Free Charging for a week. Who is up to the challenge?

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KasEV

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Hi Folks,
I've just been wondering if MG will consider providing ZS EV owners free charging and how it is that Tesla is able to offer free charging to all Tesla owners while other companies don't?
This Tesla free destination charging has played on my mind a lot this week.
An aquiantance of mine with a Tesla could not believe that I pay for charging my ZS EV. He has never paid for charging for the 12months he has had a Tesla. He just goes to a nearby destination charger once a week for free charging and even when he has to use super rapid chargers on the motorways he does not have to pay till he has done more than 1000 motorway miles in a year.
Charging his car on a basic fast destination charger is also very fast as apparently they all charge at at least 22 kWh.
Well the ZS EV is cheap and one gets a good deal for the price but seems this Tesla destination charging arrangement is something over and above the price of the Tesla and may be all EV manufacturers should consider some free charging offers.
May be that just wishful thinking on my part.
Well Folks what do you think?... For me, this "free charging" bit has really bothered me this week.
Anyway next week l am doing free charging challenge again so got my planner out for Tesco shopping etc. to benefit from the Pod point open chargers. Anyone who would like to join in and try managing a whole week using free public charging or completely solar etc is welcome. Please post your free charging experience, comments and advice in this thread.
@Chrispydoc now that it is high summer it will be interesting if you could update us if you are now able to achieve a whole month's charging solely on solar.
 
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I’ve just done it! Drove down to Dorset (165 miles) and added another 500 miles exploring the Jurassic Coast beaches etc. There was a Tesco superstore half a mile away from our holiday cottage and each evening on our return I plugged in to a FREE Pod-Point 7kw charger, walked home and went back after dinner to pick up an almost fully charged car. Unlike my home Tesco, there were no parking time restrictions so on our last night I plugged in for almost 5 hours! Got home last night, having almost doubled my lockdown mileage, and can report no niggles whatsoever - still love the whole EV experience and my ZS in particular.
 
It is only customers that bought the Tesla models at launch in the UK got the offer for FREE charging as long as they owned the car. This offer is NO longer done but an existing customer with a code can recommend you and both of you get the 1000 miles free as long as you purchase the car.At dealerships it is free charging.
 
I think cities can do a lot more to reduce their air quality, by promoting free charging and parking for clean cars, i also think every place should put a 50kw fast charger and also promote that they want clean traffic.
and then the 50kw fast charger does not have to be free but at cost price € 0.10 cents
here in the netherlands you hardly see any free charging points at supermarkets but it would be a good thing if they were introduced
then we could also join this challenge
 
@GordieG
Excellently done. Good mileage done on free charging.
I think Tesco / pod-point are doing a lot to promote EV use with their free charging offers. We all need to promote use of these free offers because if the free chargers are not being used they will surely be withdrawn.
@Pecari so far as 50kWh charging cost is concerned it is £0.25 per kWh at the cheapest stations in UK.
For the so called contactless reg/membership free stations.. Very expensive with connection charges of £1.50 and upload cost of £0.35 to £0.45 or more.
Here in England it looks like the more charging points that go up on the motorways the more expensive the charging cost.
I understand that free destinations charging for Tesla is still ongoing.
I do not know the full details of this but from the little I know it seems as soon as you buy a Tesla you get the free Destination charging as well for the lifetime of the car..
It will be amazing if other companies could offer something similar.
 
@KasEV It is possible to charge my EV using only surplus solar power, but in order to maintain a charge and save time, I usually set the charger to share power from the grid - the level set is adjustable.
During this year's days of long hours of sunshine I have usually achieved between 87% and 92% solar power to my EV. The lowest percentage was 70 when a charge was neccessary on a sunny/cloudy day!
 
KasEV said:
@GordieG
Excellently done. Good mileage done on free charging.
I think Tesco / pod-point are doing a lot to promote EV use with their free charging offers. We all need to promote use of these free offers because if the free chargers are not being used they will surely be withdrawn.
@Pecari so far as 50kWh charging cost is concerned it is £0.25 per kWh at the cheapest stations in UK.
For the so called contactless reg/membership free stations.. Very expensive with connection charges of £1.50 and upload cost of £0.35 to £0.45 or more.
Here in England it looks like the more charging points that go up on the motorways the more expensive the charging cost.
I understand that free destinations charging for Tesla is still ongoing.
I do not know the full details of this but from the little I know it seems as soon as you buy a Tesla you get the free Destination charging as well for the lifetime of the car..
It will be amazing if other companies could offer something similar.
Click to expand...
Just to clarify about Tesla free charging.Only four weeks ago I looked at purchasing a Tesla I was informed no free charging for new purchases. A friend has bought the Model 3 two months ago and confirmed the information in this posting.The only advantage of buying a Tesla is that their Superchargers are exclusive to their cars so no OTHER brand can use their chargers .A fantastic car but customer services is very very poor!!
 
Scriv said:
@KasEV It is possible to charge my EV using only surplus solar power, but in order to maintain a charge and save time, I usually set the charger to share power from the grid - the level set is adjustable.
During this year's days of long hours of sunshine I have usually achieved between 87% and 92% solar power to my EV. The lowest percentage was 70 when a charge was neccessary on a sunny/cloudy day!
Click to expand...
It seems you have to install a battery storage system and these units are very expensive.They store the energy for use later. Tesla sell them.
 
