Anyone got an EV charge point?

[RoyMac5]

What did you buy and how are you finding it to use? Thinking of getting an EV car, but need more than a Granny charger and want to make use of off-peak electricity.

[FindernRam]

I've got a Podpoint. Dead easy to programme and use. Neighbour has a different brand but he told me some time ago he has no problems.

Fitting takes a while as you need a high capacity cable from your fuse box to the point and it is pretty thick. Not a DIY job anyway as the point needs to be registered with the base for everything to work. I know to the penny how much I've spent charging.

[Stive Pesley]

I live in a terrace and there is a woman down the street with a big electric Audi SUV and she just trails a standard cable out of her window every night. Across the pavement. Dead easy 😂

[Wolfie20]

4 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

I live in a terrace and there is a woman down the street with a big electric Audi SUV and she just trails a standard cable out of her window every night. Across the pavement. Dead easy 😂

From a neighbour's supply?

[Stive Pesley]

2 minutes ago, Wolfie20 said:

From a neighbour's supply?

No, it's her own window. I'm sure I read that charging from your own domestic supply was slow and also a massive fire hazard, so I'm hoping that she doesn't cause intense global warming in my postcode 😬

[RoyMac5]

Think we might go for a Zappi tethered EVSE. I think the difficult thing is getting a reasonable priced quote for connection/registration, our CU will need another mini CU coming off it I think. Lots of the big boys are giving quotes for 'standard installation' whatever that is, but I doubt it's more than drilling a couple of holes to push the cable through! 

[Boycie]

They need to make them cheaper to buy, increase charger points away from home, and expand the capacity in the network.

Once they’ve stopped selling petrol and diesel cars they’ll tax the hell out of electric cars. How else will they get back the lost tax revenue from the duty on fuel?

[TigerTedd]

On 28/07/2023 at 14:59, RoyMac5 said:

What did you buy and how are you finding it to use? Thinking of getting an EV car, but need more than a Granny charger and want to make use of off-peak electricity.

I’ve got a pod point. To be honest there was no decision to make, it’s just what came free with the car. So it might depend on what EV you get and from which retailer.

I find it dead easy anyway. Although it’s only recently that they provided an upgrade to the app that allowed me to turn it on and off. Seems like such a simple thing, but before that it would only run on its schedule, and if I wanted to give it a quick boost outside the times I’d set, it was a massive faff. Now it’s dead easy. 

And im on octopus energy. They’ve got special off peak tarifa to charge it. It charges my house batteries off peak too. And they give you a card to access a wide network of chatting machines, which just add a discounted rate to your electricity bill. It’s a lot cheaper than normal. 

[Shipley Ram]

1 hour ago, Boycie said:

Once they’ve stopped selling petrol and diesel cars they’ll tax the hell out of electric cars. How else will they get back the lost tax revenue from the duty on fuel?

Road pricing. The ULEZ infracstructure will be repropgrammed for charging by mile. It will start low but escalate, uless you are loaded I'd start arranging you life to be livable car free as in 20 years only a minority will be able to afford cars.

[RoyMac5]

10 minutes ago, Shipley Ram said:

Road pricing. The ULEZ infracstructure will be repropgrammed for charging by mile. It will start low but escalate, uless you are loaded I'd start arranging you life to be livable car free as in 20 years only a minority will be able to afford cars.

If only a minority can afford cars in 20 years time we will be a third world country.

[therealhantsram]

48 minutes ago, Shipley Ram said:

Road pricing. The ULEZ infracstructure will be repropgrammed for charging by mile. It will start low but escalate, uless you are loaded I'd start arranging you life to be livable car free as in 20 years only a minority will be able to afford cars.

I fully expect there will be road pricing in due course, but it wont need any expensive ULEZ infrastructure. It will use the GPS in your car and telematics on your speed and fuel consumption then broadcast your info over the 5G network as you drive. We'll all need to have a "smart meter" type device fitted to our cars to enable it.

Edited July 29, 2023 by therealhantsram

[Gritstone Ram]

Pod Point was free for me. Paid for when I got the car. Had some problems trying to programme charges but I might be doing something wrong. Found it a lot cheaper than diesel although my full battery charge range has dropped a bit from a year ago.

[Wolfie20]

2 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

If only a minority can afford cars in 20 years time we will be a third world country.

Have you seen the state of our roads- we already are!

[TigerTedd]

2 hours ago, Gritstone Ram said:

Pod Point was free for me. Paid for when I got the car. Had some problems trying to programme charges but I might be doing something wrong. Found it a lot cheaper than diesel although my full battery charge range has dropped a bit from a year ago.

They literally just updated the app to make it easier. 

[TimRam]

12 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

If only a minority can afford cars in 20 years time we will be a third world country.

Might be less than that. The ads only show expensive electric suv vehicles. Are there any cheaper or is that it?

[RoyMac5]

22 minutes ago, TimRam said:

Might be less than that. The ads only show expensive electric suv vehicles. Are there any cheaper or is that it?

Yep. There's meant to be a new EV Dacia out soon. But you can easily get used with long battery warranty. There's the Kia Soul if you want function over form. Something called a Renault Zoe. 

We're looking at a used Hyundai Kona. Both Hyundai and Kai have long warranty's that carry over to the next owner, in Kia's case theirs is 7 years. 

[FindernRam]

Warning: When you set a night time schedule check what hours your provider uses. I'm on EDF and the only way I eventually found it was on the reverse side of my "paper" bill and I had been paying full rate for the first charge hour!

[RoyMac5]

1 hour ago, FindernRam said:

Warning: When you set a night time schedule check what hours your provider uses. I'm on EDF and the only way I eventually found it was on the reverse side of my "paper" bill and I had been paying full rate for the first charge hour!

Ooops. I've been considering how intelligent Intelligent Octopus is, but can't try it without a car! 😄

[ram59]

3 hours ago, TimRam said:

Might be less than that. The ads only show expensive electric suv vehicles. Are there any cheaper or is that it?

Like with anything in the car industry, prices will come down with time and increased numbers sold. Consider standard features on the most basic cars today that were only available to the rich in the past. My 1970's Vauxhall Viva didn't have power steering, air con, heated rear window, electric windscreen wash, even a radio, amongst some other things only available to the rich. As a youngster in the 70's, you could ever dream about being able to afford a car which would be considered basic today.

 

18 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

No, it's her own window. I'm sure I read that charging from your own domestic supply was slow and also a massive fire hazard, so I'm hoping that she doesn't cause intense global warming in my postcode 😬

Batteries are developing at a fantastic rate, doubling in range within 5 years. By 2030, I would expect cars with the lowest range will have a range of 400 or 500 miles with the more expensive cars probably being 1000 miles, and/or having different battery technology which will allow rapid charging which will take no longer than filling your car with petrol. My son has an EV and using his home 7.2kw charger overnight, can get over 300 miles of range, on a tariff costing a fraction of petrol costs.

Regarding safety with a domestic supply, I've been using one almost daily, since 2014 on three different Plug In Hybrids that I've owned, without any issues. I think that with many thousands of these vehicles being charged on domestic supplies over the last 10 years, if there had been any genuine safety problems then we would have heard about it by now.

[Rev]

On 29/07/2023 at 17:51, Boycie said:

They need to make them cheaper to buy, increase charger points away from home, and expand the capacity in the network.

Once they’ve stopped selling petrol and diesel cars they’ll tax the hell out of electric cars. How else will they get back the lost tax revenue from the duty on fuel?

They should pay more tax.

All those potholes caused by stupidly heavy EV's ruin the roads for everyone else.