Any experience with the free Vanarama home chargers?
Discussion
Mwalker52 said:
Ordered an EV lease from Vanarama. Can anyone share their experience of the installation of the free home charger.
My main concerned is the vehicle being delivered long before the charger is installed, which could cause some logistical issues!
No experience of the charger deal, but I did go a couple of weeks with just the granny charger to top our first EV up and I thought it was going to be a nightmare... But in reality it was more than sufficient. Ours charges at around 7mph on the granny charger so plug it in at 6pm, leave it until 8am, you start everyday with 100miles more than you ended the day before. That's way more than most of us use each day - so I wouldn't worry about the delay in fitting too much unless you do high miles.My main concerned is the vehicle being delivered long before the charger is installed, which could cause some logistical issues!
c2mike said:
Using the granny cable is fine (provided your 13A circuit can handle continuous 10A), but longer term you need to consider the charging efficiency loss from using the on board charger at significantly lower than rated capacity. They are more efficient at higher Amps.
That's a fair point. I would say that the difference is so little that a person could well never pay back the cost of having the fast charger fitted.. but:
1) It's more convenient to have the fast charger so it's worth the money imo.
2) When you eventually sell the house, the charger will probably add value at least equal to the purchase and installation cost. If the prospective buyer sees you have one installed, they don't have to worry about the unknown expense or potential complication of getting one installed themselves.
TheDeuce said:
That's a fair point.
I would say that the difference is so little that a person could well never pay back the cost of having the fast charger fitted.. but:
1) It's more convenient to have the fast charger so it's worth the money imo.
2) When you eventually sell the house, the charger will probably add value at least equal to the purchase and installation cost. If the prospective buyer sees you have one installed, they don't have to worry about the unknown expense or potential complication of getting one installed themselves.
Agreed. Early Renault Zoe was particularly bad - the AC charger was optimised for 43kW, so was very inefficient on 2.3kWI would say that the difference is so little that a person could well never pay back the cost of having the fast charger fitted.. but:
1) It's more convenient to have the fast charger so it's worth the money imo.
2) When you eventually sell the house, the charger will probably add value at least equal to the purchase and installation cost. If the prospective buyer sees you have one installed, they don't have to worry about the unknown expense or potential complication of getting one installed themselves.
This paper indicates ~ 5% difference beween 10A and 40A: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...
Edited by c2mike on Monday 28th February 18:47
We leased a Hyundai Ioniq5 from Vanarama in November last year with the free charger option. It took about 6 weeks before the charger was fitted so we were running on the granny charger for that period.
My daily commute uses ~20% of the battery, the granny charger could get ~20% back onto the battery overnight so we pretty much broke even through the week. The Vanarama charger only takes 2-3hrs to replace my normal daily usage.
They needed various photos of the electrical meter & consumer unit in the house and a diagram of where we wanted the charger as part of the application process. The unit was fitted by a 3rd party installer who was excellent (we're in Aberdeenshire), a really neat job (although he had a bit of a scare as we had a power cut when he was half-way through fitting and didn't realise until there was no electricity when he switched the main breaker to the house back on!)
My daily commute uses ~20% of the battery, the granny charger could get ~20% back onto the battery overnight so we pretty much broke even through the week. The Vanarama charger only takes 2-3hrs to replace my normal daily usage.
They needed various photos of the electrical meter & consumer unit in the house and a diagram of where we wanted the charger as part of the application process. The unit was fitted by a 3rd party installer who was excellent (we're in Aberdeenshire), a really neat job (although he had a bit of a scare as we had a power cut when he was half-way through fitting and didn't realise until there was no electricity when he switched the main breaker to the house back on!)
Blockbuster said:
Out of interest, how long were you waiting for the Ioniq 5? I test drove one at the weekend and am ready to lease or buy one, but everyone I have spoken to is quoting January 2023 as a delivery date
We were swithering between a couple of models but our decision was made for us as they had the RWD Premium one in stock on something like 4 week delivery, everything else was 6 months + Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff