Electric Vehicles EVs

A thread for chat about electric, non-piston cars.

@cookiemonster @greenhell @Soul

nice.

i'm doing a trip to brizzy and back tomorrow. planning on a quick re-juice 2/3rds of the way on the outbound journey which should tide us over for the final 3rd and the way back.

Get Zap Map installed and get subscribed to > Source London and BP Pulse.

The car comes with free subscriptions to shell, bp and instavolt. I’m in NW6 and there’s a shell in Kilburn and shell/BP in St. John’s Wood - both a mile or so away.

There’s both source and ubitricity on my and surrounding streets - I’d have to pay for these but like the idea of being able to leave the car overnight charging occasionally (especially before a longer journey where I’d want to be up to 100%)

Source has the advantage of being able to reserve a spot in a dedicated bay, but you need to pay a subscription. Ubitricity - no subscription, but you take your chances with general use and resident parking.

Probably try U first and if it’s too hard then do the source subscription

Source pays for its monthly sub with one full overnight charge. It's capped to 4 hours cost overnight even if you charge for 8 hours.

Ubitricity I've never used, even though there is one on my street. It's just not reliably free. Be good if / when every lamppost has one. Also, I'd pay for all night if I left it plugged in.

Their small print has this under the overnight rate:

Central London Surcharge of 1.4p/min applies in Camden, K&C and Westminster.

I read that to say I’m paying an extra 7 quid on top of the charge to park the car for 8 hours (8 x 60 x 1.4) overnight charge?

And… adventures in charging. Ubitricity point no. 1 is in the middle of a disabled blue-badge bay! Totally useless.

Connected up to point 2 and currently charging (for the hell of it - car arrived at 85%). But also note that with a single plug socket at the front left of the car, you need to be dead on the charger. The cable won’t reach to say, the back of the car on the opposite side.

Could really do with both front and back charging points

Still love my LR Model 3.

Now done 4,675 miles since I got it in December. Averaged 285Wh/mi or 3.51M/Kwh.

A total at home charge of 1,332Kw which has cost me roughly £239 (excluding daily standing charge) or about 5p per mile.

That would have been 1.52 tonnes of CO2 in the Range Rover it replaced. It would have cost me at least £900 in fuel to do the same miles in the RR + nearly £500 a year in road tax. The per mile cost would be around 30p per mile.

It prefer it to the RR in almost every way. Only things I don't like are the road noise and the windscreen wipers.

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Would imagine still a 4hr cap.

Are you in the central London area?

Great thread idea.

Been thinking for a while about retraining as an electrician and focusing on being an EV / solar install specialist such is my passion for them.

Good idea? Any electricians out there with an opinion on idiots like me playing electricians*

*im obviously going to seek a professional qualification before actually starting this new career.

Yep - South Hampstead/ Swiss Cottage so fall into the “Camden” bracket, hence the concern about the small print above

I would say, from my experience of having two 7Kw chargers installed at home, that there isn't enough experienced installers out there.

The number of regulations, specific model oddities and requirements are mind boggling.

To add to @Soul comment.. There are going to be thousands of fast chargers added in the UK over the next couple of years. I'd imagine it's a skill to install them and the same principles will apply to domestic chargers.

I’d love an EV but no driveway and limited charging points in SE4 is pushing me towards a plug in hybrid.
Anyone with any knowledge on how quickly we can expect infrastructure to improve?
Anyone have any bad tales from ghetto charging across a path etc.

Have you contacted your local councillors requesting improved charging provision?

Maybe give on.to a go (ping me for a referral code if you do!)

I’ve the same concerns - no driveway, not entirely clear on the charging infrastructure, but with this approach I can hand the car back in a month if it doesn’t work out (and insurance and some charging is included, and Camden are only charging 20 quid for residents parking)

Nope, but seems that’d be a slow process?
I’d happily do that as could easily delay car purchase.

Been thinking for a while about retraining as an electrician and focusing on being an EV / solar install specialist such is my passion for them.

Hi. Professional Sparks here.

If you think you can just do EV as a career then I'd think again. You'll need a 18th Edition qualification and as you'll be doing work on domestic housing a Part P as well.

I'd be looking a industrial work first. Fitting up PV Farms and linking them to the Grid.

Don't think you can just put panels on a rooftop.

would say, from my experience of having two 7Kw chargers installed at home, that there isn't enough experienced installers out there.

This. It's a new thing, doesn't just involve a Sparks. You'll need scaffolding, someone to sign off the roof can have the extra weight of solar, plumbing if you want link it to heating, extra meters if you want to sell the current back to the grid, batteries if you want to store it.

The thing is all most sparks have done is take the feed from the grid. I'm very guilty of that.

SV panels or setting up a car charger with a massive battery means you start reversing that. You become a grid supplier rather than user at some points.

IEE and the Grid Network get a little twitchy over that. I'm all for it, it is the future to be honest. Every home and car becomes a micro (nano, pico?) supplier.

But feeding current backwards has implications.

Are you in London?
London has local elections next year.
Councillors are never more attentive than in the year before elections.
Also contact the Councillor who has the relevant Cabinet responsibility.

limited charging points in SE4

Yeah it's a bit thin on the ground round there isn't it?

I have bought an EV specific extension cable that has high rated cable and a nifty cable break separator thing that allows it to be passed through a letter box. In combination with a rubber cable protector strip ramop thing, it allows for cross pavement charging.

I've only done it once, as a test. Worked fine.

The extension cable is for when I am away from home in a remote place, like an Air BnB holiday in Scotland for eg.

The issues with cross pavement charging are a) it's bloody slow. Will take 26 hrs to fully charge my 64kwh eNiro and b) the council don't like it and c) you may be at risk if being sued if anyone hurts themselves due to your cable.

If you have a conveniently located tree outside your property then I have seen people use one as a way if hanging the cable over the pavement. An ex neighbour did this and it looked like a very neat solution.

This is the extension cable I got:

https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev-electric-vehicle-extension-leads/products/ev-extension-lead

And the cable cover:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/d-line-medium-duty-linkable-cable-cover-30-x-10-x-1800mm-black/812hv

Will take 26 hrs to fully charge my 64kwh eNiro

That’s if the other end is a standard 3 pin plug though? If you’re doing it at home you could get a 32A connector installed which will charge 3 times quicker.

Running a cable across a pavement is still a dick move. Bonus dick points if you have a chunky plug sticking out of the car across a narrow pavement, or a loop of wire hanging from your front wall.