EV general discussion

SDK^ said:
Yeah I agree.
They are probably trying to future proof it but will these chargers still be going when the majority have 350kW capable cars? Based on current charger reliability - probably not !
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Yes I completely get the logic of putting in 350kw / 800v units but from my understanding the main difference between the 150kw and the 350kw units is additional power modules which can be added after the fact within the existing unit.

The biggest issue is getting power to the site, so assuming my understanding is correct, a larger number of lower power could be updated later when more power is available.

That said, the Kenpower system looks excellent as it doesn’t rely on individual charger stacks and all the plugs share power from the central power stack. That means you can put more plugs on the same supply as not all will be pulling the maximum power all the time. If they are all pulling the max power, they load share but that’s rare unless you overdo the number of plugs.


Jonnycoupe said:
Yeah Kempower load sharing is much better - much like Telsa with the DC power cabinets ffeding a pair of stalls.

To be fair Rugby is the same number of Gridserve chargers - 12. Issue is its a honey pot now as the main hub to aim for. I dont know if the M6 Corley Instavolts (7 one direction 8 the other) are ever that busy as people hang to faster Rugby?
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Rugby is also cheaper, that’s probably the driving force.

Most of the cars I’ve seen at rugby are barley capable of 150, let alone 350.
 
indeed - 350kW is just a 800V space anyway - it will come.

Quite a good year should be on the cards, if the DNO pull their fingers out to get the connections sorted and the energy prices dont supress the investment.
 
Gridserve have some very ambitious rollout plans, if utilisation is high then they will eventually add more chargers. 12 on a single site is a good start. Often they have 350kW charger hardware but the grid connection might limit it to 150kW anyway for now.
 
Remember 800V is 350kW due the current limits. 400V cars will only get 175kW anyway.
Batteries at the forecourts Is the way Gridserve manage grid connection not bring a bottleneck, energy trade for Alecto’s revenue and allow lower kWh unit prices to the consumer. I really hope they realise their plan.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
I still stand by that 24x150kw would be more useful for more people though.

I’ve seen all 24 chargers at Rugby completely full which just goes to show that if you build it, they will come.
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do we know how much power they have for all 24 .. or can you turn up when it is populated and find you can only get 50kw;
even with local batteries, constraints of bays hookup, like a house ring main, could preclude 150kW ( if the car was able to take that. )
 
Rugby is a brand new service station built from scratch to have this installation.

The gridserve chargers that are there do not load share. The Tesla chargers are ‘only’ 250kw but that’s at 400v rather than 800v. Those chargers share 4 stalls per each 1mw power cabinet (3 in total).

Edit: for context, there is only 4 cars on the market that can currently utilise it and two of those don’t give much change from £100k.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Remember 800V is 350kW due the current limits. 400V cars will only get 175kW anyway.
Batteries at the forecourts Is the way Gridserve manage grid connection not bring a bottleneck, energy trade for Alecto’s revenue and allow lower kWh unit prices to the consumer. I really hope they realise their plan.
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Business model is to hedge energy costs through solar farms, it's a good plan to be fair
 
jpaul said:
do we know how much power they have for all 24 .. or can you turn up when it is populated and find you can only get 50kw;
even with local batteries, constraints of bays hookup, like a house ring main, could preclude 150kW ( if the car was able to take that. )
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Do “we” know? I’m guessing you don’t Socrates.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Do “we” know? I’m guessing you don’t Socrates.
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if you/we do the calculation
24 bays someone charges in each for 20mins and grabs say 50kwh, thats 3.6MW in an hour , and the local batteries have apparently 6MW , so all gone in 1:40
the local grid would need to have a good throughput to replenish them. - maybe the stations can publish how much energy is currently in their tanks.
 
Why aren't they using a decent sized 2 core and earth cable? Is that cable standard practice for some companies, or just something the sparky found in the bargain bin.
 
All I can think is that the person is incompetent or they had the wrong cables with them and just decided to bodge it despite every small town having a screwfix etc. that carries SWA.

In theory you could use a 2 core if you ran the earth to a separate earth rod but that isn’t what is happening here. That charger doesn’t need an earth rod either so it should just be wired in 3 core.

Even then the cable isn’t terminated correctly either, it’s a complete bodge.

I’d say it’s dangerous incompetence who ever did it should be deregistered and fined by the regulator immediately but that will never happen.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Oh wow! that image of twin core cable but with the shielding used as the earth path ! :eek:
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Why is it only E&T report this scare story! E&T is the IET's award-winning monthly magazine and associated website for professional engineers, Out of all the EV installations have been done this sounds like a money grab to me.
 
AORUS said:
Why is it only E&T report this scare story! E&T is the IET's award-winning monthly magazine and associated website for professional engineers, Out of all the EV installations have been done this sounds like a money grab to me.
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because it’s boring to the general public so it doesn’t tick the right boxes to end up on the national news, it’s really that simple.
 
Ok thanks:) All I could find out was The magazine was launched in April 2008 as a result of the merger between the Institution of Electrical Engineers and Institution of Incorporated Engineers the on 31 March 2006.
 
AORUS said:
Ok thanks:) All I could find out was The magazine was launched in April 2008 as a result of the merger between the Institution of Electrical Engineers and Institution of Incorporated Engineers the on 31 March 2006.
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You do know that the IET along with the BSI define the national standards for electrical installations hence they have an interest in non conformance, it’s nothing to do with a money grab
 
Jonnycoupe said:
New cars never make sense financially.
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Indeed but surely the comparison on both types of new car it’s hard to make a case financially for the EV. As I said before I want and try to justify the purchase to myself comparing like cars and I just cannot see the saving. Apologies as you stated this has been gone over before, but I’m new to the thread. Even with my 16k miles per year and current fuel prices I’m still better off with petrol.

I mean I’m amazed the people buying them and saying they do <3 mile trips. What’s the point?

I work with a guy who has an EV6. It’s lovely but it cost him nearly £50k and he does 12 miles a day. Yet he never shuts up about how much money he’s saving on a car that’s costs £550 a month on pcp.

Bug One said:
I've saved a shed load over the last 6 years driving an EV. But, you're right, times are changing and a lovely new 40k EV isn't going to save you any money. The same way a £100k Model S (with 'free fuel') hasn't saved anyone any money.

If you consider plugging a car in when you get home to be too much of an inconvenience, an electric car is really not to you.
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Can you educate me how you have saved money? What age car etc. I’m still tempted to buy the Kona as I liked the drive but I know I’m going to be spending more than buying the top spec petrol version over my years of ownership.
 
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