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Electric Vehicle route to the alps

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@LaForet, Thanks for all the info. I was recently given a 208 GT petrol by a GVA airport French rental company and thought the space was great and will suit our needs a city car with dog in the boot. Have you found the steering wheel problematic as it seems to obstruct the dash board?

We are currently having three-phase electricity installed as part of our home renovations and have made provisions to install a 22kwh charger in the future which should give us lots of flexibility around our electric supplier. We are lucky to be able to park in the street directly in front of our house, most of the time, in central London.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
pam w wrote:
Quote:

But the biggest environmental impact is scrapping cars so makes more sense to run it as long as possible.


Absolutely, and this is what we need to remember. If people want to splash the cash on a TESLA, instead of a reliable 15 year old Volvo, that's their prerogative, provided they don't preach to me about saving the planet. wink


The saving the planet line does get thrown around a lot, though I don't believe I have ever heard and EV owner use it. Very much a strohman argument as well as a false dichotomy, as very few face that choice and the number of 15 year old Volvos is finite, i.e. even if it were the most sustainable way to travel (which it isn't), still only that specific number of people can do it. When purchasing a new car, and making an order, then you are actively helping increase the sustainability of the overall fleet of cars. Of course no car is best, but not feasible for most. Buying a used ICE also increases (at the margin) residuals of ICE cars, ergo reducing estimated depreciation rates and making ownership of ICE cars cheaper. Also EVs do not have local emissions, drastically improving air quality in cities. A 15 year old Volvo on the other hand... Also the proportion of lifecycle emissions of an ICE car from production is only a small fraction of the total, with the majority coming from burning fuel, so running an old motor with poor efficiency is unlikely to be the more sustainable choice. With EV's it is the opposite, so there keeping them running for as long as possible and recycling battery materials at the end of the lifespan will be critical

I own a gas guzzling SUV myself, but have been looking to shift to EV. The one thing holding me back is really longer trips by car, especially ski trips, as I do not like to stop particularly often, and don't think many EVs will get very far when averaging 140 kph, except maybe an EQS or Lucid Air.

One thing is certainly true, and that is that prices of new EVs are extortionate, which is partly driven by all the subsidies. What is attractive on the other hand is used EVs, in particular in Britain, where the majority of new buyers are on company car schemes and we are now at the point where many of these are rolling over into new cars and leasing companies are dumping the old ones onto the market. You can get 2-4 year old Jaguar iPaces with 30k miles and huge spec for 20-30k. Those are over 70k new. Want something cheaper, you can get a Renault Zoe for comfortably below 10k. Kia Niros for 15-20k, etc.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Anyone been to leshuttle recently? Are the non tesla fast dc chargers i saw being installed in the summer not commisioned yet?! They dont seem to show on Zap map
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@MHSkier I understand that they are available, but only if pre-booked. Caveat is that this is what I’ve read from an EV forum post, it isn’t personal observation.

@Ozboy I actually like the steering wheel - it hasn’t been a problem and the iCockpit works really well for me. It’s a genuine alternative to a HUD and I like the selectable displays and use the configurable option to show charge% more prominently. One thing is that the GT can’t take snow chains at all, but probably not an issue in London. For me the biggest negative is lack of electric memory seats: our ICE car has these and it’s tedious to have to reset the seats after my wife has driven it. First world problem, however.

You will need a polyphase smart meter if you’re getting 3 Phase. Don’t assume that the engineer sent to install the smart meter will be qualified to work with 3-phase. Expect a sharp intake of breath and another delay to re-arrange. Are you sure you’ll really need faster than 7kW? That will also need a thicker cable which may be tricky if you’re cabling across a public pavement. Given that the biggest charge is usually from 20% to 80% you’re only talking about adding 30kW to the 50kW e208, which is about 3-1/2 hours at 7kW.

There are some very neat recessed pavement troughs but my understanding is that different councils take different attitudes to their installation. It might be worth doing some research to see what your council’s policy is, without necessarily alerting them to your intentions.


Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Tue 21-11-23 0:10; edited 7 times in total
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
rob@rar wrote:
paulhinch wrote:
You're looking at a £10-15k premium on a similarly specced Petrol car (e.g. a BMW 320i is £40k, Volvo XC40 starts under £35k).....and that's before you get into comparing against any of the cheaper cars out there.
There's definitely a price premium over a broadly similar spec petrol car, although for me it was £8K when I bought a Tesla Model y compared to the similarly specced Kia Sportage I'd actually ordered but then cancelled when Tesla dropped their prices at the start of the year. I then spent £1K installing an EV charger at home, so for me the price premium was around £9K. I've just checked my charging stats and in the 9 months that I've owned the Tesla I've done just over 11,000 miles (a mix of city and motorway driving) and the Tesla app suggests I've saved £2,250 on what I would have spent on petrol for the same mileage in a similar ICE car. We're planning on keeping this car for at least five or six years, most likely longer, so I'm pretty sure that over the lifetime ownership it will be cheaper to own and run than the Kia Sportage we almost bought, especially when you take in to account the lack of scheduled service payments as the Model Y does not require regular servicing to maintain the warranty.


Tesla is not comparable to a Kia.
When most people compare, it is a golf diesel to a golf electric, etc.
That is the only way you can compare.
We lease a Polestar, its £350 a month & I charge in work for a nominal fee. There is a financial benefit here for me.
However, if I was comparing apples to apples instead of a squash brand to a lemon, then I would have a different opinion.
I certainly would not rush out to buy an EV with the unpredictable electricity prices. Before government help, Electricity was heading to £1 a unit.
As for savings, isnt that a live price rather than a running total or average total? IE based on todays fuel prices and not an average over ownership?
11,000 miles? 11,000 miles / 45 MPG = 275 gallons. 275 * £7 a gallon = less than £2k - so not sure where the other £250 came from which is based on todays prices
11,000 miles at 3 miles per KW & 30p per KW = £1100 at current prices, which is the cheapest energy has been for a while (granted I have not calcluated any night time tarrif here!)
£2k wet fuel v £1.1k energy is not a £2,250 savings based on what your tesla app is telling you.


Surprised you not handed your keys back & boycotting Mister Musk… Or let me guess, the ‘good’ outweighs musks opinons - isnt that what all the wetties say these days to try & justify lifes choices
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Gored wrote:
Surprised you not handed your keys back & boycotting Mister Musk… Or let me guess, the ‘good’ outweighs musks opinons - isnt that what all the wetties say these days to try & justify lifes choices
I'll give this the response it deserves.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@ski_free, nobody "averaging" 140 kph has any claim to give a FF about saving the planet. Laughing

I stop every 2 hours on my long journeys. Especially important at night. Not for long. It reflects research on road safety. And stops my hips seizing up (it's an old age thing).
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
When we replaced our Peugeot 206 at 102,000 miles, the choice was (a) the vehicle and (b) the drivetrain. So we chose a Peugeot 208 and then looked at diesel, petrol or electric. The premium for the electric was 4.1% compared to the petrol/diesel. The maintenance contract (4 or 7 years) for the electric was 50% cheaper. On the basis of our mileage, cheaper maintenance and cheaper fuel meant that the ‘electric premium’ was repaid after 24 months - including the cost of the charge point. After that, the fuel would be costing virtually nothing in comparison, given the low night EV tariff we could get. After 13 years the fuel savings added up to the cost of the car itself. It was purely an economic decision.

I understand the range concern, but this is more apparent than real if you only do longer trips occasionally. You can get a new £36K BEV that has more than 225 mile usable autoroute range and 400 mile mixed journey range (shame it’s from China, but that’s strategic government investment for you). Yes, this will mean a couple of half hour recharges added on to a day’s driving on a 2-day trip to the Alps. But the rest of the time, if you have a home charge point, you’ll actually find it easier because you don’t have to visit a garage to refuel. It’s all done while you sleep.

