The all things EV chat thread

[Deleted member 15344]

That would be really handy if you have to drive suddenly from Surrey to Inverness without stopping

Visited my parents over new year - filled up the car in the morning, drove all the way to Somerset , parked car outside on the road , three days later got in the car and drove back , next day drove to Peterborough and back

To do the same in an EV would have meant getting to my parents and finding a charging point nearby and the driving to that and sitting there whilst the car charged enough for my to get home , then when I got home I would have needed to find another place to sit and charge the car

Mudballs real life experiences have been very eye opening for a lot of people

There is a long way to go for EV cars to be anywhere near as practical as your standard ICE car - there are still many obstacles and far too much planning for something that should be a simple task in life

 

[PJ87]

That would be really handy if you have to drive suddenly from Surrey to Inverness without stopping

We are going from Havering to bath in may, 150 miles so 300 round trip

The Kia does 240 miles real world to a charge

We are staying a hotel for 2 nights, hotel has a 120kw in the car park
Tesco has a 7kw charger nearby
My mate will let me use her plug socket whilst we at her house (which the kids will play for hours)
Have a few back up chargers in the area and when we stop at the services for lunch on the way down if the chargers are available I'll plug it in.

10 mins to plan all the charging

Could take the big car that does 700 miles to a tank . But it's just a nicer drive . More relaxing

 

[Mudball]

I am having trust issues with technology...

I went to bed with Octopus saying Charging map at 00:30. My car app had a 'precondition for 7am departure'.
Somewhere the car app changed its mind an says that it will depart at 13:45, so charging to start at 10:30am. So before i went to bed, i updated the car app to force the window to start charging at 12:30.

Woke up this AM to see that the car charged for an hour, added about 20miles to range and then automatically shut down. It will recharge in the evening!!. It had about 83 miles of range

And my oblivious wifey, ignored everything and jumped into the car for her 50mile journey. If the car does not make it back, then it will be my fault.

Tonight, i am going down the @pauljames87 method of dumb charging. Ignore everything and just start charging at midnight by setting it at the charger rather than Octopus or car. Lets see how this one goes

 

[PJ87]

I am having trust issues with technology...

I went to bed with Octopus saying Charging map at 00:30. My car app had a 'precondition for 7am departure'.
Somewhere the car app changed its mind an says that it will depart at 13:45, so charging to start at 10:30am. So before i went to bed, i updated the car app to force the window to start charging at 12:30.

Woke up this AM to see that the car charged for an hour, added about 20miles to range and then automatically shut down. It will recharge in the evening!!. It had about 83 miles of range

And my oblivious wifey, ignored everything and jumped into the car for her 50mile journey. If the car does not make it back, then it will be my fault.

Tonight, i am going down the @pauljames87 method of dumb charging. Ignore everything and just start charging at midnight by setting it at the charger rather than Octopus or car. Lets see how this one goes

This is exactly why I don't want to go onto intelligent. There is too much to go wrong. Especially when it's the car that's in car not the charger because it needs BMW software to work

Dumb charge every night 23:30-05:30, if they moan at you for not doing a smart charge just map one once a month

However you setting a departure time on the car might be part of the issue as their is two set of commands going on

Can you manually pre condition? IE press the app

As a caveat to this if you had a Tesla I would go straight onto intelligent because Tesla software is excellent, BMW software isn't as smoothly shall we say

 

[Mudball]

This is exactly why I don't want to go onto intelligent. There is too much to go wrong. Especially when it's the car that's in car not the charger because it needs BMW software to work

Dumb charge every night 23:30-05:30, if they moan at you for not doing a smart charge just map one once a month

However you setting a departure time on the car might be part of the issue as their is two set of commands going on

Can you manually pre condition? IE press the app

that is all part of today's troubleshooting. Octopus support via twitter is terrfic. Acc to their logs, the charging was terminated by a third party. So they want to see Charger logs.

Conveniently, the charger app has been misbehaving all morning, wont log me in. if only 'reset password' was any easier.

 

[bobmac]

There is a long way to go for EV cars to be anywhere near as practical as your standard ICE car - there are still many obstacles and far too much planning for something that should be a simple task in life

For some people you are absolutely right.
For many it's perfect.

As I've always said...buy what you need.

 

[PJ87]

that is all part of today's troubleshooting. Octopus support via twitter is terrfic. Acc to their logs, the charging was terminated by a third party. So they want to see Charger logs.

Conveniently, the charger app has been misbehaving all morning, wont log me in. if only 'reset password' was any easier.

Yes the charger does sound like an issue, maybe they are having trouble

Octopus are first class on twitter. They really are.

