EV general discussion

John J Sheridan said:
Does anyone here drive either a Citroen e-C3 or the Fiat 600e - just looking for a first electric car for the Mrs.
Click to expand...

Can't speak from an owner perspective or compare against the Fiat but my uncle is part of a group who collectively loan a fleet for driver instruction/training and related purposes and they rate the Citroen both the regular C3 and e-C3 as being decent for reliability - some other brands do not stand up to the trashing they get - some brands like Kia have been catastrophically bad when it comes to the same function(s) being used repetitively i.e. more regularly than average use in normal driving.
 
Last edited:
Looks like we'll be taking our car with us over to the UK for Christmas. What's a good app (or whatever) to find chargers in England? Do they mostly need an app to pay or can you just pay by card?
 
Mr Jack said:
Looks like we'll be taking our car with us over to the UK for Christmas. What's a good app (or whatever) to find chargers in England? Do they mostly need an app to pay or can you just pay by card?
Click to expand...
Zapmap seems to be one most people recommend. I'll leave someone else to comment on the payment methods as I've not used public charging enough to say what's generally more common.
 
DC charging = contactless pay ment but highest price.

AC charging = via an app for provider it is

It’s likely you can use a German roaming app that cover a bunch of providers in the UK. Some of them are international like Charge point etc.

A lot of the same networks also operate here like Ionity, Tesla, Shell, BP (Aral Pulse = BP Pulse here) so you can just use your German app to start those and take advantage of any exiting subscriptions/discounted pricing you have.

Public charging costs here are £lol if you don’t have an Ionity or Tesla subscription. Tesla isn’t too bad off subscription but the rest are £lol. That includes AC which is often more expensive than DC charging at Tesla.
 
Last edited:
But on a one-off holiday I wouldn't stress about it and just use the most convenient charger tbh

It'll be a tiny proportion of your overall christmas and christmas break costs!
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
DC charging = contactless pay ment but highest price.

AC charging = via an app for provider it is

It’s likely you can use a German roaming app that cover a bunch of providers in the UK. Some of them are international like Charge point etc.

A lot of the same networks also operate here like Ionity, Tesla, Shell, BP (Aral Pulse = BP Pulse here) so you can just use your German app to start those and take advantage of any exiting subscriptions/discounted pricing you have.

Public charging costs here are £lol if you don’t have an Ionity or Tesla subscription. Tesla isn’t too bad off subscription but the rest are £lol. That includes AC which is often more expensive than DC charging at Tesla.
Click to expand...
Public charging also include 20%VAT rather than home which attracts 5%. So in a way drivers are being charged per mile, in the same way as petrol cars are with fuel costs.
 
I see the government is thinking about charging electric vehicles 3p/mile to cover some of the shortfall in people switching to EV's from petrol/diesel.

Another disincentive for people to switch to EV's - following on from now being charged road tax - what do people think?
 
John J Sheridan said:
I see the government is thinking about charging electric vehicles 3p/mile to cover some of the shortfall in people switching to EV's from petrol/diesel.

Another disincentive for people to switch to EV's - following on from now being charged road tax - what do people think?
Click to expand...
There is an 200+ post thread on it here:

How would pay per mile car tax work?

In reality how would this be likely implemented? Black box in every car? Cameras on smart motorways?
forums.overclockers.co.uk forums.overclockers.co.uk
 
Mr Jack said:
Looks like we'll be taking our car with us over to the UK for Christmas. What's a good app (or whatever) to find chargers in England? Do they mostly need an app to pay or can you just pay by card?
Click to expand...

Where in particular are you going? If it's mostly using the motorway network, then the bigger providers such as Gridserve take contactless - just plug in and swipe your card (although I believe they do give a discount for using the app).

If you're going to be using destination charging on some of the smaller networks, then some of them do still require the app, so best to do a quick check in advance (as suggested above, ZapMap is probably the most comprehensive resource).

John J Sheridan said:
I see the government is thinking about charging electric vehicles 3p/mile to cover some of the shortfall in people switching to EV's from petrol/diesel.

