EV Discussion thread

silvercar

Netexporter said:

Krakkkers said:

Just watched a Youtube video which says that Instavolt take £45 off your card even when you spend only £10 and then return it to you after 4 days so every customer is loaning then money, is this true? and 85p a kwh.

Pay at the pump for petrol and they often take £99. Tesla chargers are only 35p, off-peak.

18p off peak at my local supercharging station. 

silvercar

Magnitio said:

silvercar said:

Totally EV household. Not once in 2 years of ownership have we had to wait to charge. We have a home charger, so only need to use chargers when we travel long distance.

We have both petrol and EV. Often queue for petrol and it can be very frustrating when the person in front does their shopping at the same time, or some of the pumps aren't working, or the pay at pump isn't working and you have to pay at the till or your hands smell after using the pump. Never have these issues with the EV.

Go to a Costco and the EVs are free with no queue, often 20 minutes queuing for ICEs.

Grumpy_chap

silvercar said:

Netexporter said:

You can rack up huge fees if you overstay on a charger.

Idle charges on Tesla super chargers are £1 a minute, if the charging station is over 50% occupied. You get notifications (to your phone) when you are approaching the end of your charge time. 

I must start by saying that I totally understand the need to vacate charge points as soon as charged.

These notifications, though, are quite poorly worded:
"Idle fees may begin accruing five minutes after charging session ended"
I want to know whether fees will, or will not be incurred based upon how busy that venue is.

I have said, and others have said, that the charge time is not an issue when travelling because you need to take comfort / refreshment breaks in any case. 
That has proven to be true in my case.
However, the speed of charging and the idle fees issue means that a rest is not as relaxing as it ought to be.

I have charged while with my wife and that is easy as, once the car was charged, my wife can stay inside in the warm and I can move the car.  Lunch is safe in the meantime.

I have twice charged while on work trips so no other passengers.  These have been stops I would have needed in any case for lunch plus admin catch up.  Getting the "idle" message is inconvenient. 
Am I meant to leave my laptop, coffee and snack half consumed, move the car, and hope that something is still remaining on the table when I get back?
What I actually found I was doing was rushing the food, packing up, moving the car and then returning to complete the admin that I was in progress with before then completing my journey.

Martyn1981

Hi GC. You can 'just' increase the charge level for the car on the app, to buy you more time. I think the idle fees don't kick in till the SC location is more than 50% full (£1/min fee when 100% full), and above 90% SOC if still actively charging.

Obviously, the higher the charge level, the slower the car will be charging, and the more time you will have to enjoy the facilities.

Martyn1981

silvercar said:

Netexporter said:

Krakkkers said:

Just watched a Youtube video which says that Instavolt take £45 off your card even when you spend only £10 and then return it to you after 4 days so every customer is loaning then money, is this true? and 85p a kwh.

Pay at the pump for petrol and they often take £99. Tesla chargers are only 35p, off-peak.

18p off peak at my local supercharging station. 

Cor, that's a good price. Who is that with?

Grumpy_chap

Martyn1981 said:

Hi GC. You can 'just' increase the charge level for the car on the app, to buy you more time. I think the idle fees don't kick in till the SC location is more than 50% full (£1/min fee when 100% full), and above 90% SOC if still actively charging.

Obviously, the higher the charge level, the slower the car will be charging, and the more time you will have to enjoy the facilities.

I charge to 80% (which is the current recommendation from Tesla).
I understand the thing about idle fees only if the SC station is over half full.
I don't count the percentage full on arrival and cannot know whether that has changed by the time the alert comes through about being nearly fully charged.
The Tesla network does know all this stuff.  It would not be beyond the capability of a software programmer to provide more complete messaging.  Rather than "idle fees may apply", the message could be expanded to "idle fees may apply if the location reaches 50% full - it is currently 25% full" and there could be follow on messages "charge location is now 45% full, idle fees will apply if it reaches 50% full".

At the first time of using an SC location (when I was with my wife), there were actually very few parking bays available that were not chargers which did make moving the car particularly inconvenient.  I got the last of the "non-charger" parking bays.  

MeteredOut

Grumpy_chap said:

Martyn1981 said:

Hi GC. You can 'just' increase the charge level for the car on the app, to buy you more time. I think the idle fees don't kick in till the SC location is more than 50% full (£1/min fee when 100% full), and above 90% SOC if still actively charging.

Obviously, the higher the charge level, the slower the car will be charging, and the more time you will have to enjoy the facilities.

I charge to 80% (which is the current recommendation from Tesla).
I understand the thing about idle fees only if the SC station is over half full.
I don't count the percentage full on arrival and cannot know whether that has changed by the time the alert comes through about being nearly fully charged.
The Tesla network does know all this stuff.  It would not be beyond the capability of a software programmer to provide more complete messaging.  Rather than "idle fees may apply", the message could be expanded to "idle fees may apply if the location reaches 50% full - it is currently 25% full" and there could be follow on messages "charge location is now 45% full, idle fees will apply if it reaches 50% full".

At the first time of using an SC location (when I was with my wife), there were actually very few parking bays available that were not chargers which did make moving the car particularly inconvenient.  I got the last of the "non-charger" parking bays.  

You're right, it would not be, but don't underestimate the complexity of doing that, and the increases in costs that would then be passed onto consumers. Software programmers are not cheap and we're not quite ready to replace them all with AI (yet).

silvercar

Martyn1981 said:

silvercar said:

Netexporter said:

Krakkkers said:

Just watched a Youtube video which says that Instavolt take £45 off your card even when you spend only £10 and then return it to you after 4 days so every customer is loaning then money, is this true? and 85p a kwh.

Pay at the pump for petrol and they often take £99. Tesla chargers are only 35p, off-peak.

18p off peak at my local supercharging station. 

Cor, that's a good price. Who is that with?

Tesla supercharger at South Mimms (M25/ A1 interchange). 18p in the early hours. 

There are still podpoint free chargers about, often in train stations where you can pay for the car park and stay all day as they are designed for commuters. Charge speed is low (11kwH max), but it is designed for commuters that will be away from their car all day.

silvercar

Martyn1981 said:

Hi GC. You can 'just' increase the charge level for the car on the app, to buy you more time. I think the idle fees don't kick in till the SC location is more than 50% full (£1/min fee when 100% full), and above 90% SOC if still actively charging.

Obviously, the higher the charge level, the slower the car will be charging, and the more time you will have to enjoy the facilities.

Not sure there is a penalty charge if you go above 90%, unless that is new. But definitely cheaper to move the slider than pay £1 an hour.

Martyn1981

Grumpy_chap said:

Martyn1981 said:

Hi GC. You can 'just' increase the charge level for the car on the app, to buy you more time. I think the idle fees don't kick in till the SC location is more than 50% full (£1/min fee when 100% full), and above 90% SOC if still actively charging.

Obviously, the higher the charge level, the slower the car will be charging, and the more time you will have to enjoy the facilities.

I charge to 80% (which is the current recommendation from Tesla).
I understand the thing about idle fees only if the SC station is over half full.
I don't count the percentage full on arrival and cannot know whether that has changed by the time the alert comes through about being nearly fully charged.
The Tesla network does know all this stuff.  It would not be beyond the capability of a software programmer to provide more complete messaging.  Rather than "idle fees may apply", the message could be expanded to "idle fees may apply if the location reaches 50% full - it is currently 25% full" and there could be follow on messages "charge location is now 45% full, idle fees will apply if it reaches 50% full".

At the first time of using an SC location (when I was with my wife), there were actually very few parking bays available that were not chargers which did make moving the car particularly inconvenient.  I got the last of the "non-charger" parking bays.  

Hi, you were saying about having to pack away gear, or risk loss, etc. Just saying that on the phone app (which I assume you'll have in your hand, having received the message) you can increase the charge rate, even at a congested SC location, and carry on eating, drinking, working, if you so wish.

My understanding is that you will be told if idle fees will be charged, so you will know if the occupancy level has exceeded 50%.