Petrolhead Luddite EV Journey

[fridaypassion]

So as a died in the wool car guy and running a business selling Sports Cars no less the time has finally come for us to drag ourselves into this century and we have taken the decision to finally get an EV!

So the Mrs has had a Macan on PCP which was coming to an end in June this year. She loves her cars but we hadn't really seen an EV that made sense. The new ones on a business lease through our work which makes much more sense and I have to say I think we wouldn't be in the EV space if it wasn't for the advantage of offsetting it against our tax bill...I told you I'm a Luddite.

So the possible choices were an Electra from Lotus and Macan EV. The Lotus is just too big and although we actually sell Lotus cars for a living I do have a bit of a thing about China and I would not like to line the pockets of the Chinese to the tune of 100k plus so that was a none starter. The Macan EV we did think about long and hard but they are 80 for a like for like swap on her current ICE car and that s the lower power one with some bling wheels but basically just a base model. I feel Porsche missed the target with the Macan just making it too expensive. Also we have 3 kids and the rear legroom in the Macan EV is only slightly better than the ICE car. Porsche have basically just electrified their existing car and I think they have missed a trick there....

So. EV for people that really like cars? Enter the mighty Ioniq 5N!



I was idly looking on YouTube and this came up interesting watching it drift around but oddly the thing that sold it really was the rear space which is enormous and a good fit for 3 growing kids. We were on a weekend away and called in to the local Hyundai dealer for a nose around and even saw one in our chosen colour.

So docs signed and next thing was getting a charger went for the Ohme after doing bit of research but hit a snag straight away we have had to get the local electric board to come out to do a fuse upgrade. We have two building on the property so I think it's a "looped system" which I think is what set them off. At least its been done right and once its in its in and I think these days will add a bit of appeal to the property if you ever sold.

Anyway thats where we are up to now it looks like the car will arrive before the charger is installed. Any tips for "wild charging"?

Edited by fridaypassion on Saturday 22 February 18:53

[tamore]

just granny charge for a bit if it comes with one.

[PetrolHeadInRecovery]

tamore said:

just granny charge for a bit if it comes with one.

This!

Even with the super-cautious 1.8kW charger, you can get enough charge overnight to cover 100km/60miles on the highway or almost double that in town.

PS. Congrats on the 5N!

[ChocolateFrog]

As above avoid public charging where reasonably possible.

Enjoy 650hp and 3p a mile.

[fridaypassion]

tamore said:

just granny charge for a bit if it comes with one.

Is granny charge via a 3 pin plug?

[tamore]

fridaypassion said:

tamore said:

just granny charge for a bit if it comes with one.

Is granny charge via a 3 pin plug?

yep.

[OutInTheShed]

Charge at home as much as you can, but public charging isn't much more per mile than petrol or diesel.

Look for chargers which are at places you don't mind spending time?

Compared with a year ago, or even 6 months ago, I'm noticing more chargers at places we stop, like National Trust car parks and cafes, garden centres, museum car parks....

It's still not ideal if you just want to get home when it's late in the evening and you've got work the next day, but it's increasingly possible to avoid killing time in motorway services.

[numtumfutunch]

fridaypassion said:

The new ones on a business lease through our work which makes much more sense and I have to say I think we wouldn't be in the EV space if it wasn't for the advantage of offsetting it against our tax bill...I told you I'm a Luddite.

Edited by fridaypassion on Saturday 22 February 18:53

Interested in the thread but also wonder what EV uptake would be in the UK if business perks and salary sacrifice stopped and they had to make financial sense on their own

Not a dig OP - just an observation

Cheers

[NomadicTurbo]

numtumfutunch said:

Interested in the thread but also wonder what EV uptake would be in the UK if business perks and salary sacrifice stopped and they had to make financial sense on their own

Not a dig OP - just an observation

Cheers

Of the 11 people that I know that have signed up to the Salary Sacrifice EV scheme through our company, or sister companies, all of them are external staff, not permanent office staff and every one of them said they would not have considered an EV if it wasn't for the tax benefit.

ETA: I am very interested in the Ioniq 5N and look forward to seeing how you get on with it OP

Edited by NomadicTurbo on Saturday 22 February 20:41

[fridaypassion]

numtumfutunch said:

Interested in the thread but also wonder what EV uptake would be in the UK if business perks and salary sacrifice stopped and they had to make financial sense on their own

Not a dig OP - just an observation

Cheers

No it's a very valid point. I think initially for us we just wouldn't have been in the market without these perks. The government increased our tax by 6% last year for no reason/benefit so I'm on an absolute mission to reduce our tax by every single means legally possible and this was an easy way to chip away at that.

However having had a closer look at this car the packaging is amazing and a big selling point. The boot is vast and the rest leg room for the kids is absolutely unreal. It's a really cleverly thought out car from what we have seen of it so far.

[tamore]

EVs on pure BEV platforms rather than ICE platforms with batteries / motors shoehorned in, are so much better.

