32A Granny cable review/tear down
Discussion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT8IsAd9ea0
Good to know these things are available for sensible money and quality. Definitely the way I would go with my own 32A socket when I replace the Leaf. Don't want to be paying for some fancy box and government grants could be better spent elsewhere.
Good to know these things are available for sensible money and quality. Definitely the way I would go with my own 32A socket when I replace the Leaf. Don't want to be paying for some fancy box and government grants could be better spent elsewhere.
Just to play devils advocate.
I have bought half a dozen cheaper laptop chargers and batteries from various Chinese sources, they have all failed with the first few months, a MBP battery swelled up like a balloon and the worst a MBP charger actually caught fire.
I would have trouble trusting this stuff, I have seen cheaper Chinese clones of Chinese copies lol
I have bought half a dozen cheaper laptop chargers and batteries from various Chinese sources, they have all failed with the first few months, a MBP battery swelled up like a balloon and the worst a MBP charger actually caught fire.
I would have trouble trusting this stuff, I have seen cheaper Chinese clones of Chinese copies lol
Avantime said:
I've just got one. The only problem is very poor reception so the SIM isn't working at all well.....
That’s good to know, don’t moan about it........when it comes to putting a fuel tax on the electricity used to charge your EV how do you think they are going to know your charging? Keep schtummm
Boxbrownie said:
That’s good to know, don’t moan about it........when it comes to putting a fuel tax on the electricity used to charge your EV how do you think they are going to know your charging?
Keep schtummm
Agreed, it's going to be impossible without smart cables, but even then there's so many ways to charge a car now. Keep schtummm
The only way to start taxing these cars is by having a black box in the cars or toll checks on the road (eg license plate readers).
It's the only good way and allows for more flexible payment schemes. eg using busy roads in rush hour costs more than driving in the evening. It's going to be harder to tax for consumption though (eg an e-tron vs a Model 3).
For someone of us (like me) this will mean we'll have to pay a lot more, which makes sense. I used to pay a lot of taxes for driving, in terms of fuel taxes.
At the moment I pay nothing. No yearly road tax, no fuel tax. Yet I do 40k km/year. Our second car, a petrol hatchback that does 5k km/year, on the other hand has to pay yearly road tax
I know this is a way to bring the technology mainstream, but it's going to require a whole new way of taxing cars to get around it. Here in Belgium, I see cameras reading license plates as the most logical solution. We already have a lot of them installed a couple of years ago when we started taxing HGVs for their use; being a bit of the roundabout of Europe we had an exorbitant share of foreign HGVs on the road that clogged the system without paying a penny. It's a matter of time really that they announce it. The big question is how they are going to tax this, what will the rates be.
As someone who thinks the ideal amount of cars is n+1, where n is the number of cars you have now (I think many on this forum know the sentiment), the yearly tax, especially on heavier engines, is just silly. So it would be nice to see that go. Then there's the enormous taxes on petrol and diesel. I can't imagine them not keeping that, so the question will be if they will double (or tripple) taxes on ICE.
TL;DR
Currently there's two main taxes:
1) Yearly road tax
2) Tax on fuel
There's a new one they have to implement:
3) By mile driven
Electric cars can only be taxed on 1 and 3, ICE can be taxed on all 3.
Edited by ZesPak on Thursday 30th January 10:09
Boxbrownie said:
That’s good to know, don’t moan about it........when it comes to putting a fuel tax on the electricity used to charge your EV how do you think they are going to know your charging?
Keep schtummm
That's right the cable simply tells the car what maximum current to draw. Don't need anything else.Keep schtummm
Boxbrownie said:
Avantime said:
I've just got one. The only problem is very poor reception so the SIM isn't working at all well.....
That’s good to know, don’t moan about it........when it comes to putting a fuel tax on the electricity used to charge your EV how do you think they are going to know your charging? Keep schtummm
JonnyVTEC said:
Granny lead is a 3 pin plug isn’t it, max 13A.
Yes the granny lead supplied with the car is usually for use with the standard domestic socket. The leads reviewed are functionally the same but tell the car it can draw up to 32A and hence come with an industrial standard 32A plug.It is not a charger as such as it doesn't contain any power conversion electronics, that resides in the car.
The car industry obviously wants to drum up business and so quite successfully has built up this myth that people require these special professionally installed "chargers" and got the Government to subsidise it. As I say owners only need simpler installations by normal electricians and the government should spend the grants on something more worth while such schools and hospitals.
JonnyVTEC said:
Granny lead is a 3 pin plug isn’t it, max 13A.
Like most bits of slang, the term is imprecise. Should more correctly be EVSE - portable, I suppose, with added clarification of current capacity......so we call them all Granny chargers 
Typical bricks supplied with cars are indeed fitted with domestic socket compatible plugs, so limited to 13A max here in the UK. Not that I'd use one at that for long TBH - 10A is probably a safer long term maximum current.
Having one with a 32A connector and capacity is a great idea, assuming you have a 32A interlocked socket at home. Probably not all that useful on the road for most folk though?
I can’t quite yet get my head around all this but it appears that the installers are having a field day with the grants.
OHME sell the charger being discussed for £400. I guess we then have to have an interlocked socket fitted, (£150?) to plug it into?
The same thing installed can be had for about £350? That wouldn’t, presumably, need the interlock socket? After grant.
Which implies that the installers take maybe £450 for installing the charger?
Not bad money for the typical job, I wouldn’t have thought. Or have I got it wrong?
OHME sell the charger being discussed for £400. I guess we then have to have an interlocked socket fitted, (£150?) to plug it into?
The same thing installed can be had for about £350? That wouldn’t, presumably, need the interlock socket? After grant.
Which implies that the installers take maybe £450 for installing the charger?
Not bad money for the typical job, I wouldn’t have thought. Or have I got it wrong?
REALIST123 said:
I can’t quite yet get my head around all this but it appears that the installers are having a field day with the grants.
OHME sell the charger being discussed for £400. I guess we then have to have an interlocked socket fitted, (£150?) to plug it into?
The same thing installed can be had for about £350? That wouldn’t, presumably, need the interlock socket? After grant.
Which implies that the installers take maybe £450 for installing the charger?
Not bad money for the typical job, I wouldn’t have thought. Or have I got it wrong?
It does seem a decent return for not much work. I had a Rolec put in on the grant and still had to contribute £250. So they got £750 in total. I’d even supplied and run some 10mm cable, the bloke just had to connect the ends and screw the box to the wall. I did that for a few reasons, the main ones being I wanted the cable to go a particular route and knew up front they wouldn’t be willing to do that, and it was close to their 10m run limit. Over 10m and they charged extra. Figured it was just better for me to DIY the actual cable.OHME sell the charger being discussed for £400. I guess we then have to have an interlocked socket fitted, (£150?) to plug it into?
The same thing installed can be had for about £350? That wouldn’t, presumably, need the interlock socket? After grant.
Which implies that the installers take maybe £450 for installing the charger?
Not bad money for the typical job, I wouldn’t have thought. Or have I got it wrong?
I’m sure there are cases where they earn their fee, but can’t help thinking it’s a good money spinner. Then again, in fairness, I have no idea what overheads they may have to support.
Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff