Questions my buddy asked me about getting an EV
We’ve been driving full electric since 2020 when we got a second hand Zoe. A couple of years ago we sold that and moved on to an MG5 Long Range, for the increased range (obv) and boot space.
Enter my work friend, P. He had a 100 questions, and I enjoyed answering them!
Home charging
Yoooo. Hello. I’ve just put a deposit down on an electric car (VW ID.4). Just sorting out home installation for an EV Charger and wondered if I could get some advice/tips at some point for all things electric.
Love it. ⚡️ I have an Ohme charger, an older kind that you can’t get now. It’s good. Looks like they’ve partnered with VW so you can get £25 off RRP. I’d go for the Ohme ePod through them. You may need some electrical work to get a new 40 amp circuit put into your consumer unit (fuse box) first.
ePod is untethered which just means you get a cable out of the boot and plug it into the charger and your car, instead of the charger having its own captive (tethered) cable.
Electricity rates
It’s exciting but I’m also getting a bit nervous. Been a diesel glugger all my life…
It’ll be alright cobber!
Worth changing your energy plan to something like Octopus Flux. You get half price electric between 2-5am. Charging for ~15p/kWh is as cheap as it gets. I even set my dishwasher for that time now to run it for half price 🤑
(Note to the reader, he later got E.ON Next, which is even cheaper at 6.7p/kWh between 12am and 7am, but I believe E.ON are not currently a ‘deep green’ provider; not every £ goes towards buying or creating green energy at source).
Yeah. My current supplier doesn’t offer an EV tariff so I’m gonna pay the exit fee (£25) and switch
Battery degredation
I think we’re most concerned about battery degradation / efficiency
Battery deg is just not an issue like people predicted. You’ve got 10 year-old Leafs still rolling around with 80%+ battery health.
We had a Renault Zoe as you know, sold that on when it was 7 yrs old and it still had >85% battery health.
The car we’re getting is a 2021 and VW cover 8 years or 100,000 miles on the warranty but we didn’t even think to ask about the state of health…
Looking at VW site, that’s 8 years covering you having 70%+ which is fair enough. You’ll never reach 70% imo.
Route planning
Which app do you use for EV charge point maps/planning? There are so many!
I use Zapmap to find where the points are but we don’t do “route planning” any more because we have over 200 miles range, so we can just charge at destination or on a day out, whatever.
I have tried ABRP and it was fine but a bit confusing.
Charge cycles
What about charge cycles? I’ve read so many articles. Consensus seems to be to charge to 80% and run it down to about 25%? Some people suggest never to charge it to 100%. Never leave idle on a high charge. Lots of conflicting advice.
Yeah, pinch of salt. When we charge our car at home it often lands on 97% and then we only give it a short journey the next day, I don’t think it’s mega harmful. Ideally don’t wind it all the way down to 10% but it happens.
(I’d also add, the car lies and inflates this figure to protect the battery from damage - 10% on the HUD is not really 10% left in the chemical cell).
Key thing is if you’re charging on the motorway, don’t sit around waiting for it to get to 100%, cos that last 20% is crazy slow so you’re wasting time and money. Get to 80% and get gone.
Public charging rates
What do you pay on average for a rapid charge? and how long does it take generally? Sorry for all the questions - picking it up tomorrow hopefully!
Rapid chargers tend to be expensive in the realm of 85p/kWh - very different to home (15-30p)
You can check that on ZapMap.
Not sure on how long it takes, I’d use an online calculator tbh if you wanna know for your car, capacity, etc.
Is an overnight charge a preset amount of time? Like if I’m at 10% and I roll in at 2am but need the car charged to 80% for the morning can I change the rate of charge - offsetting some range or something? I’m so under prepared 😭😂
There’s a lot of setting in Ohme for this kind of thing. You can balance it between “smart charge to save me money” vs “max charge because I need to go asap”
That’s reassuring. Thanks for the steer (no pun intended)
Home charging with 3-pin
I’m sorry for the barrage of car questions but here’s another one. We’re still waiting for the installation of our home charger. We have some ‘first time charging’ anxiety. I have a type 2 Mennekes and a 3 Pin Plug charge cable. The car has been used a lot over the last 2.5 days and has only just dipped below half so we’ve got another 3-4 days.
The guy said we could get 50% overnight via mains (2.3kW). Is that advisable or would you suggest a standard 7kW charge from a charging station?
In mild weather there is no risk to the car from a “trickle” charge off your house electrics, but it can be risky for your home electrics!
We had a phase of charging the Zoe up that way, and eventually the flick switch in our plug socket - the bit that’s part of the room - melted into the ON position, just from carrying high current for a long time. 🔥 So it’s not good for your house. If you know you’ve got good wiring, good consumer unit, you can do it. But I wouldn’t bother until you’re at like 15%.
We try to keep enough charge to make it to Ormskirk hospital, that’s our bare minimum.
We’re long overdue a rewire and our CSU is antiquated so I’m hesitant about that - and now your anecdote has put me off completely! 😱
Yeah it can wait then. Get the Pod Point app and consider a charge at Tesco while you shop or something - if you really need it before your install.
(N.b. I later suggested P charge at my house a handful of times since he lives round the corner, and what are work friends for, after all? He paid for the electric, of course.)
Charging network apps
Do you need a separate app per charging network provider? I haven’t properly looked into it yet but I assumed you paid for everything through Zap Map.
You do need a lot of apps. But more charging points are just accepting contacless debit now, so they’re app-less.
App-less charge:
- Instavolt (McDonalds)
- Swarco (common in North Wales)
Sometimes app-less:
- Gridserve/ElectricHighway (Motorways) - newer ones accept contactless
Need an app:
- Pod Point
- ChargeCar (can’t remember where I needed this)
I seem to have apps for InstaVolt and Gridserve installed just-in-case…
Good info, thanks. I think in my head I thought I’d pre-load some credit onto Zap-Map / Zap-Pay and then check in or something and it would just deduct whatever I’d used.
Ah well, I’m sure I’ll figure it out once we start
Never used Zap Pay, forgot it existed. But last trip to Wales I just tapped my bank card on the posts wherever I went. It’s worth getting Pod Point though.
Welp
That’s all the questions fit for print. Thanks to my esteemed colleague, P, for his great questions. I believe he is now enjoying his new car, despite an unfortunately rocky experience with the dealership, and Osprey (charging network) and Ohme, as they were very slow to fit his charger. But I think these things are getting better all the time, and perhaps the approved VW dealership involved were just uniquely bad.
There are many reputable EV info sites out there, but this is my little take. I hope it helps someone! Bye now! ⚡🏎