See as I've said a few times I want intelligent for the price as it's 1.5p cheaper in and 7p better for the export .. however the issues with this put me off

Plus my car doesn't seem like it will go back onto the list so it's an upgrade charger job which even tho all the wiring is there because I have a charger it would still be pretty much full price

Also I don't like wasting things . If my podpoint failed then yes I'd buy an ohme because it works but whilst it's working I'm throwing away good money

 

[Mudball]

Yes the charger does sound like an issue, maybe they are having trouble

Octopus are first class on twitter. They really are.

See as I've said a few times I want intelligent for the price as it's 1.5p cheaper in and 7p better for the export .. however the issues with this put me off

Plus my car doesn't seem like it will go back onto the list so it's an upgrade charger job which even tho all the wiring is there because I have a charger it would still be pretty much full price

Also I don't like wasting things . If my podpoint failed then yes I'd buy an ohme because it works but whilst it's working I'm throwing away good money

The charger app has been a pickle all morning.. and now the whole thing is 'unavailable'. I currently dont have the EV to test, but i wonder if i can charge a car when the charger app is unavailable.
I kept getting bad gateway 502 error on the app..

quiet worringly, got an email from their tech support to say

We are experiencing server outages currently which are causing app-related issues. We are working hard to rectify this as soon as possible. During this time, functions on the app including setups, scheduling charges, initiating charges etc will be unsuccessful.
We aim to have a resolution to this in a matter of hours.

I hope the charger itself is working. I dont know when their systems went down. it may have stopped the car from charging last night. bonkers. it is a Steep learning curve

Updated:
I spoke to the Charger tech support... looks like all their systems are down, so we cant do nowt. Apparently the charger itself will work as a normal plug & charge. So plug it in the car and wait 10 mins for it to start charging (Project EV has a 600 sec wait between plugging and charging. You need to override it via the app)

Also for using Octopus Intelligent Go... he said there are a few settings to be changed on the App. But we cant change now, so please call after some time when the systems are back up. I told them why not put it on an FAQ... apparently there are a fair few things that need to be changed. I thought that was the reason to have an FAQ.

 

[PJ87]

The charger app has been a pickle all morning.. and now the whole thing is 'unavailable'. I currently dont have the EV to test, but i wonder if i can charge a car when the charger app is unavailable.
I kept getting bad gateway 502 error on the app..

quiet worringly, got an email from their tech support to say

We are experiencing server outages currently which are causing app-related issues. We are working hard to rectify this as soon as possible. During this time, functions on the app including setups, scheduling charges, initiating charges etc will be unsuccessful.
We aim to have a resolution to this in a matter of hours.

I hope the charger itself is working. I dont know when their systems went down. it may have stopped the car from charging last night. bonkers. it is a Steep learning curve

See now my charger when it loses WiFi the charger goes dumb (IE always turns on) so if the app goes down you can turn the WiFi off (it's on its own guest network)

But that is an interesting situation

That said the app normally sends data to the charger and the settings are saved there unless changed so if the cloud goes down it just does as instructed

 

[Mudball]

There is nothing that a reboot cant solve...

Project EV seems to have got their systems working. But my charger was still unavailable. Spoke to their tech support.... answer was simple, switch it off at the consumer unit, wait 20 sec and then switch it on again.... bingo now its up and running.
Tonight i am going to see if i can use it as a dumb charger. My car will only have about 20 miles range when it gets home....

 

[PJ87]

There is nothing that a reboot cant solve...

Project EV seems to have got their systems working. But my charger was still unavailable. Spoke to their tech support.... answer was simple, switch it off at the consumer unit, wait 20 sec and then switch it on again.... bingo now its up and running.
Tonight i am going to see if i can use it as a dumb charger. My car will only have about 20 miles range when it gets home....

Yeah I was told first point of order is on and off with majority of issues

I've had the charge point trip out once in 3 years ironically after the car had fully charged lol

Check your settings see if you can set it to only work 23:30-05:30 then those 6 hours should get you 42kw

 

[Fade and Die]

Palaver….
[uncountable, singular] (British English) a lot of unnecessary activity, excitement or trouble, especially caused by something that is not importantSYNONYM fuss

palaver noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of palaver noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

 

[PJ87]

Palaver….
[uncountable, singular] (British English) a lot of unnecessary activity, excitement or trouble, especially caused by something that is not importantSYNONYM fuss

palaver noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of palaver noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

DW when you end up getting one you will be grateful for our hard work getting all the teething issues ironed out for you.

Your welcome

 

[Fade and Die]

DW when you end up getting one you will be grateful for our hard work getting all the teething issues ironed out for you.

Your welcome

I love the xtrail hybrid. That’ll do for now…

 

[Hobbit]

Perhaps a dumb question…

The scenario; just in from a day here, there and everywhere. 40 miles left on the car. Get one of those come quickly phonecalls from our eldest who lives 180miles away. How much time will I lose, i.e. not come come quickly, charging the car up to cover the journey?

