EV general discussion

With the Banbury Tesla hub open to non-tesla vehicles, I'm actually thinking of changing my work commute.
I drive from Derby to Slough and back once a week. I usually charge to 80% at a local Lidl 50kwh charger whilst I am down there, this is 65p per kw.
I may decide to go via Banbury and top up charge in both directions at 49p kw at the Tesla hub. That is the non subscriber price as well (off peak).
Even though the route is slightly longer, it will save me money in the long run, or at least until work get the chargers installed.
 
Oh hold on you can use tesla chargers with no teslas?

There's a tesla dealership two minutes down the road from my gym and midway between belfast and dublin has a super charger!
 
Journey said:
How many nights do you end up staying away a month/year? Curious since people like yourself collecting the real life knowledge of destination charging availability, e.g. your 4 in 100 comment, means if they are indeed full then clearly demand is there, roughly 920k from 35m are BEV's now, so 1 in 35, won't be long before we hit 1 in 25 which is 4 in 100 equivalent.
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It varies massively due to the nature of the job. Per month? Anywhere between 0 and 15, usually somewhere in the middle. Tonight's stop - 34 rooms, 1 EV charger... which is out of order. Tomorrow I've got a 9 mile drive to the customers site (where there is no charging available) then a 236 mile drive home so if I'd been reliant on that charger to start with max range tomorrow I'd be a bit stuffed.

On the flip side I'm not booking places because of their charging facilities, merely observing those where I happen to be staying.

Ultimately people in jobs like mine will probably be the last to swap to full EV... and that is absolutely fine because we are in a very small minority.

I'm really just an interested person looking in when it comes to EV's. Personally I'm quite excited about getting one eventually, at the moment though I'm at the will of my employer as to when that might be.
 
Wife is starting a new job in January and her company car will be a KIA EV6 they also want to fit a home charger as its not great where we live for charge points. Currently she has a 1.6 diesel so its going to be a bit of a learning curve for her :eek:
 
Thought the tesla opening up in france anyway wasn't ultruistic, even, financial, rather legislative -
if you want plaaning permission/licensing for new chargers anyone must be able to use them - so, just waiting for uk or ireland to turn the same screw.
 
Its pretty much whats happening with the V4 sites in the UK and indeed anywhere the DNO have assisted with grid connections, looks like all Exeter Gridserve are now hooked up too.
 
Used about 5% of the model 3LR battery to preheat which then charged at 253kW. Impressive. 10mins later when I got back it at 90. I guess rain cools battery well. Full battery used 62kWh

50k mile 70 plate
 
probably a silly question. if you are not in a rush and just need a splash whilst grabbing lunch, is it still worth preconditioning the car before pulling into services ? ie does it make charging more efficient so over all costs you less or is it just about pushing the max amount of energy in in the shortest time
 
bigmike20vt said:
probably a silly question. if you are not in a rush and just need a splash whilst grabbing lunch, is it still worth preconditioning the car before pulling into services ? ie does it make charging more efficient so over all costs you less or is it just about pushing the max amount of energy in in the shortest time
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it’s ultimately costing you more at the expense of time. The car said it would save half a minute on the charge so it’s time vs money thing I guess. I turned it off at the next one

Looking at charge curves you can see they are just going after a high peak number rather than area under the curve.
 
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As @Simon said, it is a time vs money thing really.

There can be some nuance depending on the car though. For example a Model 3/Y will always throw on the battery heater if the battery is not up to temperature when you plug it into any DC rapid charger. So if you are doing a significant charge for say 10% to 70%, it will have fully heated the battery anyway so you may as well just have pre-conditioned. Where as if you only need a few kwh's to get home then not pre-heating will save a bit of energy.

That said, when I know I'm going to be making a longer stop, occasionally I don't pre-heat so the charging takes a bit longer and I can avoid having to move the car before I'm done eating.
 
What’s a realistic range for a model Y LR in winter, driving on the motorway mainly, stated range is ~330. But I’m not sure how much that would drop in the colder months, I’m trying to see how much I would be out of pocket on a typical business trip, our company only pays the HMRC rate, which is 10p at the mo.
 
I'd say anything from as little as 220 miles (3 miles/kwh) on the worst of the worst winter days miles up to 290 miles (3.9 miles/kwh) on a nice summers day when driven up to posted speed limits. It really depends on your actual speed and how cold/windy it actually is. Last January, temperatures varied between 15C on a very mild day in London and -15C at the top of a mountain in Cumbria.

You'll be fine either way with cheap overnight home charging, where it gets tricky us if you end up using public chargers. Tesla can is typically 35-45p depending on the time of day, AC chargers vary from 35p right up to 60p and rapids are usually least 65p and some are 80p+. It's the non-tesla units that will hurt and you will not need to go much charging on a public charger on a trip to get above 10p/mile.
 
Ya you really need to do minor adjustments in your life for electric to make total and utter sense. It really isn't a bother but the straight face test often fails. I just plug my Pug in every day I get home, and never think about mileage/range/etc. For some people they seem to be majorly triggered by "refuelling their car everyday!!!11".
 
we are currently looking to replace our 2nd car after someone wrote it off

I want to get a plug in hybrid (the wife does not want us to have 2 pure electrics and it's mostly her car so it's out of my hands).

it's a real shame there is only really one small plug in hybrid with a decent range... the i3.

we discussed the likes of a plug in ionic or capture but with only a 30 mile range on electric it would need plugging in every night

normally not a problem but our house battery combined with intelligent octopus actually makes that a pita.

either we only plug it in after 11:30pm every night which would be a pain or i risk having my house battery flattened every time I plug the car in.
I may have to get an electricirian to see if they can change my charge point so it is unable to use the battery. I think this can be done with a CT clamp but not sure.

I can't believe if the boss does not like the i3 we may be looking at a Toyota "self charging" hybrid.....

I truly hate their crappy marketing but love the look of the C-hr

(if only it had a 60mile plug in range)
 
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