EV owners: question about EV charging

born_again

forgotmyname said:

So this brings on a new problem with EV's....  Can the local water works cope with all the EV drivers who stop for a coffee?

Watched the video with the BMW and Taycan, as with most things you probably need to read between the lines to
find the full facts. The truth is probably somewhere inbetween.

One charger stating power reduced due to overdemand would be a worry as would the current insurance costs.
Just done a quote on a Tesla Model 3 and it would be £187.32 more expensive than my current car.

A lot more investment needs to happen to install more chargers than they have petrol pumps.

Total petrol stations Dec 22 8270
In 2019 around 12,000. So a large drop over 4 years.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/312047/petrol-station-sites-by-brand-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/#:~:text=At the end of 2020,the UK amounted to 8,385.

Total charge points 
At the end of October 2023, there were 51,516 electric vehicle charging points across the UK, across 30,360 charging locations. This represents a 45% increase in the total number of charging devices since October 2022

https://www.zap-map.com/ev-stats/how-many-charging-points#:~:text=How many public charging points,charging devices since October 2022.

So a large increase over 1 year.

boxosox

Petriix said:

For the most part plugging in at home takes around 15 seconds and I never have the inconvenience of having to go to a petrol station and queue up before standing there squeezing a nozzle for 5 minutes. 

Interesting point.  I suppose if you add up the amount of time I stand at a pump across a whole year, it'd be several hours compared to much less for those few long trips in an EV.

You've just pushed me back towards EVs!  

force_ten1

boxosox said:

Grumpy_chap said:

boxosox said:

I did a drive from Guildford to Glasgow yesterday, so was aware that I would probably have had to stop two or three times adding around 1.5hrs to my journey time of 7hrs which would have been tedious.

Why would the stops add 1.5 hours to the 7 hour journey?
On a 7 hour journey, I would be stopping regardless for comfort and refreshment breaks.
Charge at the same time and there is no increase in the overall journey time.

I don't have an EV, so I'm only guessing that over a 430 mile journey in a car with a (claimed) range of 230 miles, I'd have to stop for 2x 40min charges, so 1hr 20 -ish.

I've just got home and, in my case, I stopped once on the way there and once on the way back for about 10 mins.  Enough time to use the toilet, get some lunch and a coffee.  So charging would add well over an hour each way.

l have just considered buying a Kia EV6 that has a claimed 330 miles and Fast charging from 10-80% in 18 minutes on the right charger. so that would do the 430 mile trip with one short 20 minute stop to charge. 

my ice car has 75 miles range left in the tank so to do 430 mile tip l would have to go to a fuel station and fill up so say that takes 5 minutes by the time i waited for a pump fill up and go queue to pay so we have a difference of 15 minutes and how many people will drive 430 miles without a 15 minute stop

you can make an EV work or you can put up barriers trying to prove that an EV wont work for you 

the big caveat here is we need to see a huge improvement in the charging infrastructure and we need them to be 300kW plus chargers 

alan_d

I tow a large caravan, and rarely less than 100 miles at a time. There is no EV that can do this with a practical range.
Then factor in the cost. My used SUV cost me £8k. I have no finance or other ongoing costs other than maintenance and a few repairs as needed. Even with it's reasonably poor MPG, any EV option would cost far more overall, be far more impractical, and depreciate like crazy.
Not viable anytime soon.

boxosox

aceventura123456 said:

That sounds like quite the long drive! Stopping two or three times certainly adds a substantial amount to your journey, but it's essential for safety and comfort, especially on such a long trip from Guildford to Glasgow. How did you find the drive overall? Hopefully, the stops were at least at convenient locations or offered a chance for a nice break.

Lovely drive.  Very straightforward.  Couple of podcasts and the radio and the time flew by.

Maybe it's an age thing (I'm 34) but I just don't need to pee more than once in 6hrs and it's certainly not tiring.  Adaptive cruise control is an amazing thing.

force_ten1

boxosox said:

alan_d said:

Plenty of info about, but watch this for starters!

That first video was 11 minutes of a man endlessly repeating himself ("12 hours until fully charged.  So, fully charged in 12hrs.  So that's 12 hours.  Until charged.  Fully charged") interspersed with tonnes of adverts. 

Seemed rather contrived just for clicks, but I get the point.

"Seemed rather contrived just for clicks, but I get the point"

that is 100% what it is because that guy makes his living out of stupid videos trying to convince people that EVs are rubbish and that they are not the future 

a few examples of just how shallow that guy is 

in one of his videos he passed within one mile of a new charging super hub that has a dozen charge points with speeds that would charge his car in around 15 minutes but would that make good content no 
so instead of stopping at the super hub he drove past and went to a 1966 service station on the M1 that only had two 11kw chargers and they were in use so he had to drive to the next services 30 miles away and he was suffering stress and range anxiety but the whole thing was contrived for view time and clicks because that is what pays the rent for him 

another example was a trip to wales where he was saying that there was no charging infrastructure in wales. on that occasion he drove through the town that l live in and he passed four chargers that were about 100 yards from the road he was on going "no there are no chargers here" l know at least another four that he passed as well whilst wittering "l am nearly out of charge what am l going to do"
the sole purpose of driving past all those chargers saying the are no chargers here was to get to a Tesla super charger that is open to any vehicle 

when he got there he was all smug saying "the only place in wales that l can charge my car is a Tesla charge point" and l don't even own a Tesla 

sorry but those videos are clickbait videos engineered to fit his agenda with the sole purpose of generating ad revenue  

MacPingu1986

alan_d said:

I tow a large caravan, and rarely less than 100 miles at a time. There is no EV that can do this with a practical range.
Then factor in the cost. My used SUV cost me £8k. I have no finance or other ongoing costs other than maintenance and a few repairs as needed. Even with it's reasonably poor MPG, any EV option would cost far more overall, be far more impractical, and depreciate like crazy.
Not viable anytime soon.

