EV general discussion

.. so the government will stupidly offer (tax payers money) discounts on all new? Ev's for private customer, or, hopefully do something preferable for eu/uk manufactured ones;
even with that, they will only then match the prices the vehicles are sold to leasing companies
 
… the government haven’t done anything, way to jump to a conclusion. If you are happy to buy Chinese, we are pretty much at price parity already anyway.

Ironically, the government used to offer money off all new EVs but they took it away because it wasn’t needed anymore.

You can lease privately with zero tax incentives and still get a reasonable price. I’d even go as far as saying the tax incentives for businesses leases are inflating headline prices well above what you can get direct.

There are other ways in which you can make EVs ‘cheaper to buy’, it’s called putting punitive taxes on new ICE cars like Norway does.

In my few, we are getting towards that stage of the transition, there was a lot of carrot, it’s slowly being withdrawn, it’s then usually followed with a bit of stick that’s then ramped up over time.
 
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If you want to melt your wall plug, yes. I knock it down to 8 amps/1.8kw personally…
it's not often I use it (an ipace with 84kwh of usable storage is not really suitable for granny charging) but the half dozen or so times I have needed to do a full 10%-100% charge over a couple of days at my folks house, the plug etc on mine has not gotten above mildly warm. that runs at 2.4kw (10amps) iirc. - I haven't looked into it much but I don't think you can manually change it tho it may auto knock back if it gets too hot)

I admit it isn't ideal and if you have any issues with your wiring this will find it out..... but granny charging isn't inherently dangerous imo, you just have to know your house wiring is decent quality
 
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it's not often I use it (an ipace with 84kwh of usable storage is not really suitable for granny charging) but the half dozen or so times I have needed to do a full 10%-100% charge over a couple of days at my folks house, the plug etc on mine has not gotten above mildly warm. that runs at 2.4kw (10amps) iirc. - I haven't looked into it much but I don't think you can manually change it tho it may auto knock back if it gets too hot)

I admit it isn't ideal and if you have any issues with your wiring this will find it out..... but granny charging isn't inherently dangerous imo, you just have to know your house wiring is decent quality

Agreed - I’ve used it a lot over the last couple of years for various reasons and it’s very much a YMMV situation but I’ve always fallen on the side of caution, checking the plug by hand.

My polestar can control it from 6 amps to 32 amps on AC in 1 amp increments (remembering to select it back to 32 when using a wall charger is important - done that a few times…)

The EQC only has options for 32, 8 and 6 amps…
 
Standard 13 amp wall sockets are a little marginal for EV charging, they weren't really designed for passing 10 amps for hours on end. To address this EV rated (BS 1363-2 EV) wall sockets are available that can handle it. They don't cost much but you'll likely need to hire an electrician to wire it in. I got mine from here:- https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/components/products/ev-socket
 
I bought a decent outdoor socket (https://www.masterplug.com/uk/products/ev/charging-socket). Already had a socket directly on the ring just inside the garage door, less than 3 metres away. So I replaced that socket with decent heavy duty FCU (as there was another socket spur coming off it that I wanted to maintain), then wired the new outdoor socket to that with some 2.5mm twin and earth inside a duct.

Just for belt and braces, I also got hold of a cheap thermal camera and checked all the connections after the car had been charging for several hours. The wires and sockets show warm, but not alarmingly so...about 28-30 degrees, almost imperceptible to the touch.

Been like that for a couple of weeks now, charging every night, and had no issues. Nothing has tripped, and from empty it takes about 6.5 hours to fully charge the battery...and our cheap tariff window is 7 hours. So far, we're happy with that setup. May look at a proper wall charger at some point, but the only problem we've had with the 3 pin charger is what I mentioned earlier, that it doesn't have the oomph to keep the battery topped up when you remote start the HVAC. But it's not a deal breaker.

Actually quite proud of this setup as it's quite neat and I didn't electrocute myself so have a picture.

tyXRHZM.jpg


NX9r1I6.jpg


Originally, this FCU was a cheap plastic socket, but it was directly on the ring, which is good. There is another socket at the back of the garage which spurred off it (the wire going up out of frame).
So I replaced the old socket with this heavier duty switched FCU, connected the outdoor socket straight to it. Replaced the indoor socket, again with a heavy duty metal clad one and re-routed the spur for the rear socket to it, so both indoor ones are now a spur from the FCU. Also, the switch on the FCU will isolate both garage sockets and the external one, should we ever need to.

So what used to be:

[Socket on Ring]----[Socket]

...is now:

[FCU on ring]---[ExternalSocket]
|
|
[Socket]---[Socket]

ASCII wiring diagrams for the win.
 
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Nissan leaf, whos got one and whats your thoughts on it??

I thinking between this and a peugot 208 EV next year....

I know they are two quite different cars, but im thinking the bigger leaf might be better with having two dogs to take out and about.
I have a 2021 Nissan Leaf Tekna and love it. It's a deceptively large car really, loads of cabin space. I am 6'2" and with the drivers seat in my usual driving position I can easily sit in the back seat behind with quite a bit of extra legroom and loads of headroom. It's a really comfortable car and generally a nice place to be in. It has a proper dash with no tablet like screen that looks like a afterthought and gadgets galore, mine has the full Pro-Pilot system so it will even park itself if you want (something I haven't used yet), adaptive cruise is brilliant and it's a pleasant car to drive. In the winter when we had snow it was by far the easiest car I have ever driven in snow as it's so smooth annd predictable. It will do 0-60 in 6.9secs if you can get the power down and is brilliant for overtaking. I have a OHME Home Pro charger installed at home as well. I am currently averaging 4.36 miles per kw and as I am on Tomato's EV tariff which gives me 6 hours at 5p a unit the car is costing me 1p per mile, it's hard to argue against that!! The boot is quite large, massive compared to the Ford B-Max I had before it so plenty of room for your dogs. The range won't suit everyone at around 130-140 miles on a full charge in the summer and around 1 mile for every 1% in Winter (very cold up here in Winter). It suits us as most trips are local and around 37 miles round trip with a 125 mile round trip to Inverness/Aberdeen every now and then. I have used public charging twice now and have not had any difficulty in finding a CHADeMO charger which will give just over 50% charge in 27 minutes. My home charger is a type 2 which will charge most EV's and will easily charge the battery overnight in my 6 hour off peak. Mine is my first EV and I have had it almost a year now and don't regret switching to a EV one bit, I certainly won't be going back to a ICE powered car.
 
