EV Thread

[dinny_g]

Very true - my first part time job was at a petrol station in 1997 and at that time, Diesel's were still quite rare (in Ireland) and so fuel was just over half the price of Petrol...

Forecourt had 10 pump stations and only one had Diesel.

[Ascender]

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new- ... s-revealed

1.86seconds! Madness!

0-124mph in 4.49s is even more mind bending for me. Veyron does the same in 6.1secs

I can't comprehend those times, especially the 0-124 time.

[simon_g]

where charging at the destination is not an option (Wasdale Head anyone ??)

The NT campsite there has chargers or you just fuel up on the way in like you do in an ICE car.

I think a lot of the "not enough chargers / broken chargers" sentiment is people not looking past the motorway services. Bonkers when you see people queuing and there's a decent site down the road away from the Gridserve monopoly - and I don't know anyone outside of fuel card users who'd actually use a motorway petrol forecourt.

Did a big trip on the weekend, charged on a BP forecourt for a bit, and later at a 4-bay Instavolt by a nice farm shop / cafe. Yes, it still needs a bit of planning but I can't remember when I last had to wait or change plans because one was broken.

[Rich B]

where charging at the destination is not an option (Wasdale Head anyone ??)

The NT campsite there has chargers or you just fuel up on the way in like you do in an ICE car.

I think a lot of the "not enough chargers / broken chargers" sentiment is people not looking past the motorway services. Bonkers when you see people queuing and there's a decent site down the road away from the Gridserve monopoly - and I don't know anyone outside of fuel card users who'd actually use a motorway petrol forecourt.

Did a big trip on the weekend, charged on a BP forecourt for a bit, and later at a 4-bay Instavolt by a nice farm shop / cafe. Yes, it still needs a bit of planning but I can't remember when I last had to wait or change plans because one was broken.

2 charges? How long was the journey?

[simon_g]

2 charges? How long was the journey?

300 miles or so, pretty much all motorway. I'd usually rather stop when I want a break and quickly get back up to 80% or so rather than longer runs then extended stops to fill up more.

Yes "but a diesel..". I'm not a road warrior any more so will take everyday convenience over being able to knock out 500 miles without thinking about it.

[dinny_g]

The NT campsite there has chargers or you just fuel up on the way in like you do in an ICE car.

Ah I see - it's been a few years since I was up there.

Let's hope they're available or at least working when I get there or else it could be an interesting weekend... etc.

[Explosive Newt]

We haven’t got a home charger installed yet as we’re moving house (hopefully) in a month or two. Any advice using granny chargers? In particular, how much waterproofing of the various bits do I need to do?

[McSwede]

We haven’t got a home charger installed yet as we’re moving house (hopefully) in a month or two. Any advice using granny chargers? In particular, how much waterproofing of the various bits do I need to do?

I have run a 6mm supply to the garage from a 32amp breaker in my consumer unit. I can charge at 12amps from a 3 pin plug which is not a massive amount slower than a 7kw charger.

[Jobbo]

12A is less than 3kW, so is it maxing out the car’s charge rate? Should definitely be less than half the speed of a 7kW charger.

[Mito Man]

How’s that any different to sticking a granny charger in a double socket

[Jobbo]

How’s that any different to sticking a granny charger in a double socket

It’s not - it is exactly the same thing.

[mik]

We haven’t got a home charger installed yet as we’re moving house (hopefully) in a month or two. Any advice using granny chargers? In particular, how much waterproofing of the various bits do I need to do?

I have run a 6mm supply to the garage from a 32amp breaker in my consumer unit. I can charge at 12amps from a 3 pin plug which is not a massive amount slower than a 7kw charger.

We used the trickle charger until we had the home charger installed in the garage. It is slooooow (7.4kW charger is more than 2.5x as fast - makes a big difference) but did the job. Our use was indoors, but I understand the charger is fully waterproof - if you are plugging into an external socket you should be fine. If you have no option other than plugging into an extension cable, make sure it’s fully unwound, and I’d cover the “join” in a bin bag.

[McSwede]

How’s that any different to sticking a granny charger in a double socket

It’s not - it is exactly the same thing.

Yes but socket is 17m away from the consumer unit. Bit of a stretch for 1.5mm t&e Plus I don't think you want to be charging at 12amps on your ring main. 6amp max I'd say.

[McSwede]

We haven’t got a home charger installed yet as we’re moving house (hopefully) in a month or two. Any advice using granny chargers? In particular, how much waterproofing of the various bits do I need to do?

