EV general discussion

jpaul said:
(old ground, but even for tesla too)
the, "will the charger be available ?", has to a be a concern, the journey I listed earlier with a 30&35 minute stop, going north on A1(M) friday evening, with return on sunday evening
with just one ccs and one chadmo, apparently, at shell station route selector gave https://www.zap-map.com/pts/sr7nv4c/
what are the odd's you have to wait, and, your recharge will not, then, take an hour ?
do you arrive assess how long it might take, and search a contingency if necessary
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Which specific journey are you referring to? Would there not be a Tesla Supercharger en-route or with just a slight detour? Your concerns are correct for most EVs, the fact there's only 1 or 2 compatible plugs that may be occupied or out of service is frustrating. You do sometimes need a 'plan B' and it is wise to try not to cut things too fine in terms of remaining range when you arrive at a charger. Just in case you need to go somewhere else instead. For Teslas there's nearly always a Supercharger en-route or with a slight detour. Many of them have 6+ points available and the in-car app makes it very clear how many stalls are available vs. occupied and will route you to them.
 
jpaul said:
(old ground, but even for tesla too)
the, "will the charger be available ?", has to a be a concern, the journey I listed earlier with a 30&35 minute stop, going north on A1(M) friday evening, with return on sunday evening
with just one ccs and one chadmo, apparently, at shell station route selector gave https://www.zap-map.com/pts/sr7nv4c/
what are the odd's you have to wait, and, your recharge will not, then, take an hour ?
do you arrive assess how long it might take, and search a contingency if necessary
Click to expand...

I can only speak from my experience of Model 3 for last 9 months or so.

Most apps (zapmap/plugshare/wattsup/polar/CYC etc) do a reasonable job of updating you on whether it's in use or not, broken etc. This does rely on people updating etc. If going a distance I would always consider alternatives, how far away etc but normally daily life is just get in and drive. I top up if I'm out and about for free so generally never let the car run down low.

The round trip of 380 - there was 2 lots of chargers at the destination (very remote place - Campbeltown) - so what happens if I get there and they are broken/not working/gettin used etc - I "could" have been screwed. However, when I got there and started charging, a bloke walking a dog said to me he walks past the charger every day, twice a day, and has barely ever seen anyone use it. I still think for now there is enough capacity in the network that you should be fine in most place. As a Tesla owner I am lucky that generally the model 3 can charge anywhere (Super chargers/CCS/DC/AC etc) - where as some cars are way more picky. 12-18 months down the line - I think issues like waiting/queuing could become a problem.

But so far - Zero range "anxiety" - charged where ever I want, without ever having to wait.
 
Bug One said:
Smallest battery, base model. I expect they've got an oversupply that they need to shift now the bigger batteries are coming out.
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Possibly - although the R110 (which I have) only became available a couple of months before I placed my order.

The AC charging only could potentially become an issue in a year or 2 for the odd outside of range journeys we do (at motorway speeds I get ~130 in winter, ~160 in summer), but for now I'm not too bothered
 
jpaul said:
do you arrive assess how long it might take, and search a contingency if necessary
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Pretty much this. Though Zap-Map does now tie in to a few of the charging networks to give real-time availability.

It's the thing that makes driving an ~80 mile range EV on long journeys so... "interesting". You want to be holding enough charge to make it to a "Plan B" location (maybe even a "Plan C"). So maybe 15-20 miles worth of charge? Not a big deal on a car that can do 150+ miles. But on a shorter range car, you find you're stopping as early as 50 miles after setting off.

I've found waiting a long time rare though. It's happened to me twice in 5 years. Once at a service station on the M1 (I forget which) on a bank holiday weekend. But that was a couple of Outlander PHEVs causing a hold-up (the chargers were free at the time, so PHEVs plugging in to a motorway rapid charger for 2 hours was common). And the other occasion was last year near Bicester at rush hour. One of two chargers was broken, causing a queue for the other.
 
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On running costs, my current stats are lol...

jCy9JdR.png


Granted it's largely been during lockdown so journeys have been more selective and electricity cheaper but still. I'm wondering if I can get into negative charge costs before lockdown is up... :cool:

Realistically all my other savings (VED and residents parking) have been offset by the increase in insurance, but that's only in comparison to my old/previous car; any newer car would likely be the same or a very similar premium.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
not on the GO tarriff. Agile costs so much in the day you have to be doing serious electric miles for it to make sense.
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I've been on Go for a few months and it's convenient to know the costs when charging within the 4 hour 5p/kwh window. However Agile has steadily reduced in cost overall to the point the 4pm - 7pm window reduced from near 35p to 20p and is also cheaper for the rest of the day.

Only thing that's stops me personally is that the Go tariff is still generally cheaper in the 4 hour window and I use very little electricity over the rest of the day compared to my EV charging. I can offset that charging at different times but that's just going to be tedious reviewing it daily as I don't have a "smart" charging system currently.

Octopus Agile/Go stats
https://www.energy-stats.uk/octopus-go-versus-agile/
 
We've found Agile to be a revelation. Due to our lifestyle and no children we actually use very little electricity between the peak 4-7pm times. We've not been on it for a full month yet but will be interesting to see how much we've saved.

I've consistently been able to charge my car at <5p/kWh so it's been cheaper than Go on that front as well.
 
maybe it is worth moving to agile during covid, but, if you use electricity 4-7pm, it was punitive

jpaul said:
ok thanks ... hadn't realised their app was a nice, it would tell me accurately 4-7pm slot, and daily, usage distribution
Covid, has definitely impacted pricing for them, I add 23jan2020 eastern, so that would have been 25p/Kwhr, 2x bulb,
which had put me off before ... I need to manually check the meter, 4-7pm, for a few days.

49800975531_711fa1abbf_c_d.jpg
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Russinating said:
We've found Agile to be a revelation.
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We are on GO, but have been waiting to move to Agile. I studied the usage patterns we have in the house and with no charging use it is circa 7.5-9kWh per day, and a normal constant load of around 300w throughout the day, with the odd small spike for the espresso machine or kettle/microwave. Dinner time isn't an issue for us as the majority of the time we'll be using the gas hob, or the outdoor gas BBQ/grill, so zero extra power usage in real terms.

The 1.5kWh (max) of power we use between the peak priced 17:00 - 20:00 is easily offset by the other 21 hours being cheaper, and the majority of high drain appliances being on early hours anyhow ready for when we get up in the morning.

If it doesn't work out in the end we can always go back, but over the summer period I can see the benefit being in our favour. :)
 
I've saved £40 in the two months I've been on Agile. And that's compared to Go, which is already pretty cheap. Compared to Bulb, my bill is half of what it would have been.

During that time, I've driven 25 miles. So the car barely factors in to those savings.
 
Being 1 of 2 that have continued to work normal hours in a large open office the fixed 5p/kwh window has saved me 10s if not hundreds in fuel. Now my 30 year old gas boiler has finally decided to retire I'm also looking at heating my water (gas for house heating) with electricity and the way the Agile tariff is going that will be on par with gas. Just need to invest in a smart water cylinder that can be linked to the tariff price and occasionally get paid to heat my water!
 
The OLEV Grant for installing home charge points. Is there any known timeframe on how long its active or if there are any changes upcoming? Not sure to get one installed now or wait as it wont get used for 6 to 12 months. Waiting would make more sense but not if the grant disappears.
 
Pottsey said:
The OLEV Grant for installing home charge points. Is there any known timeframe on how long its active or if there are any changes upcoming? Not sure to get one installed now or wait as it wont get used for 6 to 12 months. Waiting would make more sense but not if the grant disappears.
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Doubt anyone knows that really. Unlikely to go up though, put it that way. My only concern would be that the thing doesn't work when you turn it on 12 months later!
 
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