EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
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Had my first road trip for a while last weekend. From Leeds to North Wales and back. Approx 400 miles in total. Pretty painless, a quick top up charge just past Chester while getting a coffee, then a Saturday morning charge at one of the only 120kw charging stations in the local rural NW Wales area, everything else was pretty much 22kw max, the only real pain felt was the cost of public charging, 80-86p/kwh when you're used to overnight home charging. All in all though was a good run out. Managed 3.3mi/kwh which is far better than the usual 2-2.3mi/kwh i usually get, motorway driving and using the drive assist most certainly helped as did using the efficient mode rather than usual sport! 
Its normal for most lease cars to be sold with damage, they charge the owner for it but accept it'll detract slightly from its value at auction due to the grading system and detailed photos of damage.
Dealers then try to pass this on to customers and hope they don't have eyes to see it.
Its just how the world works and evidence by the poster mentioning it..
However, this applies to all cars, every time I've been trawling through dealers finding cars in the last 3 years has been an exercise in finding the needle in the haystack looking for a car that isn't on a main dealer forecourt with multiple scratches/dents/wheels scraped or badly refurbed..
Soldato
- Joined
- 25 May 2008
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- Location
- North Wales
Had my first road trip for a while last weekend. From Leeds to North Wales and back. Approx 400 miles in total. Pretty painless, a quick top up charge just past Chester while getting a coffee, then a Saturday morning charge at one of the only 120kw charging stations in the local rural NW Wales area, everything else was pretty much 22kw max, the only real pain felt was the cost of public charging, 80-86p/kwh when you're used to overnight home charging. All in all though was a good run out. Managed 3.3mi/kwh which is far better than the usual 2-2.3mi/kwh i usually get, motorway driving and using the drive assist most certainly helped as did using the efficient mode rather than usual sport!
Yeah its getting better but still pretty few and far between for decent chargers up here in the sticks of North Wales!
The Tesla superchargers on Anglesey are open to all makes which is a massive improvement from the couple of council 50kw chargers we had dotted around the island before so it is getting better but very slowly!
Ive only had a few dealings with their chat via whatsapp but they have been very efficent. They even did a live charger check on my first charge to see if everything was
working optimally.
Ovo Charge Anytime just announced changes to how that tariff add on works from November 4th.
Currently - 7p per kWh, day or night as long as it's 'smart charging'
New Options:
Pay as you go - 14p per kWh for smart charging
Standard - £27.50 per month for 175kWh (works out at 15p if you use it all) + ~150kWh (£120) annual public charging credit
Premium - £37.50 per month for 250kWh (works out at 15p if you use it all) + ~150kWh (£120) annual public charging credit + some other rubbish
(If you go over your allowance on Standard or Premium, you revert to full rate charging, not PAYG rates - no rollover from month to month if you don't use it all)
So if you only home charge, the new plans are all crap and it's probably time to start thinking about a change of supplier.
If you'd use 175kWh/250kWh of home charging AND 150kWh of public charging, then it might actually work out reasonable value. (I'm assuming the public charging thing is a monthly allowance here but not 100% sure, as the home charging is described as 'around 700 miles a month' but the public bit is 'around 600 miles of driving' so it might only be a one off or yearly or something... in which case, they're all crap.)
Edit - as per @tom_e below, it is indeed an annual credit for public charging, so yeah, all those options are crap unless you have a particular need to charge during the day (night shift etc.)
Currently - 7p per kWh, day or night as long as it's 'smart charging'
New Options:
Pay as you go - 14p per kWh for smart charging
Standard - £27.50 per month for 175kWh (works out at 15p if you use it all) + ~150kWh (£120) annual public charging credit
Premium - £37.50 per month for 250kWh (works out at 15p if you use it all) + ~150kWh (£120) annual public charging credit + some other rubbish
(If you go over your allowance on Standard or Premium, you revert to full rate charging, not PAYG rates - no rollover from month to month if you don't use it all)
So if you only home charge, the new plans are all crap and it's probably time to start thinking about a change of supplier.
Edit - as per @tom_e below, it is indeed an annual credit for public charging, so yeah, all those options are crap unless you have a particular need to charge during the day (night shift etc.)
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Public charging is yearly. It's a terrible deal all around. We'd have to move to the top tier dual car option and would still not get enough kW a month.Ovo Charge Anytime just announced changes to how that tariff add on works from November 4th.
