Advice on Wall Charger Wanted

[remarkable1967]

Hi all,
Had a test drive today in a MG4 SE Long range and absolutely loved it. Looking to hopefully place an order soon. I'm in conversations with the electrician we normally use at home and I could use some advice on a wall charger please. Firstly is there a clear favourite brand among owners (i've been looking at Pod Point) and also, will the MG4 charge at 22kw. The 22kw charger is pretty much double the money so not sure if it would be viable anyway but it would be worth knowing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ta........ Mark

 

[Oberoy]

Have you got a 3 phase elec supply? If not you are limited to 7kw at home. Have a quick search loads of threads on home chargers .

 

[remarkable1967]

Have you got a 3 phase elec supply? If not you are limited to 7kw at home. Have a quick search loads of threads on home chargers .
View attachment 12449

Many thanks.
That makes sense. At least the 7kw charger is half the price

Cheer..... Mark

 

[FiferMG4]

I’m looking to get a 7kw Zappi installed after reading members’ posts on the forum about charging their cars at home: Zappi EV charger

 

[Jomarkh]

If you have or are thinking of getting solar panels and a battery then have a look at the Zappi.

 

[Yorkiebarkid]

I've got a PodPoint 7kw charger and have been very happy with it. You can schedule charges from the app (not neccessary for the MG4, as it can do this itself, but another option) and monitor energy use and costs. I think most of the chargers offer similar functionality.

 

[remarkable1967]

Thanks for the advice guys. I had kinda narrowed it down to the Zappi and the Podpoint. There might be a possibility of us fitting solar in the future but money obviously doesn't grow on trees a and I have to be realistic on budget and payback for this. One thing that would be useful to know is what "currently" does it cost to completely charge an EV like the MG4 long range? I do 250 miles a week on A/B roads for for work which should hopefully be achievable on the long range model. I currently drive a 2016 1.7 Diesel Sportage which is actually very good on fuel if driven sensibly. I get around 47-48 mpg but this would still cost me around £8.50 per day so £42.00 per week!!. As we are doing our sums before we finally hit the buy button, it would be great to know what this same weekly drive would cost on an electric charge. I had looked on the website Leccy.net but this appears to show the charge costs to be really cheap when i dial in the MG4 long range and Octopus Energy who are our provider.

Ta......Mark

 

[tsedge]

It simply depends on the rate you pay for electricity.

Standard cap at the moment is 34p/kWh. Octopus Go offers 12p/kWh off-peak, 42p/kWh peak (rates and standing charges vary by region so yours might be slightly different).

Assuming a full charge a week (spread over the nights), Octopus Go would cost you £7.32/week. At the standard cap this would be £25.62/week.

If you add solar then obviously you can do a lot better than that but only if you can charge in the day or have a battery to store it.

Edit: this doesn’t include the standing charges because you have to pay those anyway, whether you have an EV or not.

Edit2: you need a smart meter to be able to get the off peak tariffs with Octopus.

 

[tsedge]

Don’t forget to factor zero road tax and lower servicing and maintenance costs into your equation. EVs use tyres, typically no need for pads/discs. Still need brake fluid and AC servicing periodically.

Also worth checking if your insurance will go up, EVs can be higher cost with some providers (due to repair costs).

 

[4ND]

A newbie potential owner is reminded of #oilleak

 

[tsedge]

A newbie potential owner is reminded of #oilleak

One hopes this will be a non issue for anyone ordering now.

 

[remarkable1967]

A newbie potential owner is reminded of #oilleak

Yeah good point. I did discuss this after the test drive and the dealer was upfront about it. I kinda see it as teething problems on a new model. I've had numerous recalls on my Sportage but it wouldn't put me off Kia. Thanks

 

[4ND]

Yeah good point. I did discuss this after the test drive and the dealer was upfront about it. I kinda see it as teething problems on a new model. I've had numerous recalls on my Sportage but it wouldn't put me off Kia. Thanks

Yeah, it don't put me off a brand per se, but it does make me hold back on a particular car (the MG4 in this case), and more than likely buy something else. I find sleepwalking into known issues- the types which I didn't know about beforehand- is a lot easier to handle than willingly walking into them with open eyes.
No way I'm going smily faced into a showroom almost knowing the car in front of me will have an oil leak soon after, as well as quite a few other issues well documented on the forum.

 

[4ND]

One hopes this will be a non issue for anyone ordering now.

As Nelson sang, Only Time Will Tell.

 

[4ND]

Don’t forget to factor zero road tax and lower servicing and maintenance costs into your equation.

Also worth checking if your insurance will go up, EVs can be higher cost with some providers (due to repair costs).

Granted future issues (but how long into the future?), but zero road tax--- for now.
Lower servicing costs: MG4 service plan Hardly huge and negligible in some places, and, moreover, if/when there are more electric cars bought by PCP heads, after 'handing back ' a petrol car, those petrol cars will fall out of the dealership chain (as often, once out of warranty folk use their local garage), to be replaced by transportation pods, I wouldn't be surprised if service prices creep up. Think when exactly have a car dealerships settled for making less money, even more so when servicing is a big part of their revenue.
Not so long ago, electric car owners could sit back with a pina colada of cheap energy laughing at the petrol people filling up, even when it was £1.25 odd a litre. Those days are well gone. Yes petrol has increased in price at the pump, but energy prices are soaring and won't be going down significantly for a LONG TIME. UK/EU are not going to buy Russian gas again by the same amounts even if the troubles in Ukrainian ended tomorrow.

