – and accepting i’m on holiday once or maybe twice a year so not a ‘well that’s not for me then’ decision point.

I have to park the car somewhere overnight.

It’d be convenient and cheaper to charge the car overnight.

I could put it in a charging bay for an hour but then it’s more expensive when I don’t need the fast speed. OTOH, then it’s done and move back to my free space as part of the rental.

I could dump it in a 22kW bay in a car park for say 4 hours and get the same charge but then I have to go back 4 hours later and move it (and can’t then have a couple of beers with my dinner – I am on holiday after all)

Or I could put it in a 7kw bay and leave it overnight, but even then would probably overstay – park and charge at say 7 ish coming back from somewhere, who wants to be up at six on your holiday to walk to a car park to move the car?

Not saying I wouldn’t do it – just trying to understand the logistics of EV ownership in this sort of case?

(I guess the reality would be doing destination top ups all through the day where I can so a short fast charge at the end of every day leaves us back at full, and that’s the price of EV ownership for the 50 weeks a year of plugging it in on the house charger)

rest of the time would be visiting places (attractions, towns, etc.) so I assume I’d be able to keep topping up without stressing too much and then overnight as needed plus a decent charge for the journey home.

For me, so far, destination chargers haven’t been all that useful.  So I would probably fill up at a rapid, do all your local running about on that charge and then fill up at a rapid again before you go home.  Several slow chargers say things like max stay 4hrs which is no good for an overnight stop.

We’re staying at an airbnb with no parking

Being relatively new to EV use, I wouldn’t start from there :)

This year, EV charging has been an equal criteria for selection alongside location, flat details and cost for our holiday accommodation. We have made slight compromises because of it but now we’re here, it is relaxing to know I’ve got a 100% in the tank before we head out today (If the teens ever get their act together….).

The granny charger has so far managed to keep the car topped up since arriving Saturday evening.

Next week we’ll take the stabilisers off as we’re somewhere else without a charger, but half a mile from the nearest Supercharger.

Quick update on the Dragon charging experience in W Wales FYI.

2 initial failed charges was my worst run since owning an EV (typically with the anti-EV crowing BiL around) and just starting to get twitchy about the return journey when I realised it was user error….

You need to pre-load the Dragon charging app with credit. Never had to do this with any other apps and after sorting it I had two successful charges at two locations. Having said that needed to re-credit the app and restart the last charge as it had used the initial credit, which was annoying.

So I’ll hold my hand up to user error but why the hell do you have to pre-credit them….just link it to a credit card and charge each session like everyone else!

FlaperonFull Member
4.6kW of solar, 10.6kWh of battery storage, using Intelligent Octopus. Heating is by oil but that will change this year. 7,000 miles of electricity go into the car each year at 7p/kWh (in fact all the electricity is at this rate as that’s when I charge the batteries).

My direct debit is at the minimum of £10/month and even with the outrageous standing charges I get a £500 refund twice a year. Could make a further £1000/year by force-discharging the batteries but not sure it’s worth the wear on the system.

How does that work/add up?  You’d be importing energy (6000kWh/y?) at 7.5p/kWh, so £450/y and exporting a max of say 3500-4000kWh, most of it at what, 14p/kWh?  So £560/y by the time you add the standing charge at 60p/day, that’s a total cost of £670 with a max rebate of £560. So you min DD covers the delta.  How’re you netting £40/m profit?

You need to pre-load the Dragon charging app with credit.

Really? I don’t recall having to do that.. but I could have forgotten…

10.6kWh of battery storage

That’s about 3 quids worth. How much did the battery cost ?

That’s about 3 quids worth.

Closer to £2 atm.

How’re you netting £40/m profit?

FIT payments?

If so I guess the inverter has been changed to allow the inclusion of batteries – or is that not required?

If it has, then slapped wrists, as I think you shouldn’t be getting the FIT payments any more!

Actually under £1 even with the losses.  It’ll be 7.5p/kWh during the off-peak window, so around 85p.

but why the hell do you have to pre-credit them?

Because they make money out of it!

Actually under £1 even with the losses.  It’ll be 7.5p/kWh during the off-peak window, so around 85p.

True, but the calculation I had in mind was one whereby you fill your batteries at 7.5p, or free using solar, and use it at a time when you’d otherwise be paying 25p(ish). As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I have never been able to make the sums work for me given the huge cost of a battery, but maybe I’m missing something. (We have an old FIT contract that I’m not going to mess with).

Batteries have plummeted in price in the past year.  The same batteries which were costing £5.5k two years ago are now available for £3k.  That’s a 13kWh pack.

but why the hell do you have to pre-credit them?

Because they make money out of it!

I’ve recently topped up my pod point so it has £5 credit in the account. The app was suggesting that it wouldn’t start a fast DC charging session unless it had a minimum of £5 in it. AC charging didn’t need a minimum account credit, I think?

All just incase I visit a Tesco carpark far away and charge the car whilst buying food.

I used a supermarket one once just to try it out, but I have never since. I don’t spend 3hrs shopping :)

NC500 route for my distant podpoint/Tesco options just incase my CPS options are limited/broken/no internet/card not arrived.

That said there are 3 osprey chargers at JoG which will probably be my chosen fuel up in the evening when they’re is a 20% discount using the electroverse app/card

Just had the misfortune of using E.on Drive. Instructions on the charger say you must plug in first but if you do it marks the charger in use. Phone support useless.

What you actually need to do is select the charger in the app, use the hidden swipe and then plug in.

Why can’t all chargers be as easy as Tesla?