Life without a home charger?

[sgt4hed]

Yep - Your totally correct, you can’t get anything cheaper than free I guess !.
But plugging in for 15 minutes is only likely to give you about an extra 6 miles of so called free juice.
If you stay longer in the super market, then any savings have been consumed by the extra items you purchased from the store or in their cafe’ if they have one !.
If you have a cheaper “Off Peak” rate, then that 6 miles of range is likely to cost you less than the plastic carrier bag that your food is holding .
The four charging posts at our local Tesco are sited right next to one of the trolly parks.
This is enough reason why I would not use them.
A visit from the “Dent Man” is likely to cost more than my weekly shop !.
Free does not very often mean FREE if you get my point !.

You obviously underestimate my browsing power

 

[slmorgan42]

Yep - Your totally correct, you can’t get anything cheaper than free I guess !.
But plugging in for 15 minutes is only likely to give you about an extra 6 miles of so called free juice.
If you stay longer in the super market, then any savings have been consumed by the extra items you purchased from the store or in their cafe’ if they have one !.
If you have a cheaper “Off Peak” rate, then that 6 miles of range is likely to cost you less than the plastic carrier bag that your food is holding .
The four charging posts at our local Tesco are sited right next to one of the trolly parks.
This is enough reason why I would not use them.
A visit from the “Dent Man” is likely to cost more than my weekly shop !.
Free does not very often mean FREE if you get my point !.

Your points are valid specially that Mr Dent man. lol

Thing to keep in mind is this post is about living without a home charger. So sadly no Off Peak rates. :-(
Its more charging whenever you have the opportunity even if just covering the trip there and back.

 

[Lovemyev]

Your points are valid specially that Mr Dent man. lol

Thing to keep in mind is this post is about living without a home charger. So sadly no Off Peak rates. :-(
Its more charging whenever you have the opportunity even if just covering the trip there and back.

You make a very good and 100% valid point @slmorgan42
Home charging is a HUGE privilege for EV drivers that sometimes, people like myself take for granted sorry .
Total respect to any EV drivers who are at the mercy of the public charging network.
In your type of usage case.
Remember ABC - "Aways Be Charging".

 

[slmorgan42]

You make a very good and 100% valid point @slmorgan42
Home charging is a HUGE privilege for EV drivers that sometimes, people like myself take for granted sorry .
Total respect to any EV drivers who are at the mercy of the public charging network.
In your type of usage case.
Remember ABC - "Aways Be Charging".

Not seen ABC before love that I will be using that in the future.

Well if my car every arrives I will be able to give a real life update on my experience.

Grazing (ABC) is what i am planning. That said I am lucky and there is a lot of lamppost and fast chargers near my street. But the cost being higher on those I am hope to use a mix of free and not so free.

I have found a few charges hidden in the back streets that are only 19p/KW. Which funny enough is cheaper than my day rate at home lol

I do sometimes find myself asking am I making the right choice moving to EV without a home charger. For many reason I do come back to yes.

No charger was one of the reason I went for the LR. That and a lot of maths. ha ha

 

[Lovemyev]

I do sometimes find myself asking am I making the right choice moving to EV without a home charger. For many reason I do come back to yes.

This is the 99 dollar question I guess !.
Home charging has HUGE affect on the running costs of an EV.
I take my hat off to your decision to go full EV at this time of high energy prices.

 

[slmorgan42]

This is the 99 dollar question I guess !.
Home charging has HUGE affect on the running costs of an EV.
I take my hat off to your decision to go full EV at this time of high energy prices.

Thanks

Watch this space I will be keeping track of how I do and reporting back after a few months. Again of course if my car ever arrives lol

 

[Lovemyev]

Thanks

Watch this space I will be keeping track of how I do and reporting back after a few months. Again of course if my car ever arrives lol

I have just been watching this very informative video, on the subject we have spoken about.
The guy in the video is using his Tesla 3 as a great example of the different costs of charging from home or public charging.
Some really interesting facts and figures and MG gets a mention along the way as well !.

