Which EV Charger to get?

thegentleway

Wife has decided to get an electric car (Mini) so will need to get an EV charger to benefit from low night rates. Any recommendations? We are with Octopus as have Solar panels and battery. I see Octopus do EV charger but presumably they are expensive as their quote for solar panels wasn't competitive at all. Thanks

QrizB

We got an Ohme charger through Octopus. Cost was a bit under £1000 (£900 or £950, IIRC) which was competitive with any other quotes (cheaper than getting an Ohme installed via Ohme themselves).

Do weigh up whether you can get away with a plug-in charger, or not; Octopus Go is only 1.5p a unit more expensive than Intelligent Go, and it'll take a lot of 1.5ps to save you the cost of the charger.

Keep_pedalling

Personally I would look at a Zappi. Fully compatible with Octopus Intelligent Go and works well with solar installations.

NorthEastLight

+1 for the zappi, both for the tariff options it can give you and it's the only one I've found with buttons & screen on it which means you can control it without having to use an app - though it has a serviiceable app too. Size wise it's one of the larger ones and its not the best looking device iif that's important.

Usual advice is to figure out which tariff suits your circumstances first then pick a charger that works with it. Many ev tariffs work with any charger, but not all do. Some tariifs will work with compatible cars in which case the charger make won't matter.

The quotes electricity suppliers & national installers/manufacturers give online are for straightforward installs.

Get some local installers to visit, discuss & quote if the install is not plain vanilla. Remember you will need a wifi signal or ethernet at the charger location, unless it has a built in sim like the ohme.

Octopus was cheapest when I was looking last year but didn't have the charger version I was after so went with the manufacturer itself.

FreeBear

QrizB said: We got an Ohme charger through Octopus.

Had an Ohme charger installed here early last year. Not at all impressed with customer support - Took them over a month to respond to a simple request (account reset), and had to repeat information several times. Also bear in mind that Ohme uses a 3g/4g network. Whilst they cover the cost of the sim for the first 3 years, there may be a monthly charge after that point. And when the 4g network gets switched off (maybe in 10-15 years time), you'll probably need to install a new charger.

sheenas

Tbh they are all a much of muchness. Make sure it’s one that is compatible with octopus and all should be good. Most likely £1k from octopus and slightly more from a decent local installer. 

Keep_pedalling

FreeBear said:

QrizB said: We got an Ohme charger through Octopus.

Had an Ohme charger installed here early last year. Not at all impressed with customer support - Took them over a month to respond to a simple request (account reset), and had to repeat information several times. Also bear in mind that Ohme uses a 3g/4g network. Whilst they cover the cost of the sim for the first 3 years, there may be a monthly charge after that point. And when the 4g network gets switched off (maybe in 10-15 years time), you'll probably need to install a new charger.

I had good customer support from Myenergi when my Zappi 1 failed a few days after the 3 year warranty ran out.they still sent me out a Zappi 2 to replace it plus a contribution for an electrician to install it. Along with its ability to integrate with solar set ups is the reason I installed another one when we moved last year. 

born_again

I would echo Zappi, even though I have a OHME given your situation.

https://youtu.be/h3YEkxA09pM?si=xJUOyIgtCKwo9pp0

thegentleway

QrizB said:

We got an Ohme charger through Octopus. Cost was a bit under £1000 (£900 or £950, IIRC) which was competitive with any other quotes (cheaper than getting an Ohme installed via Ohme themselves).

Do weigh up whether you can get away with a plug-in charger, or not; Octopus Go is only 1.5p a unit more expensive than Intelligent Go, and it'll take a lot of 1.5ps to save you the cost of the charger.

I'm sure we can get away with plug-in charger. 2.3kW charging for 5 hours is 11.5kW a night, which would give 43.72 miles at 263Wh/m. I didn't realise you could switch to Octopus Go without a charger. That's brilliant.

thegentleway

Keep_pedalling said:

Personally I would look at a Zappi. Fully compatible with Octopus Intelligent Go and works well with solar installations.

Thank you for the recommendation. I would need a charger compatible with Octopus (currently, happy to change supplier though). I don't think I need integration with solar as would rather sell the excess solar at 15p/kWh instead of charging the Mini as I can do that overnight for 7 or 8.5p/kWh.

tilyymolly

I have a Zappi and an Ohme. I prefer the Zappi. The cost of each charge shows up quicker when using the Zappi. When using the Ohme when integrated the cost not available shows on the Octopus app. It then only shows the usage not cost.