Charge your EV from home

subjecttocontract

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867165#Comment_81867165

The point I was trying to make was that ......hoping there will be an available charger, that works, has the required speed so I'm not waiting around is all a bit of a gamble that isn't there with ICE vehicles. That sort of gamble just won't be acceptable to some buyers so it's not a great sales pitch.

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867151#Comment_81867151

I chose my words somewhat carefully, and it's an interesting comparison between Tesco's and Sainsbury's given how similar they otherwise are…

Tesco's added charging to their stores some years ago (predating my EV ownership). A typical large Tesco's has 3 or 4 slow chargers and 1 rapid one (usually 50kw). So, it's not a charging hub in my mind (since only one car can rapid charge at a time).

Sainsbury's had a few slow chargers, but they are in the process of a national roll-out of charging hubs. The largest Sainsbury's I know has 14 CCS chargers and 1 Chademo. That's what I'd call a hub - where many vehicles can charge simultaneously. That site has 150kw chargers, so about 3 times faster than a typical Tesco's.

sheramber

My Scottish Sainsbury’s does not have any charging points.

As said before the ones in the retail car park are in out of the way places, not near the supermarket.

LightFlare

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867174#Comment_81867174

I’m the same - plus the price puts me off on equivalent types of car to my current one

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867174#Comment_81867174

Charging time is a product of the car's charging speed, the charger's capability and how much electricity is dispensed.

In the example I gave, the car had 100kW charging speed, and the charger was capable of delivering that. The car could therefore be expected to take on about 50kWh in 30 minutes. (I'm pretty quick going round a supermarket, but most people would take at least that long).

50kWh equates to around 200 miles in averagely efficient EVs - and 200 miles per week is 10,000 miles per year (above average).

I could see some people not being interested in a Mk1 Nissan Leaf "catfish" (or a Mk1 Prius - not an EV), but EVs these days come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. In a lot of cases (Ford Puma, Vauxhall Grandland) the EVs and the Petrol variants are cosmetically identical. You may or may not like them, but it won't be their "EVness" you are objecting to.

oldernonethewiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867713#Comment_81867713

As I said I'm not in a supermarket long enough to use their chargers anyway but I could charge if I went to the cinema, restaurant, pub etc.

I've done the maths and currently, without the option of home charging, an EV isn't the answer.

I've driven a few and I like the driving experience, my main gripe, which affects many cars including ICE ones, is the lack of buttons. I really don't like everything being touchscreen based.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867181#Comment_81867181

There seems to be this misconception that you have to charge every day. I only charged 5 times in January. Yet still did the same miles as I do every month.

2 of them were because we had some heavy house use, so charge car (20%) to get cheap rate.

WellKnownSid

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868164#Comment_81868164

Yep - 100 flats with average car ownership under 50% = 50 vehicles, charging an average of once every 10 days to give the '7,400 mile per year' average mileage figure is going to theoretically require 5 charging points - assuming you continue to block the post for an entire 24 hour period. Obviously you want more capacity than that, but 20 lampposts could be a good start.

And that is in 2055 - where the last cars sold with a petrol engine hit 20 years old.

Nissan (along with other manufacturers) are also testing solar for true "self-charging" EVs. Even in London - with today's solar technology you get an average of 10 free km per day (over six miles) when you park outside which seems a good deal.

Herzlos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81868164#Comment_81868164

There also seems to be a misconception that you have to fully charge a car too. Even a quick supermarket trip could add enough range for a few days average usage.

Say a slow 7kw charger, and a car that consumes 3.5kwh/mile. That's going to add 2 miles of a range per minute it's connected. So a 10 minute visit would be 20 miles. Sounds like nothing compared to filling a tank of diesel, but 20 miles is the average daily mileage.

It's not viable if you're popping in for a paper, but if you're doing a bigger shop it's perfectly viable.

Herzlos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867237#Comment_81867237

Oh there's definitely cases where EV's still aren't suitable.

But I bet the same concerns were raised about petrol in 1920.