Used EV questions

[TheRainMaker]

ChrisH72 said:

Just been looking at Octopus website.

It looks like I need the Ohme home pro with 5m cable for £975 and I qualify for standard installation. I do have a smart meter but I guess they can upgrade it if needs be. The Intelligent tariff would work for me I think. 7.5p P/kwh over night so about £3 for a full charge. It's 29p p/kwh in the day which is 2p more than I currently pay but that's okay as the leccy bill isn't much anyway.

On an annual mileage of 4000 it appears to work out at less than £100 a year. Can that be correct?

If we use my average miles per kWh @ 3.6

To fully charge the i3 with some charging losses thrown in, let us go with 42kWh

133.2 miles uses 42kWh (including losses), which equals 3.1 miles per kW, which works out to you needing 1290 kWh over the year.

1290 kWh x 7.5p = £96.00

So yes, you are correct.

[TheRainMaker]

Nomme de Plum said:

As this is PH I'm exploring some better dampers and slightly shorter springs.

Are these no good?

https://www.evolveautomotive.co.uk/products/evolve...

[bernie_eccle]

740EVTORQUES said:

Am I reading too much into your username?

It is Pistonheads and you never know, but yes, you reading too much into it.

[Nomme de Plum]

TheRainMaker said:

Nomme de Plum said:

As this is PH I'm exploring some better dampers and slightly shorter springs.

Are these no good?

https://www.evolveautomotive.co.uk/products/evolve...

Thank, You must be telepathic. I looked at that company yesterday and the video.

Not too silly money either.

I'll have chat with them after Easter.

[TheRainMaker]

Nomme de Plum said:

TheRainMaker said:

Nomme de Plum said:

As this is PH I'm exploring some better dampers and slightly shorter springs.

Are these no good?

https://www.evolveautomotive.co.uk/products/evolve...

Thank, You must be telepathic. I looked at that company yesterday and the video.

Not too silly money either.

I'll have chat with them after Easter.

Let us know how you get on, I'm looking as well

[GT6k]

I have had a 2019 I3s for 3 years and an i3 for a short time before that. You only need to worry about particular chargers if you want to access the intelligent tariffs. Simpler time of use tariffs (fixed overnight cheap rates such as Octopus Go) are only slightly more expensive and you get to keep the ability to do timed pre condition the cabin and battery for your departure. This feature is the hidden gem of EV ownership and no way am I going to give it up to save 25p per day. Do you really want to be trying to wind up and stow a wet dirty cable every day ? No then get a tethered charger.

Edited by GT6k on Friday 29th March 09:05

[ChrisH72]

Okay you've convinced me about going tethered.

I'm very interested in the ability to pre warm up the car. I have a couple of early starts a week where I leave the house at 7am. It'd be great not to have to scrape the car in winter. Can you do thus with an i3?

Also, out of interest, is it safe to pass the cable through a window and plug into a wall socket or will this blow your house up!?

I'm leaning towards the i3s. But all reviews mention how bad the ride is. I'm coming from a Fiesta ST so am used to a firm ride. What I can't find out is if the standard i3 on 19s rides better? I gather the S has wider track and also sport mode so would handle better?

[Sheepshanks]

GT6k said:

I have had a 2019 I3s for 3 years and an i3 for a short time before that. You only need to worry about particular chargers if you want to access the intelligent tariffs. Simpler time of use tariffs (fixed overnight cheap rates such as Octopus Go) are only slightly more expensive and you get to keep the ability to do timed pre condition the cabin and battery for your departure. This feature is the hidden gem of EV ownership and no way am I going to give it up to save 25p per day.

Could you expand on that, please - if you’re on an intelligent tariff do you “lose” control?

Do all EV have the ability to pre-condition both cabin and battery? Presumably that happens at normal tariff rates (unless you get up very early)?

[Cobnapint]

ChrisH72 said:

Just been looking at Octopus website.

It looks like I need the Ohme home pro with 5m cable for £975 and I qualify for standard installation. I do have a smart meter but I guess they can upgrade it if needs be. The Intelligent tariff would work for me I think. 7.5p P/kwh over night so about £3 for a full charge. It's 29p p/kwh in the day which is 2p more than I currently pay but that's okay as the leccy bill isn't much anyway.

On an annual mileage of 4000 it appears to work out at less than £100 a year. Can that be correct?

Charging is certainly dirt cheap from Octopus, well for 4 hours each night it is anyway. They seem to have the EV market captured, even more so now they've taken Shell Energy over.

The more mileage you do the better the gains are with their Go tariff. I think I'd be borderline as I only do about 3k a year. I'd need to spend some quality time with a calculator and my leccy bill pdfs to work it out. That's if I go EV of course, which I am sorely tempted to do after driving a Taycan GTS the other day.

I think a Macan 4 and Q6 e-tron test drive is on the books.

