EV general discussion

In fairness I have seen few electric Pumas in my area over the last few weeks so it’s working.

I don’t see many Mach-e’s, Explorer’s or Capri’s out on the roads in my area at all.

There also seems to have been a massive explosion of Corsa e’s in my in my area as well.
 
Kenai said:
You can also factor in the fines they'd theoretically get (per vehicle) for selling too many ICE cars compared to EV under the ZEV mandate - they may well be happy to absorb some loss on these to help on that front.

You also have the simple "we want to get the car out there and look popular" marketing approach that leads to lots of deals being available.
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On top of that manufacturers are basically big finance houses at this point. As long as they are not losing much money on these upfront, this gives them vehicles in the approved used network in 2 years time, where they will make a ton selling people finance at 13% APR as well.
 
For anyone starting to get into EVs is the standard homeplug enough for nightly charging? We currently have two diesel cars and looking into replacing the oldest. Looking around it would cost me around £1k to get a wall charger installed.

Should one get a wall charger first before buying into EVs?
 
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kmax86 said:
For anyone starting to get into EVs is the standard homeplug enough for nightly charging? We currently have two diesel cars and looking into replacing the oldest. Looking around it would cost me around £1k to get a wall charger installed.

Should one get a wall charger first before buying into EVs?
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Yes, standard home plug charging rate is dreadfully slow and not worth bothering to plug in unless you're doing it every single day or not driving every day.
 
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kmax86 said:
For anyone starting to get into EVs is the standard homeplug enough for nightly charging? We currently have two diesel cars and looking into replacing the oldest. Looking around it would cost me around £1k to get a wall charger installed.

Should one get a wall charger first before buying into EVs?
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More usage details needed, along with what sort of EV you’re looking at - some new and used programs include it with the purchase.
 
kmax86 said:
For anyone starting to get into EVs is the standard homeplug enough for nightly charging? We currently have two diesel cars and looking into replacing the oldest. Looking around it would cost me around £1k to get a wall charger installed.

Should one get a wall charger first before buying into EVs?
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There are many considerations.

  • Some cars, even used will have a home charger including in the purchase.
  • Using a 3-pin depends on many factors, quality of your home electrics being the primary safety one.
  • Are you doing lots of miles per day in the car you are replacing?
  • Do you have access to a 3-pin socket easily with out an extension?
 
My usage is mostly city and about 30mile return trip for work. Also do quite a lot of short trips. Which made me think of an EV is a good candidate.
I have a driveway but it is located behind the house so will definitely require using an extension.

The EV Im looking at is the Puma after seeing the recent grants/deals going around but really open for ideas. Thinking of a lease as I am not sure about EVs.
The free wallcharger with Ford Powerpromise does not apply in NI unfortunately so I will have to pay for it.

Current cars is an 2007 Passat and 2010 civic both diesel. Planning on keeping the Civic as the Passat have issues with the engine.

Thanks all for the info. Really useful.
 
Personally I would recomend a 'proper' charger unless you are confident in what you are doing in terms of safety precatuions on using a granny lead long term, partiucalrly off an extention lead.

How close to the house is the parking space? You can get chargers with 10m cables from quite a few brands these days.
 
kmax86 said:
The EV Im looking at is the Puma after seeing the recent grants/deals going around but really open for ideas. Thinking of a lease as I am not sure about EVs.
The free wallcharger with Ford Powerpromise does not apply in NI unfortunately so I will have to pay for it.
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Ford are offering a charger with the higher priced lease on the Premium model £189 mainland UK, for 1+23 5k miles PA, 8p excess mileage charge. Saving that getting the £139 deal and paying for a charger makes way more sense if you don't want the higher spec'd car.
 
kmax86 said:
Should one get a wall charger first before buying into EVs?
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I'm currently using a wall plug whilst waiting for my charger installation. Using eon next drive = 7h off peak charging (technically set as 6.5h on my Tesla just to make doubly sure I don't charge at the peak rate)

10A x 240v = 2.4kw/h
So that is 15.6kw per nightly charge
At 4 miles/kWh = ~60 miles range

So for simplicity's sake, say approx 9-10 miles per hour of charging via a wall plug in summer.
In winter it'll be 6-7 miles/h
 
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Journey said:
Ford are offering a charger with the higher priced lease on the Premium model £189 mainland UK, for 1+23 5k miles PA, 8p excess mileage charge. Saving that getting the £139 deal and paying for a charger makes way more sense if you don't want the higher spec'd car.
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This deal you shared is not available in NI I think but I will use it to see what the local dealers can offer. The closet available that I can see is £201.

b0rn2sk8 said:
Personally I would recomend a 'proper' charger unless you are confident in what you are doing in terms of safety precatuions on using a granny lead long term, partiucalrly off an extention lead.

How close to the house is the parking space? You can get chargers with 10m cables from quite a few brands these days.
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Here is a paint picture of layout. The distance from the power/meter box will require a non-standard install I think. Im still waiting for quotations from installers but Im already expecting it to exceed 1k easily
 
kmax86 said:
This deal you shared is not available in NI I think but I will use it to see what the local dealers can offer. The closet available that I can see is £201.



Here is a paint picture of layout. The distance from the power/meter box will require a non-standard install I think. Im still waiting for quotations from installers but Im already expecting it to exceed 1k easily
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Look doable if you select a charger with a 10m cable, I really would go any shorter.

5-10m from meter box should be a standard install.
 
No Octopus Energy in NI. We do have suppliers that have EV tarriffs.
Im hoping that the installer will be able to place the charger inbetween garden/driveway.
Driveway can fit 2 cars but in a single line. EV car in the front to get out easily. That will be another couple of meters from charger to car.

It is looking like getting a charger first is the ideal setup the more I read into EVs. Otherwise the EV experience will be not so great with relying on 3pin charge or public charger.
 
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kmax86 said:
That will be another couple of meters from charger to car.
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Chargers will be untethered or come with a 5/7.5/10m cable so nothing to worry about
getting the cable to the car.


kmax86 said:
It is looking like getting a charger first is the ideal setup the more I read into EVs. Otherwise the EV experience will be not so great with relying on 3pin charge or public charger.
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Honestly it's not a biggie. I've used a granny charger for the last 3 weeks or so with no issues.

My granny charger just hangs out of the window straight to my car.
I do about 25miles/day on days I go to work, so my use case is similar to yours.

I expect the only difference for you, is that you will have an extremely long extension run past the garden (weather permitting) which might negatively affect your charging using a granny charger.
 
Please don't just plug a 10A charger into an extension lead. See cuke2u's melted plug for justification as to why not. They have a thermistor built into them and will throttle the charging if the plug gets too hot. If you use an extension lead the plug on that could be in meltdown and the charger is none the wiser.

If you are going to do it anyway, make sure you replace the socket, preferably with an EV rated one and use a good quality extension lead.
 
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I thought about buying a granny charger to hold me over until get our Hypervolt installed and as we have a brand new house, I would've thought the electrics would've held up. But it would mean running a cable through our window and I'm already on the verge of thinking the heating needs to go on so having a window open feels like a bad idea :o
 
Junglist said:
I thought about buying a granny charger to hold me over until get our Hypervolt installed and as we have a brand new house, I would've thought the electrics would've held up. But it would mean running a cable through our window and I'm already on the verge of thinking the heating needs to go on so having a window open feels like a bad idea :o
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Turn the heating on in the car and feed a hose back through the window!
 
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