The big fat Electric Vehicle bashing thread.

[Deleted User]

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

Martyn1981

Deleted_User said:

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

On-street charging is typically lower speeds (2kW to 7kW), and designed to be used whilst the car is parked up during the day and/or night. So whilst it would be bad etiquette to leave a PEV for a long time in the spot when fully charged*, it's not quite the same as a fast(er) charger designed for charge and leave use.

*Unless the chargers are at most spaces, so available to PEV's and ICEV's.

Grumpy_chap

Martyn1981 said:

so little NVH.   

What's NVH?

Brighton is one place with a particularly generous prevalence of public charging availability.  Perhaps the local MP has bought some influence to bear.

dipsomaniac said:

I do around 200 miles per month in the focus.  I cycle or use my motorbike if I need to go out during the rush 2 hours.  I don't live in an area which has a congestion charge

To complete the situation, does your household benefit from another vehicle?  How is that vehicle structured?  PCP / Lease?  How is the usage on that vehicle?

If there is a second vehicle (which may actually be the first vehicle getting most of the use) it would be a possibility for that other vehicle to be changed to an EV and the Focus can be the vehicle to provide the household with a fall-back for any journey that arises and outside the use of an EV.  I very much suspect, were that path followed, the use of the Focus would barely increase.

Petriix

[Deleted User] said:

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

It was a 3kW charger so ideal for overnight. 

Petriix

Martyn1981 said:

Petriix said:

Nightmare journey in the EV today. Left Norwich fully charged, 175 miles to Brighton. The satnav showed there was a massive delay on the A11/M11 so we bit the bullet and went down the A140/A12. Traffic was moderate and there were a few sections of roadworks. I considered holding back on the dual carriageway but decided to stick to 70mph where possible.

There were a number of charging options but we decided to wait until the kids (or dog) needed to stop. But they didn't need to stop at all. I figured that I could just slow down if necessary. The battery was dropping pretty slowly so we just kept on going, arriving with 16% remaining.

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

The alternative was to pay £7 to park at Hove Station and charge for free, but the 'day' ends at 4am so we'd either have to pay twice or move the car late at night. Either that or make a couple of trips to the Tesco stores in the area. We opted for convenience over thrift.

The whole return journey will cost about £12.50 so a whopping 3.5p per mile - more than 3x my average.

Oh wait, it wasn't a nightmare at all. 

Hiya, just interested in all the little details. Can you say what the on-street parking/charging was, and the KW's? Sounds like a promising development.

Sorry to hear about the trauma of the trip, hope the sleepless nights ease off soon. Plus the recovery time from driving 350 miles with so little NVH.  

PS - One-pedal driving?

It's the EB charging app, 3.6kW (actually delivers about 3kW). 26p per kWh. There are quite a few in Hove. People do seem to have some issues with the app but it seemed to work OK for us. 

DB1904

Petriix said:

[Deleted User] said:

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

It was a 3kW charger so ideal for overnight. 

Even if it wasn't sounds like you decided to park all night. 

Petriix

DB1904 said:

Petriix said:

[Deleted User] said:

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

It was a 3kW charger so ideal for overnight. 

Even if it wasn't sounds like you decided to park all night. 

That's the whole idea with destination chargers. You charge while you're parked. Rapid chargers are for charging then moving on. Slow chargers are for leaving the car at.

Those of us who think about other EV drivers use the Need to Charge app so anyone who needs to charge can contact us. 

yessuz

DB1904 said:

Petriix said:

[Deleted User] said:

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

It was a 3kW charger so ideal for overnight. 

Even if it wasn't sounds like you decided to park all night. 

I think it's hard to sleep at night and drive at the same time

[Deleted User]

Petriix said:

Deleted_User said:

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

It was a 3kW charger so ideal for overnight. 

For an overnight stay then ok but I'm guessing 15 hours to recharge your 175 miles - that's more than just overnight, if I plugged it in just before bed time at 10pm then the car wouldn't be ready until 1pm the next day.

So wouldn't be possible to use one of those chargers for a day trip to Brighton as many people do unless you arrive at say 7am and left at 10pm but you wouldn't have use of your car all day - I gather most of the chargers are like this from scanning the maps with only a few high speed ones scattered around.

DB1904

Petriix said:

DB1904 said:

Petriix said:

[Deleted User] said:

Petriix said:

Then we had to find somewhere to charge. Turns out there are charging points on all the streets round here. A quick check on Zap-Map and we found one just one street away from where we're staying. Had to download an app and load up a credit card but it started working right away. Parking is free overnight but the charge will cost about £10.

Did you tie up a charging point by leaving your car in it overnight or just for the charging time
?

It was a 3kW charger so ideal for overnight. 

Even if it wasn't sounds like you decided to park all night. 

That's the whole idea with destination chargers. You charge while you're parked. Rapid chargers are for charging then moving on. Slow chargers are for leaving the car at.

Those of us who think about other EV drivers use the Need to Charge app so anyone who needs to charge can contact us. 

But for how long?

The way people are in this country those spots will be their parking spot for the duration of their stay and sod anyone else's need to charge.