[ChrisH72]

Sheepshanks said:

GT6k said:

I have had a 2019 I3s for 3 years and an i3 for a short time before that. You only need to worry about particular chargers if you want to access the intelligent tariffs. Simpler time of use tariffs (fixed overnight cheap rates such as Octopus Go) are only slightly more expensive and you get to keep the ability to do timed pre condition the cabin and battery for your departure. This feature is the hidden gem of EV ownership and no way am I going to give it up to save 25p per day.

Could you expand on that, please - if you’re on an intelligent tariff do you “lose” control?

Do all EV have the ability to pre-condition both cabin and battery? Presumably that happens at normal tariff rates (unless you get up very early)?

I'm assuming it can be done on either tarrif?

For me it's not really about cost saving but that could be a nice side to it. I think we'd end up using the EV more than my Fiesta so it would also save mileage on our petrol car.

[ChrisH72]

Question about this car.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2024010552...

In pic 20 it shows the battery as being nearly full but 80 miles showing. There's a warning triangle next to the battery. Something wrong with it?

[Th3 D0n]

Sheepshanks said:

GT6k said:

I have had a 2019 I3s for 3 years and an i3 for a short time before that. You only need to worry about particular chargers if you want to access the intelligent tariffs. Simpler time of use tariffs (fixed overnight cheap rates such as Octopus Go) are only slightly more expensive and you get to keep the ability to do timed pre condition the cabin and battery for your departure. This feature is the hidden gem of EV ownership and no way am I going to give it up to save 25p per day.

Could you expand on that, please - if you’re on an intelligent tariff do you “lose” control?

Do all EV have the ability to pre-condition both cabin and battery? Presumably that happens at normal tariff rates (unless you get up very early)?

Not sure why you’d want to pre-condition the battery before you left home?
I’m on Intelligent Octopus with my EV6 and if I want to preheat the car I start it from the app 10 minutes before I leave. Car is always defrosted/warmed up when I set off.
Octopus fitted my Ohme Pro and upgraded my smart meter at the same time. Great service

[Nomme de Plum]

I saved about £100 by getting the Ohme pro installed directly by a contractor, ie. not through Octopus. It was a bit quicker too.

Not a massive saving and maybe the peace of mind of going through Octopus maybe preferred.

[TooLateForAName]

ChrisH72 said:

Question about this car.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/2024010552...

In pic 20 it shows the battery as being nearly full but 80 miles showing. There's a warning triangle next to the battery. Something wrong with it?

I'm not sure that the warning is necessarily battery related - i think its just the notification.

that car is showing as untaxed since december so I suppose pics could be from cold weather mid winter?

Not sure that the dealer has a good name though.

[ChrisH72]

TooLateForAName said:

I'm not sure that the warning is necessarily battery related - i think its just the notification.

that car is showing as untaxed since december so I suppose pics could be from cold weather mid winter?

Not sure that the dealer has a good name though.

Ah right. In what way do they not have a good name? You mean they're dodgy?

I was thinking of asking for a test drive there as its fairly close and they seem to have a few i3 for sale.

[GT6k]

I think all EVs let you preheat the cabin by some means, usually the OEM app. In the case of the I3 there is a 'precondition for departure' option on the charge scheduler so that the cabin is warmed/cooled for whatever time you have set. If the car is on a charger and has at least 3 hours to go before departure then it will also heat the battery, if needed, which in very cold weather is better for battery health and range.

To use tariffs such as Octopus intelligent, you give control of the scheduler to Octopus and Octopus programme the charges to get you to a particular state of charge by the time you leave at a very cheap rate but this erases your set departure time so no cabin pre conditioning. You can still preheat the cabin using the app or a programmable key fob button but you have to remember to do this 15mins before departure.

[ChrisH72]

I'd be fine with doing it via an app 15 mins early.

[Scrimpton]

Its one of the best things about an EV. Warm it up from your mobile when you jump into the shower and get into a toasty warm car with clear windows while your neighbours are scraping. Lovely.

[clockworks]

Cobnapint said:

Charging is certainly dirt cheap from Octopus, well for 4 hours each night it is anyway. They seem to have the EV market captured, even more so now they've taken Shell Energy over.

The more mileage you do the better the gains are with their Go tariff. I think I'd be borderline as I only do about 3k a year. I'd need to spend some quality time with a calculator and my leccy bill pdfs to work it out. That's if I go EV of course, which I am sorely tempted to do after driving a Taycan GTS the other day.

I think a Macan 4 and Q6 e-tron test drive is on the books.

I only do about 3k miles a year on battery. Switching to Go from a standard tariff means I can charge my plug-in XC40 for nothing.

The "trick" is to shift some of the normal house usage into the cheap period. In my case, the immersion heater (no hot water from my oil boiler), dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier. For every kwh I shift from peak rate to off-peak, I get almost 2 "free" off-peak kwh to charge the car.
Getting 4 hours cheap rate for the house "base load" compensates for the slight increase in daytime rate over a standard tariff.

[Cobnapint]

Mmm. I just don't fancy running a washing machine while I'm fast asleep in bed. Or a dryer for that matter.