New EV - advice please

[Wilse]

Hi all, hope life's treating you well.
I've taken the plunge on my first EV and have gone for the MGS5 EV Trophy. I hope it lives up to my first impression as I was blown away with how good it looks, how comfortable it feels and the price for such a great car (heavily discounted). I now have to organise a charger and switch over to an EV tariff, more than likely the Octopus Intelligent Go, but I was wondering what other things an EV newbie should buy/install/arrange and perhaps general advice on running/maintaining an MG EV. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Cheers.

 

[nphe9974]

Hi, I've had a couple of EV's now and have been running one for 6 years and so happy to share my thoughts.

- Intelligent Octopus or Octopus Go are both good tariffs - just be aware that Intelligent Go won't be able to control the MG directly and so you would need a Intelligent compaitable charger to access the smart charging features. The octopus website has a full list. Others recommend Eon next which I think is also good value.

- For charging away from home, I'd recommend the Octopus Electroverse card. It works at most public charge points in the UK and Europe. Charging away from home is much more expensive so best avoided unless you are on a long journey.

- For longer journeys, planning is key so you know where to stop and which are the fastest public chargers. I always plan in advance where to stop and use Zapmap which has reviews so you can see which are reliable and have starbucks or similar close by.

That's about it - enjoy!

 

[5teep]

Have a look at octopus site for compatible chargers if you decide to go with them. I'm with Eon and have the Evec, the cheapest charger I could find (UK company).

No idea what your driving habits are, whether you do lots of daily miles or long trips/short trips but it's always good practice to get to know the locations of chargers on routes you use regularly in case you need to pop in and top up.
Having the wall box at home is by far the best investment though when tied in with cheap overnight rates.

 

[Wilse]

Hi, I've had a couple of EV's now and have been running one for 6 years and so happy to share my thoughts.

- Intelligent Octopus or Octopus Go are both good tariffs - just be aware that Intelligent Go won't be able to control the MG directly and so you would need a Intelligent compaitable charger to access the smart charging features. The octopus website has a full list. Others recommend Eon next which I think is also good value.

- For charging away from home, I'd recommend the Octopus Electroverse card. It works at most public charge points in the UK and Europe. Charging away from home is much more expensive so best avoided unless you are on a long journey.

- For longer journeys, planning is key so you know where to stop and which are the fastest public chargers. I always plan in advance where to stop and use Zapmap which has reviews so you can see which are reliable and have starbucks or similar close by.

That's about it - enjoy!

That's really helpful, thank you.

 

[Wilse]

Have a look at octopus site for compatible chargers if you decide to go with them. I'm with Eon and have the Evec, the cheapest charger I could find (UK company).

No idea what your driving habits are, whether you do lots of daily miles or long trips/short trips but it's always good practice to get to know the locations of chargers on routes you use regularly in case you need to pop in and top up.
Having the wall box at home is by far the best investment though when tied in with cheap overnight rates.

Thanks for your comments. Realistically we might only be doing 300 miles a month, on average, so for us it makes perfect sense to plan for one 6h overnight charge per fortnight just to keep it topped up to 80-90%, using just 7p/kwh. If my calculations are correct, if I'm topping up 50% a fortnight, around 30kw, it might only cost £4-5 per month. A tank of petrol would cost ten times that. I'll only fully charge it if I know we're going on a long journey. I'm already an Octopus customer so I can imagine the switch over to one of their EV tariffs being reasonably painless, even more so if I get them to fit one of 'their' wall chargers (circa £1000 purchase/install). Interestingly, an electrician friend of mine said although Octopus recommend upgrading my meter to a smart meter, he said that due to my expected low miles and charging frequency I probably wouldn't need to. Does that sound right or does the EV tariff stipulate that the meter feeding the charger must be 'smart'?

 

[salty]

To the forum. And congratulations on your first EV... Enjoy...

 

[TimothyN]

Have you thought of saving the money on the 7kW charger and charging more often on a 3kW charger costing £90?

(Warning: This discussion arises on many threads!)

 

[Wilse]

Have you thought of saving the money on the 7kW charger and charging more often on a 3kW charger costing £90?

(Warning: This discussion arises on many threads!)

