Running two EVs?

[neil-c]

Current fossil fuel lease coming to an end and looking at company salary sacrifice scheme for a Peugeot e208. I’m also looking for a new family car and after looking at 5 series and X3s and the like I’ve stumbled across incredible deals on Audi Etrons on the company scheme. Both myself and wife are in the scheme so one in each name.

As an EV virgin though I’m a bit nervous of running two EVs and being solely reliant on them. Anything I should consider? I have a large driveway and garage but would perhaps need to get garage supply checked.

We are not high mileage drivers. 8k miles pa each. Mostly short journeys (under 60mile round trips). Even taking into account hiring a large estate for holidays the maths are still crazily in the EVs favour

[SWoll]

We run a BMW i3 and a Tesla Model 3, do more mileage than you (12k each) and don't have a dedicated home charger so just alternate 3 pin charging with the odd rapid charge to supplement when convenient.

If you rarely do long trips (200+miles) like us then I don't see it being an issue personally. Might be worth looking at getting a dedicated charger for added convenience (7kW) but we've not found it necessary. Easy enough to plan in a rapid charge for occasional holiday use also.

[squirejo]

I also now have an i3 94ah REX and Tesla M3 LR. The Tesla came recently as the family car, having had a Zoe and then 2x i3 over the last 4 years. So, know what's what and have complete confidence in range, charging, etc. We absolutely love the Tesla and love having both. Haven't done a true long journey in the Tesla but to be honest that does not worry me at all esp with supercharger and European fast chargers at Mway services including ionity. And we don't have garage / drive either, but I do have charing at the office. With your setup, I would not hesitate.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Telsa Bjorn has done loads of tests in the e-tron, easy 200 mile range car, i could holiday anywhere in the UK with my family with just a tiny bit of planning, he's driven one 1000km in one go

https://www.youtube.com/user/bjornnyland/search?qu...

car wow just did a great range test

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH7V2tU3iFc

[MrOrange]

What are you doing about charging? I have a single 7kW charger at the moment and wondered if there was a better solution to a second charger if we got another EV? Or do we just alternate the use of the tethered charger?

[Dave Hedgehog]

MrOrange said:

What are you doing about charging? I have a single 7kW charger at the moment and wondered if there was a better solution to a second charger if we got another EV? Or do we just alternate the use of the tethered charger?

my missus will get an ID Buzz when they are launched so when I installed my 8KW charger i had 2 cables put in under the paviours, one ready for her charger

It was not needed, i only need to charge twice a week (15 hours driving) so there would be plenty of opportunity for her to charge

[granada203028]

I guess you would need to be careful not to overload your supply. My 1996 house has a 100A fuse so 24KVA. Older houses could have 60A or even 40A.

Not sure why the supply is so powerful. To cope with several 7KW electric showers, cooker, heating I guess. But all these loads are short duration. Showers don't take long and cookers/heaters throttle back once at temperature. EVs could use 7KW for hours. Having two then perhaps a bit profligate.

I can't believe everyone really could approach 100A at the same time.

My Leaf has perhaps increased our household energy consumption by 30%, mostly at night.

[rog007]

I’m heading towards two with no hesitation. First will be a Leaf for the local stuff, followed by an M3 Tesla Performance.

Looking forward to the acceleration and no more time stood in horrid cold wet forecourts in the winter pouring expensive fluids in to cars. Massively reduced running and servicing costs an added benefit.

[anonymous-user]

granada203028 said:

I guess you would need to be careful not to overload your supply. My 1996 house has a 100A fuse so 24KVA. Older houses could have 60A or even 40A.

Not sure why the supply is so powerful. To cope with several 7KW electric showers, cooker, heating I guess. But all these loads are short duration. Showers don't take long and cookers/heaters throttle back once at temperature. EVs could use 7KW for hours. Having two then perhaps a bit profligate.

I can't believe everyone really could approach 100A at the same time.

My Leaf has perhaps increased our household energy consumption by 30%, mostly at night.

Depends. As I’ve said elsewhere, we have a 100A fuse but we have a 26A heat pump which although on and off does run at that level often during the winter and on a daily basis for a short time every day of the year.

There’s also 2 x 11.25A immersions, one runs daily and one weekly, and a third very occasionally, a 4A water pump and other bits and bobs.

Not to mention the cooker which is also electric.

With a 30A charger and all those running we’d be well into 90+ amps. Of course they shouldn’t all be going at once and it’s easy to plan for but wouldn’t be so easy with, say, a 60A fuse.

With heat pumps becoming more common some thought must be given to maximum load and diversity.

[neil-c]

Charging supply is one of my concerns. Is it as simple as getting an electrician out before charger install to check I have the infrastructure? I have a 1900 house, obviously rewired a couple of times and a separate fuse box in the garage. What should I be looking to have available for charging?

