The all things EV chat thread

[Mandofred]

Just looking through the rules on Rejecting a car after 30 days and before 6 months.......If it's a "fault" and they can't fix it they have to take the car back and refund your money (or most of it). Problem with me is.....Suzuki likely doesn't think this is a fault, just the way the car works all of the time (and they don't tell buyers about).....or in this case doesn't work when the weather is cool. Am I just stuck?.....in which case I'm likely to sell a car that doesn't even have 500 miles on it yet....

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Modern cars ehh?
I thought progress meant better.
I see Ford have just recalled 1,000's of Ecoboost 1000cc engines due to the drive belt breaking up, block the oil pump & blowing up the engine.
Also a very simular problem affecting Transit vans

The Transit has a cam belt that runs in the oil. Belt threads detach and block the oil supply. Im told 50k miles is about all they are getting before catastrofic failures.
Sadly the push for smaller more highly strung engines is biting people hard who are out of warranty or buy a 4 year old vehicle. Renault had/have problems with their Quashqai and miniscule petrol engines, Vauxhall likewise.

 

[Mudball]

Mrs just come back and so I plugged the car into my brand new Project EV charger .. all excited to see how quickly it will charge..

But it refuses to charge. I am sure there is a way I can override the off peak setting. The car is set to immediate’ so this will be at the charger end.

How many new tricks should I learn just to drive my own car ..



Update:
Looks like the app was forcing ‘EV smart regulation’. Have disabled it and it seems to have worked. I still don’t know how this charger app works. It is very user unfriendly and designed by someone who does not own an ev.
Well we are off to our first charge.. I will relook at it again over the weekend

 

[PJ87]

Mrs just come back and so I plugged the car into my brand new Project EV charger .. all excited to see how quickly it will charge..

But it refuses to charge. I am sure there is a way I can override the off peak setting. The car is set to immediate’ so this will be at the charger end.

How many new tricks should I learn just to drive my own car ..

View attachment 51507

When do you need the car? You said you are on intelligent go correct? So 6 hours of cheap hour energy..

That's 42 kwh by morning just in the cheap hours which is 60% of your battery

What is your current state of charge?

Do you really need to pay for the expensive rate now or can you just wait?

 

[PJ87]

In the manual. Follow the guide to opt out if you want instant charge all the time

 

[Mudball]

When do you need the car? You said you are on intelligent go correct? So 6 hours of cheap hour energy..

That's 42 kwh by morning just in the cheap hours which is 60% of your battery

What is your current state of charge?

Do you really need to pay for the expensive rate now or can you just wait?

Haven’t switched to Go.. it needs a test charge for it to start working. Too cold And dark outside to stand and do it. Will try that tomorrow.

Also I think I need to find a way to bypass the charger’s off peak controls. Octopus says it will manage directly with the car …

That is a fight for another day

 

[PJ87]

Haven’t switched to Go.. it needs a test charge for it to start working. Too cold And dark outside to stand and do it. Will try that tomorrow.

Also I think I need to find a way to bypass the charger’s off peak controls. Octopus says it will manage directly with the car …

That is a fight for another day

As per my previous post

However have you tried just pressing charge on the app? The grey button ? See if it overrides it

Edit, read your edit that it's now charging

Thank you for contacting tech support have a nice day

 

[Mudball]

As per my previous post

However have you tried just pressing charge on the app? The grey button ? See if it overrides it

Edit, read your edit that it's now charging

Thank you for contacting tech support have a nice day

That smart regulation override slider is just a piece of sh*t.. you can disable it.. but next time u visit that screen it will enable itself. Looks like it is for a charging session only !!

 

[PJ87]

That smart regulation override slider is just a piece of sh*t.. you can disable it.. but next time u visit that screen it will enable itself. Looks like it is for a charging session only !!

It's the regs tho I guess , but its not that big a deal .. just turn it off each time you plug in

You have to map a charge with octopus each time for intelligent

Now my top tip

Schedule a charge with them once a month. As per the terms

Rest of the time .. just set your charger to 23:30-05:30 charge times .. and let it run on the cheap hours (this will be fine as per regs)

That way you stick to the terms they laid out but get 6 hours cheap a night without having to fanny about

 

[Slime]

It would appear that owning an EV is just fraught with hurdles.
So much to learn!

 

[ColchesterFC]

It would appear that owning an EV is just fraught with hurdles.
So much to learn!

I've got a feeling that if we ever end up owning an EV it will be up to Mrs Colch to work out the charging and make sure that it charges at the right times. She's well up on her apps and gadgets while I'm still an analogue kind of guy living in a digital world.

