EV Owners Thread

[Buck]

I have finally joined the EV world!

I picked up my BMW i4 40 today. My first BMW and the indicators work on it!

Steep learning curve with all of the technology and change in brand.

I am waiting for my charger to be installed so am trying the granny charger tonight just to see what the level of charge will be in real terms. (Currently at 35% after todays travels).
I have one 10 mile round trip tomorrow so no worries re range etc.

 

[Beebo]

I have finally joined the EV world!

I picked up my BMW i4 40 today. My first BMW and the indicators work on it!

Steep learning curve with all of the technology and change in brand.

I am waiting for my charger to be installed so am trying the granny charger tonight just to see what the level of charge will be in real terms. (Currently at 35% after todays travels).
I have one 10 mile round trip tomorrow so no worries re range etc.

I lasted 3 months on a basic 3 pin charger.
Only had to charge once away from the house. If you drive fewer than 50 miles a day it’s very manageable.

 

[CXRAndy]

I have finally joined the EV world!

I picked up my BMW i4 40 today. My first BMW and the indicators work on it!

Steep learning curve with all of the technology and change in brand.

I am waiting for my charger to be installed so am trying the granny charger tonight just to see what the level of charge will be in real terms. (Currently at 35% after todays travels).
I have one 10 mile round trip tomorrow so no worries re range etc.

Here is the table of charging rates for your new car

https://ev-database.org/uk/car/1252/BMW-i4-eDrive40#charge-table

8-12 miles per hour depending on available power from 3 pin plug

 

[Legs]

My new car was due to be delivered to our Derby office today, but apparently the driver has fallen ill, so it'll be arriving tomorrow instead. I'll be able to get a lift to Derby tomorrow morning, so it should actually work out better for me.

 

[icowden]

My new car was due to be delivered to our Derby office today, but apparently the driver has fallen ill, so it'll be arriving tomorrow instead. I'll be able to get a lift to Derby tomorrow morning, so it should actually work out better for me.

Well, we'll expect a full review in short order. The commercial reviewers have all loved it pretty much. Which spec did you get?

 

[Legs]

Well, we'll expect a full review in short order. The commercial reviewers have all loved it pretty much. Which spec did you get?

I went for the Trophy spec with the 64kWh battery (nominally 270 mile range).
We're thinking of getting a Zappi installed through Octopus (£1049 seems quite reasonable for supply and installation) - anyone had any experience of what timescales we might be able to expect on this?

 

[icowden]

I went for the Trophy spec with the 64kWh battery (nominally 270 mile range).
We're thinking of getting a Zappi installed through Octopus (£1049 seems quite reasonable for supply and installation) - anyone had any experience of what timescales we might be able to expect on this?

My first reaction was "ouch" seems expensive - but then I remembered that when I did mine the government was still giving a £300 subsidy, so I paid about that if you take into account two years inflation. I didn't go through Octopus but from the survey to installation was less than 2 weeks. I'd expect a similar sort of timescale. Maybe a bit longer if you have a complex situation to get the cable from your consumer unit to the Zappi.

I did have a bit of a time lag in getting Intelligent Octopus set up, but to be fair, at that point the ID4 integration was still in a test phase of the intelligent octopus programme.

Trophy spec does seem to be the one to go for and has all the bells and whistles. Apparently it also makes the ID3 look massively overpriced.

 

[Legs]

My first reaction was "ouch" seems expensive - but then I remembered that when I did mine the government was still giving a £300 subsidy, so I paid about that if you take into account two years inflation. I didn't go through Octopus but from the survey to installation was less than 2 weeks. I'd expect a similar sort of timescale. Maybe a bit longer if you have a complex situation to get the cable from your consumer unit to the Zappi.

Because mine will be a company vehicle, I'm eligible to claim 7p per mile for mileage I do using charge from my home charger! Of course, this would be impossible to keep track of, so instead, Steve has offered to pay (at least in part) for us to have a charger installed at home

 

[Beebo]

I went for the Trophy spec with the 64kWh battery (nominally 270 mile range).
We're thinking of getting a Zappi installed through Octopus (£1049 seems quite reasonable for supply and installation) - anyone had any experience of what timescales we might be able to expect on this?

My experience is that the quoted price is a basic Installation price which depends on location of the main consumer unit and if you have spare capacity.

I needed a new consumer unit. Plus my boxes are under the stairs in the middle of the house. I wasn’t prepared to have wires running internally, and external wiring wasn’t an option either. So it went under the floor boards, which is more expensive as there is more work.
My friend has a new build with all incoming cables right by the front door. His was very easy to install.

 

[CXRAndy]

Consumer unit, needs to have spare slot for 32A MCB. The consumer unit must have RCD protection already.

Alternatively take a spur off the outside meter box, through an appropriate isolation switch and RCD breaker all depends on which is cheaper and faster

 

[CXRAndy]

I was lucky being relatively early EV adopter in 2017. We got free installation of 7kW outside charger.


The following year it became £200-300 towards the cost for installation

Zappi are around £800 to buy retail so £1k fitted is very reasonable

 

[Legs]

Alternatively take a spur off the outside meter box, through an appropriate isolation switch and RCD breaker all depends on which is cheaper and faster

This was my (limited) understanding, that it could be done through the meter box.

Certainly all that Octopus are interested in is how to get from the meter box to the mounting location (see below). In our case, our preferred routing between the consumer unit and mounting location would be underneath our beam&block floor, which would be possible but a little bit of a ballache.

 

[icowden]

This was my (limited) understanding, that it could be done through the meter box.

Certainly all that Octopus are interested in is how to get from the meter box to the mounting location (see below). In our case, our preferred routing between the consumer unit and mounting location would be underneath our beam&block floor, which would be possible but a little bit of a ballache.

In my case the meterbox was literally the other side of the wall, so they needed a simple hole. The installer fitted a new breaker outside of the consumer unit and it runs off that. I suspect that if you want it under the floor they will do it, but charge you more.

 

[CXRAndy]

This was my (limited) understanding, that it could be done through the meter box.

Certainly all that Octopus are interested in is how to get from the meter box to the mounting location (see below). In our case, our preferred routing between the consumer unit and mounting location would be underneath our beam&block floor, which would be possible but a little bit of a ballache.
View attachment 746145

I doubt Octopus installer will undertake going under floors. They will generally only go around outside walls clipped to location for charging point.

You would need an independent electrician to undertake underground works.

Or pull the cable yourself. It would have to be armoured 3 core possibly with CT clamp cable built in or an additional armoured ethernet cable pulled as well.

Depending on distance calculation for cable impedance would have to be checked so it meets regulations.

 

[Legs]

Just ordered the Zappi charger on the company credit card. Installation is all meter-side, so no need to route back to the consumer unit. Fitting should be within 2-4 weeks.

First impressions of the car are really good. It's full of gadgets and gizmos, but it drives nicely, manoeuvres well, and seems to get reasonable economy (I got 4.5 miles/kWh on my commute to Derby today.) There's quite a bit of rumbling bass road noise when driving on anything other than perfectly smooth surfaces, but I'm probably noticing that mostly because I'm not hearing an engine note.

Gave it its first full charge this morning, on the work charger at 10.4kW. Everything seems to be in order!