Home Charging | Is There A Cheaper Alternative?

Many people write off buying an EV if they can't charge it at home, but that misses the point. I mean, when was the last time you refuelled your petrol car at home? In this video, Dave Takes It On explores why the lack of a home charger is not the dealbreaker that many assume.

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Dave Takes It On is run by Dave - who creates the videos - and his son Jonas, who supports with thumbnails, titles, and the technical side of things.

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#ev #electricvehicles #tesla #cleanenergy #renewables

[FrunkensteinVonZipperneck]

2:12) My town has free charging on the high street. Tesla installed the equipment; local merchants bid to pay; and in return the merchant gets a nice sign, "Courtesy of Elmo's Heating." p.s. Annapolis Royal Nova Scotia - 200 km west of Halifax.

[Peoplestariff]

It’s not easy without home charging Dave I’ll admit that it does take lots of planning & patience- if I had the opportunity to charge at home overnight I’d never use free charging but as of now it’s my only option to make it affordable, more needs to be done for those on low income who want to help the environment by moving to emission free tailpipe driving like reducing vat to 5% on public charging & offering 0% used loans in England & wales & NI like scotland does #peoplestariff #stopburningstuff #faircharge

[Grdane]

In my country i get a good chunk of the electricity i charge my car returned each month by the state. The main advantage of home charging is of course the convinience of you don't have to wait when you go to or home from work and you can utilize the cheap elecectricity prices at night.

[Nik-skqr]

I would never leave my car on charge in a supermarket overnight.likely to get a charge for parking to long or vandalised

[jimf]

I agree Dave, I always hear the stories about people in flats can't have an EV. I live in a flat and and I'm on my second EV in 5 years and for the last 5 years I have rarely had to pay to charge. I live in Scotland and ChargePlaceScotland still have over 1000 free chargers. The 2 free chargers in my home town get a lot of use, as you can imagine, but on the rare occasions I have to pay it is only 40P per Kw and one charge does me a week. The free chargers are a 5 minute walk and I have 4 paid for chargers (40p a Kw) a 2 minute walk away - so no issue in a flat with an EV.

[RedemptiveChief]

Dave you are a champion. I had become quite nervous about getting an EV and needed to see this exact video to becalm my nerves about what having an EV everyday could mean for my wallet if I was smart about it.

[mdshovel]

My Volvo XC40 EV came with the Ionity 12 month discounted price .. so I used that 10 miles away on Motorway Services. As that discount ran out, I joined BP Pulse and get a discount. I've never charged for more than 30minutes at a 150Kw Ultra Rapid charger and the one near me does half price coffee when charging plus has a M&S Simply mini-store. I mainly charge 15miles away on my weekly shop at M&S where they have BP Pulse 50Kw Chargemaster and I can do all my weekly food shop, clothing if needed and even brunch in their cafe. I can leave there at 90% from 10% in the time I am in the shop. I don't have a home charger (saved the capital cost of that) but occasionally top up using the 3-pin granny charger overnight from 80% to 100%. So, i have had no issues and my total overall motoring costs are £50 a month less for a new leased car than it was for my previous owned 8 year old diesel Jaguar. A bit of a no brainer 😁 ... thanks for the research you do Dave.

[decimal]

No free chargers near us, and the TWO rapid chargers within 2 miles are expensive (79p) and unreliable. A friend of mine struggles to find reliable public chargers in town, where there are at least 7 rapid options. Nearly all of them were out of action last week at the same time, and this is not uncommon. He could charge at a local supermarket (25p), but it's only 7kw so he'll need to stay there for at least 7 hours to fill a 50kwh battery. Not ideal.

UK needs proper investment in kerbside charging schemes. You can't really blame the drivers for not wanting the hassle of driving around to find charging points all the time when it's so much more convenient to charge overnight. I'm fine because I have a driveway, so an EV makes sense. For others, it's a nightmare when things go wrong. That's the fault of government for under-investment; providing insufficient funds for local schemes all over England in particular.

[garybarham]

This the perfect video for me, it gave some more ideas for not being able to charge at home.🖖

[pferdeschorshi]

Coming to UK in 2 weeks with my BMW iX1 EV (1st time back 'home' in 20 years!) Been trying to get a taste of EV charging prices. We have some weird pricing structures in Germany, but I've seen some pretty spectacular ones while looking at UK HPC/DC charges. With my 1yr free subscription BMW Charging card, costs £1.10/kWh at Porsche Centre HPC in Norwich while 5 minutes away Ionity HPC costs £0.26. Nearby 50kW Shell Recharge £0.92 with BMW Card yet Shell Recharge Card which I have for ad-hoc is £0.85.