 

[slmorgan42]

I have just been watching this very informative video, on the subject we have spoken about.
The guy in the video is using his Tesla 3 as a great example of the different costs of charging from home or public charging.
Some really interesting facts and figures and MG gets a mention along the way as well !.

Thanks I will give it a watch

 

[teepee]

Edit: this post was under ZS EV and I asked for it to be moved to General Electric car as wanted to get wider audience point of view

Hey all

I live in a London flat which makes it impossible to get a home charger. I have ordered my first electric car MG ZS EV Trophy Connect LR. Which I hope will magically appear one day.

I did loads of research and investigation into, one owning an electric car and two owning one without a home charger. I have friends with various EV so picked their brains as well as reading this forum.

My borough is rolling out loads of lamp post chargers and there is quite a few fast chargers as well. The fast chargers have time limits which means people do not park there for hours and the lamp post ones do not. I have half a dozen lamp post chargers near me which currently are not used much.

I am lucky and do not need to drive daily. Based on a 20-80% charging range my plan is to use the slow lamp post ones every 2-3 week and the fast charger if I need a speedier top up. I will also use the free chargers when I go to the supermarket and shops.

My question:
I am sure I am not the only one who cannot have a home charger so I would love to hear from people with real world experience of no home charger and also hear from newbies going down the same path.

Thanks in advance.

Just for reference:
-Cost wise I know I will not be able to get the cheap rates of home charging but still overall way cheaper than my petrol car. Not to mention cheaper parking permits and road tax.
-I know some private managed flats will allow home chargers but mine is a council block so no matter how much I beg and grovel they are never going to allow or supply a charger. The borough policy is to push public charging.

I'm in a London flat too - same issues as you. Had the ZS EV over 2 years now and always managed to find charging near me.

Which Borough are you in? I'm in Westminster and there a LOT of Ubitricity lamppost chargers - good for an overnight empty to full charge. (About 20 or so within a 10 minute walk). I've noticed recently that the Council has started to paint "Electric Vehicles only" on some of spaces - the problem used to be spaces always ICED as they were in resident bays and not marked for EV use only.

I keep topped up with free bits at Tesco/Sainsbury when shopping so between this and the lampposts it's been fine.

 

[slmorgan42]

I'm in a London flat too - same issues as you. Had the ZS EV over 2 years now and always managed to find charging near me.

Which Borough are you in? I'm in Westminster and there a LOT of Ubitricity lamppost chargers - good for an overnight empty to full charge. (About 20 or so within a 10 minute walk). I've noticed recently that the Council has started to paint "Electric Vehicles only" on some of spaces - the problem used to be spaces always ICED as they were in resident bays and not marked for EV use only.

I keep topped up with free bits at Tesco/Sainsbury when shopping so between this and the lampposts it's been fine.

Hey

Thanks for this while I am sure I have done the right thing it is good to hear from others in the same boat.

I live in Stoke Newington. Hackney seems to be quite good at putting in lamppost chargers but they are currently not electric only. There are a few fast chargers that are electric only but people still ignore this as they know the council is terrible at issuing tickets. As I have been keeping an eye out there are plenty around me and zapmap has helped identify the less obvious ones.

As you say a little change to how we think and charge where ever possible rather than fill when empty and I am sure i will be fine.

 

[teepee]

I'm sure you'll work it out. Good luck.

 

[Gomev]

..

As you say a little change to how we think and charge where ever possible rather than fill when empty and I am sure i will be fine.

Same principle when you get older as regards to 'spending a penny'. Go when you can, not when you need.

 

[slmorgan42]

Same principle when you get older as regards to 'spending a penny'. Go when you can, not when you need.

Lol I can appreciate that

 

[Johnnie6]

Edit: this post was under ZS EV and I asked for it to be moved to General Electric car as wanted to get wider audience point of view

Hey all

I live in a London flat which makes it impossible to get a home charger. I have ordered my first electric car MG ZS EV Trophy Connect LR. Which I hope will magically appear one day.