I have run a 6mm supply to the garage from a 32amp breaker in my consumer unit. I can charge at 12amps from a 3 pin plug which is not a massive amount slower than a 7kw charger.

We used the trickle charger until we had the home charger installed in the garage. It is slooooow (7.4kW charger is more than 2.5x as fast - makes a big difference) but did the job. Our use was indoors, but I understand the charger is fully waterproof - if you are plugging into an external socket you should be fine. If you have no option other than plugging into an extension cable, make sure it’s fully unwound, and I’d cover the “join” in a bin bag.

Aye. The car charger and socket are inside my garage so no worries there.

[Carlos]

Granny chargers are waterproof and charge at 10a x 240v =2.4kw and are designed to be used with a standard 13a socket in the ring for sustained periods of time.

Early cars often had max charging speeds of 3.6kw like phevs so thousands charged with a granny for years and I couldn't find a single incidence in the UK of someone getting blown up using one

There's a lot of hysteria around EVs and charging which I'm convinced is big oil propaganda !

If you are concerned about the wiring in the house and using a spur off a spur with no RCD and fuse wire you could can reduce the draw further.

[Explosive Newt]

In our current house, we probably need an extension cable - was thinking one of these - https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev ... nsion-lead

I'm not so worried about our wiring, more about leaving the 'brain box' of the granny charger outside in all elements. I read mixed reports on the online fora of the lengths people to go in order to waterproof fully.

[McSwede]

Granny chargers are waterproof and charge at 10a x 240v =2.4kw and are designed to be used with a standard 13a socket in the ring for sustained periods of time.

Early cars often had max charging speeds of 3.6kw like phevs so thousands charged with a granny for years and I couldn't find a single incidence in the UK someone getting blown up using one

There's a lot of hysteria around EVs and charging which I convinced is big oil propaganda !

If you concerned about the wiring in the house and using a spur off a spur with no RCD and fuse wire you could can reduce the draw further.

I initially used an outside IP65 socket with an extension lead out to the garage but that destroyed 2 successive outdoor sockets when running at 10amp.

[Barry]

There's a lot of hysteria around EVs and charging which I convinced is big oil propaganda !

Everything that Carlos said, but mostly that. So much fud out there. I've used 13a granny lead for a couple weeks, way back, no problem. It's tedious though, just find a local fast charger and use that until you get sorted?

[Explosive Newt]

There's a lot of hysteria around EVs and charging which I convinced is big oil propaganda !

Everything that Carlos said, but mostly that. So much fud out there. I've used 13a granny lead for a couple weeks, way back, no problem. It's tedious though, just find a local fast charger and use that until you get sorted?

I’m leaning towards that latter option; there is a supercharger 5 mins from work which would be an easy stop off on the way home. Or there is a 7kw charger at work which only costs £4 for 5 hours (a stultifying 11.4p/kWh) - but the downside is you have to move your car after the 5 hours is up.

The granny charger might be saved for when I visit mum and dad oop North.

Enjoying the model 3 so far. The acceleration is fun. Autopilot takes more getting used to than I had expected. Not had chance to give the handling a proper go yet.

[DaveE]

Just seen that Musk has Tweeted that the Tesla semi has now completed a single-charge, 500 mile, weighing 80,000lbs

Colour me sceptical (on the basis that he lies a lot)

They're also claiming 2 kWh/mile (1.24 kWh/km) - that's only 4x what a Tesla car uses (and they're making that claim for a semi/rig weighing 80,000lbs - 20x the 4k lbs a Tesla Model 3 weighs)

I'm also curious about the word "weighing"

I think in the US, the weight limits for these kinds of trucks are total weight limits - i.e. the tractor unit + trailer + cargo

So I wonder, relative to a diesel tractor unit, what % of the overall weight was cargo?

I've also seen that Mercedes (who arguably have a vested interest in discrediting the Tesla semi as they sell lots of diesel trucks) has said this is impossible:

“If Tesla really delivers on this promise, we’ll obviously buy two trucks — one to take apart and one to test because if that happens, something has passed us by. But for now, the same laws of physics apply in Germany and in California,” Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG Martin Daum

Tesla is claiming the the 500 mile range for their twin battery, 1000kWh model

A quick google search indicated that a typical 100kWh battery pack weighs about 1400lbs - that could mean the 1000kWh semi has 14k lbs of battery alone (nearly 6.5 tonnes)

He also says that customer deliveries will start on 1st Dec - doesn't seem like much time between "completing 500 mile run" and "deliveries starting"

Going to be interesting to see how this unfolds...