NWR EV thread

[Jason Michelle]

Well done - I guess you've not been to York in it! ;-)

Gridserve are good - and are beginning to revitalise the old EH units.

We’ve been keeping a close eye on EV charging facilities on the Wirral since we placed the order for our car back in July… the Wirral is where we have family and friends having only moved South four years ago, so it will be a regular trip for us.

In the space of six months the Wirral has gone from a paltry few public chargers located at one supermarket and one Holiday Inn and a few others to a much broader range that now includes an Instavolt, Ionity (350Kwh), free (admittedly rather pathetic) public lamppost charger scheme, Lidl rapid 50Kwh chargers and other supermarkets embracing the 7Kwh ones.

So things are definitely moving in the right direction. Gridserve have also put planning permission in for a new EV charging forecourt on the Wirral. GRIDSERVE | Bromborough

Hopefully at some point York will catch up!

My main concern is how much the cost of electric may rise by. Gridserve put their prices up by 30% a few weeks ago and it’s pretty certain that home charging is going to get significantly more expensive this year.

 

[Mike Humphreys]

My main concern is how much the cost of electric may rise by. Gridserve put their prices up by 30% a few weeks ago and it’s pretty certain that home charging is going to get significantly more expensive this year.

Yes I’m quite thankful I signed up for Octopus Go when I leased the car from Octopus EV,. 12:30 - 4:30 AM I am on 5p per kWh and for the next 12 months am still an old pricing tariff or 14p per kWh outside of that that slot.
We have other cars so it tends to only get charged at home. Not all journeys look practical when looking up and down the UK though its getting better.

 

[Alex Lake]

My main concern is how much the cost of electric may rise by. Gridserve put their prices up by 30% a few weeks ago and it’s pretty certain that home charging is going to get significantly more expensive this year.

Time to buy a bit of wind turbine, then! I'll be paid 9.5p/unit from mine, although I only bought it originally for carbon offset purposes. I'm also on Octopus Go, so benefit from 5p/unit 00:30-04:30 - and with ev.energy app I get Amazon vouchers to offset even that.

 

[Alex Lake]

Hopefully at some point York will catch up!

I'm sure they will in time - maybe in 2024/2025. I'm just saying that we're really not there yet.
When you're visiting friends/relatives and staying overnight, a granny charger is fine. It's day trips that are problematic.

 

[Odd Rydland]

Just announced (yesterday), 15 tesla superchargers opening up in Norway.

A problem for some cars will be the physical lauout regarding charger placement, cable, length, location of carging port on the vehicle.

I suspect that price competition on cars (re my earlier post on prices in Norway, there has been quite a lot of price reduction on some Tesla models as competing models have been introduced) is that they cannot subisidize a charging network (where quite a lot of chargers usually stand unused) by car prices anymore.

 

[Alex Lake]

Just announced (yesterday), 15 tesla superchargers opening up in Norway.

A problem for some cars will be the physical lauout regarding charger placement, cable, length, location of carging port on the vehicle.

This is quite interesting on that. It will bring frustration to many Tesla owners!

I suspect that price competition on cars (re my earlier post on prices in Norway, there has been quite a lot of price reduction on some Tesla models as competing models have been introduced) is that they cannot subisidize a charging network (where quite a lot of chargers usually stand unused) by car prices anymore.

Yes, but at the same time, one could argue that the SuC network is a key competitive advantage - I'm sure people pay more over here just for the peace of mind that brings. In Norway, maybe the other networks (eg. Ionity) have got their acts together? Or maybe covid induced slovenliness is a thing over there too?

 

[Odd Rydland]

It is a competitive advantage, but less so over time I guess. I won't say that the competitors have gotten their act together, but things are improving. With 70% fully EVs sold in 2021 (and mainly hybrids for the rest) the market in Norway is slowly maturing.

 

[Alex Lake]

It is a competitive advantage, but less so over time I guess. I won't say that the competitors have gotten their act together, but things are improving. With 70% fully EVs sold in 2021 (and mainly hybrids for the rest) the market in Norway is slowly maturing.

Exactly - I think Tesla are slightly timing it to coincide with it being less of a big deal. Maybe they're reviewing each country to see how well the competition are doing and if it looks like their edge is dwindling, they can open up. I also believe there may be funding opportunities that they can take advantage of if open to all makes.

 

[Odd Rydland]

Additional info: They are not opening up existing chargers where one for physical reasons need to back up the car to charge. Tesla chargers have short cables, and Teslas charge in front (AFAIK), and backing up may result in cars blocking two charge points.. New Tesla chargers will be built so that this will not be a problem. And yes, they are opening up as this is a requirement for government grants for chargers.

 

[Bill Marks]

AFAIK all Tesla charge at the rear.

 

[Odd Rydland]

AFAIK all Tesla charge at the rear.