But of course, it all depends on usage profile. A home charge point is a huge advantage. Doing mainly local journeys within the return range your BEV is a big plus. Having a predictable calendar of journeys allows you to plan much more readily. And so on. Very few EV owners think they’re the right solution for everyone in every circumstance. But as an owner of both I’ve been surprised how much I simply prefer driving the little Peugeot BEV to the big BMW 3.0L straight-six, even when the latter is doing its trek down to the Alps.
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Gored wrote:

As for savings, isnt that a live price rather than a running total or average total? IE based on todays fuel prices and not an average over ownership?
11,000 miles? 11,000 miles / 45 MPG = 275 gallons. 275 * £7 a gallon = less than £2k - so not sure where the other £250 came from which is based on todays prices
11,000 miles at 3 miles per KW & 30p per KW = £1100 at current prices, which is the cheapest energy has been for a while (granted I have not calcluated any night time tarrif here!)
£2k wet fuel v £1.1k energy is not a £2,250 savings based on what your tesla app is telling you.
Garbage in, garbage out.

My savings calculation I referred to above is based on my actual cost of electricity and monthly average cost of petrol in my part of London. Accurate to two decimal places? No, certainly not, but pretty close to reality. Unlike your nonsense calculations, which display the same distant relationship to reality as so much of your contributions here.
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For those with a genuine interest and not trolls.

The tesla savings are based on the actual electric you use, like Rob I pay 7.5p so can “fill up” for about £5 for 300 miles. It also takes into account your supercharger usage and the exact amount you paid. The current petrol cost it uses is based on the average in leeds and changes all the time. It’s currently using £1.55 a litre.

It actually overestimates the electricity cost because it cannot take into account the extra cheap slots you often get with intelligent octopus. It tells me my average cost is 15p at home when it should be close to 7.5p


Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads on Mon 20-11-23 23:13; edited 1 time in total
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There are not many sensible ICE estate options either.
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LaForet wrote:
I understand the range concern, but this is more apparent than real if you only do longer trips occasionally. You can get a new £36K BEV that has more than 225 mile usable autoroute range and 400 mile mixed journey range (shame it’s from China, but that’s strategic government investment for you). Yes, this will mean a couple of half hour recharges added on to a day’s driving on a 2-day trip to the Alps. But the rest of the time, if you have a home charge point, you’ll actually find it easier because you don’t have to visit a garage to refuel. It’s all done while you sleep.
This is very much my experience. I had those understandable range anxieties before I got an EV, but after 9 months of ownership I can say those concerns were entirely unfounded. But I meet the use case that makes EV ownership fairly straightforward: a dedicated parking space with cheap overnight charging, and only infrequently doing more than 250 miles of driving in a day.

For me, EV ownership is actually more convenient than it was driving a diesel powered car. For other people it will be a different story.
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Of course all these savings are before you add in the frankly ridiculous savings available if you’re lucky enough to have a salary sacrifice lease scheme available to you.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
pam w wrote:
@ski_free, nobody "averaging" 140 kph has any claim to give a FF about saving the planet. Laughing

I stop every 2 hours on my long journeys. Especially important at night. Not for long. It reflects research on road safety. And stops my hips seizing up (it's an old age thing).


Agreed. Luckily I have never encountered anyone yet making those claims Smile

Sounds like an EV would suit you driving style quite nicely.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Gored wrote:
30p per KW … (granted I have not calcluated any night time tarrif

Why? I never charge my BEV at home at more than 7.5p/kWh, night or day.

If you’re not doing the same then you’re with the wrong energy supplier and/or tariff. You’re paying 4x or more what the rest of us are paying at home. Suppliers like Octopus have extended the cheap rate to the day time for a while now. It isn’t just a night time rate any more.

If 30p is your work rate then you should get a home charge point or use it instead if you have one already - charging at work is not always the most economic solution. But I appreciate it may be a necessity if you can’t get to work and back on one charge.

Moreover, my 7.5p EV rate is for all my domestic consumption. Not just the BEV. So my payback would be even sooner if I included it in the equation.


Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Tue 21-11-23 0:37; edited 1 time in total
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 Poster: A snowHead
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@LaForet, is that recent? The Mrs hasn't gone intelligent octopus as it may end up costing her more due to the slightly higher day rate and only doing 5k miles a year.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
MorningGory wrote:
@LaForet, is that recent?
Yes, the 7.5p per kWh is the current rate on Intelligent Octopus. It’s been that price since May, IIRC. That price is guaranteed for the entire household consumption from 11.30pm to 5.30am. Additionally, if Octopus decides it wants to charge your car outside those off-peak hours both your EV charging and the rest of your household consumption is charged at 7.5p. Since early September almost all of the times I’ve plugged in my car in the early evening (6-7pm) Octopus has decided to charge it immediately, so the rest of my electricity consumption, while cooking dinner, etc, is at that low rate. Cheapest household electric by far.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Yes, from a few months ago only. Intelligent Octopus gives you the usual 23:30 to 05:30 rate of 7.5p But if you have a compatible EVSE like the Ohme or Zappi, you can set a charge schedule as usual, and when you plug in outside those hours, you’re given a slot starting within half an hour to add the requisite charge. Usually, it starts within a few minutes. Obviously, what we do is stack up a couple of washing machine loads and some oven baking and start the charge session around breakfast so we get our coffees and heated croissants as well. Others like rob@rar do it early evening. My son uses my home office to WFH 1-2 days a week as I’m retired and don’t need it so much any more, and on ‘marginal’ CH days, we run the 2kW fan heater while the EV is charging first thing to warm up the room instead of running the entire CH system.
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@LaForet, thanks, that's useful. She's just had an ohme fitted but wasn't aware of the daytime cheap rate. That'll be a game changer
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
MorningGory wrote:
@LaForet, thanks, that's useful. She's just had an ohme fitted but wasn't aware of the daytime cheap rate. That'll be a game changer
Be aware, the daytime charging is not guaranteed. I got very little daytime EV charging during the summer, and while IO is pretty flexible at the moment about when cars are charged its T&Cs do state it is mainly an overnight charging tariff.
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You have to trust that you’re getting the cheap rate, at least until you un-plug. When you plug in, you should get a notification from the Ohme app within a few minutes, which has the charge start/end times. Annoyingly, this notification isn’t persistent and disappears after a while, so I always take a screenshot. Note that the Ohme app’s ‘Dashboard’ page will initially use the 31p rate when it shows you the session cost. It’s not until the charge session ends or you unplug that the Ohme app ‘Charge Stats’ / ‘View Charge Sessions’ page shows you the actual cost, which is a bit disconcerting the first few times you do this.

Again, for newbies, it remains a bit uncertain until you get the monthly bill. It’s only then that you’re absolutely certain that you got the 7.5p rate during the day. You can cross-reference the individual ‘View Charge Sessions’ with the individual days’ logs and you’ll see that you got the cheap rate in the daytime.

And as rob@rar implies, the daytime slots aren’t guaranteed. The last few months seem to have been a period of regular energy daytime surplus thanks to windy weather and mild temperatures. So we’ve mostly got slots immediately, on demand. But there is no guarantee that the weather will always be amenable nor that Octopus will continue the tariff indefinitely. They may well also tighten-up the use of this facility by Home Battery customers who effectively arbitrage the energy - buying it cheaply at 7.5p then selling it back at 15p when demand is high (unless it suits them, as this all gets complicated by the supplier/producer contractual pricing arrangements).
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
rob@rar wrote:
Gored wrote:

As for savings, isnt that a live price rather than a running total or average total? IE based on todays fuel prices and not an average over ownership?
11,000 miles? 11,000 miles / 45 MPG = 275 gallons. 275 * £7 a gallon = less than £2k - so not sure where the other £250 came from which is based on todays prices
11,000 miles at 3 miles per KW & 30p per KW = £1100 at current prices, which is the cheapest energy has been for a while (granted I have not calcluated any night time tarrif here!)
£2k wet fuel v £1.1k energy is not a £2,250 savings based on what your tesla app is telling you.
Garbage in, garbage out.

My savings calculation I referred to above is based on my actual cost of electricity and monthly average cost of petrol in my part of London. Accurate to two decimal places? No, certainly not, but pretty close to reality. Unlike your nonsense calculations, which display the same distant relationship to reality as so much of your contributions here.


I said my calcs are based on a normal tarrif - you may have an overnight charging option for cheaper electric - but has it been taken in to consideration the more expensive unit price during the day?

