EV and advice from any users please!

mjheathcote

mjheathcote

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The Mrs has been advised by her employer that her company car is due for replacement. Surprised and not surprised by this. Surprised as her Golf has only done 21K in 3 years (no surprise there due to lockdown etc), but not surprised as a lease car and it's due.
Anyway her replacement choice is is a selection of Audi/Skoda/VW, diesel/hybrid/full EV.
I am surprised a few full EV's are being offered, and as a BIK standpoint it's a no brainer.
So the choice of EV is either the Audi Etron sportback, or VW id3. The Audi is ruled out straightaway as the claimed range is only 210 miles, the id3 is the big 77Kwh range topper with a claimed range of nearly 350 miles, so 250 easy in real life one would hope.
As a vehicle for visiting customers, having a 125 miles range out, so can get back without charging, is livable.
Now the EV questions!
If we have a 7.5kw home charger, and say you having to charge 50kwh of the 77kwh useable battery, this would take around 7 hours? If you have an EV off peak tariff, I see these only being for 4 hours. The next 3 hours at a rate that isn't going to be cheap!
What EV tariff is actually of any use, the market isn't exactly competitive at the moment.
I'm surprised we might be having an EV in the household so soon!
Oh, any standout EV chargers?
 
Ewan

Ewan

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I have the E-Tron (bought it new in Dec 2020). The real World range is 200 miles.
We have a Pod Point charger at home. Will charge the car from flat to full overnight.
I have an Octopus tariff, which is about 5p per KWH for 4 hours at night, and 14p at other times. But I was lucky to lock into that rate, as current rates are obviously way higher.
 
mjheathcote

mjheathcote

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How do you get on when households have more than one EV?
If the Mrs decides to go with the id3, it is not improbable that I will also have an EV in the near future for business usage.
The house I assume couldn't cope with charging two cars at once overnight? We do have a 100amp incoming fuse in the fuse box.
 
Ewan

Ewan

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6,451
Not sure. We currently only have the one EV, and charging twice a week is plenty for us, so even if we had another, we’d not need to charge them both every night. Unless you both do 200 miles per day, I cant see it being an issue (and even then, you’d just need two charging points).
On an average work day I only do about 10 miles, hence me using the Rangie, or Maser, or Ferrari, etc, fairly guilt free.
Today we’ve been in the Etron and have done 150 miles at a (fuel) cost of maybe £5.
 
Gazcw

Gazcw

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mjheathcote said:
How do you get on when households have more than one EV?
If the Mrs decides to go with the id3, it is not improbable that I will also have an EV in the near future for business usage.
The house I assume couldn't cope with charging two cars at once overnight? We do have a 100amp incoming fuse in the fuse box.
Click to expand...
I never thought of that. In theory I would need at least 2 of 3 to be on charge at any one time. They really have not thought this ev stuff through.
 
FIFTY

FIFTY

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3,098
How does mileage work with your wife's company and an EV?

Typically you would have a fuel card or pay for fuel yourself and claim back the mileage... How does it work for your electricity bill? Does the company pay out towards it at all?

Guess it's a question for my own employer but I think I am going to stick with the car allowance.
 
safrane

safrane

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I believe most EVs have an app that you can download the usage, miles, regeneration, and charge records... well my one does at least.
 
safrane

safrane

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Check the max draw your EV can take before buying a wall box as you may buy one that is far too powerful than you need... of course it will still work, but your money will be wasted.

I'm quite happy with just the 3 pin plug as I just connect it in the evening.
 
mjheathcote

mjheathcote

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8,991
FIFTY said:
How does mileage work with your wife's company and an EV?

Typically you would have a fuel card or pay for fuel yourself and claim back the mileage... How does it work for your electricity bill? Does the company pay out towards it at all?

Guess it's a question for my own employer but I think I am going to stick with the car allowance.
Click to expand...

Currently she pays for all diesel and claims back pence per mile for the business mileage.
The same for the EV, the business mileage is paid back at 4p per mile.
The id3 as an example, typically 3.7 miles per kWh used.
Therefore you need to be paying no more that 15p per kWh of electricity for the business mileage to be paid for.
Obviously this can only be achieved by an off peak electricity tariff, but then you are paying over the odds at all over times.
As I said originally however, the BIK savings are massive, over £2k a year (at the moment!!!)
 
mjheathcote

mjheathcote

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8,991
safrane said:
Check the max draw your EV can take before buying a wall box as you may buy one that is far too powerful than you need... of course it will still work, but your money will be wasted.

I'm quite happy with just the 3 pin plug as I just connect it in the evening.
Click to expand...

That isn't a problem, all the current new EV's can take the 7Kw type 2 plug.
Using a 3 pin plug to charge a 77Kwh EV would take more than a day, if near empty.
 
FIFTY

FIFTY

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3,098
mjheathcote said:
Currently she pays for all diesel and claims back pence per mile for the business mileage.
The same for the EV, the business mileage is paid back at 4p per mile.
The id3 as an example, typically 3.7 miles per kWh used.
Therefore you need to be paying no more that 15p per kWh of electricity for the business mileage to be paid for.
Obviously this can only be achieved by an off peak electricity tariff, but then you are paying over the odds at all over times.
As I said originally however, the BIK savings are massive, over £2k a year (at the moment!!!)
Click to expand...

Thank you

Last time I had a company car it was £5500 BIK for a 2.0 diesel that I didn't want.
 
mjheathcote

mjheathcote

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8,991
FIFTY said:
Thank you

Last time I had a company car it was £5500 BIK for a 2.0 diesel that I didn't want.
Click to expand...
I opted out 4 years ago, and the Mrs has an option to opt out too.
However having to pay basically no BIK for having an EV, getting a new £45K car, and obviously cheap running costs for private mileage, in this case taking an EV makes sense.
 
RodTungsten

RodTungsten

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If solar panels are or could be in the equation then look at Zappi chargers. They can preferentially use solar output, be set to use cheap(er) off peak kW and can limit overall current draw to protect your incoming household fuse and supply. You should qualify for the OLEV installation grant expect.
 
mjheathcote

mjheathcote

Centenary Club
Messages
8,991
RodTungsten said:
If solar panels are or could be in the equation then look at Zappi chargers. They can preferentially use solar output, be set to use cheap(er) off peak kW and can limit overall current draw to protect your incoming household fuse and supply. You should qualify for the OLEV installation grant expect.
Click to expand...
Yes thanks we don't have solar as yet but the Zappi is certainly feature rich. The option to use cheaper off peak is a must.
As far as I understand a company EV on order qualifies for the £350 OLEV grant.
 
davy83

davy83

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I have had an I3 for 2 years now and was initially thinking i would only use it for nipping in and out of town and going grocery shopping and my work commute (which I don't do anymore) was pretty short. I have found that by finding out where superchargers are i can easily do longer journeys and just have a coffee break and charge if the route is planned. My car is technically a hybrid so i am cheating a bit, but generally extending a journey using superchargers is actually not that hard.
 
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