… the government haven’t done anything, way to jump to a conclusion. If you are happy to buy Chinese, we are pretty much at price parity already anyway.

Ironically, the government used to offer money off all new EVs but they took it away because it wasn’t needed anymore.
ergh it was in the news that they will make an announcement this week ? ... along with comments about charging station signage,

Don't you think we should do something to protect uk/eu markket against subsidized chinese one, like the eu have done, though
(but kier wants to announce a trad deal with china so trying not to queer the pitch)
 
ergh it was in the news that they will make an announcement this week ? ... along with comments about charging station signage,
They trialed ‘something’ in the news but you have absolutely no idea what it is.

You assumed it was giving money to EV purchases and labeled it stupid. How can you label something stupid when you have got absolutely no clue as to what it is.

It could be a massive nothing burger and given the government have no money, that’s what it’s likely to be. Either that or a stick on ICE car sales to raise a bit of cash.

Don't you think we should do something to protect uk/eu markket against subsidized chinese one, like the eu have done, though
(but kier wants to announce a trad deal with china so trying not to queer the pitch)

The U.K. doesn’t really have a ‘domestic’ car manufacturing industry to protect like the EU does with its many humongous brands and car groups based there.



Yes we do some smaller brands based here and do manufacturing for others. However only 2 in 10 cars are for the U.K. market. Only about 7% of the cars purchased here were made here.

It’s also a sector that’s on life support, volumes are half what they were in 2019 despite purchases recovering post COVID.

Brexit was the death blow for the UK as a manufacturing base for the EU market.

We already know the answer as far as stellantis are concerned.

The government could ban Chinese cars tomorrow and the U.K. car industry will likely continue to decline. That’s a very pessimistic view but the trend line is pretty clear at this point. I don’t really know why you’d prioritise the U.K. for car manufacturing for the European market.

Do you currently own a car which was made in the UK?
 
I bought a decent outdoor socket (https://www.masterplug.com/uk/products/ev/charging-socket). Already had a socket directly on the ring just inside the garage door, less than 3 metres away. So I replaced that socket with decent heavy duty FCU (as there was another socket spur coming off it that I wanted to maintain), then wired the new outdoor socket to that with some 2.5mm twin and earth inside a duct.

Just for belt and braces, I also got hold of a cheap thermal camera and checked all the connections after the car had been charging for several hours. The wires and sockets show warm, but not alarmingly so...about 28-30 degrees, almost imperceptible to the touch.

Been like that for a couple of weeks now, charging every night, and had no issues. Nothing has tripped, and from empty it takes about 6.5 hours to fully charge the battery...and our cheap tariff window is 7 hours. So far, we're happy with that setup. May look at a proper wall charger at some point, but the only problem we've had with the 3 pin charger is what I mentioned earlier, that it doesn't have the oomph to keep the battery topped up when you remote start the HVAC. But it's not a deal breaker.

Actually quite proud of this setup as it's quite neat and I didn't electrocute myself so have a picture.

tyXRHZM.jpg


NX9r1I6.jpg


Originally, this FCU was a cheap plastic socket, but it was directly on the ring, which is good. There is another socket at the back of the garage which spurred off it (the wire going up out of frame).
So I replaced the old socket with this heavier duty switched FCU, connected the outdoor socket straight to it. Replaced the indoor socket, again with a heavy duty metal clad one and re-routed the spur for the rear socket to it, so both indoor ones are now a spur from the FCU. Also, the switch on the FCU will isolate both garage sockets and the external one, should we ever need to.

So what used to be:

[Socket on Ring]----[Socket]

...is now:

[FCU on ring]---[ExternalSocket]
|
|
[Socket]---[Socket]

ASCII wiring diagrams for the win.
[/S


How does it only take 6.5 hours to fully charge the battery on a 3 pin (or do you have a hybrid)?
 
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How does it only take 6.5 hours to fully charge the battery on a 3 pin (or do you have a hybrid)?
Hybrid, so battery is only 17.8Kwh.
Thinking about it, think the charging time might be 6h50m from empty...either way, it fits nicely into the off peak tariff period.
 
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Finally picked up the 2nd 'city' EV for the family..
Got my tesla model Y, £26k with near 40k miles and 23 plate

IMG-20250710-WA0009.jpg


Bought some black wheel covers and a load of cleaning stuff for it too!
Love the colour!

I'd deffo get those wheel trims put away and get a set of black wheel trim covers..
Either original Tesla (Gemini Dark @ £40 each) , or we have the 'Blade' style covers @ £25 each (e.g. https://tessories.uk/all-products/?s=hubcap&post_type=product&filter_fitment=model-y-2022-2024)
They look OK on the car and the aftermarket ones also protect the rim.. my Mrs grazed the kerb and I bought another set of 4, so 3 spares left!
 
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