Should do, but if not the cabling is probably good enough to upgrade it easily. The main bit I suppose is having the cable ran to where the charger goes on it's own 32A breaker or better.we have a home charger in the garage must have been in 8-or 9 years, It was in before we bought the house, i think they were putting them in for free as an incentive at the time, will it still work with the latest EVs
If you plugged in for 12 hours, once a week, and had a commando socket or wall box this would be 14 x 7kW = 84kW = 250 miles (assuming the car has 250 mile range). It's doable, if you have consistent journeys, but not ideal. The problem would be if you didn't top up after a few journeys, and then couldn't get a space outside the house. You might get caught out once a month or so, and then have to go and plug in somewhere local whilst you went shopping or whatever.I'm currently at the point of looking to change my motor. I'm still struggling with the idea of going full E mainly as I don't have a drive and I reckon I only get to park directly outside my house 50% of the time, if that.
Yeah, apart from round near em there is a big infrastructure gap here. We have charger plugs in the street lamps which helps as practically no one has a driveway around here. This needs rolling out throughout the country. Have you looked on https://www.zap-map.com ? To see if there is a charger near your house or work? I have constant problems with the charger in my apartments. Luckily my old office was near a public charger and my new office has a charger. So I just charged up at work. and, of course, if you have a 300 mile range then you don't need to charge every day. Just once in a while.I'm currently at the point of looking to change my motor. I'm still struggling with the idea of going full E mainly as I don't have a drive and I reckon I only get to park directly outside my house 50% of the time, if that.
This does need sorting all over, but is gonna be one hell of a work in progress. I suppose it's a case by case basis if people can get away without home charging, will depend a lot on range, trips, work etc, where as those with a drive should be fine in 99% of instances.Yeah, apart from round near em there is a big infrastructure gap here. We have charger plugs in the street lamps which helps as practically no one has a driveway around here. This needs rolling out throughout the country. Have you looked on https://www.zap-map.com ? To see if there is a charger near your house or work? I have constant problems with the charger in my apartments. Luckily my old office was near a public charger and my new office has a charger. So I just charged up at work. and, of course, if you have a 300 mile range then you don't need to charge every day. Just once in a while.
It depends on the provider I think. The ones near us are shell (ubitricity) and have just gone up to 34p per kW. Charging speeds are around 5kwh.This does need sorting all over, but is gonna be one hell of a work in progress. I suppose it's a case by case basis if people can get away without home charging, will depend a lot on range, trips, work etc, where as those with a drive should be fine in 99% of instances.
How do you pay for the street light charging? What rate is that at?
What would be the advice re running a cable to the car across a footpath, as that is what id have to do. Is it legal or am I going to end up in bother for tripping up some old dear?If you plugged in for 12 hours, once a week, and had a commando socket or wall box this would be 14 x 7kW = 84kW = 250 miles (assuming the car has 250 mile range). It's doable, if you have consistent journeys, but not ideal. The problem would be if you didn't top up after a few journeys, and then couldn't get a space outside the house. You might get caught out once a month or so, and then have to go and plug in somewhere local whilst you went shopping or whatever.
I see plenty of people do this. Get something to cover up the cable and put a sign up. You should be grandWhat would be the advice re running a cable to the car across a footpath, as that is what id have to do. Is it legal or am I going to end up in bother for tripping up some old dear?
I'm currently at the point of looking to change my motor. I'm still struggling with the idea of going full E mainly as I don't have a drive and I reckon I only get to park directly outside my house 50% of the time, if that.
That's a good point. Not sure if you can. With a Tesla there is an app called scan my tesla. Which will tell you battery deg. You needs an ODBC2 connecter though to integrate the cars computer. I use it a lot and it's brilliant I think some other car have similar apps useful bevasue it tells you deg, usable battery capacity and even the amount of KW that have gone through DC and ACOn the amount of DC charging: is there not some way of getting the charging history? My car is pretty smart and seems to pull all of the stats back in my app but never thought to look for ratio of DC/AC charging. I wouldn't be surprised if the info is stored in there though. That could provide some info for potential buyers if so.
High mileage isn't necessarily an indication of wear. Someone doing 100m a day on the motorway is less damaging to an ICE car than doing 50 miles of stop/start traffic like a taxi might do. Not sure if it is the same for EVs as they are mechanically simpler.
