Electric car

swjf1q

I'm thinking of buying an electric car. I don't have a home charger yet, so i'd need to consider this. But my biggest worry is about running out of battery. 
I can't see any information how you use onstreet electric charges. 
So I was wondering if anyone could help me answer the following questions.

- How to do you use on street charges
- Can you top-up, say a fixed amount. So for example, when i fill my car i put £20 in. 
-How do you know which is the cheapest charges?
- Do you still need to pay for parking when you are charging a car at the car park?

Mildly_Miffed

1. Look at each charge provider's website, they'll differ.

2. Look at each charge provider's website, they may differ.

3. Look at something like zapmap.

4. Look at the information in the carpark, they'll differ.

david29dpo

If your biggest worry is running out of lecy, dont buy.

Keep_pedalling

If you are having a charge point installed at home you won’t need on street chargers ( which tend to be slow AC chargers), but you may need to use rapid chargers from time to time on longer trips.

You can’t restrict a charge to a fixed amount in cash but you can limit the amount of charge to add by setting the car to stop charging once a a certain level of charge has been reached. Alternatvely you can stop the charge manually from the car or app.

There are various apps that will show you the cost per kWh for all charging places. You can also get discounts with things like Electroverse from Octopus. I used that yesterday after I forgot to charge overnight and had to stop for a 10 min charge to make sure I could get home safely.

There are some chargers that are located in car parks where you need to pay for parking but if you are using rapids you really don’t need to pay for more than 1/2 hour, the majority however are free from parking charges. Again there are apps like Zap-map that warn you about parking charges.

flaneurs_lobster

Mildly_Miffed said:

1. Look at each charge provider's website, they'll differ.

2. Look at each charge provider's website, they may differ.

3. Look at something like zapmap.

4. Look at the information in the carpark, they'll differ.

...and this, ladiesngentlemen, is why my next car is going to burn petrol.

Car_54

swjf1q said:

 But my biggest worry is about running out of battery. 

when i fill my car i put £20 in. 

Spot the connection.

Herzlos

Charging consistency is the one thing really letting electric cars down at the moment. BUT the reality is that with a bit of planning/awareness you shouldn't find yourself in a random town needing to charge urgenty unless there are a few that are broken.

That said, why are you considering an EV if you don't have home charging and are worried about finding chargers?

Stubod

..I will never by an all electric car until there are literally no ICE ones left to buy anywhere, (including 2nd hand).....

born_again

swjf1q said:

I'm thinking of buying an electric car. I don't have a home charger yet, so i'd need to consider this. But my biggest worry is about running out of battery. 
I can't see any information how you use onstreet electric charges. 
So I was wondering if anyone could help me answer the following questions.

- How to do you use on street charges
- Can you top-up, say a fixed amount. So for example, when i fill my car i put £20 in. 
-How do you know which is the cheapest charges?
- Do you still need to pay for parking when you are charging a car at the car park?

So more pertinent information.

How many miles a day do you do?

Keep_pedalling

flaneurs_lobster said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

1. Look at each charge provider's website, they'll differ.

2. Look at each charge provider's website, they may differ.

3. Look at something like zapmap.

4. Look at the information in the carpark, they'll differ.

...and this, ladiesngentlemen, is why my next car is going to burn petrol.

Why am I not surprised some anti-EV poster who cant answer the OPs questions and offers nothing but negativity jumps in on something they really know nothing about out?

Sorry OP but this happens on threads like this where for some odd reason they don’t want you to buy an EV even if it is the best option for you.

Like me, you can charge at home so unless you have very long daily commutes you will be doing 95+% charging very cheaply at home. Where you have longer journeys it is worth doing a bit of advance planning, but I don’t worry to much about the charges I am more concerned about the facilities available. 

The longest journey I have done is Cambridge to Carlisle, and there is no way I would do that without 3 comfort breaks, so although there are plenty of charging opportunities on route I was more concerned about avoiding those that were located where the only food and coffee available was a McDonalds or some other crap refreshment place rather than those that were just the cheapest. On major routes you won’t find an awful lot of difference anyway. We stopped 3 times and charged twice. 

If you can’t charge at home then maybe an EV is not for you, but if you can then it is a very good option. I have had one for 3 1/2 years and will be test driving its potential replacement next week, which will be another EV..

Keep_pedalling

born_again said:

swjf1q said:

I'm thinking of buying an electric car. I don't have a home charger yet, so i'd need to consider this. But my biggest worry is about running out of battery. 
I can't see any information how you use onstreet electric charges. 
So I was wondering if anyone could help me answer the following questions.

- How to do you use on street charges
- Can you top-up, say a fixed amount. So for example, when i fill my car i put £20 in. 
-How do you know which is the cheapest charges?
- Do you still need to pay for parking when you are charging a car at the car park?

So more pertinent information.

How many miles a day do you do?

And if you have a long commute can you charge at work?