When are you going fully electric?

Just wondered what people’s experiences are with using public electric chargers? Is there much availability or do you have to wait for them to be free? (Most of my drop offs will be on motorways)

The reason I am asking is my new company car scheme is pushing the electric vehicles , and I would be having a charger at home for charging but there are times when I do a long journey which could be 270 miles.

I am looking at the KIA Niro
 
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Bounce said:
Just wondered what people’s experiences are with using public electric chargers? Is there much availability or do you have to wait for them to be free? (Most of my drop offs will be on motorways)

The reason I am asking is my new company car scheme is pushing the electric vehicles , and I would be having a charger at home for charging but there are times when I do a long journey which could be 270 miles.

I am looking at the KIA Niro
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There's usually no queues but you may get into the odd one if you hit a peak time. Niro isn't the fastest charging though, but is efficient and if you have charging at both ends a quick stop would be fine for 270 miles
 
Are you doing the same sort of trip regularly? Have a look on ABRP for chargers along your typical routes, that will give you an idea of potential headaches. I’m in the same boat but 2 of my regular trips are 350 and 450 miles. I’ve had a couple of demo’s and the 450mile trip was surprisingly hassle free, work cover my external charge costs so I stick to the more popular chargers, Ionity and gridserve.

I’ve got a big trip planned to France in a 290 mile range EQB, according to ABRP it’s not going to be huge pain, certainly not as bad as the media scaremongering.
 
Bounce said:
Just wondered what people’s experiences are with using public electric chargers? Is there much availability or do you have to wait for them to be free? (Most of my drop offs will be on motorways)

The reason I am asking is my new company car scheme is pushing the electric vehicles , and I would be having a charger at home for charging but there are times when I do a long journey which could be 270 miles.

I am looking at the KIA Niro
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keep away from peak lunch or tea times you should be fine. bloody expensive unless you can use Tesla tho .
not a problem if it's just a splash and dash every few.months.
 
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Bounce said:
Just wondered what people’s experiences are with using public electric chargers? Is there much availability or do you have to wait for them to be free? (Most of my drop offs will be on motorways)

The reason I am asking is my new company car scheme is pushing the electric vehicles , and I would be having a charger at home for charging but there are times when I do a long journey which could be 270 miles.

I am looking at the KIA Niro
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Never ever seen anyone wait for public charger or needed to wait for public charger myself.
 
Had my Model Y (LR) since Dec 2022 via a three year lease (company car). Been a pleasure to use, not had any issues as yet. Miss some of the normal control switches and standard layout of a dashboard, also the ride is very firm.

I'm not sure as yet if I'd stick with Tesla once the lease is up, the varied choice in EV'S is definitely ramping up. I think that currently the BMW I4 edrive40 looks like a very decent next option, but a lot can change in 20 odd months.
 
Hi all,

For all of you guys who've already had a charger installed @ home for however long you've had it, any one have any drawbacks of one that would be installed by the likes of Ovo or Octopus energy over the likes of non affiliated companies eg chargedev, evbug and the like?

Just had my first quote for install of a Ohme pro from Ovo @ £1099.99 all in, also having to have it installed but a note from the DNO is main fuse needs to be upped from 60 to 100 amp and it be un'looped from looped supply with neighbour. Anyone's experience of how fast these DNO's can carry out the work after I've given the go ahead for install for example, as I'm led to believe I could be in for a long wait. Only so much 'google' searches can tell you, advice etc from some of you guys could be of help.

Thanks :)
 
Av8 said:
Hi all,

For all of you guys who've already had a charger installed @ home for however long you've had it, any one have any drawbacks of one that would be installed by the likes of Ovo or Octopus energy over the likes of non affiliated companies eg chargedev, evbug and the like?

Just had my first quote for install of a Ohme pro from Ovo @ £1099.99 all in, also having to have it installed but a note from the DNO is main fuse needs to be upped from 60 to 100 amp and it be un'looped from looped supply with neighbour. Anyone's experience of how fast these DNO's can carry out the work after I've given the go ahead for install for example, as I'm led to believe I could be in for a long wait. Only so much 'google' searches can tell you, advice etc from some of you guys could be of help.

Thanks :)
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Have you been told which side the feed/loop is on? Worst case scenario is that your neighbour is the one needing the new feed from the road and thus their drive ripping up to fit it - they probably won’t be happy.
 
squerble said:
Have you been told which side the feed/loop is on? Worst case scenario is that your neighbour is the one needing the new feed from the road and thus their drive ripping up to fit it - they probably won’t be happy.
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No, have not been told yet whose driveway. If it's my neighbour on the shared open driveway he'll be spot on as we've always had a good understanding/friendship with one another.

On the other hand if it's the neighbour on the semi-detached adjoining side, I won't go into the issues had over the years but I won't lose any sleep over it :D Him and his parents have made my life and my families life a nightmare since 2007.

But thanks for the info
 
Av8 said:
No, have not been told yet whose driveway. If it's my neighbour on the shared open driveway he'll be spot on as we've always had a good understanding/friendship with one another.

