EV general discussion

Tinders · 29 May 2025 at 11:57

lordrobs said:
Why wouldn't you use it? I have great conversations with my Astra.

"Hey Vauxhall, set the temperature to 21 degrees"
"........................... SORRY DIDN'T GET THAT"

"Hey Vauxhall, set the radio to Radio X"
"........................... SORRY DIDN'T GET THAT"

"Hey Vauxhall, navigate home"
"........................... SORRY DIDN'T GET THAT"

Fantastic bit of technology.

That was me showing off in my 1st company car that happened to have voice control aswell. It was shocking in the early Honda’s.

The current VAG system is pretty good. As good as Siri. Chat GPT is a pointless gimmick in a car though.

MOOGLEYS · 29 May 2025 at 11:58

My Corsa’s voice control works pretty well although I don’t use it as tbh I forget it’s there.

Chris344 · 29 May 2025 at 14:39

My octopus tariff (5p off peak) is about to expire - what's the best alternative at the moment please.

lordrobs · 29 May 2025 at 14:49

Chris344 said:
My octopus tariff (5p off peak) is about to expire - what's the best alternative at the moment please.

I honestly really rate Tomato. Had a couple of courtesy follow up phone calls to ensure I was happy with everything and I signed up to the beta test of the myWatts app which does a decent job of tracking my usage.

I joined Octopus pretty much on day one but I'm happy I made the jump.

EDIT - Scrap that, just spotted on their website that they aren't accepting new sign ups.

Jonnycoupe · 29 May 2025 at 14:52

I dont think Tomato ar currently taking on new customers?

ICDP said:
Yea

I like the fact the USB-C ports are powerful enormous gu to charge a Switch or Steamdeck. The ones in the I-Pace were very slow and weak in comparison. Who knew people would want to charge a mobile phone or other higher powered devices.

how fast are they? To be fair the same year IPACE has USB-C too.

b0rn2sk8 · 29 May 2025 at 14:56

Chris344 said:
My octopus tariff (5p off peak) is about to expire - what's the best alternative at the moment please.

Octopus Intelligent Go or Eon Next Drive depending on your needs.

Chris344 · 29 May 2025 at 15:18

b0rn2sk8 said:
Octopus Intelligent Go or Eon Next Drive depending on your needs.

Thank you, the off-peak 4 hour window has been great for us with two EV's.

Chris344 · 29 May 2025 at 15:18

lordrobs said:
I honestly really rate Tomato. Had a couple of courtesy follow up phone calls to ensure I was happy with everything and I signed up to the beta test of the myWatts app which does a decent job of tracking my usage.

I joined Octopus pretty much on day one but I'm happy I made the jump.

EDIT - Scrap that, just spotted on their website that they aren't accepting new sign ups.

Thanks anyway

b0rn2sk8 · 29 May 2025 at 15:24

Chris344 said:
Thank you, the off-peak 4 hour window has been great for us with two EV's.

It’s now 5 hours on Go and at least 6 on intelligent go.

Eon is 7 hours by default but you don’t get any additional slots like on Octopus intelligent go.

Slam · 29 May 2025 at 15:32

can you get the night time low rate electricity rate with Octopus energy if you just charge using a 3 pin socket slow charger?
on average I charge up about 20 kWh a week

Penfold101 · 29 May 2025 at 15:35

Slam said:
can you get the night time low rate electricity rate with Octopus energy if you just charge using a 3 pin socket slow charger?
on average I charge up about 20 kWh a week

Yes, the tariff is independant of what you actually use it for. You don’t even need a charger or EV to switch to them.

I usually try and put the tumble drier on delay till the cheap rate kicks in…

5 hour overnight on a 3 pin charger will give you just over 10kwh charge at 10 amps, so you should be fine!

ICDP · 29 May 2025 at 15:50

Jonnycoupe said:
I dont think Tomato ar currently taking on new customers?

how fast are they? To be fair the same year IPACE has USB-C too.

My I-Pace 2022 model has USB-C but they are very slow and low powered output. Plug in my son’s Switch or Steamdeck on a longer journey and both report the power source is not adequate. Even charging a typical mobile phone is painfully slow.

By contrast the Born charged my iPhone from 23% to 41% in less than 5 minutes. That would be unheard of in the I-Pace as they are only 5V output. The Cupra Born is 100w at 20V.

