The all things EV chat thread

[PJ87]

Perfect headlines …


View attachment 52509

Ah the sun's cousin paper trying to come across as respectable.

Cheap Chinese cars putting dent in bigger brands profits

Times probably has share in those brands

 

[road2ruin]

Perfect headlines …


View attachment 52509

Utter nonsense IMO. The Chinese aren’t stupid and are commercially driven. If this was ever found to be true it would collapse their car exports and cost them billions.

 

[road2ruin]

Utter nonsense IMO. The Chinese aren’t stupid and are commercially driven. If this was ever found to be true it would collapse their car exports and cost them billions.

Plus don’t we all wander round with Chinese manufactured phones etc. I think they already have access to all
of the personal data that they could ever need.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I confess, there is an EV I would have..gladly.
The Kindig CF1 ev.
Just wow.

Having said that, it’s just as nice with the petrol lump they put in them

 

[PJ87]

To keep on the intelligent octopus tariff I have to "smart charge" once a month (this means octopus take control of my charge) any other time I can "dumb charge" (just plug in 23:30-0530, I use this to fill up the powerwall) octopus can charge whenever it wants , most likely in those hours but say we have excess wind power or in the summer solar power they will charge outside those hours. I just tell it how much % I want to have at what time.

The wife's car is finally below 50% (since Feb 13th) it's at 46% to be precise. So I set up a schedule of 80% battery by 5am (as I will get up for work then and can just check it as it's first time, check via app anyways)

Plugged in and instantly notification on phone from ohme (my charger) "approve this plug in?" Clicked yes (I set this so nobody can use the charger unless I approve it via the app)

Instantly I got another notification of my schedule of charge for the night



Decent indeed

I have had the charger wired up outside the battery so anytime it wants to charge it won't drain it. Just grid. If I'm on my phone during the extra hours I can always pause the battery to benefit from more cheap hours but much of a much.

Next month have a few long drives in the Kia so will get to play around with getting more kWh than possible to be provided in the 6 hours (I can get 42kwh in 6 hours so will see if I can try asking for 50 see if it still maps it fine)


Not bad tho , had the car over a month and the charger just under a month but this is the first time I've used either in anger charge wise. The Kona is very efficient and the Kia doesn't really get charged at the house.

Definitely suits us

 

[doublebogey7]

To keep on the intelligent octopus tariff I have to "smart charge" once a month (this means octopus take control of my charge) any other time I can "dumb charge" (just plug in 23:30-0530, I use this to fill up the powerwall) octopus can charge whenever it wants , most likely in those hours but say we have excess wind power or in the summer solar power they will charge outside those hours. I just tell it how much % I want to have at what time.

The wife's car is finally below 50% (since Feb 13th) it's at 46% to be precise. So I set up a schedule of 80% battery by 5am (as I will get up for work then and can just check it as it's first time, check via app anyways)

Plugged in and instantly notification on phone from ohme (my charger) "approve this plug in?" Clicked yes (I set this so nobody can use the charger unless I approve it via the app)

Instantly I got another notification of my schedule of charge for the night

View attachment 52565

Decent indeed

I have had the charger wired up outside the battery so anytime it wants to charge it won't drain it. Just grid. If I'm on my phone during the extra hours I can always pause the battery to benefit from more cheap hours but much of a much.

Next month have a few long drives in the Kia so will get to play around with getting more kWh than possible to be provided in the 6 hours (I can get 42kwh in 6 hours so will see if I can try asking for 50 see if it still maps it fine)


Not bad tho , had the car over a month and the charger just under a month but this is the first time I've used either in anger charge wise. The Kona is very efficient and the Kia doesn't really get charged at the house.

Definitely suits us

I regularly ask for in excess of 50kwh for my Nero 3 . In the 4 months since I joined IOG it has not failed to provide all I have asked for, with the bonus of all the house getting the extra slotes at the lower rate.

 

[PJ87]

I regularly ask for in excess of 50kwh for my Nero 3 . In the 4 months since I joined IOG it has not failed to provide all I have asked for, with the bonus of all the house getting the extra slotes at the lower rate.

What charger do you use to provide it or are you one of the lucky ones who got on IO before they pulled Kia from it?

 

[doublebogey7]

What charger do you use to provide it or are you one of the lucky ones who got on IO before they pulled Kia from it?

Zappi, but don't see any reason why your Ohme should not be as effective providing its communicating with Octopus.

