Does anyone else own an electric Citigo?

[ppppenguin]

I bought what is possibly the last brand new Citigo E in the UK a few weeks ago. Shame it's the SE model, not the SEL with all the extras but that's life.

 

Would like to share experiences with other owners.

 

The photo is of it arriving at the Skoda dealer in Aldershot where I collected it. I did the purchase online/phone at their Winchester branch but it was more conveninet for me to colelct from Aldershot.

[drewt]

Yes, got ours in August 2020. Very happy with it apart from the fact that it will not charge at 7kW on a normal (single phase) household supply. The only thing is to remember to reverse park otherwise nobody hears you come out and you could run someone over!

[ppppenguin]

Thanks. I'm surprised it won't charge at 7kW at home. I'm pretty sure the owners manual says it will charge at 7kW using the usual domestic 7kW chargers. Obviously you need a proper 7kW charger installed. The one supplied with the car, to plug into an ordinary 13A socket, will only charge at 2.3kW, which is a limitiation of a 13A plug. That's fast enough for my usage so I won't bother with a 7kW installation.

 

What I probably will do is fit a 16A blue industrial socket outside my house, cut off the 13A plug and use a blue 16A plug. Unlike a 13A plug, this will never overheat. I'll also make or buy a 13A plug to 16A socket lead to charge elsewhere. I also have a Type2 to Type 2 cable (not supplied with the SE but I acquired one without paying £100+) so I can charge at public chargers. This will be rare as I don't intend to venture too far afield in the Citigo. That's what my Yeti is for:-)

 

In theory it should charge at 11kW from a 3 phase supply. Not common at homes in the UK, though usual in France etc.

 

The SE model I have doesn't have the combined connector to allow rapid DC charging.

 

Charged it fully yesterday and it's claiming 196 miles range. Won't do that with aircon (or heating) running but still seems impressive compared to the official 178 miles.

 

Got my C-Charge exemption and will take it into central London today.

[Ootohere]

Without an Onboard 11kW charger then it is not possible in theory or in-practice to charge @ a phase 3 supply.

There is no 11kW charger built in.

So just phase 3 to 7.2kW.

 

 

Edited 5 June, 2021 by e-Roottoot

[drewt]

On 05/06/2021 at 11:48, ppppenguin said:

Thanks. I'm surprised it won't charge at 7kW at home. I'm pretty sure the owners manual says it will charge at 7kW using the usual domestic 7kW chargers. Obviously you need a proper 7kW charger installed. The one supplied with the car, to plug into an ordinary 13A socket, will only charge at 2.3kW, which is a limitiation of a 13A plug. That's fast enough for my usage so I won't bother with a 7kW installation.

 

What I probably will do is fit a 16A blue industrial socket outside my house, cut off the 13A plug and use a blue 16A plug. Unlike a 13A plug, this will never overheat. I'll also make or buy a 13A plug to 16A socket lead to charge elsewhere. I also have a Type2 to Type 2 cable (not supplied with the SE but I acquired one without paying £100+) so I can charge at public chargers. This will be rare as I don't intend to venture too far afield in the Citigo. That's what my Yeti is for:-)

 

In theory it should charge at 11kW from a 3 phase supply. Not common at homes in the UK, though usual in France etc.

 

The SE model I have doesn't have the combined connector to allow rapid DC charging.

 

Charged it fully yesterday and it's claiming 196 miles range. Won't do that with aircon (or heating) running but still seems impressive compared to the official 178 miles.

 

Got my C-Charge exemption and will take it into central London today.

Hi - No we are still have an unanswered question on 7kW charging. Skoda  supplied a replacement cable to do 32A but still no go. We have a 7kW Andersen charger and it will only charge at 3.8kW. All the leads have a resistor in them to say what the cable is capable of taking. The correct resistor was there for 32A as well.

[freemansteve]

A resistor? Maybe in the data wires (if the leads uses them), but in the power cables? it will surely get pretty hot...

Edited 18 June, 2021 by freemansteve

[ppppenguin]

There is a resistor between 2 of the pins that's used to sense the maximum charge current. Purely for indication/signalling. It won't be dissipating any significant power. There's a not very good description here: https://www.es-store.co.uk/documents/product/Guide_to_EV_charging.pdf

I know I saw a better one somewhere

[freemansteve]

So, as I thought, not quite "All the leads have a resistor in them" then, but more a sensing resistor across some of the leads.!

 

[Whitebeard]

A number of us with the eUP!/Seat/Skoda versions are unhappy with the 3.2kW charging on single phase, when 7.2kW was promised. It doesn't seem to apply to all cars though, some work fine. Skoda have been looking into this fault since at least Oct last year, and still haven't sorted it. They have tried a charging software update with little success.

 

While in practice a slow charge may seem a pain, I think most of us can get by with overnight 3.2kW charging - but will of course may miss out on doing the bulk of a charge at least on cheap overnight tariff.