Why I won’t be buying an EV anytime soon...

[mr_jon]

I don't have an economy 7 meter, never have at the current property. I'm happy (enough) to pay a single, competitive & green rate with Pure Planet (referral links are available ) as I work a lot from home, even pre-Covid. With the missus and a kid at home keeping themselves cosy with oil-filled rad's and their desktop computers, even more so!

A lot of EV guys are going for a cheap early hours rate (say 1am-5am) from EDF, Octopus et al, which might work for some. However in peak hours you can be paying well over 20p per kWh. The bigger battery cars like Mik's also won't even near fully charge in 4 hours on a home single phase charger.

[mr_jon]

Just to add, yes, very poor show that their E7 rates are not properly advertised. Does it not give you a breakdown on your last statement?

[Barry]

To add my perspective, based on a years use and roughly 3500 miles so far. I am still on whatever crap rate BG dual fuel rate, the cost to charge the car hasn't even registered on my bills to be perfectly honest. The monthly savings on not buying petrol is such that I haven't felt the need to care yet.

I'd like to go full eco warrior and get PV panels, home battery etc but until its worth my my while..

Jon is right too, the overnight charging rates only work if you do lots of miles and need to recharge overnight all the time. I've only needed to chuck a couple hours boost in the car, every once in a while (barely once a week, even out of lockdowns). And with WFH it makes no sense for me to shift my bias towards off-peak rates, as I'm sat on the PC all day ( with triple monitors, regular brews etc).

[Jobbo]

Usually midnight til 7.

Might get some variation across providers by 30mins?

The variation is up to a couple of hours either way - could be 10pm to 5am, up to 1.00am-8.00am.

My mileage is somewhat higher, high enough to require most of a full charge overnight after a day in the office. Hence wanting to pay <5p/kWh rather than >15p/kWh. Even without an EV my electricity bill last month was £150 so you can imagine I don’t want to add too much to it!

[DeskJockey]

Usually midnight til 7.

Might get some variation across providers by 30mins?

The variation is up to a couple of hours either way - could be 10pm to 5am, up to 1.00am-8.00am.

My mileage is somewhat higher, high enough to require most of a full charge overnight after a day in the office. Hence wanting to pay <5p/kWh rather than >15p/kWh. Even without an EV my electricity bill last month was £150 so you can imagine I don’t want to add too much to it!

But you'd presumably offset the cost of charging the car against the saving on diesel/petrol, so still be quids in even at the higher tariff. Obviously still makes sense to charge at the lower one, but how much of a difference do you think it'll make?

[mr_jon]

Usually midnight til 7.

Might get some variation across providers by 30mins?

The variation is up to a couple of hours either way - could be 10pm to 5am, up to 1.00am-8.00am.

My mileage is somewhat higher, high enough to require most of a full charge overnight after a day in the office. Hence wanting to pay <5p/kWh rather than >15p/kWh. Even without an EV my electricity bill last month was £150 so you can imagine I don’t want to add too much to it!

How much was the fuel bill? Leccy bill not too bad unless gas (LPG/solid fuels) come to the same amount.

But, yes, if you have a long commute and not huge usage in the day, then it makes perfect sense for you. Some of the flexi rate systems actually pay you to charge your car overnight Presumably excess nuclear in the summer months. Just be aware that if you are filling 150-200 miles range overnight, it's going to be difficult, and even more difficult if you find the charge scheduler didn't work the next morning and you have 20 miles of range.

[Jobbo]

We use oil for heating - I’ve just ordered 1200l for £500 which is about 9 months’ worth.

Just been out to read the meter to see if I could tell if it switches over at 10pm. It’s digital so I can’t tell until it uses a unit. Did notice that the time it shows is 9.10pm so I don’t know if it’s already fucked

As for how much I’d save, at 35k miles per year it’s the difference between £50/month and £150/month. You can bet the cost of charging electric cars isn’t going to stay that low, of course...

[DeskJockey]

No, that's a very likely scenario. In the short term (while the prices remain where they are) what's the equivalent cost in diesel?

Edit: I mean what is the monthly cost in diesel.

[Jobbo]

Diesel costs about £400 a month so either is a decent saving.

Bulb have come back to me overnight; my off-peak hours are 12.30am-7.30am. If I got home and plugged in my EV immediately, it’d be fully charged before the off-peak rate started. Knowing the times would allow me to delay charging starting.

Bulb have taken the opportunity to try to coerce me again into a smart meter, but I don’t want one

[DeskJockey]

Is this you telling us the CLS might be going? Or just musings?

[Jobbo]

I always think about what to have next; I thought seriously about a Tesla Model S when I bought it but I'm reluctant to finance any car where I'm doing 35k miles a year. It's more a reaction to our last month's electricity bill, and the potential for paying £300 a month in electricity when using an electric car.

[V8Granite]

Do you know what fuse you have going to your house as that could be a deciding factor.

I can’t go to a 100amp fuse for example from 80 so think I could only get a piddly charger.

Dave!

[mr_jon]

80A is fine for a 7kWh/32A charger. Ours is only 60A, I was given a massive runaround with having it upgraded so never bothered. 48A is quite hard to reach with household devices.

[Jobbo]

Do you know what fuse you have going to your house as that could be a deciding factor.

I can’t go to a 100amp fuse for example from 80 so think I could only get a piddly charger.

Dave!

In what way could it be a deciding factor? There's no relationship between the main fuse and the hours of cheap rate electricity!

We have an 80A main RCD but a 100A main switch in the consumer unit, having checked - not sure if that means we could upgrade to a 100A RCD.

[Barry]

On the Tesla point Jobbo, is there a case that you could make use of the Supercharging network to offset your home bills, or would you prefer to just rely on overnight scheduled home charges?

Less relevant if you're considering other brands of course, but something to consider.

With the demand you appear to have, are you thinking about PV panels/home battery install, to offset it?

[Jobbo]

Ultimately, solar panels and a Tesla powerwall or equivalent is probably the way to go; I've got an entire double garage flat roof to stick panels on.

Despite the fact the Model S comes with lifetime free charging at Superchargers, I don't have any plans to use them. If my commute takes an hour there's no way I'd make it 30 minutes longer unless I absolutely had to.

[Rich B]

I got a quick look around a mates Model 3 on Monday. I didn't have long because he couldn't get the charger in the carpark we were parked in to work so he to move it to another carpark - he was only about 20 minutes late for the meeting in the end!

[Jobbo]

Yeah, it's only viable if the usable range actually covers you for the whole day, including getting back home again.

[mik]

I got a quick look around a mates Model 3 on Monday. I didn't have long because he couldn't get the charger in the carpark we were parked in to work so he to move it to another carpark - he was only about 20 minutes late for the meeting in the end!

Not a lot of "locking down" in this thread guys!!

[Jobbo]

You need 6 people on the internet to object, Mik.