Dieselgate

My charger is an Ohme... So I guess the trick would be to try and activate the charge so it straddles two 30 minutes slots if the requested charge is likely to take less than half an hour. As I don't need to do much home charging, trying to get as much of my home use on to the cheap rate will probably determine which tariff is best overall.

Maybe foolish in the light of the software issues some have been having but I am thinking of switching to IOG, mainly as I can get the cheap rate at 6p/kWh due to having an Octopus car. One thing I wanted to check... If, for example I plugged my car in at 7am and asked it to add a very small amount of charge - like 1-2% and asked for it to be ready by 8am, would I still get 30 minutes or 1 hour of cheap electricity for the whole house? Even if the actual charge period is much shorter than that?

I see. That's rather odd. Sounds like a likely case of a slow charging rate. What fuse is your house on? Octopus normally fit a device to prevent your charger exceeding the fuse rating. Is there any chance your ASHP + anything else that you were using might have taken you close to that?

So it didn't charge at all? I had it happen once with mine but it did say some kind of charging error. And was in the middle of summer. A simple unplug and replug in again sorted it. I don't often charge at home (do nearly all charging at work) so I don't have much experience of home charging but I think the charging rate has slowed slightly on the work chargers this week since the colder weather. And when they are only 16A to start with that isn't too helpful especially considering the much higher consumption in colder weather and pre-conditioning etc.

At lower outdoor temperatures the efficiency of heat pumps is much lower. Sometimes not much more than 100% if it's very cold.

Wasn't particularly thinking of the USA but my wife is German and to her the NHS compared to what she was used to are night and day. And it's actually nothing bad in the US as long as you have proper insurance.

Can you please explain why on earth you consider the NHS something to be proud of? And our road network is light years behind some countries.

As I said, it will depend on your usage. If you're rarely going far from home it's unlikely to be an issue. If you regularly take trips to the Alps or Spain etc then you're likely to regret it.

TBH I don't often see EVs towing that much. Not too difficult to see why as it seems to carry a fairly hefty range penalty 50% being typical but obviously will depend on how heavy and aerodynamic the caravan/trailer is plus obviously speed, gradient and all the other variables etc. And with most people towing a caravan normally travelling a reasonable distance then EVs are not really the most suitable choice for most yet. If range etc isn't an issue then there are a number of options out there that can have them retrofitted if they don't already have them. Also bear in mind that you may need to plan your charging stops a bit more carefully than with an ICE as most charging stations are not yet designed for cars towing and you may need to unhitch the trailer before charging.

I've had mine done twice by the same independent - at just before 30k miles and just before 60k miles. The first time the pictures showed it probably needed doing though not ridiculously filthy. The second time it was clean as anything (somewhat surprisingly) and in reality it probably could well have gone quite a lot longer. I've no idea what kind of driving causes it to foul up though I'm guessing city driving is likely to stress it more than motorway cruising (like it does with almost everything I guess). Oh and one other thing - you do NOT have to have it serviced by a main dealer to maintain the warranty.

Thanks, that's useful. Not sure if it makes any difference but as far as I can make out EON connects to your car rather than your charger (at least at this point).

I think the latter but could be wrong. I assumed when you plugged it in, set the charging % and timer needed it will give you a schedule and then you can adjust your other stuff to suit but was hoping someone might be able to confirm. You can set the 'ready time' for between 4 & 11am I think. Less of a concern overall as its only on a 3 year salary sacrifice lease.

Not sure if this is the best thread to use or not but I'm just looking at the EON Next Drive Smart tariff which has a 6.5p/kWh charging rate from 00.00-06.00 but also offers smart charging outside of this time at the same rate and says you also get the cheap rate for your house as and when you are smart charging. Just interested to know if anyone knows how this works in practice to see if I'll likely be able to take much advantage of the cheap rate for household usage too. I don't need to charge much at home but could change this a bit if it meant I could drop my bill a bit.

Size generally correlates to weight though obviously its not always exactly linear. There is no way I could do with anything smaller than my Superb at the moment. If anything I need something bigger as whenever we visit my wife's parents it's always crammed full and I have to take a roofbox as well now. I certainly don't have it to inflate my ego!

I'm not so sure about that. My Cupra Born 59kWh is 1841kg including driver apparently and as far as I know is built on a dedicated EV platform. My Superb diesel 4x4 is quoted as 1687-1859kg including driver (no idea why such a big variation, presumably down to what options are specified). The 2WD version is about 80kg less. I don't think I need to explain that the Superb is a much larger car. It's over half a metre longer. And for reference the 79kWh battery version of the Born is 1977kg.

Indeed, but at £6k that is a very hefty outlay. I am very interested in a home battery but would definitely be wanting one that can provide power in a power cut as having the added resilience is something I'm keen to have but unless the rates drop substantially in the near future I'm not that keen to invest. Are there any around that can be 'uninstalled' and moved to another house once fitted?

How much do those batteries cost? I've had a look around a bit myself as they can be useful for other things as well but struggle to find a 2 kWh battery for less than about £600-700. Have you got them a lot cheaper than that?

You aren't the only one who's been wondering that!😆

That's why you've been experiencing these problems.

I can't comment from an IV perspective unfortunately but my diesel Superb has done just shy of 100,000km and still feels like new! A relative of mine in Germany had another diesel one which he recently sold at over 300,000km. So I think it's fair to say that in general they are well built but that probably doesn't help you much regarding the battery life etc.

My installer from Octopus installed the chargepoint without any questions even though I only had a 60A fuse. And I have quite a lot of air con units etc (though no electric showers). I managed to get UK Power Networks to upgrade my fuse to 100A which is probably superfluous as the derating feature is set to 60A (and I don't think I can change this myself) but glad I've got it anyway. I've only used the home charger around a dozen times since having the car (nearly 4 months now) as I charge at work (for free😁) mostly but useful to have around for top ups if necessary over a weekend etc. Have you ever lived in Germany?😅

Our workplace has electric buses at the nearby bus stop some of the time. There definitely isn't a charger at the terminus end nearest to us - I presume there is at the other end though.

Will be interesting to see if they bother to bring the powertrain to the UK market. LPG in the UK certainly has declined a lot in recent years. The Morrisons near me still sells it but I think it's the only mainstream place. About £1 a litre I think, which combined with the higher consumption probably doesn't make for much of a saving in running costs. Looking at other countries though, it looks like some places selling it for less than 70 cents a litre in Belgium which would be nice. Maybe if other manufacturers give it a go we might see a return but I won't be holding my breath.

For clarity, my comment had nothing to do with climate change and everything to do with you repeating something that is getting tiresome.

FYI - you've said that quite a few times now. I doubt I'm the only one who doesn't really find it that funny any more😉