Jumping to a conclusion because your tesla says so Laughing rolling eyes

£7 a gallon
40 miles a gallon (Kia Sportege is booked higher than 40mpg...)
11,000 / 40 = 275 gallons
275 * £7 = £1925

1kwh = 30p - and that is the lowest it has been for a while & purely based on home charging. Not public charging where prices are easily double if not triple.
4 miles per kWH (lets be generous by using 4)
11,000 / 4 = 2750kwh
2750 x 30p = £825
That is £1,100 difference. So unless you are charging for free, it is not even close.

So what calcs is your tesla using? Spit them out here.

I have spent £140 & pay 9p per kwh
1555 KWH
I have also charged at home, but mainly topping up via solar.
However I have also had to charged about 100kwh at home during that time so £30 (I dont even have a wall charger, as I rarely charge at home!)
£170 for 5400 miles of motoring
compare that to my previous diesel
55mpg = 100 gallons
100 * 8 = £800
Savings of £630
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
LaForet wrote:
Gored wrote:
30p per KW … (granted I have not calcluated any night time tarrif

Why? I never charge my BEV at home at more than 7.5p/kWh, night or day.

If you’re not doing the same then you’re with the wrong energy supplier and/or tariff. You’re paying 4x or more what the rest of us are paying at home. Suppliers like Octopus have extended the cheap rate to the day time for a while now. It isn’t just a night time rate any more.

If 30p is your work rate then you should get a home charge point or use it instead if you have one already - charging at work is not always the most economic solution. But I appreciate it may be a necessity if you can’t get to work and back on one charge.

Moreover, my 7.5p EV rate is for all my domestic consumption. Not just the BEV. So my payback would be even sooner if I included it in the equation.


not everyone is with octopus or maybe don't have a smart meter.
I am not in range for a smart meter - so actually miss out quite a lot. I have a solar array with battery, so during the winter I could charge the car as well as house battery (during the summer I export tons & don't get paid anything either! In the last 12 months = 1490kwh into the grid without getting my 8p or whatever Octopus pay. A bit ironic considering it is very close to me buying electrci through work Laughing ) - possibly would have considered heat pump when I replaced my boiler a few months ago & as well as a tesla because of the powerwall over a polestar. I can charge at any work office for a nominal fee. Main HQ has over a dozen chargers & I am there 2-3 times a week so can always get charged up to last me a week


Last edited by After all it is free Go on u know u want to! on Tue 21-11-23 7:31; edited 2 times in total
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Garbage in, garbage out.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
rob@rar wrote:
Garbage in, garbage out.


so you cant back up what you claim the tesla is telling you?
You are being lied to. You should be admitting it & then see if there is a class action law suit against tesla for its lies.

If the car ran on oxygen, you still would not have saved the tesla quoted £2250 as the kia sportege would have done 11,000 miles using fuel costing less than the £2250
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Garbage in, garbage out. While you continue to use 30p on the back of your envelope for the cost of charging my car at home your numbers will be wrong. Several people have told you what the actual cost is, no need for guesstimates, and that applies any time my car is charging, nighttime or daytime. If you don’t understand how that Octopus tariff works just ask and I’m happy to politely explain. But as you so often do, you blunder in with wild claims that are largely disconnected from reality, plus your lobbing in of some unnecessary political jibe. So it’s pointless engaging in a reasonable discussion with you. Which is a shame really, as your EV and PV experience is very interesting.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
rob@rar wrote:
Garbage in, garbage out. While you continue to use 30p on the back of your envelope for the cost of charging my car at home your numbers will be wrong.


and I said in my original post it was based on standard tariff
Quote:
11,000 miles at 3 miles per KW & 30p per KW = £1100 at current prices, which is the cheapest energy has been for a while (granted I have not calcluated any night time tarrif here!)

