When are you going fully electric?

[inflames]

I am very tempted with a getting a EV next year, been doing my research etc. most likely to be get a 2nd hand Tesla M3. I did comment on here about a month ago asking if many of you manage to just use public charging only, as I have two supercharge locations very close to me and the ability to charger whilst I play golf once a week. Plus there is talk that work maybe fitting some charger for staff to use.

I am happy to use public charging but as many pointed out charging at home has a so many benefits. As it stands my situation we live in an end terrace, in a very quiet neighbourhood and i can park outside my house with no issues. Been looking at these:

Kerbo Charge - EV Charging Cable Gully | Charge Without a Driveway | As Seen on Dragons' Den

Charge your EV at home with Kerbo Charge. Our safe and secure charging channel has a self-closing lid and is council-approved. As seen on Dragons' Den.

www.kerbocharge.com

Home

www.nodum.co.uk

Out of these the kerbo seems to be the better solution as the charge bridge looks like it is still awaiting approval. Anyone used something like the kerbo? I am not keen on using a cable cover across the path.

But the bigger issue at the minute, it looks like we are on a looped supply, with a 60A cut out fuse. I don’t mind having using a granny charger with an external 3 pin or a commando socket fitted whilst waiting to be un-looped to eventually have a charger fitted. But this is all just another issue to try and overcome. Whilst not annoying the neighbours in the process.

 

[Journey]

Out of these the kerbo seems to be the better solution as the charge bridge looks like it is still awaiting approval. Anyone used something like the kerbo? I am not keen on using a cable cover across the path.

But the bigger issue at the minute, it looks like we are on a looped supply, with a 60A cut out fuse. I don’t mind having using a granny charger with an external 3 pin or a commando socket fitted whilst waiting to be un-looped to eventually have a charger fitted. But this is all just another issue to try and overcome. Whilst not annoying the neighbours in the process.

Chosen charge point installer will usually contact the DNO on your behalf and notify them of the intention to install a charger and sort out any paperwork, they'll then determine what works are needed, if they are possible and if there is a cost to you. I'd start this part first before even bothering getting the Kerbocharge people involved, unless they are offering charge point installs as well now.

 

[Journey]

I've just spoken to them and apparently it's 24ppm excess millage making the 12k better value. I'll miss the DCC and sunroof, but not by the amount I'll be saving, which effectively is my £10k deposit. This feels like a no brainer.

Oof, that's a high cost per mile. No wonder they are cheap at 5k miles.

Were you only keeping the other car deal for 2 years?

 

[Mr109]

Oof, that's a high cost per mile. No wonder they are cheap at 5k miles.

Were you only keeping the other car deal for 2 years?

The pcp was 4 years at £514 with 10k deposit - with £2k of extras. I could afford it, but wasn't feeling great about the zero equity at the end of the pcp. I can now can stick the £10k away and buy one second hand in 2 years time.
Don't think I'm missing anything, the depreciation on the car will be way more than I'm spending over the 2 years.

 

[Journey]

The pcp was 4 years at £514 with 10k deposit - with £2k of extras. I could afford it, but wasn't feeling great about the zero equity at the end of the pcp. I can now can stick the £10k away and buy one second hand in 2 years time.
Don't think I'm missing anything, the depreciation on the car will be way more than I'm spending over the 2 years.

So that would have been around £710 per month amortised over the 48 months, for a total of ~£34k? The 36 month PCH with 12k miles per annum is at £470 per month which is £25 less than the 24 month deal. It's hard to know what the value will be after two years, but the difference to keep it for a third year is £5,069 at the 12k miles.

You can extended the lease near the end of the term, and it can be negotiated down, so it is worth taking the shorter lease even if intending to keep it an extra year. Are you 100% sure you use 12k miles, does 10k + overages work out better, what if you only do 22-23k etc.?

 

[Mr109]

So that would have been around £710 per month amortised over the 48 months, for a total of ~£34k? The 36 month PCH with 12k miles per annum is at £470 per month which is £25 less than the 24 month deal. It's hard to know what the value will be after two years, but the difference to keep it for a third year is £5,069 at the 12k miles.

You can extended the lease near the end of the term, and it can be negotiated down, so it is worth taking the shorter lease even if intending to keep it an extra year. Are you 100% sure you use 12k miles, does 10k + overages work out better, what if you only do 22-23k etc.?

Thanks Journey, really helpful stuff. I easily do 12k probably 13k, lots of trips to Cornwall and Scotland. Just phoned vw and they of course can't get near the deal.
Hopefully finance etc works out and I'll cancel with the dealer.

 

[pastymuncher]

Octopus seem to have started 'cracking down' on certain behaviour they are seeing on the IO tariff. They've sent emails to customers who have IO linked to their Tesla who have a schedule set in the car to ask them to stop. I'm on the naughty list too.

