Luckypants

I watched that yesterday and the most interesting part for me was the lodges where they stayed!

The same thing at Northop services on the A55. 4x150 chargers are desperately needed on this trunk route. I have a feeling that Shell's contractors have stuffed up the DNO connection requests and as a result they have chargers hanging about waiting for a hook up to the grid. Local DNOs seem to be a real bottleneck in non-Motorway locations, so government need to step in to make sure these monopoly DNOs meet stringent time frames to install the connections needed to get the infrastructure installed. The leave it to the market approach does not work where there is no competition, but those in power conveniently ignore this fact (in many areas of life).

Aldi is 25p / kWh through the Shell Recharge app

You are right, my mistake. My local Tesco PodPoint is 28p, making the local Aldi look good value.

Supermarket charging is pretty much dead at the moment. ASDA have no interest (I've seen both PodPoint and BP charge posts "out of order"), Lidl have no interest except the rapids PodPoint installed. Other supermarkets I've tried without success are Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Morrisons. I've never seen a charger at a Sainsbury. Aldi have been very unreliable but recently have improved and seem to be supporting the chargers in their car-parks to compete with Tesco, charging 25p/kWh via Shell Recharge around here. The Tesco PodPoint chargers seem much more reliable than other supermarket chargers and have never let me down in 2 years. Tesco is reasonably priced too at 28p.* The situation in the video is reprehensible though. On paper that area will be well served but so many out of order? Heads need knocking together. EDIT: Tesco price corrected, see below.

I'm using Halfords -20C screen wash and it hasn't frozen yet. The standard -12C stuff doesn't work with VW spray washer nozzles, the spray freezes.

As I've got older i find my hands get cold on long journeys, so heated steering wheel is a must these days.

Wallbox Pulsar Plus. One person can set their rate and download charging data to a CSV. They can then remove any private charges, friends charging etc in Excel before using the resulting sheet as evidence for claim. Like I said earlier, most smart chargers will offer similar. HTH

I've just had a play in the online portal. If your company is providing the chargers you could connect them all to a single company account and see each user's use directly. Access can be controlled via RFID card or even face recognition on some models. It gives all kinds of options for setting up an 'organisation' and each charger can have it's own rate set to account for whatever the user is charged for leccy. It seems quite comprehensive. Take a look here to start with https://wallbox.com/en_uk/mywallbox

My Wallbox Pulsar Plus reports all charges back to the Wallbox server if connected to wi-fi. I can access this data via an app on my phone or an internet portal. This data can be downloaded to a CSV file if required. I would imagine most smart chargers have a similar capability. Does this help at all? EDIT: I can set various costs per kWh in the Wallbox so each charge has a cost associated with it. As I'm on a fixed rate that just means one rate for all charges, but looks like I can set time of use rates too. Accounting for VAT would have to be done as part of the expense claim as the Wallbox does not allow for that. If reimbursement is a flat rate per kWh, then all you need is the power charged regardless of cost?

If you connect your car with an OBDI dongle, it uses real time consumption from your car. People who do this can opt to share the data with ABRP which they use to build 'real world' average data for ABRP consumption for all cars. So therefore my car as an example the ABRP consumption figure is lower than VW's but a bit pessimistic for my driving style so I find its calculations conservative. I set the consumption figure for me in the ABRP settings. ABRP also takes into account temperature and weather conditions in the settings or via a weather forecast system if you pay for premium. ABRP is better at factoring in terrain too, which the VW / Skoda system is bad at. Watch Bjorn Nyland's videos about ABRP, tells you a lot about how it works.

I call BS. There are thousands of chargepoints installed indoors in the UK. I personally can think of three or four places where they are installed in indoor car parks. Indoor chargepoints in public car parks are commonplace in Europe. This is an attempt by the developer to avoid having to install these chargepoints. I hope the planning condition is enforced.

How come your "free" AC charging cost £4?

The charging companies and EV manufacturers are working towards this to implement Plug & Charge ISO 15188 (and to a lesser extent AutoCharge non ISO standard) to allow cars to pay for charging by plugging in. This requires each car to identify itself uniquely and could be implemented on all chargers. This would identify cars being used untaxed or uninsured but will have loopholes eg granny chargers. Once plug and charge is in place car fuel duty could easily be levied on electricity given.

