Just put in an order for an MG5 in blue

[Merlin]

Hi all I just ordered a new MG5 in blue, I was told white and blue are the most popular colours and to expect a pick up date of February or March, which is fine by me, I'm in no rush.

I should add I'd be grateful for any advice about what home charger to go for.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Is it your first EV? Care to share your journey to making the decision?

 

[Merlin]

Is it your first EV? Care to share your journey to making the decision?

Sure, this is my first ev, I've been driving petrol cars up to now (current car is an old battered zafira) but I've been thinking about it for a while. I live and work in a city and a lot of my journeys are short, there's a school run and various other things I drop the kids off to or pick them up from. Weekend trips tend to be short too, with the odd trip out of town. One of my motivations is the pollution in cities, I think lockdown really shone a light on that and I like the idea of being able to drive in town without that guilt.

Up until now price has been a real barrier, we need a car big enough for a family so really that means a lot of the options were 30k plus. It's also hard to know how much range you really need, but the mg5 seems to offer a good combination of price, range and size.

I'm financing it using the Scottish interest free ev vehicle loan, which means I could take advantage of the 4k "trade up" offer making the total cost a lot less than most other EVs on the market.

I test drove the mg5 the other day and (as I'm sure is common for a lot of first time ev drivers) I was really impressed by the feel and the acceleration from stand still. Probably helps that I'm comparing to a large under powered petrol car!

So overall everything seemed to just come together. Before the mg5 came along I was tempted by a second hand leaf, but not enough to get on and place an order.

 

[Jake]

Hi all I just ordered a new MG5 in blue, I was told white and blue are the most popular colours and to expect a pick up date of February or March, which is fine by me, I'm in no rush.

I should add I'd be grateful for any advice about what home charger to go for.

Great decision to go electric. I'm sure you won't regret it. There seems to be a considerable choice in home charge units now so you are quite right to research carefully. For what it's worth I chose Polar Chargemaster in 2016 and found it to be very reliable for essential daily charging. I have recently added a second unit which cost about the same £600, not the cheapest now but 'better the devil you know' and needing a reliable charger for daily/overnight use. I think this second unit is 'intelligent' as it supplies usage information to my Polar account which is useful in knowing how much my son is costing me lol.

As many others will probably tell you, make sure your house electrics are up to modern standards as the installer needs to inform the local authority when a 32 amp supply is added to your consumer unit and will recommend any necessary upgrades needed. If no remedial work is necessary then timescale is down to whoever you choose to supply and install. Polar was about 4 weeks in both cases. They wanted photos of your consumer unit, main fuse, proposed location of the unit showing off road access and the distance from your consumer unit. For the government grant application which they handled you will also need to supply either the vehicle registration or your new car order form with delivery estimate within 4 months (I think) of installation.

Good luck and happy EV motoring.

 

[Merlin]

Great decision to go electric. I'm sure you won't regret it. There seems to be a considerable choice in home charge units now so you are quite right to research carefully. For what it's worth I chose Polar Chargemaster in 2016 and found it to be very reliable for essential daily charging. I have recently added a second unit which cost about the same £600, not the cheapest now but 'better the devil you know' and needing a reliable charger for daily/overnight use. I think this second unit is 'intelligent' as it supplies usage information to my Polar account which is useful in knowing how much my son is costing me lol.

As many others will probably tell you, make sure your house electrics are up to modern standards as the installer needs to inform the local authority when a 32 amp supply is added to your consumer unit and will recommend any necessary upgrades needed. If no remedial work is necessary then timescale is down to whoever you choose to supply and install. Polar was about 4 weeks in both cases. They wanted photos of your consumer unit, main fuse, proposed location of the unit showing off road access and the distance from your consumer unit. For the government grant application which they handled you will also need to supply either the vehicle registration or your new car order form with delivery estimate within 4 months (I think) of installation.

Good luck and happy EV motoring.

Thank you, looking forward to it! Someone told me the ohme charger is the best for an mg as it's one of the only ones that can override the car and therefore charge at set schedules.

 

[greentangerine]

I went for an OpenEVSE which does everything I need and can be controlled easily via a web page or some custom code but I'm a bit of a a tech nerd tbh. If I wasn't, then the Zappi would be my choice.

I'm not sure about the issue mentioned in the previous reply or the technical reason for that. TOU and Eco charging is essential if you have cheap tariff periods such as those provided by Octopus Go or Agile, or if you have surplus PV generation during the day.

 

[Johncc]

My installer fitted a pod point charger, looks neat has a 7.5m charge cable and evidently does away with the need for a earthing rod or some such item.I

Cost was £540 after grant.

I also understand the power company gives preferential tariff if you have an EV but I will wait for the car before following this up.

All I need now is delivery of the vehicle!