When you plug the car in, it automatically starts charging as you'd expect it to. Octopus does take over and stop the charging when it sets its schedule but sometimes it takes 5 mins, other times it takes a while and this will be at peak rate power.

A lot of Tesla people using IO have a schedule set in the car to start charging at 23:30 to stop the car automatically stop charging when it is plugged in. IO can start the charge before 23:30 and override the schedule. Octopus seem to be taking issue with this because it starts charging the car at 23:30 which is not when they want it to start charging on IO and it messes up their optimisation.

The crux of the email was, take off the schedule and we will give you a free charge on Monday, if you don't take off the schedule so we can't OI charge properly in 30 days, we will kick you off the tariff.

I guess that means going back to manually stopping the charge when I plug in every time until the Hypervolt V2 is updated to IO by the end of the year, first world problems but its very annoying!

I didn't get a email from Octopus but I did get one from OHME stating that the way we charge has changed (just as I got used to using the damn thing!!). The contents of the email is below:-

We’re making some important Ohme app changes for Intelligent Octopus Go drivers from 22nd August 2024.

Here's what you need to know:

To make sure you have plenty of time to reach your charge target, you'll need to turn off your price cap.

This unlocks additional cheap charging slots outside of 23:30-05:30 which you won't want to miss.

If you don't turn your price cap off, you might not reach your desired charge target.

Your Intelligent Octopus Go checklist
All of your smart charging will be billed at the off-peak rate (yep, all of it, even any energy used to precondition your car), as long as you tick all of the boxes of the below checklist.


1. Enable dynamic charging. You’ll find this toggle on your charging screen in the Ohme app. Dynamic charging allows you to charge outside of the off-peak window of 23:30-05:30. To find out more, head here.


2. Set a charge target. Tell Ohme how much charge you want and when you need it by.

Tip: Octopus Energy recommends plugging in after 17:00 and setting your ‘ready by’ time any time between 04:00 and 11:00.


3. Check your charger is online before plugging in via the charging screen of the Ohme app. If your charger is offline, you'll be billed at peak rate.

I followed the above to the letter last night and it started smart charging at 20.00.

From 20.00-21.00 it charged 2.1 kWh at a cost of 0.15p.
From 21.00-22.00 it charged 0.4 kWh at a cost of 0.03p.
From 22.00-23.00 it charged 2.5kWh at a cost of 0.18p.
From 23.00-00.00 it charged 4.5 kWh at a cost of 0.31p.
From 00.00-01.00 it charged 1.9kWh at a cost of 0.13p.

Most of this was well outside the normal cheap rate of 23.30-05.30 yet I still got charged only 7p per kWh so the way the tariff works must have changed over the past couple of days. I still got the cheap rate as normal on top of this. Perhaps this is why they were sending emails out?

I also got a email from Octopus last night saying half price EV charging on Monday night.

We’re giving you 50% off Intelligent charging on Monday night.
When you charge up after your Bank Holiday adventures this weekend, it could be even cheaper than usual.
Here’s what you need to do to get the Bank Holiday Recharge:
- Plug in on the night of Monday 26th August
- Keep the car unplugged on Tuesday 27th August night
Do this, and we’ll make any Intelligent-scheduled EV charging on Monday night 50% off. (That’s just EV charging, so you can skip the tumble dryer marathon!)
Within two weeks, we’ll work out what you used during the Bank Holiday Recharge and credit your Octopus account 50% back!
If for any reason we can’t get your readings from Monday, we’ll credit you the average across your fellow Intelligent drivers.
Why are we doing this?

Monday and Tuesday night are a big opportunity to demonstrate the power of Intelligent drivers – we unlock mega-cheap prices for Intelligent drivers by charging your cars flexibly to support the grid. By avoiding busy times and making the most of renewables, we can nab cheaper wholesale prices and get compensation through grid balancing schemes.
We then pass on these savings to you with some of the UK’s cheapest EV charging rates.

Whether you decide to switch on on Monday night or not, we hope you have a lovely, switched-off Bank Holiday Weekend.
Love and power,

Peter Miller
Head of Customer Experience
Octopus Energy

Yet another win from switching to a EV!!

 

[chanjy]

Thanks Journey, really helpful stuff. I easily do 12k probably 13k, lots of trips to Cornwall and Scotland. Just phoned vw and they of course can't get near the deal.
Hopefully finance etc works out and I'll cancel with the dealer.

If it’s VWFS funding it then dealers definitely can match the deal and also won’t charge the massive commission. It is usually the fleet manager who you need to speak to though, not the retail side

 

[pc-guy]

Is there any downside to using Tesla superchargers for non-Tesla cars?

 

[Journey]

Is there any downside to using Tesla superchargers for non-Tesla cars?

You might end up parked next to a Tesla owner?

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Is there any downside to using Tesla superchargers for non-Tesla cars?