 

[PJ87]

To keep on the intelligent octopus tariff I have to "smart charge" once a month (this means octopus take control of my charge) any other time I can "dumb charge" (just plug in 23:30-0530, I use this to fill up the powerwall) octopus can charge whenever it wants , most likely in those hours but say we have excess wind power or in the summer solar power they will charge outside those hours. I just tell it how much % I want to have at what time.

The wife's car is finally below 50% (since Feb 13th) it's at 46% to be precise. So I set up a schedule of 80% battery by 5am (as I will get up for work then and can just check it as it's first time, check via app anyways)

Plugged in and instantly notification on phone from ohme (my charger) "approve this plug in?" Clicked yes (I set this so nobody can use the charger unless I approve it via the app)

Instantly I got another notification of my schedule of charge for the night

View attachment 52565

Decent indeed

I have had the charger wired up outside the battery so anytime it wants to charge it won't drain it. Just grid. If I'm on my phone during the extra hours I can always pause the battery to benefit from more cheap hours but much of a much.

Next month have a few long drives in the Kia so will get to play around with getting more kWh than possible to be provided in the 6 hours (I can get 42kwh in 6 hours so will see if I can try asking for 50 see if it still maps it fine)


Not bad tho , had the car over a month and the charger just under a month but this is the first time I've used either in anger charge wise. The Kona is very efficient and the Kia doesn't really get charged at the house.

Definitely suits us

Interesting 48 hours

the charge never happened. I contacted octopus and ohme to shed some light into it

whilst awaiting for there reply I think I found the answer to the issue. The kona seems to have an issue where it saves the health of the 12 volt battery so goes into a sleep. A few owners report it doesnt like smart charging or timer charging (via the charger) the fix is a replacement On board charger under warranty but its a fight to get as its working fine.

however octopus replied all fine their end but ohme said something interesting. an overvoltage reported at my house so charger shuts down until it drops then comes back on (this didnt explain why it never started again) but they sent me screen shots of over voltage at my house almost every day in march at different times so as requested I contacted my DNO to look into it. (this was yesterday morning)

overnight I plugged in the car again at 9pm. it charged at 11pm as per one of the smart slots but when I woke up at 2am for a wee it hadnt charged anymore. so I did what I did the night before when I got up for work and woke the car via the app. the charge started and when I got up it had stopped at 5am (as I requested it to finish at 5am) and I had gone from 46% to 70% (I had asked to get to 80% so it would have made it if I had asked for say 7am finish)

anyways. I tried another solution that the car forum had said. request a smart charge to finish when your awake. so when i got up at 7am I said give me to 80% by 9am. sure enough charged fine

now apparently this issue with the Kona was fixed with the newer models so my Kia niro (which is its sister car) should be fine as its the new model. I will be charging that tonight to prove it works.

in the mean time back to the DNO. they came this morning. what a hilarious visit from the guy. first he tried to claim I shouldnt have a charger as my supply is from a 16mm cable off the fuse to the meter. so I said well when I asked for your colleagues to upgrade the fuse from 60amp to 100 amp I changed all my cables to 25mm as required for 100amp but they came and said because of my looped supply I can only have 80 amp without a new cable but left the 16mm cable as its YOUR cable not mine. Im not allowed to touch it... "oh I see" was his reply
He moved next to try and blame the solar for the overvoltage , which I said it could be, I showed him the logs again of all the times of over voltage and said well it could be but I dont think at 21:00 and 23:55 it would be do you? his face dropped and said "oh maybe not"

so he finally checked the voltage and its within levels atm but will refer to his colleague to come and put a voltage monitor on for a week (which is what I wanted)

will see what happens with that however I think its a red herring and the actual issue is the kona doesnt like being charged when its been left hours. there is a simply solution. the car is able to be told to charge only when its cheap and then leave the charger with no settings and it will take the charge itself. i can live with that for sure

if the kia charges fine tonight (which it should do as @doublebogey7 has the same car using same type of wake up charge)

im not too fussed because simply the terms of intelligent octopus is 1 smart charge a month. im happy to dumb charge the rest of the time (not that I need to)

anyways I thought id share for 2 reasons. 1 warts and all sharing of EV life and 2 if anyone does get a kona and has the same issue it might help

 

[PJ87]

Did a test with the Kia last night, as I suspected it worked fine (as it's the newer model so will have the updated on board charger)

Given slots 23:00-00:00 then 03:00-05:15 (asked for ready by 05:15)

Woke up car responded as it should all good

So next test will be the Kona overnight but with a schedule set via the car rather than the charger. (Charger in dumb mode so just on) If that works then I know to not bother smart charging the Kona and just smart charge the Kia

Quick edit on stats

Over the charges it's added 50.1kwh but because it's all been requested as smart (their in control not me, I just say ready for X time) the cost is all 7.5p a kw so £3.76 thus far

If I set the Kona up on the schedule via the car to be in the cheap hours will be the same

If I want to charge immediately it jumps to 28p a unit I think it is now days. (I avoid this)

 

[Hobbit]

I pulled into a garage on Wednesday. Charged up with petrol in less than 10mins, which will last around 750km. €45. Next charge will be in about 3 weeks time.