Pecari said:
I think cities can do a lot more to reduce their air quality, by promoting free charging and parking for clean cars, i also think every place should put a 50kw fast charger and also promote that they want clean traffic.
and then the 50kw fast charger does not have to be free but at cost price € 0.10 cents
here in the netherlands you hardly see any free charging points at supermarkets but it would be a good thing if they were introduced
then we could also join this challenge
Click to expand...

EVs are exempt from the London congestion charge and in Westminster only pay for the first 10 minutes parking
 
Yes but please remember that whilst EV are congestion charge exempt you still need to register your electric vehicle annually to gain this benefit it’s £10 per annum otherwise you will still be fined.
 
teepee said:
EVs are exempt from the London congestion charge and in Westminster only pay for the first 10 minutes parking
Click to expand...
Westminster parking for the 10 minutes is .78p upto the parking restriction times, which is normally upto 4 hours.
 
Folks,
All said and done the cost of running an EV is less than ICE.
But the argument about free charging currently is that there seems to be an amount of excess already paid for redundant capacity in the system which if properly utilized can provide free charging for a long time. Not sure whether this is true but it is claimed some councils gave most or all their clean air grants over to EV charger providers. The charge points provided by these providers were seriously under utilized and if raw data is looked at then minus infrastructure and other operating cost the electricity that was used on these contract were sold at 2 to 5 GBP per kWh. Most of these companies are now walking away with large profits and advising councils to charge for EV charging and in some cases still claiming clean air grants. Has anyone heard such rumours?
@Kpa / @GordieG thanks for the corrections on Tesla free charging. I think MG should at least provide some free charging at dealerships.
I visited a MG Dealership recently where there was a paid charger. The cost was 45p per kWh plus connection fee £2.
When I asked why it was so expensive the reply was... this is not your average charger on the kerbside. It is a modern fast AC 22kWh charger so it has to be more expensive. My jaw dropped that the management in this dealership did not realise or know that so far as ZS EV was concern there was no benefit from this 22kWh charger and they could as well bought a 7kWh charger. It seems similar mistakes were also made at the start of free public charger provision. Instead councils insisting on rapid chargers were ever possible, most were tricked into accepting fast chargers which are in actual user terms less beneficial and more difficult for councils to turn to paid chargers later on. In fact of free chargers in England at present are all fast chargers and as soon as a decision is made to make them paid a fast charger appears which is privately owned.
 
Just quick note re solar,
@Scriv it is super that your cumulative cost for EV fuel is almost zero.
@Chrispydoc also mentioned similar data earlier this year.
It seems you both have large solar array which most city dwellers cannot afford because of limited roof top space.
How big a solar array does one need to achieve parity for say 10000miles per year.
Someone told me it will need an array of 12 standard units and lots of good summer weather. Can you shed some more light on your experience?
 
@KasEV
My solar installation comprises 16 x 250watt DC panels that generate a useable 3.8 KW AC. At the time this was the maximum size for a domestic installation. I've had them for eight years and the average annual production is 3.300 KWh.
If you calculate an average 4 miles per KW that's (3,300 x 4) 13,200 miles, BUT..............if you are driving 10.000 miles or more a year, unless you are a night worker or drive mainly at night it is impossible to take advantage of charging your EV during the daytime - when the sun is shining!
To make full use of solar power for an EV doing high mileage it would be neccesssay to have a battery installation to collect and store electicity for charging the car during the evening or night.
Another problem is that the useable solar KW generated is often only between 2.0KW and 3.0KW so to utilise solar and minimise grid electricity, it's neccessary to set the grid input level as low as possible............this then extends the charging time to even slower than that of the 'granny' charger!
I'm retired so can take advantage of sunny days for charging.........I usually top up rather than a large charge, and a slow charge is no problem for me, and probably benefits the battery. Solar power is great for my situation but I suggest that high mileage users would benefit from cheap night time electrity tariffs.
Solar power has other advantages......... it runs my small airconditiong unit during the current hot weather we are having down here in Essex.........however it may not be suitable for the Manchester climate!!!!:)
 
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@Scriv
Thanks. Good to know. My roof space is definitely too small for 16 units.
I am also retired but the daily errands must be all done in the day time so I get the need for energy accumulators. I think if I were in a more rural setting I will have considered this solar panel plus battery pack more seriously. ... You are right Manchester Weather has a mind of its own.???
 
Hi Folks,
Our attempt at a week of free charging is now at an end.
For me personally it went absolutely well. Including two free Rapid charging sessions.
However the free Rapid charger I used has now been upgraded to a Paid charger.
I tried to look around for any free chargers everywhere I drove and it seems free charging is truly on its way out.
Respect to Tesco/VW/Pod-point for supporting the EV/Green agenda. Their chargers seem now to be the only free ones around in the GMEV area.
How did attempting to free charge for a week go for you?
 
I'm attempting the free charging for a year challenge. All electricity from renewable sources.
 
@lee graham
I think free charging for a year may be very difficult unless one has solar PV which is more than 10 years old. It is a challenge so all encouragement to you for the long haul.!!!!!!!
Let us know how you getting on.
 
I'm lucky that my local councils have banded together and decided to offer an electric car incentive. I didn't even realise this when I ordered my eZS, but there is a free fast charger less than a mile from me and another one in town. This is guaranteed until October 2021. I made a thread about it.

I believe that if the government wanted to help the EV adoption, then free charging and parking should be rolled out across the country.
 
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