Having seriously considered an EV as a second car for a good while, we're at a stage where a car will likely be up for replacment in the next 12-18 months.

 

So I have looked at the grants, and they seem to only apply for low spec/low range cars (£35k).

To me that seems very low and 45/50 would have been more sensible to allow a wider range of cars to be replaced by BEV.

 

Does anyone have an idea of or links to what the rules are? At lease on the surface it appears a lot more complicated than it should be.

£35,000 is low, but then overnight the likes of BMW managed to reduce RRP's at or over £40,000 to £35,000.

 

Even the VW Group including Skoda managed to get the Prices down overnight.     The Grant was more of a perk to the UK Motor Industry /Dealers than to Customers or the Tax Payers of the UK not with EV's.

 

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/491508-electric-car-grant-reduced-cap-now-£35000

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/478982-grant-for-evs-cut-in-2020-uk-budget-then-without-notice-changes-introduced-on-the-18th-march-2021

 

EV Grants for England / Wales or those for Scotland are just a wee google away.

Edited 28 July, 20214 yr by e-Roottoot

The reduction in the grant threshold is why the Enyaq 60 is the most popular model. At £32k (ish) for the base car it qualifies for the grant. If you spec it up nicely to take it over £35k then it still qualifies for the grant, as the grant qualification is on the base price not invoice price. Lots of people are finding the 230 mile range is fine. Same for VW ID.4 Pure models. Of course it depends on the size of the car you want / need - VW ID.3 also qualifies, as does Honda-e and similar sized cars.

When the MG Estate is available with a larger battery that will be suitable for many as they will be sensibly priced.

I have seen more being used as taxis in the recent weeks.

Edited 28 July, 20214 yr by e-Roottoot

Ask if your employer does a salary sacrifice scheme for electric cars as they can work out cheaper than ICE cars. 

Charger grant info:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-guidance-electric-vehicle-homecharge-scheme

The chargers used to be under £200 with the grant, I got my "upgraded 7kW" installed for £99 while Nissan provided for 3.6kW. Now as more people want EV and they demand smart functionalities, the cost for charger install have gone up significantly.

 

For EV grant itself, I think the on-the-road price you see at dealers will include the grant price. Also be careful of dealers advertising "£3000 off" when they are actually advertising the grand money taken off with just £500 of in reality.

 

 

1 hour ago, Luckypants said:

The reduction in the grant threshold is why the Enyaq 60 is the most popular model. At £32k (ish) for the base car it qualifies for the grant. If you spec it up nicely to take it over £35k then it still qualifies for the grant, as the grant qualification is on the base price not invoice price. Lots of people are finding the 230 mile range is fine. Same for VW ID.4 Pure models. Of course it depends on the size of the car you want / need - VW ID.3 also qualifies, as does Honda-e and similar sized cars.

  

I didn't know it was on the base price, rather than invoice price. So if you add the heat pump option that should be standard, for example, that doesn't count towards the price?

If so that's good news.
Bad news is there's no way 230 miles would work for me and it's borderline for SWMBO if she has to get to family and back on a single charge in winter. Of course if they can get more like a genuine 230 miles in winter, then that's a different question.

 

53 minutes ago, john999boy said:

Ask if your employer does a salary sacrifice scheme for electric cars as they can work out cheaper than ICE cars. 

 

Sadly they don't (on last asking).

They actually decided to purchase everyone out of the car scheme as it was too much of a headache for the small number of users.

I asked because of the zero/1%/2% BIK rates that were appearing.

 

43 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

Charger grant info:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-guidance-electric-vehicle-homecharge-scheme

The chargers used to be under £200 with the grant, I got my "upgraded 7kW" installed for £99 while Nissan provided for 3.6kW. Now as more people want EV and they demand smart functionalities, the cost for charger install have gone up significantly.

 

For EV grant itself, I think the on-the-road price you see at dealers will include the grant price. Also be careful of dealers advertising "£3000 off" when they are actually advertising the grand money taken off with just £500 of in reality.

 

 

 

Interesting to know. Luckily when I had some rewiring done for the home heatpump, I had a larger fusebox put in with a couple of spare points for additions RCBO. These could easily be wired out to the front of the house, with almost no difficult routing. Also the 63A input breaker was replaced with a 100A.
As such, I get the impression that as a lot of the wiring has been done it could be done for not too much.

 

Would I be correct in assuming you have to use an approved installer to get the government money, and that they charge approximately <grant amount> more than just buying the parts and getting them done by a local spark?

 

 

No you can claim the grant yourself for the charger. It just needs to be installed by a suitably qualified sparks who is registered with OLEZ.

 

As it happens, I was having a garden room wired in at the same time as my charger and asked for a price from the electrician doing the job. He asked what price I already had and said he couldn't better it.

10 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

No you can claim the grant yourself for the charger. It just needs to be installed by a suitably qualified sparks who is registered with OLEZ.

 

As it happens, I was having a garden room wired in at the same time as my charger and asked for a price from the electrician doing the job. He asked what price I already had and said he couldn't better it.

Interesting then that it’s not automatically a charge the grant amount more 👍

 

Trying to find a suitable charging pole that will do 7kW or 2x3kW if 2 car are plugged in, then back to 7 when one is charged/turned off by smart. Will also need a secure charger where anyone can’t just plug in and charge their car.