On the other hand if it's the neighbour on the semi-detached adjoining side, I won't go into the issues had over the years but I won't lose any sleep over it :D Him and his parents have made my life and my families life a nightmare since 2007.

But thanks for the info
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From the stories I've read online, it's always seemed to be the other half of the semi, not the neighbour who isn't joined.

I also believe they can refuse the work, so you say you won't lose sleep over it, but they could very much snooker your plans. Again, worst case scenario, but be prepared for them to refuse, especially if there's already some "beef".
 
squerble said:
From the stories I've read online, it's always seemed to be the other half of the semi, not the neighbour who isn't joined.

I also believe they can refuse the work, so you say you won't lose sleep over it, but they could very much snooker your plans. Again, worst case scenario, but be prepared for them to refuse, especially if there's already some "beef".
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My looped supply feeds to my neighbour and not to the adjoining semi. So there's hope.
You can find out how the cables run from filling in this form.
 
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squerble said:
From the stories I've read online, it's always seemed to be the other half of the semi, not the neighbour who isn't joined.

I also believe they can refuse the work, so you say you won't lose sleep over it, but they could very much snooker your plans. Again, worst case scenario, but be prepared for them to refuse, especially if there's already some "beef".
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Ok, I'll see soon enough I'm sure. I've got other means of charging worst case scenario if not at home, still at a slightly more expensive rate @ 20p instead of 7.5p

But also I'm led to believe that if they refuse access to the DNO, other measures can be put in place to go forward legally speaking if needed.
 
If you know the supply is looped, the easy well to tell is if you have 1 or 2 cables going into your main head.

1 = your cable goes to a neighbour
2 = you have the main incoming cable and the loop out to your neighbour.

If 1 you get the new cable, of 2, they get the new cable.

If 1 get them to install 3 phase, it should be no cost to you as they are installing a new cable anyway.

Occasionally 3 houses are looped together and the ‘middle’ house will also have 2 cables but that’s not very common.

It is still possible still run an EV charger on a 60a fuse if it can adapt to the house load, it will need a CT clamp on the main supply for that function to work.
 
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I know the general feeling is that a cars RRP is irrelevant (I personally don't agree with that) but there are some chunky price drops on Vauxhall and Renault models with new specifications coming out undercutting the previous entry level models by thousands.

Hopefully this is sustainable and not just a race to the bottom and see who survives scenario.
 
I miss my Kona EV.

The only advantages of my Focus so far have been: not needing to worry about range on long journey (had 450 miles out of 3/4 tank, for example); and the comparatively cavernous boot (it's an estate, after all). Otherwise, most of my journeys are local enough that they're easily done on <80% charge, even doing Liverpool-Leeds return journey in a day only used just over half a charge. Now I feel bad on my engine every time I'm doing short, local journeys. I miss the "drive" of an EV, especially around town. Don't get me wrong, the Focus is a dual-clutch auto and is smooth itself, but it doesn't beat an EV.

All of this because I threw the toys out of the pram about having a lease :rolleyes: stupid boy.
 
lordrobs said:
Hopefully this is sustainable and not just a race to the bottom and see who survives scenario.
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It's the East vs. the West, simple matter of fact is they need to adapt and possibly take some short term losses if they want to survive (IMO) the onslaught of BEV's coming in to Europe. You know for a fact that people seem to care more about cost than they do about where the item they are buying is manufactured.
 
squerble said:
I miss my Kona EV.

The only advantages of my Focus so far have been: not needing to worry about range on long journey (had 450 miles out of 3/4 tank, for example); and the comparatively cavernous boot (it's an estate, after all). Otherwise, most of my journeys are local enough that they're easily done on <80% charge, even doing Liverpool-Leeds return journey in a day only used just over half a charge. Now I feel bad on my engine every time I'm doing short, local journeys. I miss the "drive" of an EV, especially around town. Don't get me wrong, the Focus is a dual-clutch auto and is smooth itself, but it doesn't beat an EV.

All of this because I threw the toys out of the pram about having a lease :rolleyes: stupid boy.
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To be fair though a lease is normally just a long and drawn out way of buying something that is either out of your price range or costs more than you are comfortable paying outright.

You can now run the Focus for a year or two, let the EV second hand market populate further then make the swap back to EV, be quids in and most importantly, not trapped by the lease merry go round forever.

IMHO the short term compromise is well worth it in the long run.
 
Journey said:
It's the East vs. the West, simple matter of fact is they need to adapt and possibly take some short term losses if they want to survive (IMO) the onslaught of BEV's coming in to Europe. You know for a fact that people seem to care more about cost than they do about where the item they are buying is manufactured.
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Yeah I don't think the origin of manufacture has been a massive consideration for a while. What I do find surprising is the acceptance of non established brands. People seem to be getting excited about the new 'Ding Wong Motor EV-X 10' or whatever despite them never having heard of the brand or there being an established dealer support network.
 
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