EV general discussion

[b0rn2sk8]

I wouldn’t bother with a granny charger unless you actually know you need one.

I use mine when out at campsites* and plug it into the outside socket on my caravan but that isn’t exactly a common uses case.

*paid extra in the network we use and much cheaper than public charging. Lots of places are still in the Stone Age and don’t allow it all, no amount of money will move them on that.

 

[Nabinium]

As @Diddums won't have home charging, he might find it more useful?

 

[Rilot]

My CPO Tesla came with a brand new granny charger in a pouch under the boot floor as well as a lead for connecting to public chargers that don't have a built in lead.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Yeh that’s a thing of the past for new cars.

The main reason being hardly anyone uses them.

Edit: granny chargers not type 2’s.

 

[iwrox]

Yeh that’s a thing of the past for new cars.

The main reason being hardly anyone uses them.

Edit: granny chargers not type 2’s.

Im surprised they still supply the Type2 cable for free to be honest, I know more people need it than the granny charger but I guess there is a subset of people never really use it (myself included)

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah, my BYD came with both too. I've been using the granny charger for a while now which has been handy.

Also had my first *stupid EV* moment.

Had a really long day yesterday and the battery was pretty low. However i knew i'd make it home with about 4% and whilst i knew that wasn't ideal, i couldn't be bothered to hang around at a charger. Because we're on solar and i didn't want to destroy my home batteries. I figured i'd wait until this morning to stick it on charge.

Plugged it in, but it's absolutely dead. Seems the 12v battery has gone flat without a trickle from the main battery keeping it going. I've got a jump pack, but no idea where the 12v battery is. Mine is a facelift Atto 3 EVO, and all guidance online is for the original atto 3 without the frunk.
I called BYD roadside assitance, thinking they'd send someone who knew the cars and maybe give it a kick start, but i've just got a generic recovery truck who's taken it to the dealer

 

[iwrox]

Yeah, my BYD came with both too. I've been using the granny charger for a while now which has been handy.

Also had my first *stupid EV* moment.

Had a really long day yesterday and the battery was pretty low. However i knew i'd make it home with about 4% and whilst i knew that wasn't ideal, i couldn't be bothered to hang around at a charger. Because we're on solar and i didn't want to destroy my home batteries. I figured i'd wait until this morning to stick it on charge.

Plugged it in, but it's absolutely dead. Seems the 12v battery has gone flat without a trickle from the main battery keeping it going. I've got a jump pack, but no idea where the 12v battery is. Mine is a facelift Atto 3 EVO, and all guidance online is for the original atto 3 without the frunk.
I called BYD roadside assitance, thinking they'd send someone who knew the cars and maybe give it a kick start, but i've just got a generic recovery truck who's taken it to the dealer

Problem is even if you could find it, its likely LFP and not sure you can charge that with an old school 12v lead acid charger?

Surprised it went dead with 4% still left in the main vehicle battery though, should have been plenty to keep it alive overnight.

Be interesting to hear what the garage have to say (and try to charge you for!)

 

[Penfold101]

Yeah, my BYD came with both too. I've been using the granny charger for a while now which has been handy.

Also had my first *stupid EV* moment.

Had a really long day yesterday and the battery was pretty low. However i knew i'd make it home with about 4% and whilst i knew that wasn't ideal, i couldn't be bothered to hang around at a charger. Because we're on solar and i didn't want to destroy my home batteries. I figured i'd wait until this morning to stick it on charge.

Plugged it in, but it's absolutely dead. Seems the 12v battery has gone flat without a trickle from the main battery keeping it going. I've got a jump pack, but no idea where the 12v battery is. Mine is a facelift Atto 3 EVO, and all guidance online is for the original atto 3 without the frunk.
I called BYD roadside assitance, thinking they'd send someone who knew the cars and maybe give it a kick start, but i've just got a generic recovery truck who's taken it to the dealer

What did you actually get home on in the end? There’s normally quite a buffer built in past the 0% mark to prevent this sort of thing

 

[Penfold101]

Yeh that’s a thing of the past for new cars.

The main reason being hardly anyone uses them. it saves the company money
Edit: granny chargers not type 2’s.

FTFY.

 

[Martynt74]

What did you actually get home on in the end? There’s normally quite a buffer built in past the 0% mark to prevent this sort of thing

Car showed 4% when i got outside the house, which is around 19km and i figured that at worst case it would've got me to the local fast charger at some point today! I've also never known the battery % to drop from one drive to the next, even if it's been a few days.

All i can think is whether i've done something stupid and not switched the car off when i got home, and it just sat there overnight switched on?

 

[kefkef]

All i can think is whether i've done something stupid and not switched the car off when i got home, and it just sat there overnight switched on?

Make sure it's fully charged for all those airport runs picking up the OcUK'ers for the house warming party!........

 

[lordrobs]

What did you actually get home on in the end? There’s normally quite a buffer built in past the 0% mark to prevent this sort of thing

Also, why would the 12V go flat overnight straight after being driven?

Forgetting to power it off or the car deciding it is going to do 'something' and then staying live is likely.

Someone from BCA told me that they have constant issues with dead 12V batteries because the cars are left in the holding sites with the keys in them. In the past that wouldn't have mattered but now the presence of the key tends to keep some models in an active state.

 

[Robbo]

Probably a stupid question, but for those of you who picked up a new Tesla, did it come fully charged?

Stay tuned for the next episode of "Diddums drip feeds stupid questions in the EV thread".

This is a mixed bag, assuming you're getting it from one of the big collection hubs. I got mine from Longbridge near Birmingham, about 100 miles away. Impressive place.

They're all plugged in when sat in the collection bays, and mine was on about 65%, I waited around a bit and had another coffee and left with it on about 85%. Wasn't an issue at all.

I have seen some people reporting they turned up and were given the car with sub 30%, which isn't ideal. There will likely be a Supercharger nearby, and if you moan at them they'll probably give you some free Supercharger miles too.

 

[jpaul]

Car showed 4% when i got outside the house, which is around 19km and i figured that at worst case it would've got me to the local fast charger at some point today! I've also never known the battery % to drop from one drive to the next, even if it's been a few days.

possibly this

Spoiler: details

My original 36Ah Leoch battery started failing recently. The most frustrating symptom was a massive parasitic drain on the main traction battery. Even with the car completely off and "sleeping," I was losing 5% to 6% of my main SOC (State of Charge) overnight. After some research, I realized the 12V battery was "leaking" voltage, causing the car's BMS to constantly wake up the DC-DC converter to top it off, which in turn siphoned energy from the main pack.

The Diagnosis:

Most of the technical discussions point to the fact that the Atto 3’s DC-DC converter only puts out about 13.8V - 13.9V. Standard flooded lead-acid batteries (like the OEM one) actually need about 14.4V+ to reach a full state of charge and prevent sulfation. The OEM battery is simply too small (36Ah) and struggles under this low-voltage charging profile, leading to premature failure.

even if you'd not seen main battery drops, at 4% it may have been unable to supply charge to the 12v overnight
so, sounds like it should be on BYD warranty.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Also, why would the 12V go flat overnight straight after being driven?

Most likely because the DC to DC trickle charger turned off due to the main traction battery being very low.


It’s highly unlikely the 12v is LFP (this is only an Tesla thing isn’t it?) and in any case it shouldn’t matter.

As soon as you stick a jump pack on it the car will come back to life. Plug it in and it would be fine.

 

[Martynt74]

Most likely because the DC to DC trickle charger turned off due to the main traction battery being very low.


It’s highly unlikely the 12v is LFP (this is only an Tesla thing isn’t it?) and in any case it shouldn’t matter.

As soon as you stick a jump pack on it the car will come back to life. Plug it in and it would be fine.

Yeah i assumed that would work, but google suggested a specific jump pack with a "boost" function and i'm not sure mine has that. Although the whole point is moot because i couldn't find the battery regardless!

Had much fun with the recovery truck guy because he needed to load from the front, but there was very little space to manouvre his truck to get in front of the car and it was too heavy (we're still on dirt rather than smooth tarmac) to push the car. He ended up using the ramp of his truck to keep nudging the sliding things he's fitted under each wheel since the EV locks everything with no charge. Luckily at least the steering worked!

 

[dannyjo22]

Car comes on Monday, home charger installed zappi 2. Don't have the manuals yet for the car but do you set the overnight charging time on the EDF app, the Zappi or on the car app? Same with battery preconditioning, is that on the Hyundai app or the Zappi?

 

[lordrobs]

Most likely because the DC to DC trickle charger turned off due to the main traction battery being very low.


It’s highly unlikely the 12v is LFP (this is only an Tesla thing isn’t it?) and in any case it shouldn’t matter.

As soon as you stick a jump pack on it the car will come back to life. Plug it in and it would be fine.

Seems odd as so many of the cars electronics rely on 12V to allow that to drop. If anything you'd think it would prioritise keeping the 12V operational.

I'm sure they will get to the bottom of it. I occasionally get into my car and it says that it has gone into power saver mode because the battery is critically low. I'm sure it is tied up with it trying to do a software update or getting it's knickers in a twist about something and the software just goes into a loop.

Things have changed since I were a lad and this would only happen if I was stupid enough to leave my lights on and even if I did I would get two decent attempts at a bump start rolling backwards down the drive

 

[iwrox]

Car comes on Monday, home charger installed zappi 2. Don't have the manuals yet for the car but do you set the overnight charging time on the EDF app, the Zappi or on the car app? Same with battery preconditioning, is that on the Hyundai app or the Zappi?

If you are using the EDF intelligent bolt on they deal with it all so dont set any manual schedules, if you are just going to utilise the 11pm-6am slot then you can set it wherever you like. You shouldnt need preconditioning for AC charging, unless you mean to get it all warm and toasty for those early morning starts.

Before I was on the intelligent version I set the schedule directly in our Hypervolt to prevent people using it outside of the cheap hours

 

[dannyjo22]

You shouldnt need preconditioning for AC charging, unless you mean to get it all warm and toasty for those early morning starts.

Before I was on the intelligent version I set the schedule directly in our Hypervolt to prevent people using it outside of the cheap hours

Thanks, yes that's what I meant getting it warm before I drive off. This zappi I have uses a number lock password to start charging so I don't think I have to set a schedule to stop people using it.