EV Discussion thread

Martyn1981

Grumpy_chap said:

michaels said:

Grumpy_chap said:

So, yesterday was an annoying charge stop.  It said I would arrive with -1% battery.  Went to the obvious SC location and it had a fault affecting all the units - no power, but there was power at the services building (probably a separate sub-station).  The detour was then 12 miles

At -1% I would have been tempted to just drive at 50 in the expectation of making it.

I was very tempted, but the weather was not great and I really didn't want to end up a couple of miles from home if the heavens really opened.
I have read that there is a "hidden reserve" but not sure whether it is ever wise to test that rumour.

It's been tested quite a few times, and the LR 3/Y seem to have something like 20 to 25 miles after zero ...... but I've never had the guts to try it out. Well, that's not entirely true, I mentioned a long run in early June, dropping Wifey off at Heathrow, and had every intention of testing the 'reserve' out, but managed to get home (after 280 miles) with 5% left in the tank, much to my surprise.

Reed_Richards

Exodi said:

EON Next has been 6.9p off peak for quite some time now (since April I believe?). It also provides off peak rates for an hour longer. I'm silently optimistic they'll reduce it further since the recent price cap change. As you say though, other suppliers have cheap EV rates, they all seem mostly competitive. I'm finding the cost to charge my EV about 10-20% of what it cost to fuel my ICE car mile by mile. 

The Eon NextDrive v3 tariff gives you electricity for your whole house at 6.9p (+VAT) per kWh between midnight and 7 am.  That's two hours longer than Octopus, I believe.  

EricMears

Reed_Richards said:

Exodi said:

EON Next has been 6.9p off peak for quite some time now (since April I believe?). It also provides off peak rates for an hour longer. I'm silently optimistic they'll reduce it further since the recent price cap change. As you say though, other suppliers have cheap EV rates, they all seem mostly competitive. I'm finding the cost to charge my EV about 10-20% of what it cost to fuel my ICE car mile by mile. 

The Eon NextDrive v3 tariff gives you electricity for your whole house at 6.9p (+VAT) per kWh between midnight and 7 am.  That's two hours longer than Octopus, I believe.  

Actually, 'Octopus Intelligent Go' is 6 guaranteed off-peak hours per night plus the possibility of extra time if car is being charged outside 23:30 - 05:30 (e.g. I'm getting 23:00 - 07:59 tonight).   And their offpeak rate is 7.00 ppu inc vat.

 6.9p (+VAT)  would be 7.245  ppu inc vat.

michaels

EricMears said:

Reed_Richards said:

Exodi said:

EON Next has been 6.9p off peak for quite some time now (since April I believe?). It also provides off peak rates for an hour longer. I'm silently optimistic they'll reduce it further since the recent price cap change. As you say though, other suppliers have cheap EV rates, they all seem mostly competitive. I'm finding the cost to charge my EV about 10-20% of what it cost to fuel my ICE car mile by mile. 

The Eon NextDrive v3 tariff gives you electricity for your whole house at 6.9p (+VAT) per kWh between midnight and 7 am.  That's two hours longer than Octopus, I believe.  

Actually, 'Octopus Intelligent Go' is 6 guaranteed off-peak hours per night plus the possibility of extra time if car is being charged outside 23:30 - 05:30 (e.g. I'm getting 23:00 - 07:59 tonight).   And their offpeak rate is 7.00 ppu inc vat.

 6.9p (+VAT)  would be 7.245  ppu inc vat.

But you need a car or charger that is qualified for intelligent which you don't for Eon.

Reed_Richards

Sorry, I was wrong; Eon charge 6.571p per kWh + VAT for the hours between midnight and 7am

And that's "Intelligent Go" as opposed to "Go"; I really struggle to keep track of all the myriad Octopus tariffs.  Eon NextDrive is wonderfully simple by comparison.

dave23

Next year I am looking to retire and will need to replace my 13 year old diesel and I am thinking an EV would be perfect. I think I would probably drive max 5000 miles a year if retired with my longest regular round trip of 100 miles to visit grandchildren so most trips would be within the cars range and I would fit a home charger.

I would love a Tesla model 3 but do you think that is overkill for the miles and considering the likely insurance costs? I am not buying new but max 3 years old. I used to think a Leaf would be suitable but not sure now due to the charging infrastructure if we did want to travel further. Or would an MG4 Trophy be a better solution?

CKhalvashi

dave23 said:

Next year I am looking to retire and will need to replace my 13 year old diesel and I am thinking an EV would be perfect. I think I would probably drive max 5000 miles a year if retired with my longest regular round trip of 100 miles to visit grandchildren so most trips would be within the cars range and I would fit a home charger.

I would love a Tesla model 3 but do you think that is overkill for the miles and considering the likely insurance costs? I am not buying new but max 3 years old. I used to think a Leaf would be suitable but not sure now due to the charging infrastructure if we did want to travel further. Or would an MG4 Trophy be a better solution?