I kow exactly how octopus works. I am with them myself, however as explained I am unable to participate in anything as they refuse to install a smart meter & say I am out of range.\
Tried many times when waiting for my solar panels to get installed.
Incidently, if you are saving that amount (I still dont think you are, as I dont think you would spend £2250 on petrol for kia to cover 11,000 miles anyway!) - then maybe reinvest it in solar + a battery for your home... and swap the dryer for a heat-pump one. My DD for energy is down to £25 a month as I built up a pot in my account of nearly £1500!!!
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Gored wrote:
rob@rar wrote:
Garbage in, garbage out. While you continue to use 30p on the back of your envelope for the cost of charging my car at home your numbers will be wrong.


and I said in my original post it was based on standard tariff
Which is why I said garbage in, garbage out. I didn't make any suggestion that my experience will be the same as anyone else's. Just like me correctly making my comparison between the Kia Sportage and the Model Y, this is my experience not anyone else's. Your experience will be different, as will other people. If we respectfully acknowledge that perhaps this thread will be a little bit more civilised?
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Gored wrote:
... maybe reinvest it in solar + a battery for your home... and swap the dryer for a heat-pump one. My DD for energy is down to £25 a month as I built up a pot in my account of nearly £1500!!!
I have been thinking about it, not least because I've read with interest your experience of installing solar and home batteries, but there is a possibility we'll move home within the next five years so I don't think there's a sensible financial case for a large capital outlay with such a limited time to recoup the investment.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
It's certainly the case that the EV industry is performing a disservice by failing to mention the prerequisities for cost-effective ownership. I also know someone who got a BEV and an Ohme on a cheap tariff then moved house to a place without a smart meter and with a poor mobile signal. So he can't get any of the cheap EV tariffs and the apps that control his car and charge point often have problems communicating. Of course, no one mentioned any of this when he bought his car or Ohme charge point.

Fortunately for the rest of us, this isn't that common a situation but it does apply to a significant minority of households. Which is why I tell people who ask me about EVs to get a local, qualified electrician in to do a survey first, and to check what the mobile signal strength designation is for their location (there are maps that the utilities use). Before they even start to look at buying a car. And that if they don't have off-street parking in the first place, then the odds are that at the moment, it's going to be hard to make the BEV option viable for them (unless, perhaps, like @Gored seems to, they can charge at their regular place of work).

Notwithstanding that, however, I did all my cost analyses on the assumption that I was using mainstream tariffs, and the BEV version of my chosen car still worked out cheaper against the petrol/diesel versions, on the basis of a similar, longer period of ownership to the car it replaced. The BEV cost less than £30K new (well, 2nd hand pre-reg with 10 miles on the clock), which helped the payback period - as for any car, the more you spend on it the less cost-effective it becomes and utility value and personal preference pay a bigger part in the equation (which is fine, that's your choice).

Unfortunately, I see an an increasing trend towards a 'electrical divide': between those of us who are lucky enough to live in an area with a good mobile signal, straightforward electrical setup, and off-street parking and those who live in an area of poor signals, shared and similar power supplies, and with on-street parking their only option. Outside London, the off-street/on-street split is around 62%/38%. I'd like to see a long-term government strategy around bridging this divide so that more people can benefit from the upsides of EV ownership if they choose to and their usage profile matches it. But I'm guessing we'll have to see a change of government before it happens.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
pam w wrote:
@ski_free, nobody "averaging" 140 kph has any claim to give a FF about saving the planet. Laughing

I stop every 2 hours on my long journeys. Especially important at night. Not for long. It reflects research on road safety. And stops my hips seizing up (it's an old age thing).


THIS.... When we go to the Alps, we come down from Yorkshire (start at about 2am and get an early train). We always stop once before the tunnel (just to change driver and walk round for 2 minutes). Then a fuel stop 100 miles into France, then lunch (longer) then at least one more coffee / stretch stop.

From the EV route planners, I reckon in a Tesla 3 Long Range, it'd add maybe 30-45 minutes to our total time....which is nothing. Obviously, your mileage will vary if you do 500 miles no stopping then a 5 minute refuel and off again.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@LaForet, interesting, never thought of plugging in during the morning, the one time a fuse tripped and I didn't get a charge, Intelligent gave me cheap rates only to 11am, the slider in the app wouldn't let me move my "ready time" past 11am, have you seen the same?

