EV Charger Cost.

facade

silverwhistle said:

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I use an Ohme via a commando socket, usually overnight, and obviously posher than Facade's area ;-), although as it's an ex-council terrace not _that_ posh!

I could probably leave it out overnight most nights and it would still be there in the morning.

The problem is that I would have to be lucky every time I used it, and they only have to be lucky once.

Having a car that lights up it's socket like a beacon for guiding aircraft to a safe landing in fog doesn't help!

I've got an Evdance "charger" that would do 32A from that Commando socket if the car was on PCP and going back, 16A is plenty for one that is mine and I want to last.

Jenni_D

Charging at 32A AC has no negative impact on the EV battery whatsoever ... charging at 16A isn't any better for it, it doesn't extend the battery life. It's regular 100kW+ DC charging that has more of a negative impact.

facade

Jenni_D said:

Charging at 32A AC has no negative impact on the EV battery whatsoever ... charging at 16A isn't any better for it, it doesn't extend the battery life. It's regular 100kW+ DC charging that has more of a negative impact.

It is not the battery that is the problem. Stellantis onboard chargers fail. New ones are ££££££££££ and can only be made to work in the car by proper dealers with online access to Stellantis to code them. Second hand ones are "only" ££££ but still have the problem with coding.

Batteryman had trouble swapping his https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AqhbqwvfU4

The ones I have seen stripped down look like they have overheated, but that may have been due to the fault, rather than the common factor in causing it. 

It costs me nothing to restrict the charge current to 16A and halves the continuous power that the flaky electronics have to handle. Anything that potentially saves me a ££££££££££ bill seems A Good Idea to me!

(Yes, the water pump & fan runs twice as long, and will wear out quicker, but they aren't ££££££££££ and AFAIK they aren't subject to expensive coding)

Jenni_D

That's different then, and something not obvious from your prior post. I can fully understand you wanting to prevent any unnecessary costs being incurred ... although this does sound like a design fault so should be covered under warranty. (I've no idea what length warranty Stellantis give on their EVs though).

facade

Jenni_D said:

That's different then, and something not obvious from your prior post. I can fully understand you wanting to prevent any unnecessary costs being incurred ... although this does sound like a design fault so should be covered under warranty. (I've no idea what length warranty Stellantis give on their EVs though).

3 years, mine is out.

Given their history with the Puretech engines , there isn't much chance of them acknowledging a design flaw and increasing the warranty on the on board charger! 

HHarry

piperm87 said:

Its abit of an issue if i come back from work with an empty battery and have to go out again on the evening and dont want to use my petrol. 

So you’re looking to spend £800+ on a charger to resolve an issue that might occur on the odd occasion?

It’ll be cheaper to use an egg cup of petrol when that happens.

matt_drummer

Do you really get 3.5 miles per kWh out of that Kuga?

I used my brain to work out that 14.4 x 8.5p is about £1.20

I also used my brain to work out that it costs more than 0.3 pence per mile to drive your Kuga on electricity.

What exactly have you built.

Jenni_D

14.4kWh is likely the battery max capacity, not the usable capacity. And it won't likely charge at 3kW ... there'll be losses involved, plus the fact that a UK 3-pin charger will charge at a max of 10A, so nearer 2.3kW; reckon on 2.0kW at best. (Not that this affects the total power delivered, just that it takes longer to get there).

And there's no way a Kuga PHEV will get 3.5 miles/kWh - not with having to lump around the ICE equipment as well as the battery and motor. 3 mpkWh is probably the best you'll see, and lower still in winter.

MeteredOut

Jenni_D said:

14.4kWh is likely the battery max capacity, not the usable capacity. And it won't likely charge at 3kW ... there'll be losses involved, plus the fact that a UK 3-pin charger will charge at a max of 10A, so nearer 2.3kW; reckon on 2.0kW at best. (Not that this affects the total power delivered, just that it takes longer to get there).

And there's no way a Kuga PHEV will get 3.5 miles/kWh - not with having to lump around the ICE equipment as well as the battery and motor. 3 mpkWh is probably the best you'll see, and lower still in winter.

My 3 pin charger can charge up to 13A. On the rare occasion I'll let it run at 12A, but generally keep it at 10A.

But, after a long range journey over the new year, we got 44.10kWh in 18.5 hours (so approaching 2.4kW average). 

We have an extremely short cable run from our garage socket to a consumer unit in our garage, however - just through the garage wall.

born_again

WhatAHoot said:

I thought I’d add a real-world data point to this, as charger costs can sound a lot scarier than they actually are in practice.

I’ve got a 2023 Ford Kuga PHEV with the 14.4 kWh battery. Despite the battery size, the car’s max AC input is only around 3 kW, so there’s no benefit to an expensive wallbox for me. I charge using a standard 3-pin 13 amp charger on a dedicated outdoor socket with RCD protection, which is perfectly adequate for overnight charging (The electrician also future proofed with larger cable for a wallbox incase I switched vehicles)

On Octopus Energy’s EV tariff (8.5p per kWh between 00:30 and 05:30), a full charge costs roughly £1.20–£1.30. From empty to full takes about 4 hours 45 minutes at ~3 kW, which fits comfortably inside the cheap-rate window.

To sanity-check the numbers, I built a small EV charging calculator on SPAM  website, under Resources in the navigation menu

Using my setup as an example:
Battery: 14.4 kWh
Charge rate: 3 kW
Tariff: 8.5p/kWh
Cost from 0–100%: ~£1.22
Cost per mile: ~0.3p (assuming ~3.5 miles per kWh)

For PHEVs especially, a wallbox often isn’t financially justified unless you want convenience or future-proofing. A safe, properly installed 3-pin socket plus a cheap overnight tariff can be more than enough and keeps upfront costs very low.

3 posts all with one website mentioned. 

Chips & beans anyone?