 

[PJ87]

I pulled into a garage on Wednesday. Charged up with petrol in less than 10mins, which will last around 750km. €45. Next charge will be in about 3 weeks time.

Only thing I will say is that's expensive lol

64.8kwh at 7.5p is £4.86 and that's good for 400km so about €11 for 800km

I like km btw .. makes it sound like the car goes further

 

[Hobbit]

Only thing I will say is that's expensive lol

64.8kwh at 7.5p is £4.86 and that's good for 400km so about €11 for 800km

I like km btw .. makes it sound like the car goes further

I blasted down the motorway at 120……….. km/h. Sounds quick too

 

[PJ87]

I blasted down the motorway at 120……….. km/h. Sounds quick too

Still speeding here ! Lol behave

 

[doublebogey7]

I pulled into a garage on Wednesday. Charged up with petrol in less than 10mins, which will last around 750km. €45. Next charge will be in about 3 weeks time.

I filled mine up last night at home taking all of 30 seconds of my time at a cost of less than £5 for around 250 miles. All without having to breath in dirty diesal or petrol fumes Will need to do the same in about 10 days time.

 

[PJ87]

I filled mine up last night at home taking all of 30 seconds of my time at a cost of less than £5 for around 250 miles. All without having to breath in dirty diesal or petrol fumes Will need to do the same in about 10 days time.

What's the lowest you have been when charging at home and got a full slot via intelligent btw? U said you have down 50kw before wondered if you had gone even higher

 

[ColchesterFC]

Did a test with the Kia last night, as I suspected it worked fine (as it's the newer model so will have the updated on board charger)

Given slots 23:00-00:00 then 03:00-05:15 (asked for ready by 05:15)

Woke up car responded as it should all good

So next test will be the Kona overnight but with a schedule set via the car rather than the charger. (Charger in dumb mode so just on) If that works then I know to not bother smart charging the Kona and just smart charge the Kia

Quick edit on stats

Over the charges it's added 50.1kwh but because it's all been requested as smart (their in control not me, I just say ready for X time) the cost is all 7.5p a kw so £3.76 thus far

If I set the Kona up on the schedule via the car to be in the cheap hours will be the same

If I want to charge immediately it jumps to 28p a unit I think it is now days. (I avoid this)

Ignoring all the obvious benefits such as cheaper motoring it does all seem a bit of a faff to get an EV to charge.

 

[PJ87]

Ignoring all the obvious benefits such as cheaper motoring it does all seem a bit of a faff to get an EV to charge.

Yes and no, this seemed to be a car related issue. Now I know that I can sort it in 2 mins each time

Where as the Kia will work a different way

Is frustrating it doesn't like to work that way but if the work around is fine then still can charge no drama

It's nice to know tho that Kia and Hyundai addressed this issue with the new model (which I have )

Quick add this is more of a having 2 EV issue because they behave differently, if I had one again you just charge how that one wants to behave (I could do the Kia like that aswell, but I need to smart charge once a month to stay on this cheap tariff that's saving me a fortune)

 

[cliveb]

Ignoring all the obvious benefits such as cheaper motoring it does all seem a bit of a faff to get an EV to charge.

It's not an EV problem. It's a modern day problem, that everything depends on software. Even my wife's new petrol car is festooned with all manner of confusing tech. (At least the petrol tank remains dumb, thank heavens).

 

[PJ87]

Ignoring all the obvious benefits such as cheaper motoring it does all seem a bit of a faff to get an EV to charge.

See now I've just set up the Kona to charge only between 0030 and 0430 via the app (car app) can also be done via car. This took 2 mins

I've then opened the charger app and turned it to max charge

Plugged in, the Kona says "awaiting to charge at schedule time"

Just a case of turning charger to max for the Kona then smart for the Kia (which charges mostly away from home anyways)



This is the Kona app all set up for schedule via the car



To make the charger dumb on the ohme up I just simply slide the schedule to off , which is done

Took me 30 seconds, now the schedule is set I don't need to do that again in the car

So to swap between each EV will be a case of open the ohme app and either turn on a schedule for the Kia or leave off for the Kona (could also do via the charge point but it's locked for security)