Sure - but long range towing isn't something the *vast* majority of drivers ever need to think about. The typical car owner has an average trip length of c9 miles, and only drives over 100miles three times a year (and only make a trip over 200miles every couple of years).

So for the typical owner (and particularly with any home charging), the ease and cheapness of charging for those day to day short journeys that make up life, more than offsets additional planning for the very occasional longer journey.

oldernonethewiser

force_ten1 said:

boxosox said:

alan_d said:

Plenty of info about, but watch this for starters!

That first video was 11 minutes of a man endlessly repeating himself ("12 hours until fully charged.  So, fully charged in 12hrs.  So that's 12 hours.  Until charged.  Fully charged") interspersed with tonnes of adverts. 

Seemed rather contrived just for clicks, but I get the point.

"Seemed rather contrived just for clicks, but I get the point"

that is 100% what it is because that guy makes his living out of stupid videos trying to convince people that EVs are rubbish and that they are not the future 

a few examples of just how shallow that guy is 

in one of his videos he passed within one mile of a new charging super hub that has a dozen charge points with speeds that would charge his car in around 15 minutes but would that make good content no 
so instead of stopping at the super hub he drove past and went to a 1966 service station on the M1 that only had two 11kw chargers and they were in use so he had to drive to the next services 30 miles away and he was suffering stress and range anxiety but the whole thing was contrived for view time and clicks because that is what pays the rent for him 

another example was a trip to wales where he was saying that there was no charging infrastructure in wales. on that occasion he drove through the town that l live in and he passed four chargers that were about 100 yards from the road he was on going "no there are no chargers here" l know at least another four that he passed as well whilst wittering "l am nearly out of charge what am l going to do"
the sole purpose of driving past all those chargers saying the are no chargers here was to get to a Tesla super charger that is open to any vehicle 

when he got there he was all smug saying "the only place in wales that l can charge my car is a Tesla charge point" and l don't even own a Tesla 

sorry but those videos are clickbait videos engineered to fit his agenda with the sole purpose of generating ad revenue  

Seems they are not confined to driving either. 

He has, as far as I am concerned, an unwatchable "presentation" style.  

Mind you some folk will watch any old dross.

force_ten1

alan_d said:

I tow a large caravan, and rarely less than 100 miles at a time. There is no EV that can do this with a practical range.
Then factor in the cost. My used SUV cost me £8k. I have no finance or other ongoing costs other than maintenance and a few repairs as needed. Even with it's reasonably poor MPG, any EV option would cost far more overall, be far more impractical, and depreciate like crazy.
Not viable anytime soon.g

you said there is no ev that can tow 100 miles well that is not true 

l mentioned previously the Kia EV6 that has a claimed 330 miles and has a tow capacity of 1600kg and there are videos on youtube from andrew ditton and he tows a van with an EV6 and he says he can get 140 miles range from 100% charge and 100 miles from 80% and on the right charger the car can charge from 10% to 80% 18 minutes

for you the issue is the cost of your tow car and the fact that you would need to spend a lot of money to get into a good EV that is capable of towing 

but if you look at the sixty to seventy grand audis and mercs on the campsite and the hundred grand plus range rovers fifty grand for an EV6 so towing with an EV may not work for you but it will work for many    

alan_d

force_ten1 said:

alan_d said:

I tow a large caravan, and rarely less than 100 miles at a time. There is no EV that can do this with a practical range.
Then factor in the cost. My used SUV cost me £8k. I have no finance or other ongoing costs other than maintenance and a few repairs as needed. Even with it's reasonably poor MPG, any EV option would cost far more overall, be far more impractical, and depreciate like crazy.
Not viable anytime soon.g

you said there is no ev that can tow 100 miles well that is not true 

l mentioned previously the Kia EV6 that has a claimed 330 miles and has a tow capacity of 1600kg and there are videos on youtube from andrew ditton and he tows a van with an EV6 and he says he can get 140 miles range from 100% charge and 100 miles from 80% and on the right charger the car can charge from 10% to 80% 18 minutes

for you the issue is the cost of your tow car and the fact that you would need to spend a lot of money to get into a good EV that is capable of towing 

but if you look at the sixty to seventy grand audis and mercs on the campsite and the hundred grand plus range rovers fifty grand for an EV6 so towing with an EV may not work for you but it will work for many    

My caravan is 1800kg, 
But ignoring that, the EV6 starts at £45k for the base model, to give half the range I can get with my ICE car when towing? How is this something I would possibly want to do?

For people who can charge at home, and do regular short journeys, they work well.
However, for anyone who regularly needs to travel further, or tow things, they are not there yet.