Apologies if these are totally basic questions but rather than proper research, I’ve been speccing my etron all night and getting rather excited

[dave_s13]

neil-c said:

Current fossil fuel lease coming to an end and looking at company salary sacrifice scheme for a Peugeot e208. ..

208 or 2008?

I ordered a 2008 yesterday via our salary sacrifice scheme as the price seemed too good to be true. And it's not letting me complete the order. As far as I can see you can't even order one yet but the scheme days a 12week lead time???

Anyway,

You'll be fine with 2 EVs as long as you can get at least one proper charger installed....just alternate its use.

[neil-c]

dave_s13 said:

208 or 2008?

I ordered a 2008 yesterday via our salary sacrifice scheme as the price seemed too good to be true. And it's not letting me complete the order. As far as I can see you can't even order one yet but the scheme days a 12week lead time?

Anyway,

You'll be fine with 2 EVs as long as you can get at least one proper charger installed....just alternate its use.

Just looked and 2008 actually £5 pcm cheaper, go figure? Anyway I think I prefer the look of the 208 especially as a second car, but the EV pricing on salary sacrifice just looks too good to be true.

I’ve actually worked out that ordering two EVs (Peugeot and Audi) would be £90 more per month than what I’m paying right now. That’s minus depreciation. Bearing in mind I’m talking about changing a 8 year old evoque and a Mazda 3 lease for an Audi etron and a Peugeot e208. Bonkers!!!!

[dave_s13]

How do we compare then?

Mine is.

e2008 GT in that no cost burnt orangey colour
0 x 24 (no upfront payment)
7500 miles
Insurance, maintenance, tyres.

£241/month.

The only downside is you do have to consider is it reduces your pension contribution and therefore your employer's contribution on top by an amount. It's impossible to determine what the actual effect on your pension payments might be in any meaningful way. In my simple mind anyway.
And your business miles claim rate reduces to a few pence per mile too.

[neil-c]

dave_s13 said:

How do we compare then?

Mine is.

e2008 GT in that no cost burnt orangey colour
0 x 24 (no upfront payment)
7500 miles
Insurance, maintenance, tyres.

£241/month.

The only downside is you do have to consider is it reduces your pension contribution and therefore your employer's contribution on top by an amount. It's impossible to determine what the actual effect on your pension payments might be in any meaningful way. In my simple mind anyway.
And your business miles claim rate reduces to a few pence per mile too.

E208 GT 136 is £223 pcm for 7500 miles. Only fuel to add.

I’m not sure I understand the impact on pension contributions though. Care to expand on that?

[jonty88]

What company’s are providing the salary sacrifice schemes?

I’ve seen some good deals for NHS staff and the one above seems to be very competitive - ours through Arval seem extremely uncompetitive, a chunk of the tax saving is offset by their rates for the car being ~25% higher than market rate.

[neil-c]

My company uses Tusker

[dave_s13]

neil-c said:

E208 GT 136 is £223 pcm for 7500 miles. Only fuel to add.

I’m not sure I understand the impact on pension contributions though. Care to expand on that?

Ours is NHS via tusker.




The above shows how much less you are paying into the pension. You can then add circa 14% to that for the employer contribution component.

What this actually ends up costing in retirement is impossible to calculate without some specialist advice. Your mileage claim rate also comes down from nearly 50p/mile to something nearer to 5p.

I'm amazed at the Audi etron prices...£325/month.... for a 70k car!?

[granada203028]

dave_s13 said:

208 or 2008?

I ordered a 2008 yesterday via our salary sacrifice scheme as the price seemed too good to be true. And it's not letting me complete the order. As far as I can see you can't even order one yet but the scheme days a 12week lead time???

Anyway,

You'll be fine with 2 EVs as long as you can get at least one proper charger installed....just alternate its use.

What do you mean by a "proper charger"?

The chargers don't contain any power conversion electronics. Up to 7KW or possibly more are contained inside the car. Only fast chargers have this off board. Just simple circuitry to tell the car the maximum it should pull. So they appear disproportionally fancy and expensive for what they are. When I replace my Leaf I will have a IEC 60309 standard blue 32A single phase socket.

[dave_s13]

I mean one attached to the wall as oopose to a 3pin plug.

I've got a 32a charger on the wall from a few years ago when Renault were punting out Zoe's for effectively free!

[gangzoom]

granada203028 said:

I can't believe everyone really could approach 100A at the same time.

Even with 2 EVs that's pretty much impossible if you have gas heating+water. This was our electricity usage/demand over last Christmas, 8 people in a 5 bed room house. Peak demand barely reached 30amp and that was for very brief periods. For one EV even a 60amp fuse is fine for most households if you're charging over night.