 

[PJ87]

I've got a feeling that if we ever end up owning an EV it will be up to Mrs Colch to work out the charging and make sure that it charges at the right times. She's well up on her apps and gadgets while I'm still an analogue kind of guy living in a digital world.

Once it's set up it's very much plug and forget

It's been 3 years since I switched

Only once have I charged outside of cheap hours (requiring an override)

My charger is set to come on 00:30-04:30 every night , rest of time it's standby

I plug my car in, wake up and it's charged

That first couple days was when I set it all up but I had all the apps, charger installed etc 1 month before the car arrived

The car leaves Tuesday, new one arrives Friday .. it will just plug and play the same.

I can hear my wife plugging the Corsa in now she's home

 

[ColchesterFC]

Once it's set up it's very much plug and forget

It's been 3 years since I switched

Only once have I charged outside of cheap hours (requiring an override)

My charger is set to come on 00:30-04:30 every night , rest of time it's standby

I plug my car in, wake up and it's charged

That first couple days was when I set it all up but I had all the apps, charger installed etc 1 month before the car arrived

The car leaves Tuesday, new one arrives Friday .. it will just plug and play the same.

I can hear my wife plugging the Corsa in now she's home

You assume that I am competent enough to remember to plug it in. Get back to me when wireless or bluetooth charging is a possibility and all I have to do is park it on my drive and when I come back to it it's ready to go.

 

[PJ87]

You assume that I am competent enough to remember to plug it in. Get back to me when wireless or bluetooth charging is a possibility and all I have to do is park it on my drive and when I come back to it it's ready to go.

That I can't assist you with

 

[Mudball]

charging experiment 5

A lot of frustration on trying to get the home charger app.. I think I figured it out. I am still on expensive tariff, but have now finished the first hour. Love the high speed charging at home.

In an hour it has gone

 

[PJ87]

charging experiment 5

A lot of frustration on trying to get the home charger app.. I think I figured it out. I am still on expensive tariff, but have now finished the first hour. Love the high speed charging at home.

In an hour it has gone

View attachment 51513

Game changer isn't it , defo worth the investment

 

[Mudball]

Game changer isn't it , defo worth the investment

When I went to bed, the car was being charged. It started At 36%/63m. It said it would hit 80% target by 1:05am. I also had set precondition to depart at 7:30

This morning, I checked to see that charging had stopped at 5:30am (no idea why). The car was 80%/150m. It was also nice and toasty.. the only car that was completely defrosted on the street. My neighbor had his running on the driveway.

Total cost was about £10 for the 36kwh. Once I switch to Octopus, that should become about £3 per charge. So if I charge every night of the month, I am going to see a leccy/fuel bill of £90 instead of the £200 of diesel.

At the moment the biggest risk is that the Mrs will not remember to plug it in every night and in the morning it will be my fault

 

[PJ87]

When I went to bed, the car was being charged. It started At 36%/63m. It said it would hit 80% target by 1:05am. I also had set precondition to depart at 7:30

This morning, I checked to see that charging had stopped at 5:30am (no idea why). The car was 80%/150m. It was also nice and toasty.. the only car that was completely defrosted on the street. My neighbor had his running on the driveway.

Total cost was about £10 for the 36kwh. Once I switch to Octopus, that should become about £3 per charge. So if I charge every night of the month, I am going to see a leccy/fuel bill of £90 instead of the £200 of diesel.

At the moment the biggest risk is that the Mrs will not remember to plug it in every night and in the morning it will be my fault

Did you go tethered or untethered

My wife has filled up our cars ONCE in our (checks the year) 12 year relationship.. however the electric she regularly puts on charge because it's no effort she can plug in and forget (and I get charged)

 

[bobmac]

Total cost was about £10 for the 36kwh. Once I switch to Octopus, that should become about £3 per charge. So if I charge every night of the month, I am going to see a leccy/fuel bill of £90 instead of the £200 of diesel.

So about 33p per litre. Nice
I've just got back from shopping (and I still look) and diesel is £1.47

 

[PJ87]

Booked a trip down to my mates near bath in may time.

150 mile each way. Premier inn has 120kw charger nearby , can always granny charge at her house whilst the kids play (we there 3 days)

From all the reviews the niros 240 mile range is pretty true even at motorway speeds so no concern getting down there

Will charge prob the morning before we head back

Tesco nearby has a 7kw
Her house 2kw
Couple nearby chargers 120kw

Signed up for instvolt (altho my octoverve card should work with them at 5% off) and when we stop for a break each way if chargers are not in use we will top up using gridserve

10 minutes of planning with plans a-d covered