[rfn]

I hope you enjoy your 5N! My other half had a 'normal' Ioniq5 for ~6 months as a company car. We were quite sad when it had to go due to redundancy as we both loved it.

[Simon_GH]

I use a Masterplug 3 pin granny charger from Halfords. £160 ish to buy. A 5 hour charge from a garage plug provides 55 ish miles on our car. I restrict the charging time because we get 5 hours cheap between midnight and 5 am. If you’re on flat rate then charging for 12 hours overnight should add 100 miles unless you’re thrashing it,

[sixor8]

11 mph charging on a 3 pin plug? Are you getting nearly 7 miles / kWh or something driving it?

I charge my Honda eNy1 for 5 hours cheap rate per night and when it was cold, the car was receiving about about 8 kW in those 5 hours (net). I can't get higher than about 3.6 miles / kWh driving it in the recent weather, hence, i.e. under 6 mph charging.

I like it a lot but it is VERY slow charging on only a 3 pin plug The provided type 1 lead is limited to 10A and it mostly only pulls about 9A (gross)

[Knock_knock]

fridaypassion said:

So. EV for people that really like cars? Enter the mighty Ioniq 5N!

Anyway thats where we are up to now it looks like the car will arrive before the charger is installed. Any tips for "wild charging"?

In addition to "granny charging" get yourself an Octopus Electroverse card (you don't have to be with Octopus for your energy, you can link a credit card to this) and you get access to a huge network of chargers both in the UK and across Europe. It also offers discounts on some networks, and plunge pricing on occasion when there's excess renewables.

https://electroverse.com/map

[Guopeng1]

An overnight charge on cheap rate would give you a good few miles next day, if you don't go mad.

[fridaypassion]

Knock_knock said:

In addition to "granny charging" get yourself an Octopus Electroverse card (you don't have to be with Octopus for your energy, you can link a credit card to this) and you get access to a huge network of chargers both in the UK and across Europe. It also offers discounts on some networks, and plunge pricing on occasion when there's excess renewables.

https://electroverse.com/map

Thanks for that this is all new to me if you pardon the pun I'm "Green"

So as an EV newbie I can see an immediate issue here with the infrastructure there are loads of chargers but 80 odd pence per KWH!? Obviously you'll be using those in dire emergencies only then! Crikey 3.5 times the household price cap thats interesting.

Luckily for us the Mrs will be using it in the main for local running about so we will almost exclusively be home charging I should think.

Are there any hacks for getting cheaper wild charging?

[Road2Ruin]

numtumfutunch said:

fridaypassion said:

The new ones on a business lease through our work which makes much more sense and I have to say I think we wouldn't be in the EV space if it wasn't for the advantage of offsetting it against our tax bill...I told you I'm a Luddite.

Edited by fridaypassion on Saturday 22 February 18:53

Interested in the thread but also wonder what EV uptake would be in the UK if business perks and salary sacrifice stopped and they had to make financial sense on their own

Not a dig OP - just an observation

Cheers

EVs are very quickly becoming 'affordable' for the normal motorist. Like most new technology, it will eventually become just a 'car'. The running costs though, certainly make it a worthwhile prospect, if you can avoid charging away from home. We have had an EV for over two years and only charged away from home twice. Neither time was an issue, but at 60+ ppkwh, it was costly. At home our average ppkwh for the house and car, rarely goes over 8p.

[rfn]

fridaypassion said:

Are there any hacks for getting cheaper wild charging?

I've covered ~6k miles in the past 3 months in my EV. Due to my job I'm often away from home for a few days so do need to charge publicly. I have an Ionity Passport subscription which gives me 33p/kWh for a small monthly cost (£5.49 I think through a discount from the manufacturer). In the event I can't use an Ionity I find a Tesla "open to all" supercharger which are the next cheapest. These work out at about 10 - 15p/mile for the public charging, which combined with the majority of my energy either coming from home (7p/kWh) or work (luckily, free).

[Knock_knock]

fridaypassion said:

Thanks for that this is all new to me if you pardon the pun I'm "Green"

So as an EV newbie I can see an immediate issue here with the infrastructure there are loads of chargers but 80 odd pence per KWH!? Obviously you'll be using those in dire emergencies only then! Crikey 3.5 times the household price cap thats interesting.

Luckily for us the Mrs will be using it in the main for local running about so we will almost exclusively be home charging I should think.

Are there any hacks for getting cheaper wild charging?

Dire emergencies about covers it.

Unless you're doing really significant mileage you'll probably never need to charge away from home. Local use means the cost will almost never trouble you. Only if you're going >200 miles in a day will it become an issue; and then you'll still start with a full cheap charge.

Personally I charge away only a handful of times year (usually in Europe!), so even if I feel a bit gouged the 99% of my costs being 7p/kWh takes the sting out of the average. Think of it like filling up at a motorway petrol station but with even less lube

If you have a root around there are some networks which are cheaper than others. Tesla Superchargers are probably the cheapest but you need the Tesla app to access those, and not all (I think) are open to non-Tesla vehicles.