A future issue for the longer journeys with the older Leaf may be that the chargers are the 'old' system.

I had an 38kWh Ioniq covering reasonably high mileages, it would do 200mi reasonably easily so naturally subject to driving style would fit your needs. These are quite low in value on the used market. My brother bought mine and he's impressed with it too. I now have an ID4 purely as our needs have changed in that time, but still cover 3-4000mi/month.

I think personally that you'd be better off with a used model at that mileage, however if you want new the MG4/MG5 are probably one of the best value EVs out there at the moment.

I haven't driven one yet, but the new Stellantis platform looks good on paper also, I believe it's the Citroen e-C3 and Fiat Grande Panda.

Netexporter

dave23 said:

Next year I am looking to retire and will need to replace my 13 year old diesel and I am thinking an EV would be perfect. I think I would probably drive max 5000 miles a year if retired with my longest regular round trip of 100 miles to visit grandchildren so most trips would be within the cars range and I would fit a home charger.

I would love a Tesla model 3 but do you think that is overkill for the miles and considering the likely insurance costs? I am not buying new but max 3 years old. I used to think a Leaf would be suitable but not sure now due to the charging infrastructure if we did want to travel further. Or would an MG4 Trophy be a better solution?

I'd go for the MG4. Very competent car, all round. The main criticism has been that the lane-keep-assist is a bit fierce for some tastes, but I gather there is a software update in the pipeline for that.

The Leaf's a bargain at the moment, as it has ceased production. You can get a pre-registered one with only delivery mileage for about £12k. The main downside is the Chademo charging, if you are doing a lot of longer journeys, but that doesn't sound like a problem for your intended usage.

Coastalwatch

dave23 said:

Next year I am looking to retire and will need to replace my 13 year old diesel and I am thinking an EV would be perfect. I think I would probably drive max 5000 miles a year if retired with my longest regular round trip of 100 miles to visit grandchildren so most trips would be within the cars range and I would fit a home charger.

I would love a Tesla model 3 but do you think that is overkill for the miles and considering the likely insurance costs? I am not buying new but max 3 years old. I used to think a Leaf would be suitable but not sure now due to the charging infrastructure if we did want to travel further. Or would an MG4 Trophy be a better solution?

Hi @dave23, for sure you are looking in the right area. There are some great second hand prices/choices around and each brand with it's own pro's and con's. We are retired also and replaced our diesel engined focus with a 40kWh Leaf in 2018. Absolutely no regrets with the benefit of V2H that most other makes lack.It's since covered +40k miles with an SOH of 89%. If only travelling locally and within range then no need to worry about charging infrastructure when away. We've completed several trips to Swanage circa 220 miles each way twice a year with a single stop half way utilising the Grid Serve network making sure we planned ahead to ensure pumps were well within range.There really are some bargains to be had for this version in second hand market aside from main dealers.

No experience with MG but they certainly have a greater range, not sure how long they've been around to assess their longevity claims.

Having given up on flying and foreign holidays due to environmental concerns we are now holidaying in the UK, travelling more frequently and further away from home so plumped for a TM3 for this purpose. We love it, covered 2.5k miles in first two weeks of August up in Scotland, the superchargers are brilliant. Just plug in and off they go, no faffing around with cards or Apps.

We still have the Leaf as a second vehicle and for supporting the Grid via V2H/G so earning it's keep while sitting in the drive.

Afraid I couldn't possibly recommend one above the other as it's a very personal decision that only you can answer.

But do have fun investigating all the options around, it's rather more complex now with so many EV's to choose from. Why not attend one of the Everything Electric shows where there will be lots to test drive?

Reed_Richards

dave23 said:

 I think I would probably drive max 5000 miles a year if retired with my longest regular round trip of 100 miles to visit grandchildren so most trips would be within the cars range and I would fit a home charger.

I have a single-handed crusade against the unnecessary use of home chargers.  I didn't buy a home charger for about £1k, I bought a charger with an ordinary 3-pin plug for about £100 (a "granny charger").  This draws 2.35 kW.  Despite heading for about 9,000 miles of use in my first year of having the EV, I have only once needed to make an unplanned top-up from a commercial charger to get myself home.  On my Eon NextDrive EV tariff I get 7 hours of cheap charging.  I just did a full overnight charge drawing 16.926 kWh.  At 90% charging efficiency (I've measured mine but I understand this is typical) that would be 15.2 kWh added to the battery.  Nominally my car does just over 4 miles to the kWh (and can get close to that in summer) so that's 60 miles of range added overnight.

Starting with a full charge, driving 100 miles per day and recharging overnight I could manage 4 consecutive days before having to worry about having enough charge to get myself home on the 5th day.