OK, so it may be the other way round then in some way, I don't know anything about Teslas. Anyhow, this is what I've read in the Norwegian press. Also that very busy charging stations won't be opened, that Teslas will have priority anyway (don't know how they will achieve this) and that Tesla will monitor traffic at the chargers.

 

[Alex Lake]

Rear left (as per the diagram I posted above). The vast majority of the time one backs into the space if in a Tesla. Some Superchargers are a bit odd (eg. Darts Farm) and you have to drive in forwards. The Instavolt chargers have a swinging arm at the top to enable them to be more flexible. I don't think Tesla have plans to adopt a similar scheme, but who knows?

 

[Russell Faulkner]

Newer super chargers are all using CCR. How many other vehicles use those? Adapters are expensive.

 

[Jason Michelle]

Newer super chargers are all using CCR. How many other vehicles use those? Adapters are expensive.

Do you mean CCS Russell? The Enyaq and ID.4 have the CCS connection for superfast chargers.

 

[Russell Faulkner]

Yep typo!

 

[Alex Lake]

Nearly all of them. Some of the Leafs used Chademo, but I suspect the new ones don't.

 

[Russell Faulkner]

I thought most were on type 2.

 

[Alex Lake]

I thought most were on type 2.

Very few now. Obviously one can plug a type 2 connector into a CCS, but I think the vast majority of DC charging in current models is by CCS, at least in Europe.

 

[Richard Lodeman]

My current car is coming to the end of its natural life and EV is a strong possibility for my next one (especially with1% BIK). Not wanting a big SUV limits my options but I have narrowed it down to a couple, one of which is the Tesla Model 3.

Reading reviews and speaking to Tesla owners a big deal is made of the additional charging stations but I would be interested to hear from those with a non-Tesla if they find charging availability a problem. Also from anyone who has changed from a Tesla to another manufacturer (or vice-versa). Is not having access to the Tesla network a deal breaker?

I appreciated this has been back and forth in this thread.

 

[max.oldfield]

Richard I purchased an I D 4 months ago and intend to drive to Bradford on Sunday . I will report back on Monday

 

[Alex Lake]

I see that Tesla are opening up the network in more countries now. There's even a promotion on at the moment for people driving major routes in France (and possibly other countries, but not UK) to have free supercharging!

 

[Jason Michelle]

We‘ve had our Enyaq since early December and have done one trip from Glasgow to Berkshire via Liverpool and three trips from Berkshire to the Wirral.

The first trip from Glasgow was to collect the car so that was a bit hairy to be honest as we were learning how the car worked, we were driving through sleet and snow and we didn’t understand that cold wet weather impacts your range significantly! Anyway after a bit of range anxiety we learnt a lot (mainly about each other’s attitude to risk ) and arrived safely home.

The next three trips up to the Wirral were stress free. The car will realistically do about 200 miles on a full charge. The Wirral is about 220 miles away from our house so we picked Hilton Park services on the M6 to top up. Literally just plugged in for 15 minutes or so whilst we nipped to the loo.

Our experience has been that the Gridserve charging points at the Moto owned service stations are well maintained and nicely spread out along the M40 and M6. They accept contactless payment so no need to sign up, very easy to use.

Having a home charging point is important as it means you can fully charge before you set off.

 

[Alex Lake]

We‘ve had our Enyaq since early December and have done one trip from Glasgow to Berkshire via Liverpool and three trips from Berkshire to the Wirral.

The first trip from Glasgow was to collect the car so that was a bit hairy to be honest as we were learning how the car worked, we were driving through sleet and snow and we didn’t understand that cold wet weather impacts your range significantly! Anyway after a bit of range anxiety we learnt a lot (mainly about each other’s attitude to risk ) and arrived safely home.

The next three trips up to the Wirral were stress free. The car will realistically do about 200 miles on a full charge. The Wirral is about 220 miles away from our house so we picked Hilton Park services on the M6 to top up. Literally just plugged in for 15 minutes or so whilst we nipped to the loo.

Our experience has been that the Gridserve charging points at the Moto owned service stations are well maintained and nicely spread out along the M40 and M6. They accept contactless payment so no need to sign up, very easy to use.

Having a home charging point is important as it means you can fully charge before you set off.

Do you use ev.energy? I've found that very useful. I did (and still do) have a smart charger, but found it buggy (apparently there is a fix for it, but I couldn't be arsed). ev.energy also is very generous with Amazon vouchers. Absurdly so. Apparently power generators pay for the data.

 

[Jason Michelle]

Do you use ev.energy? I've found that very useful. I did (and still do) have a smart charger, but found it buggy (apparently there is a fix for it, but I couldn't be arsed). ev.energy also is very generous with Amazon vouchers. Absurdly so. Apparently power generators pay for the data.

No… thanks will take a look.

 

[Alex Lake]

No… thanks will take a look.

Actually, it seems that they're bizarrely compatible with "All Skoda vehicles apart from Enyaq" - go figure!

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