4 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Is your a Skoda / VAG EV ?

Rumours swirling that there could be a new Vehicle Excise Duty system based on Gross Vehicle Weight.

If you are in a newer VAG group car presumably the software is ok now after much complaints heard of ID 3 to , Battery Life guy did much on the issues. I do like the Goggle based system in Polestars and Renaults though my Evolution Spec R5 does not get the Google Nav so I will just use Android auto. But for barely more than £20k, a chunk of 0% finance i am not grumbling.

Yes, it is a Škoda Elroq, will be interesting to see what the budget brings…..😬.

I think mine is software 5.4, it has linked perfectly with OVO and also the my Škoda app works properly as well.

1 hour ago, Aspman said:

Sooo,

10min on hold and then 30min on a call with, actually a vey helpful, Octopus EV support chap.
Basically, it's all Octopus fault. They pushed out a policy change and it's been screwing up lots of linking processes.
Support pushed out the previous policy and the app was then able to continue.

All the apps have terrible user experience choices which made the whole process a lot harder than it needs to be.
And the VW app is apparently notorious for scewing things up as well in it's own special way.

The ideal is that you leave the car plugged in when you are not using it, then Octopus can push energy to it whenever there is surplus which they will supply at the EV rate (7p).
So although the EV rate is 23:30 - 5:30 if Octopus have surplus they can supply charge to you at 7p at any time.
This is buggered up by VW software which doesn't cope with this and will put the car to sleep and not accept the power.

So advised to not plug in when not in use but closer to normal schedule time.

Happy with GO and paying the little bit more. Just worried it will end sometime and not be so cheap hence continuing to up rate my solar and batteries.

ID3 into VW for 'investigation'.

Startling how disparaging the staff were towards VW. Basically they all hated their cars.
Hated the tech (EU enforced but works poorly), hated the software, hated the apps, hated working on them.

Universal comment (I agree with) "We just want something simple that works, too much tech now".

@Aspman Is that into a Dealership for their Tech or Master tech to look at? Not actually away on a covered vehicle top VW UK for the 'Technical department' to look at what they already know is gash software and hardware not 'Fit for purpose' put out to paying customers.

52 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

@Aspman Is that into a Dealership for their Tech or Master tech to look at? Not actually away on a covered vehicle top VW UK for the 'Technical department' to look at what they already know is gash software and hardware not 'Fit for purpose' put out to paying customers.

Aye into dealer, not away to VW skunkworks.

Basically we were primed to not get any answer. Unless it has logged a fault they don't know how they work. Switch it off and on again.

There are EV experts / techs around. Arnold Clark have sometimes to get a Contractor in. Maybe VW group dealerships should. Maybe some youngster or there will be very experienced sacked staff from Rockstar North.

Typically it worked fine last night. But it did update again yesterday.
Still not talkng to the app on the phone so we need to go out to the car to see what the charge level is.
the Ohme app guesses the taken charge % based on how much power the car has taken and the known battery capacity.

So we don't get "Car 70% charged" we get "topped up by 7%" and nothing from the VW app.

Just now, Evolution13 said:

There are EV experts / techs around. Arnold Clark have sometimes to get a Contractor in. Maybe VW group dealerships should. Maybe some youngster or there will be very experienced sacked staff from Rockstar North.

I made the joke that they needed an IT tech not a mecahnic, they didn't laugh and said it was true.
If I could get the logs from the car I could look myself but it's all hidden.

So they called, as expected no faults recorded nothing in the OBD, charged ok on their point. Only thing was a tech bulletin from VW that basically said the car doesn’t work on smart charging tariffs so it should be charged on more expensive electricity.

And it’s not their fault it’s the power company, or the charger, or the moon, but not VW.

2 minutes ago, Aspman said:

car doesn’t work on smart charging tariffs so it should be charged on more expensive electricity

…. So cheap electricity is now being treated like 87ron versus 99ron super unleaded? You need more expensive electrons? 🤣🤣

My cars plugged in now and started to charge. Then i unlugged the extension cable in the bedroom. Midnight i will go plug it in and then unplug at 7.00 am. It has just become a habit as i like to know the car is charging. When it starts the Smart meter device in the house changes from Green to Orange.

1 hour ago, mac11irl said:

…. So cheap electricity is now being treated like 87ron versus 99ron super unleaded? You need more expensive electrons? 🤣🤣

Not quite VW want you to charge at fixed times, no on demand smart charging. No grid aware charging. Which is the whole point of low EV tariffs to let you use electricity when it’s in surplus wherever that is.

Too complex for VW.

I’ll be having a word with Octopus though since they’ve specifically leased me a car incompatible with the service they supply and the whole basis on which the car was leased .

22 minutes ago, Aspman said:

Not quite VW want you to charge at fixed times, no on demand smart charging. No grid aware charging. Which is the whole point of low EV tariffs to let you use electricity when it’s in surplus wherever that is.

Too complex for VW.

I’ll be having a word with Octopus though since they’ve specifically leased me a car incompatible with the service they supply and the whole basis on which the car was leased .

Renault App is not very good especially as it seems to be down much of the time and cannot handle having two Renaults at the same time.

Don't actually use it anyways, quite happy to either pop to the car or I can see what is happening with charging with the Octopus Apps.

Son's Mini App seems to be better.

Cannot say it really affects te enjoyment of having EV's in any big way.

1 hour ago, mac11irl said:

…. So cheap electricity is now being treated like 87ron versus 99ron super unleaded? You need more expensive electrons? 🤣🤣

I am a bit worried about the UK voltage dropping from 240v and slipping down towards 220 v.

Ireland should be similarly worried that the Republic's government is doing similar.

Note sure what is happening in Ulster.

19 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

I am a bit worried about the UK voltage dropping from 240v and slipping down towards 220 v.

It was over 30 years ago that all EU countries agreed to work towards a harmonised standard of 230V.

The UK was allowed to adopt a tolerance of -6%/+10% instead of -10%/+10%, the UK DNOs are finally proposing that the UK also adopt the -10% lower tolerance.

Proposed Changes to UK Mains Voltage Limits Explained