Luckypants

With new hubs in England opening all the time, useful to post a link to Snax's map of UK hubs to show just how many charging hubs there are now. This does not include the chargers installed in ones and twos about the place which account for a lot of the infrastructure. Much of Osprey and Instavolt chargers are in pairs.... https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1DOswN-GODssM2XmKV4oQ9r-mkGcbGno&ll=54.83169908129373%2C-4.228457999999976&z=6

Tesla have opened yet another hub to all cars, in Bristol this time. Thats 38 open to all, 39 when Thetford reopens after being upgraded. They are now a serious player in the open to all EV charging business.

Tesla is 44p off peak. Significant saving, around 20%.

Tesla have opened yet another hub to all cars, in Bristol this time. Thats 38 open to all, 39 when Thetford reopens after being upgraded. They are now a serious player in the open to all EV charging business.

It's just occurred to me that this has been happening for quite a while at Banbury. There is an Osprey hub (12 Kempower 150kW) right next to the Tesla (12 V3 250kW) chargers open to all - literally 10 feet apart. This has been the case for at least a year, but perhaps ever since the Osprey hub opened? I used the Tesla chargers there twice in September and both times the Ospreys were not in use and Tesla chargers has non-Teslas charging. I just checked and Osprey are still charging 79p while Tesla are 44p off peak, 55p peak. Are the other CPOs willing to tough it out to maintain their high prices?

He seems convinced and has been banging that drum for the past couple of months, but the only price changes I see are upwards (Tesla excepted). It will be interesting to see if anything changes where there is direct competition like shown in the video.

Another SUV style car, stupid for the city. Whoever starts making normal looking small EVs will make a killing. This could have been an electric Fabia with much wider appeal IMHO. The e-UP had long waits for new cars when VW closed the order book (has long waits as still being made to fulfil the order book AFAIK) so the demand is there. Cities are imposing ULEZ / ZEZ across europe so a small EV city car will be in big demand and skoda come up with this. The Dacia Spring will kick this one's butt on price alone.

We found the Kelpies fascinating and spent over an hour looking at them - with the walk to them and coffee we charged for 2 hours there on 3-phase AC.

Snipped to stay on the point of the grid. The capacity of the grid to carry power is well within limits currently, so the pro electrification camp quite rightly say 'the grid can cope'. However, the anti-electrification camp will point out that at times there is very little margin for error in the amount of generating capacity available to power the grid (and it's all the fault of renewables). Both camps are right to an extent. As has been written and linked to many times, British electrical demand per person is much lower than 20 years ago and the grid has capacity to provide power. Electricity use has increased just 6% in the past 30 years, which is minor. (https://www.climatescorecard.org/2021/02/uks-electricity-sources-have-drastically-shifted-over-the-past-30-years/#:~:text=Solar power is equally growing,(TWh) in 30 years.) When the grid was built we had huge coal fired power stations close to the coal fields (Drax / Eggborough / Ferrybridge complex as an example being next to south yorkshire coalfield) and big nuclear plants built in the 50s/60s, so had the pylons and substations in place for this. Most of the coal-fired power stations are now closed and nuclear is going but the grid still goes to those sites and these places are still needed for routing and distribution. The power to replace these huge power stations is now pretty scattered as wind farms in the middle of nowhere and getting this lot connected is the problem, as generally the new electricity generating capacity is not near one of the old power stations with a big grid connection. There are no pylons in the middle of nowhere as there was no need to take power there. Even big offshore installations which bring all the power ashore in a single place still struggle to get connected. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65500339 So while the grid can cope, maybe we cannot generate enough leccy when needed. Its not just 'the grid'.......

If using an EV, use the sat-nav to navigate to Tesla chargers which are normally just off the motorway. There are literally hundreds of Tesla chargers open to all in France . To map out a route in advance for an EV, use an app like A Better Route Planner to see the journey and potential charging stops. There are others who moan about Tesla chargers NOT being on the Autoroutes / Motorways as they do not want to leave the road corridor. Just shows that all needs are mostly catered for.

Well depends on how much driving about you do and how much time is spent out of the car. We did about 200 miles visiting all the well known spots I suppose, so yes 300 miles would have been OK for us. I see the poster will be doing similar to us over a similar time period. We were able to charge at Uig due to being handy for the hotel, which was planned due to nerves about charging. That trip taught me charging is not a major issue in the UK. We may have struggled to reach the Armadale ferry on our return trip without charging at all, but the ID.4 does not have a 300 mile range like a Tesla. Perhaps I should have used a tongue in cheek smiley.

The 50kW chargers are OK for a lunch time top up or at the end of the day. Places like Skye where rapid charging is sparse, getting accomodation with a charger is very useful. We used the CPS 50kW charger at Uig ferry terminal as it was 2 miles from our hotel. It needed a reboot on our first visit, but that was easily done following the on-screen instructions. After that it was reliable on the RFID card but other folks had issues with the web-pay system and the CPS app. would not start it. This information is close to two years old, so take with a pinch of salt. I've often said elsewhere to make use of AC chargers whenever possible when visiting attractions. There are 50kW chargers at Mallaig or Skye Bridge before crossing to Skye, if you feel the need for a full battery on the island. I'm sure 300 miles would be sufficient 🙂

Loads of vehicles will be affected by this come the end of the year, as all 3G networks are being shutdown. Vodafone have completed their shutdown and i now no longer have app access to my ID.4 on my drive. 4G signal still works on the car though.

Not bad compared to commercial CPOs 'dahn sarf', 89p not uncommon.

Yes but charge the premium to those areas where the power is generated, NOT Londoners. Apologies if that is what you meant.

That's great. Yes the flat load area the variable floor give with the seats down is much more useful. Glad it's all sorted.

@RBW1 I don't know if you got all the parts you needed in the end, but this came up on Facebook and i thought of this thread. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/qmRp37oumUqWpxpC/

Autogefuhl's 'Electric Only' channel has a detailed walk around and interior look. Short ride along,

Agree with you VW's WLTP claims are pretty bold and always have been. My ID.4 would need to average 4.1 m/kWh to make its 315 WLTP figure. 3.8 is achievable but 4.1 is impossible real world.

Just found the post showing the parts I bought off here for the variable floor. Good photos of the bits. You should get all the parts in pic one and two in this post, including 6 bolts visible in the mount holes. HTH

What parts do you have? IIRC there are two side supports (left and right) and the boot floor itself. The sides are held in place by 3 bolts per side I think. Whoever sold you the floor should have provided all those things.

Skoda offer a 12 year perforation warranty for corrosion. Perhaps it is still just about covered? It depends when registered I suppose. It is worth taking it to a Skoda dealer and seeing if it is covered or perhaps some financial assistance getting it repaired as it is a well known problem AND warranty has only just expired? It doesn't hurt to ask.

Leave the settings in the car alone and allow to default to charge immediately and at full power, using the default 80% charge limit. (unless of course you need 100% for your journey). Set limits on charge rates and times on your chargers at work and home. This way the work Zappi can use excess solar if that is what you program. I'm assuming you have control over it. For any home charger, you will be free to choose one that suits your needs. If on a time of use tariff, a schedule can be set in the charger to charge at off-peak times. This way, you come home, plug in and the charge will commence off-peak.

Indeed @Graham Butcher. Heating a large cabin does have an effect in an EV. As mentioned earlier my ID.4 uses around 2kW to maintain cabin temp at just below freezing. The electronically identical ID.3 uses only 1.5kW due to a much smaller cabin.

I suspect Octopus didn't give a back hander or advertising so were 'forgotten'. Online comments section for the article only has two comments, both asking about IOG.