Corsa-e - EV newbie

[Haddock82]

Hi All,

Long story short:
We are being given a 20 plate Vauxhall Corsa-e (elderly relative no longer able to drive)

Where do I start?
Never had an EV before
What charger do I need to get installed?

Is the Corsa-e any good? I've seen mixed reviews online any real life experience on here?

Will it be any good for my commute?
50 mile round trip 90% dual carraigeway.
Or should we just keep it for popping to the shops on A/B-roads?

Edit:
We're on an economy 7 tariff, so overnight (12.30-7.30) is currently 10p kw
Should we switch this to anything else? Is there anything better available?

Edited by Haddock82 on Sunday 5th November 13:19

[essayer]

50kWh will be fine for 150 miles or so in winter, 200 summer

If it comes with a three pin charger you can use that, but you’ll need to plug it in for 6-7 hours a day. There are specific EV charging tariffs https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/ev-ene... but you’ll need a smart meter and tbh your 10p/kWh isn’t bad in the current environment

Or you can pay ~£800 to install a 7kW charger, get one that supports Octopus Intelligent and you can get cheaper overnight electricity rates for a longer period but again the maths needs to work as £800 buys lots of units of electricity

[samoht]

It'll handle the 50 mile round trip without worry, should cost under £2 a day in electricity at 10p/kWh
I wouldn't buy a charger now, just ensure you have an outside socket or other suitable arrangement to plug in the regular 3-pin cable. The Economy 7 should work well for what you need especially if you have another car available, you should get roughly 50 miles of range in the 7 hour cheap rate window.

Once you see how things work out you'll then be in a better position to make decisions on investing in a home charger or switching tariff.

The mixed reviews are based on it being a £30k+ car, at today's nearly-new values (or free!) it's a different proposition.

Sounds like a great opportunity to see how you find an EV and to save some money.

[Mark-ri571]

Should be a great introduction to EV. We bought a new Mini SE in July 22 and love it. We just charge on a 3 pin plug ( uprated socket on a timer) for 6 hours at night when needed ( we are on Intelligent Octopus which gives 7.5p pkwh 11.30pm to 5.30 am).

[James6112]

samoht said:

It'll handle the 50 mile round trip without worry, should cost under £2 a day in electricity at 10p/kWh
I wouldn't buy a charger now, just ensure you have an outside socket or other suitable arrangement to plug in the regular 3-pin cable. The Economy 7 should work well for what you need especially if you have another car available, you should get roughly 50 miles of range in the 7 hour cheap rate window.

Once you see how things work out you'll then be in a better position to make decisions on investing in a home charger or switching tariff.

The mixed reviews are based on it being a £30k+ car, at today's nearly-new values (or free!) it's a different proposition.

Sounds like a great opportunity to see how you find an EV and to save some money.

Under 20k new:-
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305267...

[Haddock82]

Awesome, thanks for the replies!

I didn't even think about just charging off the 3-pin plug for the time being (We haven't got the car yet)
I was looking at getting a 7kw charger installed, but might hold off for the time being then.

Does the 3pin plug need to be uprated or anything? Or can I just plug it into one of the sockets in the garage?

I like the sound of the savings for the commute too!
£2 a day compared to currently about £8 a day in diesel.

Edited by Haddock82 on Sunday 5th November 16:29

[Haddock82]

James6112 said:

Under 20k new:-
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305267...

They are now

But this is a 2020 and poor old relatives got taken for £28k for this one new...

[a311]

We charge ours via an outdoor socket. Never had any issues. Your garage one will be fine, if you can charge over night at home granny chargers are fine.

[clockworks]

Haddock82 said:

Awesome, thanks for the replies!

I didn't even think about just charging off the 3-pin plug for the time being (We haven't got the car yet)
I was looking at getting a 7kw charger installed, but might hold off for the time being then.

Does the 3pin plug need to be uprated or anything? Or can I just plug it into one of the sockets in the garage?

I like the sound of the savings for the commute too!
£2 a day compared to currently about £8 a day in diesel.

Edited by Haddock82 on Sunday 5th November 16:29

Depends how your Economy 7 meter is wired up.

I had an old E7 setup in my last house. Mechanical timeswitch, and storage heaters wired up to a separate consumer unit. I'm pretty sure that only the things on the storage heater circuits got the cheap rate electric. Worth checking that your garage sockets will get the cheap rate.

I've just bought a plug-in hybrid Volvo XC40. I charge it using the supplied granny charger 13A plug. I can get just under 10KWh into the battery in the 4-hour cheap (9p) slot on Octopus Go. That's very nearly enough to fully charge the battery, and gets me 25 miles. On a 7 hour slot, you'll easily do 50 miles in the Corsa.

The socket that I plug into is on a ring that just supplies the garage, and the socket is in good condition. I use a "Toughleads" waterproof extension cable to get the power down to the side gate. Toughleads extensions are rated for EV charging, so that's fine. For the first few days, I kept checking how warm the plugs and sockets were getting, and they were fine.

I did consider getting a proper charger, but the granny charger works fine for me, so I'll stick with it for now.

[Mark-ri571]

Haddock82 said:

Awesome, thanks for the replies!

I didn't even think about just charging off the 3-pin plug for the time being (We haven't got the car yet)
I was looking at getting a 7kw charger installed, but might hold off for the time being then.

Does the 3pin plug need to be uprated or anything? Or can I just plug it into one of the sockets in the garage?

I like the sound of the savings for the commute too!
£2 a day compared to currently about £8 a day in diesel.

Edited by Haddock82 on Sunday 5th November 16:29

I had a twin socket in my garage but to be safe had my electrician fit an EV suitable 13A 3 pin socket so as to be sure that the socket did not overheat. It works just fine and never felt the need to have a 7kw charger fitted. Obviously if I were doing a 100 miles + a day commute it would be necessary to have a 7kw charger

[essayer]

It’s got to be safe to draw 10A for 6-10 hours at a time so if it’s a decrepit old China special socket I’d replace with a good quality brand, and maybe have a look at the wiring too

This was one of mine after just a couple of nights:

[Haddock82]

OK I'll have to keep a close eye on it when we get it then.

I've got an outdoor uprated water proof extension cable, designed for running our hot tub.
I was going to use this to keep the power outside and plug in from the garage.
It's got a proper cut out too, so hopefully it'll be OK, it was quite expensive.

[essayer]

You might have another option then, is it a 16A/32A commando socket? You can buy car chargers that connect directly to those. Although not much help if you need to heat the hot tub too!

[Mars]

I've got one. Apart from the crappy infotainment system, it's a decent enough punt around the country lanes. It's actually quite quick despite its relatively low power output (compared with other EVs).

As everyone else has said, for 50 miles/day, just charge it off the 3-pin mains - people call these "granny chargers". Mine didn't come with one of those chargers, so I had to buy one off Amazon for about £100.

When I get into mine after a full charge, it claims it's ready for 222 miles. As soon as I press "sport" mode (which just livens-up the accelerator - just a different profile to the way the power is delivered, not actually delivering any more power), the total drops to 208. If I drive up to about 80mph for a little over 100 miles on the motorway (from Worcestershire to Manchester), I'll arrive with around 50 miles to spare. Not enough to return but chargers are plentiful these days despite what the non-believers would tell you.

It does come with a public charger cable.

I'm a shortarse yet sit as low as the seat will go, pull the steering wheel as far from the dash as possible, and still feel that the pedals are too close. Don't know how anyone taller than me would get on with it.

It's OK as a local run-around or for my occasional Manchester run but I've kept my diesel car for the longer distances and road trips. It's saving me a fortune in diesel though... around £500/month.

[R32]

I've had mine for around 2 years now. The range seems to be pants compared to whats advertised, but we mainly use it for local commutes so fine for us.

We get around a maximum of 170 miles in summer and 120 in winter. We do use the car exactly as we would an ICE though, so we have heating on in winter, air con in summer etc.

As a first EV i think you'll really enjoy it. The EV driving experience of quick, smooth acceleration will make you smile, even in a car with only 130hp

[Haddock82]

Well thank you for the replies.

I've now got a bit of re-assurance that we should give it a go and see how we get on.

We'd never had bought an EV due to finances, so being in the lucky position to get this one FOC, it's a no brainer to give it a go!

Edited by Haddock82 on Wednesday 8th November 00:57

[Haddock82]

Nearly a week into ownership and I have to say I'm loving it!

Range is so-so, but we are just charging off the 3-pin plug, so I expect we'll invest in a 7kw charger soon.

Thoughts so far:
Pro's:
It's plenty nippy! Put your foot down and it certainly has enough go
It's going to save a lot of money in fuel/electricity costs.
It's very, strangely eerily, quiet compared to an ICE car, which I quite like

Cons:
It needs a bloody good wash/valet! Been sat for 10 months on a driveway and not moved so needs a bloomin good wash!
The Vauxhall App is crap!
The Vauxhall/Opel update software is crap!
I need to book it in for a safety recall, but the update ownership details on the Vauxhall site doesn't work!
Pairing my phone was a faff
The nav system is OK, but easier to connect to Andriod Auto
Andriod Auto only works via USB cable (No wireless connectivity)


Would I buy it? Probably not considering the cost of it new (£26.5k!) or about £11k now used
But strangely enjoying it so far, it's easy to drive, fast enough for town or the dual carraigeway and just so cheap to run compared to an ICE.

[Haddock82]

Oh and as you can see the driveway is getting a bit cramped!

3 cars on the drive and another in the garage...

If anyone wants a cheap, slightly tatty but surprisingly solid, MG TF let me know! I need to get shot of it

[Silenoz]

We've just returned a Peugeot e208 (so same car underneath) that was a 2020 model. Range is much less than advertised (and goes down at least 1.5 miles for each mile covered on my mixed commute). The app was crap, we had loads of problems with it when it first arrived so it went in to the garage and stayed for 6 weeks. They wouldn't tell us what they did to it - apparently it wasn't relevant as we weren't the owner (salary sacrifice car) but the range was rubbish after that.

OH has said tonight "I miss my car" - which is funny as she hadn't driven it for the last 8 months as I've been commuting in it as she bought a Mini Clubman in March. I don't miss it - but then I do have an iX3 coming in the next week or so......

[samoht]

Good stuff, glad you're enjoying it. Funny (but very typical) that we're discussing a car, yet all the downsides are software issues.

With my e-C4 recall I just rang up the nearest Citroen dealer and booked it in. They've been surprisingly helpful for a main dealer, which is good, however less good is that the recall update borked my cruise control, so now it's going back in this week for that.