It's definitely something to consider but I guess my initial idea was to use a 7kW charger for 6h during the 7p/kWh time slot which would be cheaper than charging for twice as long at the lower 3kwh speed which would inevitably be at a higher charging rate. The flip side however to the EV tariff is that the unit rate outside of those cheap 7p/kwh rates is actually higher than what I'm on now so anything running during the 'peak' 18 hours would actually be using more expensive energy. There is an argument given the infrequency of my charging expectations that it might not be worth installing a 7kwh charger outside and just buy a 'granny' charger but on the rare occasion my wife gets involved in charging it I know for a fact she wouldn't want to be faffing around with a charger that's hidden in the garage. She'd want to just plug the thing in outside and let it do it's thing......

 

[TimothyN]

I don't understand the logic at all, why not just plug it in once a week instead of once a fortnight? The unit rate is going to be the same whatever the rate of charge.

The £1000+ you spend on a charger would buy 14,000+ kWh of leccy.

But you've clearly thought it through, so you do you!

 

[dx4100]

Think it through before you jump over to an "EV tariff". You will pay more outside the the night time hours and if you're not shifting your load to that period its going to cost you more. Its not a no brainer. Do the maths to make the right decision.

I locked into 17.55p a while back and it's good for a few more years when it might be worth me switching. But right now with a wife and two teenage girls, I am much better off staying on my current tariff than switching.

 

[5teep]

Thanks for your comments. Realistically we might only be doing 300 miles a month, on average, so for us it makes perfect sense to plan for one 6h overnight charge per fortnight just to keep it topped up to 80-90%, using just 7p/kwh. If my calculations are correct, if I'm topping up 50% a fortnight, around 30kw, it might only cost £4-5 per month. A tank of petrol would cost ten times that. I'll only fully charge it if I know we're going on a long journey. I'm already an Octopus customer so I can imagine the switch over to one of their EV tariffs being reasonably painless, even more so if I get them to fit one of 'their' wall chargers (circa £1000 purchase/install). Interestingly, an electrician friend of mine said although Octopus recommend upgrading my meter to a smart meter, he said that due to my expected low miles and charging frequency I probably wouldn't need to. Does that sound right or does the EV tariff stipulate that the meter feeding the charger must be 'smart'?

My guess is your supplier is going to want to upgrade your meter sometime soon anyway. Your existing meter is probably nearing end of life if it's been in the house for a few decades.
The good news is that it should not cost you anything.
Check with Octopus on their requirements, if they say get a new meter just let them do it.

Since I went on to an EV tariff my usage pattern has changed a lot, i.e. I set the washing machine/dish washer etc. to run overnight to get the maximum benefit of the cheap rate.
Some EV tariffs don't allow you to run other appliances so again, check that.

 

[Bam Bam]

Hi all, hope life's treating you well.
I've taken the plunge on my first EV and have gone for the MGS5 EV Trophy. I hope it lives up to my first impression as I was blown away with how good it looks, how comfortable it feels and the price for such a great car (heavily discounted).

Welcome to the future! (and this helpful forum)

I now have to organise a charger and switch over to an EV tariff, more than likely the Octopus Intelligent Go, but I was wondering what other things an EV newbie should buy/install/arrange and perhaps general advice on running/maintaining an MG EV. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Some good advice already.

We got the 7kw EV charger (though wish we had got a hypervolt one to qualify for Intelligent Oct Go) because it will be something that all houses need in the future. Plus it means you've got the option to do a full charge overnight if needed (for a long journey or if you have a visitor coming to stay who needs a charge).

You could save money by just having a simple outside plug fitted, but if you go down that route ask the electrician if the cabling can be rated to take a full power charger in the future and see how much extra that would cost.

One thing to think about is whether you plan to get a home battery (these generally come with solar installs as well).

Forum legend Rolfe set up a thread about how you get the car, which gives you access to a cheap overnight tariff, which makes a battery a good investment to run your house off cheap 'leccy. Then you may as well fill up the battery with free energy from your roof so get solar...

Now we've added a heat pump as well so you end up with the full electric ecosystem and don't have to buy any gas or petrol which works out much much cheaper.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

Regarding a granny charger v a dedicated 7kW tethered. I find the 7kW more convenient. That convenience utility makes the cost of installation worthwhile to me.

Regarding the Electroverse card. I've also got the zap map card as it works with a lot of 7kW public chargers. This would be for when you are on holiday etc.

A granny charger is also useful for on holiday. I've stayed in a few holiday rentals where I've asked if they have a outside plug socket I could use (I'll pay for what I use). They have and it's saved the need to find somewhere to charge. Doesn't matter if its slow. If you are there for a few days or a week. It's gonna be fully charged over a couple of nights plugged in.