EV general discussion

w1lliam said:
Having a look at the Tesla, I remember why I was hesitant, the screen.

I like my dials and knobs.

It's the same with the Polestar.
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The other advantage is the same as using a smart phone or tablet. The screen UI and what goes where is configurable in software. If you have buttons, you are limited to what the buttons can do and what the labels are on them. I.e you end up with a Blackberry
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
You get used to it very quickly and it benefits from being automotive infotainment that actually works, is easy to use and because it’s not running on a a low end SOC from 2006, it’s very responsive unlike the laggy mess on most other marques.
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Yeah must be a benefit of not having Apple CarPlay or 3D surround cameras… likely to be headroom when you gear the hardware up for self driving when the sensor set isn’t close to ready ;)
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Were people getting free insurance before Tesla showed up?
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would you want to run a 2nd hand car, privately, without any sensible national dealership - spare parts that take ages to arrive,
and what do points mean are the implications on insurance premiums (don't forget what tesla had to do in the usa )
.. also one of the reasons polestar is tanking , just joining the dots.

trading off reduced home charging costs with a £700 yearly insurance premium , maybe, if I was an additional rate tax payer.
 
jpaul said:
would you want to run a 2nd hand car, privately, without any sensible national dealership - spare parts that take ages to arrive,
and what do points mean are the implications on insurance premiums (don't forget what tesla had to do in the usa )
.. also one of the reasons polestar is tanking , just joining the dots.

trading off reduced home charging costs with a £700 yearly insurance premium , maybe, if I was an additional rate tax payer.
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Eh? :confused:
 
Well it was fun this morning getting into the MG to find it had decided it didn't want to charge. No errors reported from either the car or the charger (HyperVolt) and my Model 3 charged fine the night before. Luckily it was still on 42% and can charge at work if I need to so not the end of the world.

Doing some digging it does appear to be a thing with random handshake issues but seemingly only impacting scheduled charging - from what I have read.

Its currently charging fine on our Pod Points at work, but I need to test it when I am back home to understand if it was a random one off (annoying but I can deal with that if it is the case) or something more problematic. I think the issue is specifically being triggered by no schedule set in the car but a schedule set by the charger* or a conflict between schedules set in car, app and the charger itself - I don't believe we have anything set in the car or the app but may have triggered something by accident.

*Done this way due to the daft way Tesla have setup their scheduled charging (either start or end but not both - yes I know the % limit can be set but I want the finesse of the end time).

I think I will (and need to) test:

- Normal charging with no schedule either side.
- Scheduled charging from the charger but nothing set in the car / app (will reset my schedule so I don't have to wait until 00:30 to see if it is not working).
- Scheduled charging in the car/app but nothing set on the charger - May need to switch between modes when I switch between cars being charged if this resolves any issue.
- Both schedules charging in the car and on the charger.

Note - On Octopus Go hence the requirement for scheduled charging.

Bit of a faff but I need to confirm what is happening.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Switch over to Octopus Intelligent, let them handle the Tesla and use schedules on the MG.

It’s also cheaper and you get more cheap slots.
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This....but with a bit of home assistant automation to turn on the MG when it detects the Tesla being turned on :D
 
Does Intelligent still guarantee the 6 (4 with Go) reduced rate overnight outside of EV charging?

It is something I have been looking at but not made the switch yet. We have shifted a lot of our use into the Go window so would want to retain this - I understand Intelligent will charge the car when the price is the cheapest but I am not sure how this interacts with the specific 6 hour window you would otherwise schedule in.

i.e if say the Tesla starts charging at say 8pm for an hour or so because prices are cheaper (thus you get the cheap rate) will the overnight period also be retained for everything else (plus the balance of charge on the Tesla up to the charge limit / end of "cheap" window)?

This is the bit I have always got confused over but its likely me just not interpreting the detail correctly.

Basically, how do I ensure the cars are only charged with the cheap rate elec (charging schedule set on the MG so that ones sorted) and maintain the cheap rate for everything else - easy on Go as its a fixed window so just manually schedule everything.

Maybe I am overthinking everything... Its payroll so my mind is like mush at the mo.. :o :)
 
oweneades said:
i.e if say the Tesla starts charging at say 8pm for an hour or so because prices are cheaper (thus you get the cheap rate) will the overnight period also be retained for everything else (plus the balance of charge on the Tesla up to the charge limit / end of "cheap" window)?
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Yes. 23:30-05:30 is always at the cheap rate regardless of other charge slots.
 