Currently - 7p per kWh, day or night as long as it's 'smart charging'
New Options:
Pay as you go - 14p per kWh for smart charging
Standard - £27.50 per month for 175kWh (works out at 15p if you use it all) + ~150kWh (£120) public charging credit
Premium - £37.50 per month for 250kWh (works out at 15p if you use it all) + ~150kWh (£120) public charging credit + some other rubbish
(If you go over your allowance on Standard or Premium, you revert to full rate charging, not PAYG rates - no rollover from month to month if you don't use it all)
So if you only home charge, the new plans are all crap and it's probably time to start thinking about a change of supplier.
If you'd use 175kWh/250kWh of home charging AND 150kWh of public charging, then it might actually work out reasonable value. (I'm assuming the public charging thing is a monthly allowance here but not 100% sure, as the home charging is described as 'around 700 miles a month' but the public bit is 'around 600 miles of driving' so it might only be a one off or yearly or something... in which case, they're all crap.)
Hopefully other suppliers don't follow.
Does make you wonder if they're just the first to make the step and we're also about to see a round of price increases from all the big players when it comes to EV tariffs.
On the face of it, there's now pretty much zero reason to choose Ovo for an EV now unless you absolutely need to charge during daytime hours, so they'll absolutely haemorrhage customers unless the others are all about to do something similar (and i'm sure they all know what each other are up to roughly).
I guess a lot of people charged during the day and it was no longer sustainable.
Let’s hope it doesn’t spread, Eon seem to be targeting Octopus customers with EV pricing up until recently. I’m not sure how they are placed in the market now though.
Let’s hope it doesn’t spread, Eon seem to be targeting Octopus customers with EV pricing up until recently. I’m not sure how they are placed in the market now though.
A couple hours until my octopus hypervolt installation is complete. Very easy process if I may say so.
The installer WhatsApped me a few days prior to confirm how I wanted the charger to be set up with the solar battery system too!
Sent me this pic as well just for confirmation:
The installer WhatsApped me a few days prior to confirm how I wanted the charger to be set up with the solar battery system too!
Sent me this pic as well just for confirmation:
My first time charging away from home, was so simple.
First was an MFG DC charger, then a connected kerb 7kw one then an MER 11kw charger.
I imagine back in the day when they first were installed it would be a minefield of apps and charging cards. But all three of the above were on Electroverse and it was easy!
Although just wondering does Electroverse app do live activities on iOS? I’ll have to have a look when I get time, but it would have been useful for a live activity on my watch showing the charging rate etc
First was an MFG DC charger, then a connected kerb 7kw one then an MER 11kw charger.
I imagine back in the day when they first were installed it would be a minefield of apps and charging cards. But all three of the above were on Electroverse and it was easy!
Although just wondering does Electroverse app do live activities on iOS? I’ll have to have a look when I get time, but it would have been useful for a live activity on my watch showing the charging rate etc
Hopefully but Octopus have already informed me of post October charges so fingers crossed.
Had my first online insult yesterday for owning a ev, called me a vegan eater so I sent back a picture of the lamb moussaka I was enjoying
Weird......the Ovo monthly plans released today work out more expensive than just staying on the PAYG option at 14p per kWh.
175 kwh is £27.50 per month - on PAYG it's £24.50
500 kwh is £79.50 per month - on PAYG it's £70 per month.
I've only just signed up to Charge Anytime in the last couple of weeks so I don't actually have any idea what my 'normal' and realistic monthly usage will be.
Guess I'll have a better idea in the next month or two. So I'm not choosing a plan just yet, will hang fire.
175 kwh is £27.50 per month - on PAYG it's £24.50
500 kwh is £79.50 per month - on PAYG it's £70 per month.
I've only just signed up to Charge Anytime in the last couple of weeks so I don't actually have any idea what my 'normal' and realistic monthly usage will be.
Guess I'll have a better idea in the next month or two. So I'm not choosing a plan just yet, will hang fire.
Honestly I can't see how the plans make sense unless you wanted to take out the random bundled insurance policies anyway.
If you use EXACTLY the allocated amount of energy, they're marginally more expensive per kWh than PAYG, if you use less energy then you've 'wasted' your allocation and it's effectively more expensive, if you use more energy then it's charged at full rate and it's more expensive again...
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Stick with the pioneers, not these fast follower gimmicks.