Haggisman · 29 May 2025 at 16:20

lordrobs said:
Why wouldn't you use it? I have great conversations with my Astra.

"Hey Vauxhall, set the temperature to 21 degrees"
"........................... SORRY DIDN'T GET THAT"

"Hey Vauxhall, set the radio to Radio X"
"........................... SORRY DIDN'T GET THAT"

"Hey Vauxhall, navigate home"
"........................... SORRY DIDN'T GET THAT"

Fantastic bit of technology.

Hah, this is similar to my "discussions" with Google via my Niro.

"Play <slightly obscure song> on Spotify"
"OK, playing utter drivel on Spotify"
"STOP! Play <slightly obscure song> by <artistname> on Spotify"
"OK, playing songs by <artist who doesn't sound anything like what I said> on Spotify"
"STOP! Play <slightly obscure song> by <artistname> (with as perfect pronunciation as I can manage) on Spotify"
"Sorry, I can't find <slightly obscure song> by <artistname> on Spotify, playing something completely different"
"**** sake, you managed it yesterday!"
* pull over *
* manually search for <slightly obscure song> by <artistname> on Spotify * - yup, still there
* hit play *

Slam · 29 May 2025 at 16:30

Slam said:
can you get the night time low rate electricity rate with Octopus energy if you just charge using a 3 pin socket slow charger?
on average I charge up about 20 kWh a week

thanks, good to know. I see the flip side of the lower night time rate is a higher day rate. so I need to calculate if overall it'll be worth it

Jonnycoupe · 29 May 2025 at 17:40

ICDP said:
My I-Pace 2022 model has USB-C but they are very slow and low powered output. Plug in my son’s Switch or Steamdeck on a longer journey and both report the power source is not adequate. Even charging a typical mobile phone is painfully slow.

By contrast the Born charged my iPhone from 23% to 41% in less than 5 minutes. That would be unheard of in the I-Pace as they are only 5V output. The Cupra Born is 100w at 20V.

I thought ipace was 45W. Mine with a decent cable is quick. 100 W is impressive.

ICDP · 29 May 2025 at 17:43

Jonnycoupe said:
I thought ipace was 45W. Mine with a decent cable is quick. 100 W is impressive.

Yes 45W max, but most hand held devices require 60W.

Jonnycoupe · 29 May 2025 at 18:07

A switch will charge at 18W so that’s a thirsty bit of kit.

Journey · 29 May 2025 at 19:20

ICDP said:
Yes 45W max, but most hand held devices require 60W.

Steam Deck is 45w, not many devices are 60-65w that aren't reasonable laptops with largish screens. Good to see proper spec'd USB-C PD on modern cars though, would be nice if more had the 230v 3-pin sockets in the boot/rear as standard as well.

TNA · 29 May 2025 at 21:56

Penfold101 said:
Yes, the tariff is independant of what you actually use it for. You don’t even need a charger or EV to switch to them.

I usually try and put the tumble drier on delay till the cheap rate kicks in…

5 hour overnight on a 3 pin charger will give you just over 10kwh charge at 10 amps, so you should be fine!

You don't need one of those smart 7kw chargers? You can just use a 3 pin socket to charge?

I guess you just need proof that you have an EV?

Penfold101 · 29 May 2025 at 22:28

TNA said:
You don't need one of those smart 7kw chargers? You can just use a 3 pin socket to charge?

I guess you just need proof that you have an EV?

Don’t need anything - you can switch to any tariff you like. Some will require connecting to the charger itself like Intelligent Octopus if you want to take full advantage of it, but as mine isn’t compatible I’m just on Octopus Go which gives me 5 hours of 7p per kWh each night. The charger is manually set to only operate during the cheap hours of the tariff.

From a three pin plug you can safely draw about 10 amps continuous without creating excessive heat at the plug, but the lower you can set it the better. At 10 amps and 240 volts, you’ll generate 2.4 KW in ideal conditions and thus over the 5 hours you’d get maybe 10kwh into the car, so roughly 30 miles of range for the average EV. This works out at a week to charge a 70 kWh battery…

So yes it CAN work, and you can save yourself a grand on the install if you don’t do that much mileage, but the wall chargers make things much more convenient.