EV Owners Thread

[Rusty Nails]

So basically it's a 32A socket on the wall, so the car has the charger built in, you just connect a fly lead between wall socket & car socket which sends 240V to the car, the actual charger/BMS & CAN Bus control are built into the car, as opposed to a charger on the wall that connects directly to the battery, with CAN Bus control over the charge cycle

That's easy for you to say.

 

[CXRAndy]

So basically it's a 32A socket on the wall, so the car has the charger built in, you just connect a fly lead between wall socket & car socket which sends 240V to the car, the actual charger/BMS & CAN Bus control are built into the car, as opposed to a charger on the wall that connects directly to the battery, with CAN Bus control over the charge cycle

The car has the control over charging. My early 7kW charger wasn't much more the a single phase contactor in a box. Sure it does some basic resistance testing and pulse width frequency feedback to determine maximum charge current availability. There is no actual data passing between charger and vehicle.

 

[icowden]

So basically it's a 32A socket on the wall, so the car has the charger built in, you just connect a fly lead between wall socket & car socket which sends 240V to the car, the actual charger/BMS & CAN Bus control are built into the car, as opposed to a charger on the wall that connects directly to the battery, with CAN Bus control over the charge cycle

Yep, it's a socket. As @CXRAndy said, the car does all the work really. The main limitation is that he can't get access to intelligent Octopus for example because it relies on communication between the wall box and the electric meter and uses the wall box as a switch to control when the car can charge.

 

[CXRAndy]

According to reports UK EV sales had a big jump in December.

Most of this demand from fleet sales. Which would correspond with my accidental meeting of a driver caught in snow yesterday. She was stuck as were we in our little Citroen C3. I asked her whether her car was AWD or front wheel. She said she didn't know, or what make the car was. She had only just got it and it was a company car. Btw it was a BMW front wheel drive. Like our Citroen, it kills almost all available power when traction is lost due to snow/ice. No fun trying to get up a hill foot flat to the floor and 1000 rpm with traction light flashing

Conversely my son reported excellent drive from his model Y AWD which he put in off-road drive mode. I knew I should have taken the Tesla, but didn't expect snow so bad in the hilliest portion of our journey. We overcame our problems with lowered tyre pressures and a run at a hill before TC killed all the drive

 

[Buck]

I think a lot of the BEV sales are being driven by strong discounting to attract people away from ICE as well as many people becoming more accepting of the benefits as well as realising that the comparative range is not the deal breaker many have suggested.

I also read today that Tesla sales were down last year as the competition catches up, especially the likes of BYD
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36edjp1l9ko

 

[DRM]

Yep, it's a socket. As @CXRAndy said, the car does all the work really. The main limitation is that he can't get access to intelligent Octopus for example because it relies on communication between the wall box and the electric meter and uses the wall box as a switch to control when the car can charge.

So it’s basically a similar principle to the old Economy 7 heaters, that ran at night, through a spur that was metered separately iirc, that is why I could not get my head round building a charger, as that means a case, transformer all the control electronics for the Battery monitoring, as well as stepping the charge voltage/current up to 400 to 600 volts at whatever current is required, that is the sort of thing I deal with, separate chargers, which we don’t even repair anymore, it’s a specialist, we did repair the old lead/acid chargers, but the newer high frequency ones are a bit dodgy to work on, and can quite literally blow up in your face

 

[CXRAndy]

So it’s basically a similar principle to the old Economy 7 heaters, that ran at night, through a spur that was metered separately iirc, that is why I could not get my head round building a charger, as that means a case, transformer all the control electronics for the Battery monitoring, as well as stepping the charge voltage/current up to 400 to 600 volts at whatever current is required, that is the sort of thing I deal with, separate chargers, which we don’t even repair anymore, it’s a specialist, we did repair the old lead/acid chargers, but the newer high frequency ones are a bit dodgy to work on, and can quite literally blow up in your face

That is for rapid DC charging. Most cars if not all also use 240/400V mains AC charging.. The cars onboard inverter deals with the all the necessary ac-dc conversion rate of charge etc.

 

[geocycle]

Do many models yet allow you to use your car as a battery and draw it back from the house? Sounds like a useful feature to add resilience to home but not sure how widespread it is.

 

[CXRAndy]

Do many models yet allow you to use your car as a battery and draw it back from the house? Sounds like a useful feature to add resilience to home but not sure how widespread it is.

There are a number of vehicles with this feature. Nissan leaf has always been able to. The problem is the two way chargers have been promised for all this time.

Apart from some small trial runs these have not come to market in the UK

USA last year announced Nissan were working in conjunction with a charger company to deliver. Ford has the facility with their own charger.

It's a fantastic idea to power your house from a 40-100kW battery.

I think charger companies are being held back for some reason in the UK

 

[icowden]

I think charger companies are being held back for some reason in the UK

VW released an update before Christmas that allows bi-directional charging. The cars were always capable but it's taken a while to release the software to support it.

 

[mikeIow]

So….I know a few here question my views of EVs (& trust me, I love our Kona, but also have the comfort of 5 years owning the EV & having a home charger on Tomato Energy with a 5p “fill up” for 6hrs 💪)

A mate messaged me this morning.

His petrol car was in at the garage yesterday & they loaned him a Mini EV - he needed it to go watch his team lose to Newcastle 🫣
A summary of his day with it:

He went to charge it at his local Shell garage where there are half a dozen charge points 👍
Entertainment was provided during his 45 minute wait to refill from 30% to 70% as two drivers had verbal fisticuffs about who was next for a free bay 🤪
His power cost £17.11…he reckons the petrol equivalent would’ve been about £8 - roughly half 😱
Returning to the car after the game he found the rear hatchback glass smashed and the charging cable which had been in the boot (but not visible) gone 🤬
Maybe electric car cables are considered an easy meal ticket by the local lowlifes 🤷‍♂️

I have gently pointed out how we had a 180mile trip to London on Sat for £4 in fuel…..but I maintain that if you don’t have home charging, EVs can be a proper pain in the derrière 🤷‍♂️

Sure, we are all EV experts with knowledge, apps & experience…..but to paraphrase something I said before, they certainly don’t suit everyone today.

 

[CXRAndy]

This is true, nothing suits everyone. But for the vast majority using and owning an EV is not much difference to a ICE vehicle.

The more folk who do use them there will be less pollution in built up areas, leading to health improvements. Slow moving EVs are very much quieter than ICE vehicles

 

[icowden]

a mate messaged me this morning...

So essentially his Garage loaned him a car which they hadn't charged and he was the unfortunate victim of crime.

Personally I'd have complained to the garage about loaning a car that wasn't fully organised mostly charged.

 

[icowden]

His power cost £17.11…he reckons the petrol equivalent would’ve been about £8 - roughly half 😱

So, I reckon that £8 would get you about 5.5 litres of petrol (assuming about £1.40 per litre). Assuming say 45mpg that's about 55 miles worth of petrol.
Assuming he was loaned an EV Mini Cooper, that has 250 miles range when fully charged. He put in 40% of the range which is 100 miles. So if he had charged by an equivalent amount it would have cost him £8.55. So about the same as petrol.

Essentially he put twice as much into the EV as he would have into a petrol car due to being a bit anxious.

 

[Beebo]

Do many models yet allow you to use your car as a battery and draw it back from the house? Sounds like a useful feature to add resilience to home but not sure how widespread it is.

My Ioniq 5 has vehicle to grid capability but it’s very hard to send power back to the grid at present.
However it comes with a 3 pin plug adapter. So I can go camping off grid and run a fridge and washing machine from the car if I wanted to.
I could also use it to run a 4 way socket at home in a power cut.