Advice for a complete novice

[Blue62]

I’m changing cars at the moment and seriously contemplating going full EV for one of the family motors. Most of my driving is local but I do the occasional 400m round trip and usually have one or two Euro trips pa.

I don’t want a Tesla but their network is an obvious appeal, so my questions are:

What do I need to set up home charging and what would it cost?

How easy is it to charge away from home on the U.K. network?

I gather charging us easier/better on the continent, anyone confirm this?

Thanks in advance, I know these are very basic points and I’ve been following the threads on here which are illuminating but not altogether clear at times.

[LaserTam]

Blue62 said:

I’m changing cars at the moment and seriously contemplating going full EV for one of the family motors. Most of my driving is local but I do the occasional 400m round trip and usually have one or two Euro trips pa.

I don’t want a Tesla but their network is an obvious appeal, so my questions are:

What do I need to set up home charging and what would it cost?

How easy is it to charge away from home on the U.K. network?

I gather charging us easier/better on the continent, anyone confirm this?

Thanks in advance, I know these are very basic points and I’ve been following the threads on here which are illuminating but not altogether clear at times.

Home charge point - costs can vary depending on the location of where you want the charge point and the cable run to your mains electric (consumer unit etc) but cost for a standard installation would be £750 including the charge point.

I have limited experience of UK charging as I almost exclusively charge at home. But its improving I believe but still seems to be lots of chargers offline. There a couple of good apps which tell you where they are, whether they are working and in use. A bit of planning is needed when going on a trip, always have a plan B and C in case the first one is busy or not working,

Can't help with outside the UK.

[TheDrownedApe]

i can't comment on foreign driving

I think home wall chargers have gone up to crazy levels recently - i saw a comment the other day on here about someone being quoted over £1k for one. 18 months ago ours was £599. Some opt for dumb commando sockets and then buy a smart cable.

We mainly do local miles and 99% charge at home, during the night on cheap rate. 3 times a year it's Cov to St Ives and we fully charge, stop once on route for 30-45 mins and easily get there - although i like to draft to reduce the need to stop twice.

6 times a year we go on 400 mile round trips to family and purchased a 3pin smart charger and prey upon their goodwill to recharge - although it's handy they all have drives.

I don't think Tesla is the panacea of charging, most other companies now offer contactless so the days of multiple apps and accounts are gone.

We've just bought a C40 and await Apr delivery as our 2nd EV, hopefully no looking back to ICE now.

[Blue62]

Thanks so far, if I buy the car offered it will arrive in the next couple of weeks, will plugging it into the wall work while I wait to have a charger installed?

[DrJFoster]

What do I need to set up home charging and what would it cost?

- you're looking at a £1k nowadays but you can do some quick checks yourself - ideally you need a 100A main fuse into your home, 80A is probably ok, you should be able to find it near your consumer unit. If its 60A then you'll need that upgrading. Secondly, work out the path from the consumer unit to where you'd put the charger. If its a tortuous route then its going to be more difficult than if its the other side of a wall.

How easy is it to charge away from home on the U.K. network?

- charging speeds vary depending on the type of charger and the max speed your car can take. You really need a car with the CCS rapid charge port (older cars may have a chadamo plug which is becoming less common to find charging points), CCS can be found in lots of places at 50kw (which will take an hour or so to fully charge an EV) and faster speeds at some locations, but the car you pick may slow that down.

- slower chargers (ironically sometimes called fast chargers, or destination chargers) will charge like you charge on a home charger. These are more suitable for when you leave the car for several hours (hence destination charger name)

- another way of answering, it's easy but not always quick.

I gather charging us easier/better on the continent, anyone confirm this?

- it's not difficult, and some countries are very well supported. But you need to be mindful of the max charge rate of the car. If it 50kw then it's still going to take over an hour or so even on a charger thats capable of doing more.

zapmap and plugshare show you the distribution of chargers and you can apply filters to see the differnet types.

[Martyn76]

Blue62 said:

I’m changing cars at the moment and seriously contemplating going full EV for one of the family motors. Most of my driving is local but I do the occasional 400m round trip and usually have one or two Euro trips pa.

I don’t want a Tesla but their network is an obvious appeal, so my questions are:

What do I need to set up home charging and what would it cost?

How easy is it to charge away from home on the U.K. network?

I gather charging us easier/better on the continent, anyone confirm this?

Thanks in advance, I know these are very basic points and I’ve been following the threads on here which are illuminating but not altogether clear at times.

Electrifying.com is quite a good YouTube site for explaining all things EV and ownership; https://www.youtube.com/c/Electrifyingcom

[TheDeuce]

Blue62 said:

Thanks so far, if I buy the car offered it will arrive in the next couple of weeks, will plugging it into the wall work while I wait to have a charger installed?

