How much to live on

Pat38493

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978445#Comment_81978445

Yeah that’s pretty much already the case if you are charging on an high speed charger on the motorway - arguably it’s already more expensive than fuelling a petrol car. However you can get some discounts and ways to reduce it a bit if you are forced to do this regularly.

The other trick is that if you are not in a rush (e.g. stopped overnight) look for a slow charger where you can leave the car plugged in overnight or while shopping or whatever - this will still be more expensive than charging at home but a lot cheaper than the ultra rapids.

Senseicads

I save so much in terms of cost per mile on my day to day driving that it makes zero difference to me if i have to use an expensive charger on a longer distance trip. I kind of view it as if I had made that trip in a petrol vehicle that I would have had to fill up at about the same price anyway, and the day to day benefits outweigh any long trip charging. I am a total convert to ev's now, so much so that Mrs Senseicads also now has one! Honestly the anti-ev propaganda I was reading beforehand was all really putting me off! Now I have one, I can't ever see me going back!

QrizB

I save so much in terms of cost per mile on my day to day driving that it makes zero difference to me if i have to use an expensive charger on a longer distance trip.

Here's my example from this weekend.

460 mile round trip with an overnight stay in an EV with a 120-mile range.

Outbound:

• Initial home charge: 30kWh @5.2p/kWh, £1.56
• En route charging: two sessions, total 32.5kWh, cost £20.30
• Overall £21.86, 9.5p per mile.

Return:

• Gave host £10 for use of their electricity overnight.
• En route charging: two sessions, total 28.4kWh, cost £19.18
• Overall £29.18, 12.7p per mile.

For the whole trip the electricity cost ~£51. Taking my diesel car instead would have cost ~£75.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978546#Comment_81978546

I remember listening to a programme on Radio 4 about the issues caused by the plethora of operators of charging stations. It sounded like a bit of a nightmare, with the driver having to have multiple apps/registrations/ways to pay, and on top a significant % of stations where out of order at any one time.

Is that really/still the case, or was the programme exaggerating the issue?

Farway

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978445#Comment_81978445

It won't be price of charging, it will be Pay per mile by then. I would expect it to be adjusted, so say rural, no option or alternative available, drivers get charged less per mile, once in a town or city the price goes up, like ULEZ but everywhere

I drive a 2006 small Citroen diesel, with a 105,000 on the clock. I could not physically have my own charging points so it would have to be on street charging, if available. I guess like millions of households

QrizB

Is that really/still the case, or was the programme exaggerating the issue?

There are still dozens of charging station operators. However there are payment aggregators which let you use a single account to charge with multiple different chains.

As an example, my domestic electricity is supplied by Octopus. They also run the "electroverse" EV charging payment aggregator (which is open to everyone, not just Octopus customers). Our weekend trip used four different charger operators - MFG, Sainsbury's, PoGo and FastNed - but we paid for them all using our Electroverse account.

Using Electroverse also means our charging is paid through our Octopus energy account, and we get a small discount on the public charging price.

Electroverse doesn't cover every charger (eg. Gridserve, who are very common at motorway service areas, aren't included) but it's good for 80-90% of my away-from-home charging.

ZapMap is a another, similar app and has its own payment system.

Very few charging stations on major routes are out of order. I only saw one over the weekend, and that had been hit by a vehicle. Electroverse and other apps are helpful for identifying faulty chargers and avoiding them.

Organgrinder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81978694#Comment_81978694

Thanks for this - I have a long journey to do in October - better than taking my granny charger with me and runnning it out of the hotel bedroom window