With MFG, Ionity, Instavolt, Osprey and Gridserve all opening new hubs in the past few weeks, it's getting difficult to keep up. We've even had one in North Wales courtesy of the council, but I worry that one will be a white elephant. Rhyl is not on the way to anywhere.... https://www.denbighshire.gov.uk/en/news/news-detail.aspx?article=e3158776-def9-4813-8664-ab8bb849a3f1

Dayam! hooked him before I did wyx087 puts it well, most of my charging is at home. I used to make fair use of the Tesco charger in town while it was free but don't bother now as my home tariff is cheaper. The only charging away from home in 21k miles has been on a holiday in Scotland and visiting relatives. Once got a 20 minute top up on a long weekend away when mileage was more than anticipated. Home charging is a game changer if you get a reasonable rate. I don't have an EV tariff but have a good fixed price for next 9 months.

@Mr Grump The maths is reasonably simple, if we assume a perfect system. (e.g. No heat losses, all charge goes to the battery and maximum charging speed at all times). A 120kW charger will deliver 70kWh in 35 minutes, (120/60)*35=70. To get 70kWh out of a 50 kW charger work out the kWh per minute 60/60= 0.833 then divide 70 by 0.833 to get the time taken to deliver 70kWh. 70/0.833=84 minutes. The answer to B is straight forward. 35 minutes @ 120kW is 70kWh, so cost is £35. This is basic maths, so wondering if I'm falling for some bait?

I have had a VW ID.4 for the past 18 months, so here's my two penn'orth. There were some issues with early MEB cars (ID.3) discharging the 12V battery. This was fixed by a change in the charging algorithm in ID software version 2.1, so all cars built since early 2021 have the fix. There was a further update to the 12V battery with the VW 2.4 software update (V3.0 on Skoda) where the 12V battery was replaced for a one with a different chemistry. VW (like many legacy manufacturers) specified their normal 12V battery that is intended to be used for high amp short duration cranking operations for an ICE, where an EV 12V needs to be able to sustain low amp long duration operations such as software updates or controlling pre-heating. This requirement is more akin to a caravan / camper leisure battery than a 'starter battery'. All cars manufactured since March / April will have the new 12V battery. So with the above said, I have had no problem leaving my car standing for a week (possibly two once or twice?) without the 12V going flat. My car came with the newer 12V charging algorithm but didn't get the new 12V battery until August 2022. I have never found it necessary to top up the traction battery while the car has been standing, the drain from charging the 12V battery is miniscule compared to the energy stored in the traction battery. 'Vampire Drain' that affected earlier Teslas is not a thing with the MEB cars. HTH

All smart chargers offer charge scheduling, so finding one should be easy. All EVs I have heard of offer charge scheduling within their infotainment systems and often also through the companion phone app. Research your specific car to see if the scheduling works in practice as not all do. E.G. VW ID cars offer this but it does not work properly unless on the latest versions of the software (V3.1 or higher). Weirdly the scheduled charging on the E-Golf and e-UP is flawless.

Most of the owners of older ID are still waiting for the promised over the air update to version 3.0 of the car's software. Seems VW are pretty poor at software and the update process is failing on too many cars, effectively bricking the vehicle. We await the promised improvements, hoping they arrive before our cars are sold, returned to lease companies or possibly die from old age!

I have to admit, its the regen that would worry me in the ID.4. Driving in 'B' mode will most likely be a no-no in icey or snowy conditions.

Yes and if you have a subscription then the price is the same as for Tesla owners. My closest SC happens to be one of the ones open to other vehicles and is 49p off peak and 62p peak, (36p and 46p with subs), making it the cheapest and fastest HPC in the area. The peak hours are quite reasonable times too.

Off peak, no subscription.

Tesla have lowered their prices and is now around 50p / kWh for non-Tesla cars. Handy if one is on route for you as cheaper than most mainstream networks.

I think I was around 3.4 miles/kWh. Friday was very windy which cost a bit, but then the weather turned warm and still to compensate. I've no doubt moaned about the smart meter situation in rural Wales on this thread elsewhere but I cannot get one so an EV tariff is not available to me. I do have a good (compared to current rates) fixed price until September though.