Yes and that's fairly typical while new owners wait on getting the proper charger installed. A fair few on here apparently ended up relying on the granny charger alone, although I think it's well worth having a proper charger fitted just in case you need to add decent range in a shorter time than the granny charger can manage. Also it's arguably a bonus in terms of house value/saleability in the future - not because it adds direct value but because it reassures future owners that there is one fitted and they won't have to worry about it as an unknown expense/complexity.

As for 400m trips and longer europe trips, the 400m stuff is easy, you can't travel that distance in the UKL without going past/near hundreds of at least 50kw chargers, even they will add between 125-150 miles in an hour, so that's basically one leisurely lunchbreak stop in a 400m trip and you're done.

Across Europe all reports are that charging is like at home, but generally easier!

[aestetix1]

Non-Tesla charging is pretty good now, but Tesla are opening their network up to other vehicles as well so by the time you get one you will likely be able to use Tesla chargers as well.

[Blue62]

That’s great, useful and friendly advice and much appreciated.

[DrJFoster]

Martyn76 said:

Blue62 said:

I’m changing cars at the moment and seriously contemplating going full EV for one of the family motors. Most of my driving is local but I do the occasional 400m round trip and usually have one or two Euro trips pa.

I don’t want a Tesla but their network is an obvious appeal, so my questions are:

What do I need to set up home charging and what would it cost?

How easy is it to charge away from home on the U.K. network?

I gather charging us easier/better on the continent, anyone confirm this?

Thanks in advance, I know these are very basic points and I’ve been following the threads on here which are illuminating but not altogether clear at times.

Electrifying.com is quite a good YouTube site for explaining all things EV and ownership; https://www.youtube.com/c/Electrifyingcom

They blew their opportunity with me when they said in one of their videos that a e-tron would take over 3 days to charge using a home 3 pin charger.

It's simple maths really. 10a, 2.3kw an hour, every day you can add about 50kwh..They never stopped to consider the logic of what they were about to say or check they'd not done something stupid which it turns out they had. If you don't understand the numbers you're quoting then its the blind leading the blind

[TheDeuce]

DrJFoster said:

Martyn76 said:

Blue62 said:

I’m changing cars at the moment and seriously contemplating going full EV for one of the family motors. Most of my driving is local but I do the occasional 400m round trip and usually have one or two Euro trips pa.

I don’t want a Tesla but their network is an obvious appeal, so my questions are:

What do I need to set up home charging and what would it cost?

How easy is it to charge away from home on the U.K. network?

I gather charging us easier/better on the continent, anyone confirm this?

Thanks in advance, I know these are very basic points and I’ve been following the threads on here which are illuminating but not altogether clear at times.

Electrifying.com is quite a good YouTube site for explaining all things EV and ownership; https://www.youtube.com/c/Electrifyingcom

They blew their opportunity with me when they said in one of their videos that a e-tron would take over 3 days to charge using a home 3 pin charger.

It's simple maths really. 10a, 2.3kw an hour, every day you can add about 50kwh..They never stopped to consider the logic of what they were about to say or check they'd not done something stupid which it turns out they had. If you don't understand the numbers you're quoting then its the blind leading the blind

My favourite is when youtube 'experts' explain that an EV goes less far on motorways because it's constant speed so there is no regen. As if regen was a form of free energy that can somehow put power back into the car faster than the car uses power to get moving in the first place!

[gangzoom]

Blue62 said:

have one or two Euro trips pa.

I think I've done 4 trips to Europe in our 5 year old EV, it would have been more without COVID. 2023 accommodation for Italy is already booked .

Charging/driving the EV in Europe is much much nicer than trudging along any where in UK traffic/roads. You have no worries on that front.

[Greedydog]

Blue62 said:

I’m changing cars at the moment and seriously contemplating going full EV for one of the family motors. Most of my driving is local but I do the occasional 400m round trip and usually have one or two Euro trips pa.

I don’t want a Tesla but their network is an obvious appeal, so my questions are:

What do I need to set up home charging and what would it cost?

How easy is it to charge away from home on the U.K. network?

I gather charging us easier/better on the continent, anyone confirm this?

Thanks in advance, I know these are very basic points and I’ve been following the threads on here which are illuminating but not altogether clear at times.

We just got our first EV a couple of weeks ago. Initially the plan was to charge off a granny charger whilst we waited for the home charger installation. That plan was scuppered by it tripping our RCD (which became relevant to the cost of our home charger install) so we had to use the public charging networks from the get go.

I just used Zapmap to identify the local charging points, joined the various networks as necessary and spent a leisurely evening touring the different sites to ensure we could use them. Ultimately all very painless and I don’t foresee any issues doing long trips in the UK.

For the home charger install we got a number of quotes from specialist installation companies and from our usual electricians. As mentioned in other replies your current home electrics will influence cost and hassle, we had to have a new RCD and other work and because of this and availability we went with the more costly local electrician option. In total it came to £1100 (£695 of which was for the Hypervolt charger). It’s now all working perfectly.

[Knock_knock]

Octopus energy offer an Electric Juice card which covers both UK and Europe.

https://electricjuice.octopus.energy/network/map

You get a free RFID card which enables access to a considerable number of networks. If you are an Octopus energy customer the cost gets added to your bill, otherwise you need to register a credit card or bank account with them for payment.

[M4cruiser]

Blue62 said:

That’s great, useful and friendly advice and much appreciated.

Don't overlook the cheap home charger option, i.e. a standard 3-pin plug, which will charge at 10 to 12 amps (about 2.5Kw).
If you don't have one in your garage you can fit an outside waterproof one.
Less than the £1,000 cost of fitting a proper home-charger.

Proper home chargers will be either 3.3 Kw (15 amps) or 7Kw (30 amps).
A 7Kw charger will charge your car at about 25 mph, i.e. takes 4 hours to put 100 miles in the tank.
A normal 3-pin plug takes about 12 hours for that. Depending on your planned usage, that might be enough.

[Krikkit]

For a euro trip I stumbled on this thanks to the algorithm recently, not particularly a fan of the chap but it's interesting to see everything in action

https://youtube.com/v/DmO0jwcc0Js

[Michael_B]

I didn't want a Tesla either, but then found that a Model 3 was the only vehicle that made sense for my needs, budget and travel profile. The Supercharger network is just a bonus for the couple of times a year I find myself driving to Italy or further away in France.

Half of the time it gets charged at my Swiss house, via a 11kW charger of which half the purchase/install costs were subsidised by the Geneva government; all private residences have 3 phase supply as standard. The other half of the time I charge it at my French farmhouse (150km away) where my granny charger lives permanently plugged into a standard 13A socket in the barn, with the cable running under the rickety barn door. It has charged happily at 13A (nearly 3kW) with no adverse effects on the socket or cables, or tripping any RCDs, for the past 22 months and 4'000 kWh of electrons.

There's no financial sense in spending a shedload on installing a faster charge point here (I am WFH in France today), even though there is also a 3 phase supply. Whenever I get here I never need to depart quickly, and if ever I did suddenly and urgently need to return to Geneva, as I charge to 90% before leaving, there is plenty of range to do the 150km back again straight away if necessary, even in winter. If I did arrive here with a low state of charge, there is a Supercharger 15 minutes away at the Poulet de Bresse motorway service station, and others <100km away in Dijon, Beaune, Mâcon if I had to set off in those directions. Otherwise I schedule it to charge during the off-peak period at night where it refills more than enough for local trips around here and then up to 90% again for the return journey on a Sunday night.

I have French colleagues in the Geneva office who have recently purchased Peugeot EVs for their 150km round trip commutes. I told both of them to hold off installing any form of charge-point until they had thoroughly researched what they wanted/needed. Both have been granny-charging in their garages/off-street parking for the past 3-4 months with no ill effects. Both of them have also been working off-site in Lausanne and elsewhere in Switzerland and have found public fast-chargers available and easy to use where necessary.

[rewild]

I did 400 miles on Weds in the i3S, a car with a range of about 100-110 miles at 70mph. It's fine. It's easy peasy. Just stick to the expensive reliable chargers for long journeys. I think all the issues reported are from people trying to use the cheap ones. Even if you occasionally pay 50 or 60p per kWh on a long trip, it's still way cheaper than petrol, so who cares? Just pay it and relax.

Just go for it. You'll get used to it around home, and soon extend your radius of comfort. Keep the car 60% charged at home, and top up with public chargers whenever you go out, just to get the hang of using them, collect the apps, learn their little idiosyncrasies and set up payment if required (most are just contactless now, but a few are pre-pay like PodPoint, which I really like.)

Within a week you'll realise it's no bother at all and you could do it for any distance. It's just one hop at a time to the next charger. How many hops you link together is really limitless these days.

While you charge, you simply check the map for the next charger you want to aim for, and you can unplug and set off again whenever the dash says you've got more than enough charge to get there, plus a bit for your own range anxiety comfort factor, or to give you options. I found I very quickly am happy not having 50 miles of additional range more than I actually need. If it says I'll get there with 10 miles to spare, well, that's loads.

If you get a Tesla, you don't even need to do the map checking. It'll work it all out for you and tell you when to unplug and move on. You don't fill up every time.

Good luck.

[Heres Johnny]

rewild said:

I think all the issues reported are from people trying to use the cheap ones.

In my experience its people who have never used a brand of charger before, can't follow the instructions and decide to blame the charger. I used the Charge Place Scotlan chargers earlier in the year, couldn't get the first one to work for ages, eventually realised my mistake (and it was mine) and no more issues for the rest of the holiday. I'm sure some would have thrown their hands in the air and blamed the chargers. I'd accept the argument that some of them could be a little easier to use, but once you've done it once, its usually straightforward.

[NDA]

Blue62 said:

Thanks so far, if I buy the car offered it will arrive in the next couple of weeks, will plugging it into the wall work while I wait to have a charger installed?

Plugging into a regular socket will give you roughly 10/11 miles of range per hour of charging.... a 7kw 32amp connection roughly 31 miles of range per hour.