@rob@rar, I've also been looking at batteries but likely to also move in 5 years so doesn't work out at the moment! Hoping a downsize to a modern insulated house would get me solar, batteries and a heat pump!
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@kitenski My recent charges have all been in the morning and there's never been a problem with setting the charge completion time (Departure Time) on the Ohme app («Manage My EV» «Charge Schedules» «e-208» {Departure Time = hh:mm}). Last time it was 11:28 and I set the departure time to 16:00, and when I plugged the car in, charging started immediately and I got a Notification from the Ohme app that the slot would be 11:30 to 13:11



On went the washing machine and the oven and I opted to boil the kettle for another cup of coffee.

Two days earlier I got a 07:55-10:28 Prior to that it was 11:35-15:12, 11:21-15:50 and so on. With Intelligent Octopus they 'round' to the half hour, so in terms of applying the 7.5p/kWh rate, these slots would have been 07:30-10:20, 11:00-15:30 and 11:00-16:00
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@LaForet, ah ok you are setting it on the Ohme app and not the Octopus app then, that's the difference as I use the Octopus app.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Just to add - done several trip now in a Tesla
Have been in convoy with x2 Teslas and X2 ICE cars
From Calais to LaTania it took us on average an extra 1.5 hours compared to ICE cars.
As thats around 610 miles thats perfectly acceptable to us - taking into account the much reduced cost of charging compared to fuel and the simply the comfort of the drive.
And to add - charging car at home costs us virtually zero thanks to Solar - a lot of solar!
And being only a short drive from Tunnel helps.
Just my thoughts
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I'm surprised it was that much longer. Our journey is closer to 900 (to, say, Tignes) and the better route planner that was linked higher up this thread had us only about 45 minutes longer than our actual journey times previously in a petrol Volvo estate if I stuck in a Tesla 3 Long Range.

First time I've seen the effectiveness of doing a quick coffee stop charge as starkly though (e.g. one of the first stops in France was planned as a 7 minute stop to top from 11-38%).

I think it's probably a mindset change as much as anything. E.g. with petrol you drive until you're tired or empty a lot of the time, then brim it.....electric feels much more like you're wanting to keep the battery between 10 & 70% with more short stops.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
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@paulhinch, I planned a route from N Yorks to Morzine on ABRP and that had a super short stop somewhere north of London to put about 20% in that would get you to a super fast charger in northern France.

I’ve ordered a car with a big (107kWh) battery that should be good for 250m+ even at motorway speeds (my current BMW iX probably does 180 at 70mph) so I might give it a go to Morzine next winter.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@kitenski There's some indication from EV forum posts I've seen that people tend to have less issues scheduling using Ohme + Intelligent Octopus as opposed to the Octopus app. In both cases, the car gets set to immediate charge i.e. it's 'dumb'. With the Ohme, you also have a backup as you can just use the front panel to set up a charge session as well, in the event you've got Internet and/or 3G/4G outages. It may be worth doing an Ohme front-panel setup some time, just so you're confident with it if your router, internet or mobile signal has problems.
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
andy from embsay wrote:
@paulhinch, I planned a route from N Yorks to Morzine on ABRP and that had a super short stop somewhere north of London to put about 20% in that would get you to a super fast charger in northern France.

I’ve ordered a car with a big (107kWh) battery that should be good for 250m+ even at motorway speeds (my current BMW iX probably does 180 at 70mph) so I might give it a go to Morzine next winter.


Sounds like you're a bit further than me (we're South Yorkshire). The reality is that every time we've driven it we've always had a stop before the tunnel anyway....only a couple of minutes to swap driver, get some air, grab a takeaway coffee etc but enough to do a really quick top up.

Be interesting to see how the infrastructure holds up as you'd imagine there's 2 or 3 Aires on the way down that are prime "big stop" locations where people will grab lunch etc. You can see how 20 chargers in places like that could easily fill up quickly at lunchtime.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Quote:

You can see how 20 chargers in places like that could easily fill up


Yeah this is what I'm a bit worried about.

ABRP routing is showing primarily Ionity as that's what I've flagged as preferred (lower cost with my sub) but suspect these may be v busy on those peak dates, so I will have a list of near just-off-the-autoroute DC chargers to push on to if needed, and just suck up the cost. There are loads in France judging by last summer's experience and not many French EVs - it'll be all the brits (snowheads) filling up the Autoroute ones snowHead
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