I did loads of research and investigation into, one owning an electric car and two owning one without a home charger. I have friends with various EV so picked their brains as well as reading this forum.

My borough is rolling out loads of lamp post chargers and there is quite a few fast chargers as well. The fast chargers have time limits which means people do not park there for hours and the lamp post ones do not. I have half a dozen lamp post chargers near me which currently are not used much.

I am lucky and do not need to drive daily. Based on a 20-80% charging range my plan is to use the slow lamp post ones every 2-3 week and the fast charger if I need a speedier top up. I will also use the free chargers when I go to the supermarket and shops.

My question:
I am sure I am not the only one who cannot have a home charger so I would love to hear from people with real world experience of no home charger and also hear from newbies going down the same path.

Thanks in advance.

Just for reference:
-Cost wise I know I will not be able to get the cheap rates of home charging but still overall way cheaper than my petrol car. Not to mention cheaper parking permits and road tax.
-I know some private managed flats will allow home chargers but mine is a council block so no matter how much I beg and grovel they are never going to allow or supply a charger. The borough policy is to push public charging.

I live in a village in South Wales,I have had an mg5 LR since April 22,I can't have a home charger unless I trail a cable across the pavement which I've never done so I rely on public chargers as yet I've had no problems at all.

 

[Nutnut]

500 charge points to come in Westminster by end of March '23. Seems they will be the lamppost variety, which get a lot of use where we are since home charging is not an option for many: Siemens to install 500 ubitricity charge points in Westminster

 

[teepee]

And Westminster has started to mark the roadway "EV only" in some of these bays.

With little or no signage previously, many of these lamppost chargers were nearly always ICED - they are usually in resident only bays so any resident was able to park there.

These are my mainstay charging location so all these new moves are welcomed.

 

[Lovemyev]

I was watching a video last night and I was shocked to hear that there is only one rapid charger located in Cambridge !.
Apparently it is single 50 Kw Genie Point ( not the best ) and is located Morrisons car park.
I thought given the size of Cambridge, this was pretty poor.
Having home charging facilities is brilliant if you wish to take up EV ownership, but I don’t understand why local authorities are not doing more to encourage its take up ???.
All they need to do, is find a piece of land and offer it up to the likes of Instavolt etc and they will pay ALL of the installation costs if the site is suitable.
It’s a win win in my eyes !.

 

[teepee]

I was watching a video last night and I was shocked to hear that there is only one rapid charger located in Cambridge !.
Apparently it is single 50 Kw Genie Point ( not the best ) and is located Morrisons car park.
I thought given the size of Cambridge, this was pretty poor.
Having home charging facilities is brilliant if you wish to take up EV ownership, but I don’t understand why local authorities are not doing more to encourage its take up ???.
All they need to do, is find a piece of land and offer it up to the likes of Instavolt etc and they will pay ALL of the installation costs if the site is suitable.
It’s a win win in my eyes !.

It's not quite as bad as that, although still not good enough. There's instavolt at McDonalds and swarco at a leisure centre

 

[Lovemyev]

It's not quite as bad as that, although still not good enough. There's instavolt at McDonalds and swarco at a leisure centre

Here is Andrews video highlighting the lack of rapid units in Cambridge.
He makes some very valid points on the lack of EV infrastructure I think.
Worth a view !.

 

[Nutnut]

And Westminster has started to mark the roadway "EV only" in some of these bays.

With little or no signage previously, many of these lamppost chargers were nearly always ICED - they are usually in resident only bays so any resident was able to park there.

These are my mainstay charging location so all these new moves are welcomed.

It's residents only parking where we are, and there are no dedicated EV bays although there is some signage. It'd cause uproar if they restrict it any further since people have to pay a permit fee already.

Ideally if they have every lamppost converted, wherever you pop your car you should be within decent reach. I was thinking of getting a 10m cable just in case, but I'm not sure I want to deal with the weight of it.