Have a look on your council website because some councils will fit an EV charger outside your house on request but not every council does it (most don't yet).
Haha, I research everything I've got an interest in@Andy_W you have obviously done a lot of research in to this. I have never leased but my concern with buying electric at the moment is the pace of technology. In the next 2-3 years are we likely to get cars with 500-600 mile range and what will that do to the value of current EVs? Looking to change car in next 12 months but really unsure which way to go as don’t want to suffer a massive loss in depreciation. Leasing would remove some of that although costs are extortionate at the moment
Absolutely this! I've tried to explain the range conundrum on here but people are refusing to believe it. I guess because the makers of ICE want you to think it's an issue. There's some serious brainwashing going on.Haha, I research everything I've got an interest in
500-600 mile range isn't the answer for 99% of people, extra long range cars are just there to appease the mind of those who think they need that, in reality next to nobody does, and once we get the charging infrastructure fully sorted, nobody does.
For most people, charging speed should be more important on a used EV, than range, providing the range was over 200 miles. Anything over 100 kWh speed is good, over 150 great, 200 even better.
If you can afford the PCP payments and get a fairly good APR or maybe even 0% then maybe do that, otherwise you're going to flush a boat load of equity down the drain. Saving £50 on a lease per month makes little sense if you're giving away £150 a month equity.Re leasing - can anyone recommend a good company to use for this?
Not bought a car in years but need to update my car now - new/used not fussed either way but not sure where to start with lease deals (or even PCP). Hear lots of stories about people getting good deals but when I've looked at pretty bog standard cars (fords, Hyundai, kia) etc through the main websites then monthly prices seem extortionate. Was looking at lease deal for a focus and it was £350 a month allowing for 10000 miles a year. Thought you'd be able to get Audi a4/bmw 3 series for that sort of price but maybe I'm just out of the loop.
Would definitely be open to idea of an electric car in the above price bracket - if anyone knows of anything going like that.
Proof is in the pudding.I came soooo close to ordering a new EV company car, but bottled out at the last minute and have opted out of the co car scheme and placed an order for a new Golf GTi.
I am not sure why I didnt get one, I work in the industry and see daily the advances in batteries, fuel cells and hydrogen etc and the tech is really going places.
I guess at this moment in time, I just dont want one badly enough. Now, if the Porsche Taycan came onto the co car list in a year's time, then my wife will be very pleased to get a slightly used Golf GTi.
I recently had to stick £100 in and that hit home, plus £75 into a corsa. Some interesting data re costs posted on here but a lot of the EV with decent ranges seem to be £35K plus thats a hefty tag, so it looks as though swings and roundabouts re where the costs can be.Hi Dan, good advice about comparing like for like. Other people will give more advice on the the technical stuff, but my story on the economics is that I leased a year old EV for 3 years. The cost of running it plus the monthly lease was less than I paid in petrol alone each month for my old ICE. So for me it was like having a free new car.
If you have a drive at home - and not everyone has - and you don’t do hundreds and hundreds of miles a day then you won’t ever need to charge anywhere apart from at home.
I lost my job and had to sell the EV (and my house) and I have an old ICE banger but as soon as I get two brass farthings I’ll be buying an EV again. Both because I loved the EV and also because petrol is so madly expensive (plus I don’t like the idea of fossil fuels knowing what we know about climate change). The first time I had to pay £60 for petrol at a garage it was a hell of a shock! Hope that helps. Good luck in your decision.
I’ve got the polestar 2 and had it since October . Only needed to use it at a public charger once and used a Tesla supercharger . Took about 40 mins to give a 60% boost .Absolutely this! I've tried to explain the range conundrum on here but people are refusing to believe it. I guess because the makers of ICE want you to think it's an issue. There's some serious brainwashing going on.
For long journeys of more than a single charge: Charging speed is far far more important than range. Especially when people get used to using their EV properly and maximising their charging (rough guide: you want to get to a DC charger below 10% and charge to about 60-80% for the most efficient way of charging) depends on the car of course but this will serve you well. One of the cars I looked at to replace my Tesla was a Polestar 2. It's better built to an almost ludicrous extent. Is a lot more comfortable to drive, has a nicer cabin and a similar range. I turned it down though because the charge curve is significantly worse than the Tesla. Tesla can take higher speeds and charge at highs speeds for longer.