Only if you have an 800V car, they are 400V only.

The Ionic 5/EV6 top out at like 80 kw of a 400V charger.

 

[chanjy]

Only if you have an 800V car, they are 400V only.

The Ionic 5/EV6 top out at like 80 kw of a 400V charger.

Thought it was 100 ish but yeah still slower than some native 400v cars which are tuned for more amperage

 

[chanjy]

Is there any downside to using Tesla superchargers for non-Tesla cars?

Also awkward parking on all but the latest V4 units depending on where your charge port is located

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Also awkward parking on all but the latest V4 units depending on where your charge port is located

Yeh there is that and this...

You might end up parked next to a Tesla owner?

Some special souls in the Tesla owners group went all mums net in the owners group today because one of them spotted another Tesla which had the audacity to park in a V4 supercharger bay.... wait for it....forwards.

When they cant put the unit at the back of the bay for what ever reason, they install them between the spaces and its not entirely obvious obvious at all which side is the 'correct' side. It's almost like they knew what they were doing and designed the unit, cable length and parking space so you can take the cable from *either* side.

So if a car with a charge port on the 'wrong side' takes the cable a Tesla would ordinarily use if they backed in, you can just go in forwards and use the next unit. That seems to be lost on some Tesla owners....

 

[Spleen Sauce]

Yeh there is that and this...


Some special souls in the Tesla owners group went all mums net in the owners group today because one of them spotted another Tesla which had the audacity to park in a V4 supercharger bay.... wait for it....forwards.

When they cant put the unit at the back of the bay for what ever reason, they install them between the spaces and its not entirely obvious obvious at all which side is the 'correct' side. It's almost like they knew what they were doing and designed the unit, cable length and parking space so you can take the cable from *either* side.

So if a car with a charge port on the 'wrong side' takes the cable a Tesla would ordinarily use if they backed in, you can just go in forwards and use the next unit. That seems to be lost on some Tesla owners....

Doesn’t surprise me. I was at Membury services charging and a lady pulled in with her brand new Model 3 and had no idea what she was doing - likely because the handover at Tesla now is ‘here’s the car, off you go’ and not everyone reads up on how to do this stuff in advance. In any case, she clearly needed help and instead of offering to help or show her what needed doing, the chap in the next bay in his Model X decided to watch and laugh at her. The guy the other side avoided all eye contact.
I showed her what she needed to do (hadn’t even set up billing in the Tesla app). She was embarrassed but very thankful that not all of us are complete tools.

Besides that, Cardiff superchargers are hilarious. You still get super angry Tesla owners (usually Model S drivers from experience) who get proper wound up when a Polestar or Mach E pulls in to charge. I’ve seen them argue still that non-Tesla owners aren’t allowed, etc. It’s all very sad.

 

[OspreyO]

I don't get why they don't just put longer cables on the Tesla sites open to other makes.

 

[jpaul]

which are the paired tesla chargers where you end up sharing the power if you have a neighbour - or that's prehistory

Out of these the kerbo seems to be the better solution as the charge bridge looks like it is still awaiting approval. Anyone used something like the kerbo? I am not keen on using a cable cover across the path.

I'm a bit surprised that there seem to no low profile charging cables afaik (like the house internet ones I just put in)
but some of the pavement porotectors look like they would present less of a pedestrian obstacle being wider https://ev-extras.com/products/ev-cable-floor-cover-protector-pedestrian-anti-trip
(whilst I have a garage the power it has is only 4-5Kw so pavement would be easier)


.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I don't get why they don't just put longer cables on the Tesla sites open to other makes.

They do, but only the new build sites, they get the V4 charger design which has a long cable. The cables on the V3's are really thin, I guess they can get away with that because they are so short and not possible to easily retrofit the old sites otherwise they would have done it already (e.g. it costs a lot of cash).

I'm not sure what they are going to do in October then the 12 months grace period is up for contactless payment mind. Since they opened up, they've re-built one old V2 site with V4, there is another 30-40 V2 or V3 sites which are open to all which don't take contactless payment

 

[lordrobs]

Yet another win from switching to a EV!!

Unless you happen to want to use your car in Wednesday which would require charging it up on Tuesday night

I've been an Octopus customer since day one but the gimmicks are getting a bit much. "Great news, between 13:00 and 14:00 on Wednesday we're giving an hour of free energy." Great, maybe I'll book the day off work to save myself 7p on half a wash cycle :roll eyes:

 

[dlockers]

Unless you happen to want to use your car in Wednesday which would require charging it up on Tuesday night

I've been an Octopus customer since day one but the gimmicks are getting a bit much. "Great news, between 13:00 and 14:00 on Wednesday we're giving an hour of free energy." Great, maybe I'll book the day off work to save myself 7p on half a wash cycle :roll eyes:

u ok hun? dm me x