Money Moral Dilemma: Should I ask for money if people charge their electric cars when they visit?

Goudy

Debbieman said:

If I were visiting I would NEVER dream of asking my hosts to pay for my fuel!  Electricity is just that, Fuel!  I understand that due to the limitation of electric cars that they need refuelling more often and so would happily pay my hosts for the use of their electric!  Imaging the cost if you have several visitors week asking the same?  

That's interesting.
Do you think how we pay for the different fuels makes a difference in this scenario?

Generally, electricity is paid for after consumption, but not by everyone.
Petrol and diesel is paid for pre consumption and even before that if you use pay at the pump.

Would there be any EV owners happy to use a friend or family's 3 pin plug to charge if the host had to pre pay for electricity?

Would anyone check before asking or accepting an offer to charge if their host was in fuel poverty or energy debt?

Is there a step too far, if you offer to pay or not.
Or is it a solid yes no matter what?

born_again

Mr.Generous said:

EV owners, I'm interested in the "real world range" comments. Whenever I go on a day trip, family visit, wedding, etc of any great distance there is always some kind of traffic problem. It's got progressively worse each year. Would you really try and risk a journey with a 10 mile contingency? I'm only guessing, but would being stuck in miles of slow moving traffic affect the range? If it was dark and cold, lights and heating might be on. In an ICE vehicle traffic knocks the MPG right down, worst case scenario I fill up. In 40 years of driving I've ran out of fuel once. (ok, ok I was young and stupid - it was a Mini Metro if that helps date things) - However I've seen flat EV's several times in the last few months. I'm wondering if next time the motorways are stuffed by snow they will be double stuffed because quite a number of EV's will be locked up stuck in a live lane with no juice.

EV not moving = no battery usage, unlike a ICE unless you turn engine off.

Dark cold night, depends on how hot you like it in car. But will not knock much off range, it is only getting up to temp that uses a bit, once there next to nothing to keep it there.

Down hill stretch = Increased range. Local hill to me 3 miles = a 5 mile gain in range thanks to 40 & 30 speed limit. But even just slowing down on flat adds range.

For your snow case. EV's are non polluting to keep warm. If it's that bad, you have to turn ICE off or you can end up with a car full of fumes..

But in weather like that, it's the same for both. Ensure you have enough fuel for your journey. So on a M/Way. make use of the regular facilities & top up 👍

Siebrie

nabob said:

If you have a petrol car how are your visitors going to charge their cars as I believe you need a special charging port!  But yes I would certainly expect a bottle of wine or similar gesture for payment.

Husband's company car came with 3 chargers:

- 'Type 2' plug on both sides for charging at a proper charging station. We have a charging card from the leasing company;

- normal plug with digital counter for charging at home from normal socket, where the digital info is sent to the leasing company and we get reimbursed (this charger lives in our 'garage');

- normal plug for charging from a normal socket.

We can charge anywhere, but would definitely offer to pay if we were forced to charge from someone's home!

Spencerx

If I had an EV car and visited someone I would never expect to charge it at their expense and would insist on paying. I don't have a car myself but if I have to ask one of my children to take me somewhere I always give them money for fuel, mainly because everyone is struggling these days. If it was asking for a lift to somewhere they were going anyway it would be different.

hannerrbabes

Very much a 1st world problem!

Why do you have an EV charging point if you have a petrol car?

How long are they charging their car for? Is it just for an hour or 2 whilst round for a cuppa? Or are they staying overnight and charging it the entire time? 
According to Cinch, it costs around £12 to charge an 80kW car for 14 hours. So around 85p per hour charging. That's hardly something to quibble over if only happening occasionally or for short amounts of time. And surely that's just considered a cost of having a friend over, just like cooking additional food for them, or doing extra washes of the bed linen?

Jenni_D

Cinch is talking cobblers ... sort of. Charging an EV costs:

kWh charged x Unit (kWh) rate.

80 kWh x 27p (typical standard variable rate) = £21.60. If it's a cheap overnight tariff (like 7.5p) then it is £6.00.

The speed (kW) of the charge point only determines how much kWh can be charged in any given time. Using an example of me staying overnight at my brother's and charging using the granny lead (1.8kW rate typically) I used 31.75 kWh and so the cost was £8.44 at his unit rate.

bathtub

I was incensed when on a recent visit to Tesco. A breakdown truck dropped off a BEV that plugged into a free charger. I wonder what would've happened if I ran out of fuel and asked for a few litres, free, to get me home?

It's normal practice within my circle of friends and relatives, to take a gift when visiting (wine, choclates etc), particularly if eating, or staying. I'd expect any visitor with a BEV to have sorted out the charging options, but if they needed a charge, I'd expect them to offer to pay. I wouldn't expect them to offer a few litres of fuel when I visit them!

chatterbox9999

We have electric cars and often help other EV users, mostly family, by offering our charger when they visit. We use the PodPoint charger app to show us how much each charge cost and everyone reimburses us. Accurate and efficient. 

chatterbox9999

bathtub said:

I was incensed when on a recent visit to Tesco. A breakdown truck dropped off a BEV that plugged into a free charger. I wonder what would've happened if I ran out of fuel and asked for a few litres, free, to get me home?

It's normal practice within my circle of friends and relatives, to take a gift when visiting (wine, choclates etc), particularly if eating, or staying. I'd expect any visitor with a BEV to have sorted out the charging options, but if they needed a charge, I'd expect them to offer to pay. I wouldn't expect them to offer a few litres of fuel when I visit them!

Don’t worry Tesco chargers are no longer free. 

misimp

My wife refuses point blank to allow her relative to charge up for free when they visit around 3/4 times a year.

 did cause a bit of resentment on their part, which only hardened her resolve

 course, it didn't help that
 a)claim that they have to charge up as soon as they arrive because thay only have a couple of miles left
 b)Their car never moves whilst they are with us and we have to ferry them everywhere
 c)They are always crowing about how cheap their EV is to run (no wonder)
 d)They said a full charge would only cost us 'a couple of quid' whereas using a charging point down the road was 'far too expensive'

In response to an earlier post - no we don't charge them for food or anything else. Neither do we fill other visitors cars with petrol or diesel. Nor do we expect them to pay for OUR petrol when we visit them


 I think anyone who expects free electric has  a brass neck. They pay no road tax, claim that EVs are cheap to run yet expect others to subsidise them???