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Car prices

And I thought it was all my fault!

For a couple of years we leased an Octavia with the 1.0 turbo petrol unit. It was quite simply remarkable. Warmed up in moments, sufficient (obvs not blistering) performance for a family, and bonkers fuel efficiency. Has me wondering just how good ICE tech can be made to get to be honest. Obviously I'll never know how long it would have lasted as I went back to buying used for cash. Now running a more "desirable" marque, but I would never be so vulgar as to brag about that here.
 
A couple of questions. Has an etiquette been established yet about leaving your vehicle connected to a fast charger and not returning to it as soon as it’s charging is complete? Most set ups appear to notify the driver when charging is complete but is the driver charged for the time he’s physically connected or just for the electricity used?

Can an driver waiting for an available charge point identify if an ev is fully charged or likely to be available soon by looking at the charge port, charger or app provided by the electricity supplier?

I imagine most charge points will be used as the ev equivalent of a “splash and dash” so you’ll likely only be there as long as is necessary but can you park up, connect up and bugger off for the day?

There appears to be a charge point at my local railway station. Can someone there park up, connect their car then jump on a train only to return nine hours later when their vehicle was fully charged after three hours without penalty!
 
Nic Robinson said:
And I thought it was all my fault!

For a couple of years we leased an Octavia with the 1.0 turbo petrol unit. It was quite simply remarkable. Warmed up in moments, sufficient (obvs not blistering) performance for a family, and bonkers fuel efficiency. Has me wondering just how good ICE tech can be made to get to be honest. Obviously I'll never know how long it would have lasted as I went back to buying used for cash. Now running a more "desirable" marque, but I would never be so vulgar as to brag about that here.
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Seems VAG and Suzuki have it all stitched up in the UK.

https://www.whatcar.com/news/true-mpg-most-efficient-petrol-cars/n19269
 
wow&flutter said:
A couple of questions. Has an etiquette been established yet about leaving your vehicle connected to a fast charger and not returning to it as soon as it’s charging is complete? Most set ups appear to notify the driver when charging is complete but is the driver charged for the time he’s physically connected or just for the electricity used?

Can an driver waiting for an available charge point identify if an ev is fully charged or likely to be available soon by looking at the charge port, charger or app provided by the electricity supplier?

I imagine most charge points will be used as the ev equivalent of a “splash and dash” so you’ll likely only be there as long as is necessary but can you park up, connect up and bugger off for the day?

There appears to be a charge point at my local railway station. Can someone there park up, connect their car then jump on a train only to return nine hours later when their vehicle was fully charged after three hours without penalty!
Click to expand...


someone might correct me but I believe the Tesla network charges (bills) over stayers up to a £1 per minute
 
Many networks only allow 90 minutes. There’s a difference between chargers, many at stations etc aren’t rapid, so I can plug in for as long as it takes. It’s bad etiquette to overstay at a rapid. If people are waiting you should get off when you reach about 80%. Most ev drivers are considerate, the worst offender I’ve encountered was the driver of a Porsche who has several times left his car on a 100% at a charger I frequently use. It’s usually new users who haven’t got the hang of it, and when it’s explained to them that their cars charge rapidly up to about 85/90% and it takes a long time after that. Most annoying is iceing, when petrol drivers park in the charger bays. You can generally see on Zap map whether chargers are being used or are broken. I use the Shell and Instavolt maps as well to check as they’re my local rapids. Generally I do splash and dash now. Tonight I’ll op out for a while, go for a short run and charge the car a bit. Some more tomorrow up to 90%, then on Thursday I’ll do the same and plug it in at the wall to fill it up as I’m picking Mrs L’s Mum up from Nottingham. I will do that trip with two charges, I could do one, but it’s as broad as it’s long. I’ll stop at a Macdonalds with an Instavolt and have a minging coffee and some hideous breakfast thingy, then on the way home I’ll stop at Wetherby for 20 mins as the MIL likes a coffee to break up her journey. All this charging is covered by my on.to plan. I’ll also plug it in at Tesco on a podpoint for free whilst I shop tomorrow. That’ll put 10% or 15/20 miles on.
 
talking of etiquette - what is the routine when an electcric vehicle visits your house for the evening or weekend - does one offer the access to the 13 amp socket for the visitor to charge up the vehicle.
or should the visitor only be looking for a charge if your house is a long way from the nearest charging point.
 
Derek Wright said:
talking of etiquette - what is the routine when an electcric vehicle visits your house for the evening or weekend - does one offer the access to the 13 amp socket for the visitor to charge up the vehicle.
or should the visitor only be looking for a charge if your house is a long way from the nearest charging point.
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Unless they’ve come a long way I’d not bother.
If they need to I’m sure they’d have asked before hand. Lots of cars don’t come with a granny plug, they’re really for emergency’s only. If I was staying somewhere unless it was out in the wilds I’d expect to take it somewhere to charge/
 
Derek Wright said:
talking of etiquette - what is the routine when an electcric vehicle visits your house for the evening or weekend - does one offer the access to the 13 amp socket for the visitor to charge up the vehicle.
or should the visitor only be looking for a charge if your house is a long way from the nearest charging point.
Click to expand...

I can't help but visualize EV owners going around consumed by the thought of where their next top up 'fix' is coming from :)
 
Derek Wright said:
talking of etiquette - what is the routine when an electcric vehicle visits your house for the evening or weekend - does one offer the access to the 13 amp socket for the visitor to charge up the vehicle.
or should the visitor only be looking for a charge if your house is a long way from the nearest charging point.
Click to expand...
If plugged in overnight, you could maybe put 30 kWh (about 150 miles of range) onto a car from a 13A socket. That’s less than £6 on current electrical pricing.

I think any well-mannered guest staying overnight would bring a gift of similar value (or add that to the cost of the gift they’re bringing anyway) to cover the cost. Personally, I feel that anyone who wouldn’t at least offer this would lessen their chance of being invited again.

Most EV owners don’t rely on charging like this, but I could see the situation of needing a charge arising if you’d invited someone to visit you and you lived in a fairly remote location. In that case, I would think it would be ones duty as a host to make sure ones guests aren’t left stranded. (An echo of an older courtesy of providing food and water for your guest’s horses).

If you’ve got friends dropping over for a meal, it’d be churlish to ask for the £1 or so of electricity they’d consume in the time they’re at your home; but, as noted, it’d be very unusual for them to even ask, unless they’d come a long way.
 
Derek Wright said:
talking of etiquette - what is the routine when an electcric vehicle visits your house for the evening or weekend - does one offer the access to the 13 amp socket for the visitor to charge up the vehicle.
or should the visitor only be looking for a charge if your house is a long way from the nearest charging point.
Click to expand...

It would seem hospitable to offer up a socket as long as they didn't keep talking about how cheap electric cars are to run.
 
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