So will try to manage with Ionity for HPC & I see Tesla is at £0.50 at the moment. They have just hiked up prices in Germany after a massive drop about 4 weeks ago - still good alternative if you don't have a subscription - €0.55 against Ionity €0.69 (€0.35 with BMW Card).

As I'm hoping to use a lot of AC charging (have 22kWh on board), which Charger Finder App would you recommend for UK?

[computerbob]

My problem is slightly different, I don't have off street parking. But I thought I'd get a charge point anyway and lay the cable in a drainage channel across the path covered by a cable cover!

There's also Dave, a tarrif from Octopus dedicated to Heat Pump users that has 2 off peak times, one being in the afternoon! I'm thinking you don't have to have a heat pump, just charge up/use the washing machines in the off peak hours? I'll gladly charge for 3 hours a day on 7kw's in the afternoon!

Its also handy to get the Electroverse app/maps. Some chargers on there aren't on ZapMap and they all (haven't tested them all) can be used by Electroverse members! One group of 3 chargers (7kw) near me cost 14p/kwh, so 3.5p/mile.
At that cost, I'll just take the bike and ride home and back after putting 56kwh's into the battery for just over a quid!

[pauleast]

I have a 7kW charger in my garage with Octopus Go tariff, which I use twice or three times a week ( I run people around so do a bit more miles per week than most). I would be quite happy to let people charge at cost, while parked overnight on the space outside - adding 100 miles for around £2. I'm surprised that there isn't a 'charge-share' app that someone should, by now, have come up with.

[keithhobbs]

Can you leave your car overnight at a supermarket. Most have a limit of 3 or 4 hours otherwise you risk a fine is my understanding.

[michaelgoode]

To be fair, where I live in Victorian terraces there are almost no homes with off-road parking.

The good news is that the county council have started a 6 month trial allowing us to charge by the kerbside with the appropriate cable protector in place and positioned straight across the pavement.

We are naturally diving in as we have a 16 amp commando socket at the front of our home and I have a suitable charge lead.

Yes, it is just 16 amps and 3.5 kw per hour but on 7 hours cheap rate (less than 15 pence/kWh) gives us more than 100 miles on the cheap rate overnight.

Our local charging is actually really poor (Rugby) primarily because it is either broken or ICE'd. Regardless, charging overnight at home will meet all of our needs save for our annual holiday.

The harsh reality is though that the hard of thinking use any excuse to be victims and trolls.

[williamlawrenson]

Yes, you can charge away from home if you don't have off road parking or ability to charge at home. However, it is the inequality (inequity?) that is a factor. Having the ability to charge at home is more convenient and you can control the price to an extent. If you can't do that, you will always have to go somewhere and be subject to the price charged at whatever charger you find.
With petrol and diesel, we are all subject to the same price whether you live in a giant mansion or small hovel. The inequity is your ability to pay.

[emfs]

Well Dave I charged up at home set off this morning form tamworth. Full battery 151 mile range. To birmingham centre at 06:30 126 mile range sett off 07:15 to nottinghan centre 08:30 only 51 mile range. Set off at 09:30 back home 10:40 with just 6 mile range. Tonight it will charge up 32.5KW frome 00:10 to 04:50 at 9.5 pence. So tomorrow I'll have to use a fast charger between jobs. van not good in cold, dark and rain. Van good in summer 182 mile range and I've got 191 mile run from full to 1 mile range left in late august. So a home charger is needed for this van. toyota proace city 47KW

[johndoyle]

Thanks, yes it is possible, but as you know the 7 and 11 Kw units are notoriously unreliable, often only 1 or 2 units.
Round my way they are regularly vandalised or ICED, local hospital car park unit always ICED, the DC units often have their tethered cable stolen until the operator gives up and abandons them, local Morrisons Osprey not worked for over a year.
So yes, possible, but you have to work at it.

[edwinwakefield]

I do have a charger at home, but I’ve found a free charger half mile away, every Sunday, no parking restrictions. 15 months of ownership I’m at 5p mile. I do have to pay when I go away in holiday.

[synthmaker]

Having got a Tesla Model 3 I don't think I could ever go back to not having access to the Tesla Superchargers for many reasons including affordability, reliability, availability, seamless integration with the car etc. I also have one very good reason to charge at home at 2p/mile even if somewhere else would be free, while the car is charging outside off-peak hours, I get home electricity at 7.5p/kWh instead of 31p/kWh so I take the opportunity to run appliances, heat water etc, basically my cost of charging is negative which is better than free.

[BiohaZd]

Home charger is a must. It’s fine to say there are those options, but do you really want to to that very few days and what if someone else has the same plan ?