Another disincentive for people to switch to EV's - following on from now being charged road tax - what do people think?
Click to expand...

I think I'm already considering a diesel van to go alongside my daily EV (rather than a single EV van), and this would just encourage me further.

Public charging is already more expensive than fuelling an ICE, but that is offset by the cheap cost of charging at home. If that cost/mile is going to increase by 150%+, then there's no real reason to put up with the inconvenience (albeit only slight these days) of taking an EV on longer journeys. With that taken into account, I may as well save a few £££, both in purchase price and running costs, and get more choice of suitable vehicles.
 
Last edited:
John J Sheridan said:
I see the government is thinking about charging electric vehicles 3p/mile to cover some of the shortfall in people switching to EV's from petrol/diesel.

Another disincentive for people to switch to EV's - following on from now being charged road tax - what do people think?
Click to expand...
www.bbc.co.uk

EV drivers could face new pay per mile tax in Budget

The BBC understands there have been "conversations" within government about the possibility of a new levy on EVs.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

10,000 miles is only £300 a year, right? If you charge at home it's still cheaper than buying petrol.
 
John J Sheridan said:
I see the government is thinking about charging electric vehicles 3p/mile to cover some of the shortfall in people switching to EV's from petrol/diesel.

Another disincentive for people to switch to EV's - following on from now being charged road tax - what do people think?
Click to expand...

I'd be quite annoyed. Not only did I miss out on the cheaper tax rates I'd now get hit with this?
 
VincentHanna said:
www.bbc.co.uk

EV drivers could face new pay per mile tax in Budget

The BBC understands there have been "conversations" within government about the possibility of a new levy on EVs.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

10,000 miles is only £300 a year, right? If you charge at home it's still cheaper than buying petrol.
Click to expand...
I'd rather not have to fork out £600 a year but even if they bring this in it'll still save me approx. £1.7k a year (purely based on my milage, I've not worked it out for my wife's) compared to a 45mpg petrol car like I had previously.
This is also based on the slightly lower fuel costs back when I worked all my numbers out, it seems to be slowly creeping up again.
 
VincentHanna said:
www.bbc.co.uk

EV drivers could face new pay per mile tax in Budget

The BBC understands there have been "conversations" within government about the possibility of a new levy on EVs.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

10,000 miles is only £300 a year, right? If you charge at home it's still cheaper than buying petrol.
Click to expand...

Only if you exclusively charge at home - public charging is already 2-3x more expensive than fuel if you're using a rapid, and even slower chargers are generally more expensive, or around the same at best.

£300/year is 1.5x "fuel" cost if you're on a decent tariff, coupled with the VED rug pull, that's almost 2.5x what you pay for "fuel", just so that those in power can **** more champagne up the wall :rolleyes:

Edit: on a longer journey, assuming charging at home at 7p/kwh, public charging at 79p/kwh @ 3.6mi/kw vs £1.43/litre @ 40mpg, the break even point is a 700 mile trip.

Add a 3p/mile tax and that goes down to just over 400 miles.
 
Last edited:
Haggisman said:
Only if you exclusively charge at home - public charging is already 2-3x more expensive than fuel if you're using a rapid, and even slower chargers are generally more expensive, or around the same at best.

£300/year is 1.5x "fuel" cost if you're on a decent tariff, coupled with the VED rug pull, that's almost 2.5x what you pay for "fuel", just so that those in power can **** more champagne up the wall :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I probably charge away from home 3-4 times a year.

If I was doing mega miles I just wouldn't entertain an EV, even with the newer cars coming out with 400 real world miles of range.
 
Road charging for EVs makes sense in the longer term, but shorter term it just disincentives the take up of EVs just as they need to encourage it. They need to introduce it for all vehicles or actually raise fuel duty for once if they're going to do it.
 
Gridserve app for DC charging is 79p/kwh, contactless on a charger is usually 85p/kwh. Tesla DC is between 32p and 55p/kwh depending on time of day. Ionity for me is 45p/kwh on a subscription (free with first year of BMW) or else usually around 75p/kwh.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom