30000 miles a year worth an EV charger?
Discussion
£1500 sounds a lot but if you can home charge, it’s well worth having the capability to do so for any annual mileage. Some make do with 3 pin plugs and granny chargers (it won’t be enough for you) but getting a wall charger fitted is a sensible investment long term for most.
One of the many benefits is waking up to a charged car.
One of the many benefits is waking up to a charged car.
We've had 2 properties for the last 4 years and had chargers installed at both,
we've now sold both houses, and next week we'll be moving into yet another house,
not owning 2 houses means our mileage, (which was well under 30,000 miles) has reduced dramatically, but one of the 1st things I'll do at the new property is get a charger installed,
I've tried using a 3 pin plug for a while, but the inconvenience of having to wait for ages before the car's even remotely charged meant it didn't last very long,
If I couldn't get a charger installed I think I'd probably get rid of the car and go back to petrol powered instead.
The run from my existing consumer unit to where the charger would go is about 1-2m so it could probably be installed for less.
As a Tesla is the likely choice I was initially thinking commando socket but for future proofing I think a dedicated smart charger is the way forward.
Current electricity consumption is 200kWh per month so IOG or similar would work well.
Convenience and overall running costs are the two big considerations, and at this mileage, the install seems a no brainer as the savings from charging cheaply overnight will be recouped quickly from not having to use public chargers to top up.
The car will be company provided.
As a Tesla is the likely choice I was initially thinking commando socket but for future proofing I think a dedicated smart charger is the way forward.
Current electricity consumption is 200kWh per month so IOG or similar would work well.
Convenience and overall running costs are the two big considerations, and at this mileage, the install seems a no brainer as the savings from charging cheaply overnight will be recouped quickly from not having to use public chargers to top up.
The car will be company provided.
Tonberry said:
Pretty sure I know the answer to this question.
I'm looking at 230 miles a day in an EV, there will be the possibility of charging on site for free but the car will need a good charge overnight.
Is it cost effective to shell out £1500 for a charger install?
Yes, although £1500 is a bit toppy. I'm looking at 230 miles a day in an EV, there will be the possibility of charging on site for free but the car will need a good charge overnight.
Is it cost effective to shell out £1500 for a charger install?
ashenfie said:
Back in the day I was doing this kind of mileage . Tyres , brakes and disc s renewed yearly. New car every 3 years all via my company. Lease/pcp deals don t work for this kind of mileage either. Least of your worries is the charger cost.
Not on an EV, brakes will easily last 100k, unless it's 30k of Welsh back roads. The charger for me is worth it for the convenience alone.
Just unhook cable and plug in, and if you buy the right charger can be linked to Smart EV tariffs so Octopus or whoever can control the charging.
Its better than relying on the car to link to them, although will admit Tesla are the better ones for this.
However £1500 is outrageous unless its a particularly awkward install. Mine was about £580ish for a charger alone then a sparky charged £180 to fit (though because my board is within the house the cable had already been ran to an outside wall when I had refurb work done at an earlier date).
Just unhook cable and plug in, and if you buy the right charger can be linked to Smart EV tariffs so Octopus or whoever can control the charging.
Its better than relying on the car to link to them, although will admit Tesla are the better ones for this.
However £1500 is outrageous unless its a particularly awkward install. Mine was about £580ish for a charger alone then a sparky charged £180 to fit (though because my board is within the house the cable had already been ran to an outside wall when I had refurb work done at an earlier date).
Edited by SteBrown91 on Thursday 18th June 08:16
_Rodders_ said:
ashenfie said:
Back in the day I was doing this kind of mileage . Tyres , brakes and disc s renewed yearly. New car every 3 years all via my company. Lease/pcp deals don t work for this kind of mileage either. Least of your worries is the charger cost.
Not on an EV, brakes will easily last 100k, unless it's 30k of Welsh back roads. Danm1les said:
If the install is super simple, you should be easily less than £1000 to install a charger.
ohme epods are normally around £900 installed and support smart tarrifshttps://futurechargingsolutions.co.uk/product/ohme...
We used a granny charger for 12 months for my wife's city car and it was absolutely fine as it hardly did any mileage, but even then, a couple of consecutive longer trips would requite some careful planning of charging times. Once we switched our main car to EV we got the charger installed.
Doing 230 miles per day I'd want a proper charger at home - being able to charge quickly at home is a godsend. No matter what the circumstances I'll always have 100% in the morning - after a big trip you wouldn't' be able to do the same with a granny. I think my car would take 30 hours to fully charge on a granny.
Doing 230 miles per day I'd want a proper charger at home - being able to charge quickly at home is a godsend. No matter what the circumstances I'll always have 100% in the morning - after a big trip you wouldn't' be able to do the same with a granny. I think my car would take 30 hours to fully charge on a granny.
ashenfie said:
Motorway braking is really heavy on tyres and brakes and most manufactures have reduced the brake pad material to save a few pennies. I guess the brake disc's may last longer though.
Most of my motorway braking is regen. Sure, now and again I need to use the friction brakes, but for most of it, it's completely regen.To the OP: yeah, £1.5k sounds a lot. But otherwise, in a model 3 (or similarly efficient car) there's no reason why you couldn't do that kind of roundtrip every day, in terms of the vehicle's ability to do it.
Wider picture, though, is that the only option? Your sanity and your time has a cost as well. Is there any option for you to stay near your workplace one or two nights a week, to get yourself some time back? 4 hours in the car every day is going to really get old, fast, if you're also working an 8 hour day on top of that.
Oh, one more thing, if you anticipate doing big miles for the forseeable, you might want to get a quote for having 3 phase power installed at home. This would mean you could install a 3 phase charger. That would make available up to 22kW of charging (3x32A rather than 1x32A with single phase, as is the case in the majority of domestic installs).
Commonly*, EVs have a 3x16A onboard charger, where they can link two of those together to charge at 32A from single phase, hence 7kW single, or 11kW 3phase charging speeds. Pretty sure the Tesla model 3 falls into that camp. However, for future reference some (the new BMW i3 for instance) have a 3x32A charger for a 22kW charge rate on a 3 phase charger.
Supposing you need to charge 60kW each day, at 7kW that'd take 8.5 hours. 11kW, 5.75, and at 22kW just under 3. Many of the overnight cheap rates are time limited to 4-7 hours a night (6 hours on Intelligent Octopus), so this might be worth thinking about.
Commonly*, EVs have a 3x16A onboard charger, where they can link two of those together to charge at 32A from single phase, hence 7kW single, or 11kW 3phase charging speeds. Pretty sure the Tesla model 3 falls into that camp. However, for future reference some (the new BMW i3 for instance) have a 3x32A charger for a 22kW charge rate on a 3 phase charger.
Supposing you need to charge 60kW each day, at 7kW that'd take 8.5 hours. 11kW, 5.75, and at 22kW just under 3. Many of the overnight cheap rates are time limited to 4-7 hours a night (6 hours on Intelligent Octopus), so this might be worth thinking about.
- , some EVs only have a single phase onboard charger, so would still only charge at 7kW even if you got a 22kW-capable charger.
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