Anyone point getting an electric car if you do low mileage?

The_Groat_Counter

ElefantEd wrote: »

Ah, right, our Leaf came with a 3 pin lead. Seems like an obvious and potentially useful gadget for all electric cars! We just carry it around in the boot on the grounds that if all else fails, knocking on someone's door and pleading might get a needed energy boost.

How long is the lead you get with a Leaf?

I know you're not supposed to use it with an extension lead - and the unofficial advice I've read that if you absolutely must, make sure it's a top notch extension lead rated for at least 13A, and still be aware there's a risk (fire in particular).

Forgetting the extension lead, the other issue is the various warnings about trying to use a socket that's on its own circuit, and also one where you can be pretty sure the wiring is up to scratch.

UKSBD

almillar wrote: »

I ordered in May, charger was installed in August, car is expected in November. You should have your charger long before your car if it's being built! It's an o2 GPRS signal you're looking for, but I don't know what happens in absence of it.

What is involved with charger installation?


Do they have to rewire direct to the consumer unit or just to a socket?


Our main fuse board/consumer unit is at the rear of the house, do they wire all the way to this, and if so do they do all the making good and redecorating?

almillar

Ah, right, our Leaf came with a 3 pin lead. Seems like an obvious and potentially useful gadget for all electric cars!

Well, yes, but you'll be hanging around for a long time waiting for it to charge. You'll be getting 3kW from the 3 pin which is very slow. For the Zoe, it's also quite inefficient - as in charge taken to charge gained in the battery. That's why Renault don't include it, and charge nearly £500 for it. AND give you a free 7kW charger. It would be cheaper for them to give you the cable!

What is involved with charger installation?
Do they have to rewire direct to the consumer unit or just to a socket?
Our main fuse board/consumer unit is at the rear of the house, do they wire all the way to this, and if so do they do all the making good and redecorating?

I've a 6 year old house with a garage and it's own fuse box, which looked like it would be OK but the installer (sub-contracted to Carra here in NI, Chargemaster on the mainland) wasn't happy with the thickness of the cable.
So if you're in that situation, they're not interested in your consumer unit really, they'll install one just for the car in your meter box and run a cable from there to the charger. Took 2 people 2 hours at my place. They limit the installation to 20m of cable, which mine was slightly over, but they weren't bothered. You should get the choice of tethered (Type 2 plug on a cable from the unit) or untethered (just a plug on the charger for you to plug your existing cable into). Can't help you with the redecorating, but as I say they'll tend towards the meter rather than the consumer unit, which is hopefully external - the installers didn't set foot in my house once they had seen everything.

ElefantEd

I agree it takes a while (7 hours or so) to fully charge from a 13A plug, but if either a) you're staying somewhere overnight or all day or b) you just need a top up or boost to get you somewhere where you can get a proper charge then it's potentially useful.

There are a lot of dire warnings about using the lead but I suspect most of them are of the rear waste orifice covering variety, to do with the cables heating up if they are running at or near full capacity for extended periods. Having said that we avoided using an extension lead by having the cable go through the window, just in case. But if I was desperate I would use an extension and monitor it closely! We just plugged it into the nearest socket, didn't have any problems. The lead is 5m long I think, it ws perfectly adequate for us.

Our charging point is about 5 metres from the fuse box, the installers were happy to put it where we wanted it (inside a side passage where we can park the car if we want or trail the cable under the doors to where it's parked outside.

deejaybee

Very useful info re charging, thanks all !

I think that living in a top floor flat ( 2 floors under me ) is gonna put the mockers on me potentially getting an E-Van ( kangoo ZE )

The only solution I can see ( and it sounds dodgy ) would be to dangle a cable out of hallway window to parking space below - not even our designated space ( but belongs to a friend, who "may" agree to swap with our place .. )
An extension cable would have to be involved, plus paying half a bag for the Renault 3-pin cable....
Looking like a pipe-dream

Shame as I have seen some decent leasing/contract hire deals, especially as I am self-employed, so would be tax advantages also.

ElefantEd

deejaybee wrote: »

Very useful info re charging, thanks all !

I think that living in a top floor flat ( 2 floors under me ) is gonna put the mockers on me potentially getting an E-Van ( kangoo ZE )

The only solution I can see ( and it sounds dodgy ) would be to dangle a cable out of hallway window to parking space below - not even our designated space ( but belongs to a friend, who "may" agree to swap with our place .. )
An extension cable would have to be involved, plus paying half a bag for the Renault 3-pin cable....
Looking like a pipe-dream

Shame as I have seen some decent leasing/contract hire deals, especially as I am self-employed, so would be tax advantages also.

Yes, sadly this wouldn't be practical. At the moment a solution to charging in the long term requires direct access from your fuse box to where the car will be parked. Whilst dangling cables might be ok as a short term answer, it wouldn't really be a good idea in the long run.

almillar

I agree it takes a while (7 hours or so) to fully charge from a 13A plug, but if either a) you're staying somewhere overnight or all day or b) you just need a top up or boost to get you somewhere where you can get a proper charge then it's potentially useful.

It's handy to have of course, but specifically to the Zoe, they don't include the lead as the car is inefficient at charging at such low power. As in, you pay for more electricity than you get into your battery. Leaf is much more efficient in this regard. You can have the Zoe lead for under £500 but as you can tell, they don't really want you to!

michaels

We have had our leaf since April on pcp 135 month no inital payment for 6k pa. 100% suits our needs which is several journeys of less than 5 miles each day. Before we had a petrol then a diesel, petrol got about 18mpg because of always being cold engine. Diesel got low 30s but then broke down all the time expensively because of all short journeys.

Our leccy costs 10.8p/unit and we charge in the day as we have solar pv when it is free.

When charging car draws 2.4kw - if your wiring isn't up to that then you should have it sorted regardless of whether you have an EV.

Only downside is we were supposed to get a freee fast charger fitted by British Gas, installer came and said we needed to have our main fuse uprated. By the time UK Power Networks did this BG had stopped installing EV charge points and Nissan are dragging their feet over sorting anything out even though the free charge point was in all the literature that came with the car on purchase.