There appears to be a lot of planning around keeping the car topped up but none of that will satisfy a come quickly phone call.

 

[PJ87]

Perhaps a dumb question…

The scenario; just in from a day here, there and everywhere. 40 miles left on the car. Get one of those come quickly phonecalls from our eldest who lives 180miles away. How much time will I lose, i.e. not come come quickly, charging the car up to cover the journey?

There appears to be a lot of planning around keeping the car topped up but none of that will satisfy a come quickly phone call.

It depends on charge rate available and speed your car can charge

My Kia can only accept 80kwh charging max so if I plug in 350kw charger it still will be 80kwh

So 80% battery is 195 miles roughly and say 40 miles is 10% for sake of argument so you need 70% charge which is 44kw for me

That's about 40 mins for me

Quicker for others

 

[Mudball]

Perhaps a dumb question…

The scenario; just in from a day here, there and everywhere. 40 miles left on the car. Get one of those come quickly phonecalls from our eldest who lives 180miles away. How much time will I lose, i.e. not come come quickly, charging the car up to cover the journey?

There appears to be a lot of planning around keeping the car topped up but none of that will satisfy a come quickly phone call.

IMO, the answer is tough....
Having said that, while most (90%) of our journeys are typical e.g. everyday work, every week shopping, rugby etc. Currently we life in a way that while the activities are planned, the journey's are not. This is simply because ICE cars are 'fill it, shut it, forget it till the gauge goes down'

I think the closest equivalent is to think of the car as a phone... EVERY night, just plug it in, get it to 80% on a cheap rate. Then not rethink about range. In the ideal world, every morning my car will have 80% charge (same as my phone having 100% charge) and it can do 200 odd miles. So if you get the odd call out and it is 200miles away, you will be able to get there, but u will need to find a charger to get back. Potentially you will look to go to a public fast charger that can recharge quickly. But budget an additional hour for the way back.

I think for everyday typical journeys, i.e. 90% of what we do, it will become a routine that we no longer think about. For others you need to plan a bit of buffer or use an ICE.

Dont be put off by my trying and testing, i havent found what is the best mode of operations so far. every day i learn that i need to do some other setting. Soon i hope to find the ideal set.

 

[Hobbit]

IMO, the answer is tough....
Having said that, while most (90%) of our journeys are typical e.g. everyday work, every week shopping, rugby etc. Currently we life in a way that while the activities are planned, the journey's are not. This is simply because ICE cars are 'fill it, shut it, forget it till the gauge goes down'

I think the closest equivalent is to think of the car as a phone... EVERY night, just plug it in, get it to 80% on a cheap rate. Then not rethink about range. In the ideal world, every morning my car will have 80% charge (same as my phone having 100% charge) and it can do 200 odd miles. So if you get the odd call out and it is 200miles away, you will be able to get there, but u will need to find a charger to get back. Potentially you will look to go to a public fast charger that can recharge quickly. But budget an additional hour for the way back.

I think for everyday typical journeys, i.e. 90% of what we do, it will become a routine that we no longer think about. For others you need to plan a bit of buffer or use an ICE.

Dont be put off by my trying and testing, i havent found what is the best mode of operations so far. every day i learn that i need to do some other setting. Soon i hope to find the ideal set.

Our longest journey over here is an airport pick up/drop off, the furthest airport being around 100 miles away. A 200 mile round trip. Wait time at the airport for a pick up is around 20-30 mins, a good opportunity to charge I guess. There is the odd road trip, usually stopping overnight a few times. Again, charging wouldn’t be much of a problem.

But it’s responding to a come quickly phone call that would bother me. Had a few in the U.K., one of which was 120 miles and shall we say, er, rather quickly. Accept that some are comfortable with the performance in terms of range/charging time but EV’s are not yet where I want them to be. Love our hybrid = best of both worlds.

 

[PJ87]

10 battery facts that EVERY electric car owner should know | Electrifying

10 charging facts that EVERY electric car owner should know

www.electrifying.com

 

[Mudball]

Our longest journey over here is an airport pick up/drop off, the furthest airport being around 100 miles away. A 200 mile round trip. Wait time at the airport for a pick up is around 20-30 mins, a good opportunity to charge I guess. There is the odd road trip, usually stopping overnight a few times. Again, charging wouldn’t be much of a problem.

But it’s responding to a come quickly phone call that would bother me. Had a few in the U.K., one of which was 120 miles and shall we say, er, rather quickly. Accept that some are comfortable with the performance in terms of range/charging time but EV’s are not yet where I want them to be. Love our hybrid = best of both worlds.

I am getting a bumper sticker for my EV… ‘my other car is a proper car’