Funnily enough Octopus failed for me last night aswell, I switched over to intelligent a week ago, im only charging the 330e so no biggie if it fails. It had been fine so far, talked to the BMW just fine and all the charging sorted itself out in the middle of the night, but last night, the car threw up an error, luckily my 47yo bladder woke me up at 2am, so i managed to rescue it to a point :p
 
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oweneades said:
Does Intelligent still guarantee the 6 (4 with Go) reduced rate overnight outside of EV charging?

It is something I have been looking at but not made the switch yet. We have shifted a lot of our use into the Go window so would want to retain this - I understand Intelligent will charge the car when the price is the cheapest but I am not sure how this interacts with the specific 6 hour window you would otherwise schedule in.

i.e if say the Tesla starts charging at say 8pm for an hour or so because prices are cheaper (thus you get the cheap rate) will the overnight period also be retained for everything else (plus the balance of charge on the Tesla up to the charge limit / end of "cheap" window)?

This is the bit I have always got confused over but its likely me just not interpreting the detail correctly.

Basically, how do I ensure the cars are only charged with the cheap rate elec (charging schedule set on the MG so that ones sorted) and maintain the cheap rate for everything else - easy on Go as its a fixed window so just manually schedule everything.

Maybe I am overthinking everything... Its payroll so my mind is like mush at the mo.. :o :)
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Yes, On Intelligent you always get 23:30 to 05:30 at 7.5p kWh
Any other times/hours which are added is also at 7.5p kWh - for the whole house use too :)

When you plug the car in, Octopus creates a charge plan, based on your preference of battery SOC charge requirement for your set time of departure the next day.
The plan may give you extra time at the cheap rate, and it may also contain charge stop/start throughout the time period.

Either way - your car will be charged to your set battery %, at the time you set.
 
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Bug One said:
Yes. 23:30-05:30 is always at the cheap rate regardless of other charge slots.
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SDK^ said:
Yes, On Intelligent you always get 23:30 to 05:30 at 7.5p kWh
Anything other times/hours which are added is also at 7.5p kWh - for the whole house use too :)
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Thanks both, this is good to know and confirms the one main question I had.

Think I will move any other queries I have into the IO thread rather than fill this one. :)
 
oweneades said:
Does Intelligent still guarantee the 6 (4 with Go) reduced rate overnight outside of EV charging?

It is something I have been looking at but not made the switch yet. We have shifted a lot of our use into the Go window so would want to retain this - I understand Intelligent will charge the car when the price is the cheapest but I am not sure how this interacts with the specific 6 hour window you would otherwise schedule in.

i.e if say the Tesla starts charging at say 8pm for an hour or so because prices are cheaper (thus you get the cheap rate) will the overnight period also be retained for everything else (plus the balance of charge on the Tesla up to the charge limit / end of "cheap" window)?

This is the bit I have always got confused over but its likely me just not interpreting the detail correctly.

Basically, how do I ensure the cars are only charged with the cheap rate elec (charging schedule set on the MG so that ones sorted) and maintain the cheap rate for everything else - easy on Go as its a fixed window so just manually schedule everything.

Maybe I am overthinking everything... Its payroll so my mind is like mush at the mo.. :o :)
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You anre over thinking this, there are few downsides to Intelligent. :)

You always get the 6 hour window, plus any others if they decide to charge the car outside this window.

The downside are if you have home batteries, because you can get cheap slots outside the usual fixed time. You need to work out a way to stop the car rinsing the batteries outside the usual scheduled slots.

Sometimes people get the odd failure, personally I’ve never had it fail but you can mitigate this if you are using the Tesla integration which you will be. Basically just set a schedule in the car to start charging at 11.30 and the car will always start. IO will override the schedule as needed, if it fails, it will just charge at 11.30. You’ll get 6 hours and that’s enough to add 56% charge to a long range Tesla. Unless the car is below 24% when you plug it in, you’ll hit 80% before the 6 hours is up so there is little risk of using peak time power.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
The downside are if you have home batteries, because you can get cheap slots outside the usual fixed time. You need to work out a way to stop the car rinsing the batteries outside the usual scheduled slots.
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Yes - this :)
My PodPoint doesn't actually allow charging my car from my home storage battery. Which is helpful to save home battery energy, but not helpful to charge my car :p

So if Intelligent charge times are outside the normal window I manually set my home storage battery discharge to fit the charge plan.
 
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