 

[tsedge]

Granted future issues (but how long into the future?), but zero road tax--- for now.
Lower servicing costs: MG4 service plan Hardly huge and negligible in some places, and, moreover, if/when there are more electric cars bought by PCP heads, after 'handing back ' a petrol car, those petrol cars will fall out of the dealership chain (as often, once out of warranty folk use their local garage), to be replaced by transportation pods, I wouldn't be surprised if service prices creep up. Think when exactly have a car dealerships settled for making less money, even more so when servicing is a big part of their revenue.
Not so long ago, electric car owners could sit back with a pina colada of cheap energy laughing at the petrol people filling up, even when it was £1.25 odd a litre. Those days are well gone. Yes petrol has increased in price at the pump, but energy prices are soaring and won't be going down significantly for a LONG TIME. UK/EU are not going to buy Russian gas again by the same amounts even if the troubles in Ukrainian ended tomorrow.

The glass is clearly half empty

 

[4ND]

The glass is clearly half empty

More like 3/4

 

[tsedge]

I think this depends on your perspective.

Those who have had an EV for several years are lamenting the loss of free charging, big increases in cheap off peak energy rates, slowly increasing cost of EV servicing, possibility of car tax in a few year’s time, etc…. Things look bad.

On the other hand, those of us just getting into EVs look at the low costs of running an EV compared to ICE costs (which are very likely to keep increasing) and it still looks like a good deal.

I am sure in the long run the government will tax EVs much more as more and more people own them.

Right now though - and especially if you have solar/battery storage - EVs are still a great deal if you can buy them at a reasonable price (like the MG4).

 

[4ND]

On the other hand, those of us just getting into EVs look at the low costs of running an EV compared to ICE costs (which are very likely to keep increasing) and it still looks like a good deal.

My argument in the apparently 'controversial' thread in the general EV chat section disputed this. I did the 34p/KWH standard rate on a 64kw Trophy for an ~ 250 'full up' real world range, and this was ~ £0.34 X 64 = £22
Whereas a 1.5 Yaris hybrid, returning 65mpg (look at forums of some owner's infotainment systems and see north of 80mpg not rare), and you've got ~ 14 miles per litre of petrol, or 250/14 = 18 litres for 250 miles, which = about £30 per 250 miles at ~ £1.68 per litre.
So ~ £22 to fill up an MG4 trophy v £30 for a 1.5 Yaris hybrid isn't exactly a jaw dropping deal
Not withstanding potential extras such as home charger installing etc.
As stated prior, I KNOW they're different classes of cars, but people often consider all sorts of different cars before making their final decision. I'm looking at an MG4, and I'm looking at that 1.5 Yaris hybrid. One would cost be ~ £22 to get me 250 miles, another would cost me £30 per 250 miles. One I don't need to buy a thousand pound home charger for, and one I can get for ~ £9K cheaper. One will take me ~ 200 seconds to get 250 miles when out and about, the other will take me 6-7 hours, and cost me FAR MORE on a pubic charger for the privilege.
These are still real world decisions and comparisons which I, and I'm sure others, will be making.

 

[tsedge]

My argument in the apparently 'controversial' thread in the general EV chat section disputed this. I did the 34p/KWH standard rate on a 64kw Trophy for an ~ 250 'full up' real world range, and this was ~ £0.34 X 64 = £22
Whereas a 1.5 Yaris hybrid, returning 65mpg (look at forums of some owner's infotainment systems and see north of 80mpg not rare), and you've got ~ 14 miles per litre of petrol, or 250/14 = 18 litres for 250 miles, which = about £30 per 250 miles at ~ £1.68 per litre.
So ~ £22 to fill up an MG4 trophy v £30 for a 1.5 Yaris hybrid isn't exactly a jaw dropping deal
Not withstanding potential extras such as home charger installing etc.
As stated prior, I KNOW they're different classes of cars, but people often consider all sorts of different cars before making their final decision. I'm looking at an MG4, and I'm looking at that 1.5 Yaris hybrid. One would cost be ~ £22 to get me 250 miles, another would cost me £30 per 250 miles. One I don't need to buy a thousand pound home charger for, and one I can get for ~ £9K cheaper. One will take me ~ 200 seconds to get 250 miles when out and about, the other will take me 6-7 hours, and cost me FAR MORE on a pubic charger for the privilege.
These are till real world decisions and comparisons which I, and I'm sure others, will be making.

It is 61kWh usable battery on the MG4, so slightly cheaper than you state.

As you say, they are different classes of vehicle, so this is apples and oranges. A motorbike with sidecar would be far cheaper for us to run, but we are in the market for a family car.

It baffles me sometimes why it is all about cost when people are forking out £30k+ for a brand new car. Saving the pennies is best done by running old cars into the ground.