Edited 28 July, 20214 yr by cheezemonkhai

1 hour ago, e-Roottoot said:

When the MG Estate is available with a larger battery that will be suitable for many as they will be sensibly priced.

I have seen more being used as taxis in the recent weeks.

I think the MG5 electric is a cracking choice especially with the longer range battery being introduced. MG may upset the apple cart on electric vehicles pricing. I know that being Chinese my upset some consumers but MG still have their R&D in the UK supporting British jobs.

4 hours ago, cheezemonkhai said:

Trying to find a suitable charging pole that will do 7kW or 2x3kW if 2 car are plugged in, then back to 7 when one is charged/turned off by smart. Will also need a secure charger where anyone can’t just plug in and charge their car.

Inside a lot of the cars you can specify charging speed (at least the efficient ones worth buying: Koreans, Tesla).

 

I know latest podpoint installs will detect current draw on the mains input and adjust its output accordingly. Might be worth getting one of this generic one for now, then a truly smart one like OpenEVSE when moving to 2 cars? Then the "dumb" one will throttle back when you command the smart one to start charging at reduced current.

 

That's what I plan to do. Currently have a dumb early 7kW podpoint. I have Home Assistant running everything, including automations to take advantage of excess solar power. When I get a second EV, I'd like a charger that will integrate into Home Assistant and allow me total control through automations.

 

 

I wouldn't worry about people stealing electricity. First, they have to know it's there, then they have to park there for significant amount of time to steal meaningful amount. Just turn off the breakers when going on lengthy holiday.

Sadly the neighbours who have a hybrid and a charging point had someone do exactly that more than once. It was happening whilst they’re out to work for the day for a couple of hours.

 

I guess the smart ones you can just manually set charging limit to zero or similar though.

 

The rest of it’s interesting though snd certainly worth considering.

 

I have to say the Koreans seem to be so far ahead of everyone else on this.

I read that we need new consumer boards as many houses only support 40amps which is insufficient to support the high-speed chargers required for EVs and the other household consumption. More expense!

The first-gen podpoint I have on my wall got a recent update, and I can now set coarse charging time through the app and their server will enable/disable the charger roughly according to those times. So with chargers like these, you could enable it overnight while you are most likely plugged in. 

(I personally dislike cloud-based smart home, it's unnecessary and slower than local hub-based control. I'm still using the in-car timer) 

 

Yes, true smart chargers like OpenEVSE will allow you total control. 

 

 

15 hours ago, cheezemonkhai said:

Trying to find a suitable charging pole that will do 7kW or 2x3kW if 2 car are plugged in, then back to 7 when one is charged/turned off by smart. Will also need a secure charger where anyone can’t just plug in and charge their car.

Do you really need a two socket charger? If you are willing to let both cars charge at 3kW why not have a single socket 7kW and a 3-pin plug 3kW charger? Easier to source and a lot cheaper I'd imagine. 

As far as having a lock, most of the modern chargers have a software lock on them. Also if you set timer charging on the charger to take advantage of a cheap tariff, it will not deliver charge at times outside of that. 

1 hour ago, Luckypants said:

Do you really need a two socket charger? If you are willing to let both cars charge at 3kW why not have a single socket 7kW and a 3-pin plug 3kW charger? Easier to source and a lot cheaper I'd imagine. 

As far as having a lock, most of the modern chargers have a software lock on them. Also if you set timer charging on the charger to take advantage of a cheap tariff, it will not deliver charge at times outside of that. 

Plug two cars in at end of day, let them do their stuff. Yes it’s pure laziness to a point.

 

We can both have to do decent journeys at the same time, but having both plugged in allows for pre-heat/cool in a morning so no ice scraping and better range.

 

The 7kW plus 13Amp plug might be an option though 👍

There is an item on the BBC cefax about researchers finding problems with 2 types of home chargers and there is advise to update your security.     Problem is as I read it 'content not currently available' came up.  The story will be someplace and which chargers. 

19 minutes ago, e-Roottoot said:

There is an item on the BBC cefax about researchers finding problems with 2 types of home chargers and there is advise to update your security.     Problem is as I read it 'content not currently available' came up.  The story will be someplace and which chargers. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58011014

Literally just updated my Wallbox!

Maybe not quite the thread to mention this but I've been watching some videos on the Artisan Electrics YouTube channel as they install different types of wall chargers. It's surprising the different features that some have and how others are able to have custom fascias to match the charger location.

I watch some of those too. They are heavily skewed towards the expensive kit though. Anderson charger is twice what I paid for my Wallbox fully fitted. 

 

The installation process is interesting though. 

That’s the problem with smart, always need firmware updates for security.

http://bbc.co.uk/news/business-61795693

 

Grant Scheme closing today. 14th June 2022.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plug-in-grant-for-cars-to-end-as-focus-moves-to-improving-electric-vehicle-charging

 

'Shock & surprise.'

https://cityam.com/breaking-car-industry-in-shock-as-department-for-transport-scraps-all-grants-for-electric-vehicles

 

 

 

 

Edited 14 June, 20223 yr by roottoot