New S5 Owner checking in

[Loveclose]

I'll add my twopenny worth - get yourself a home charger if you can. Apologies if it really isn't possible, but home charging is where the huge savings get made. Find an electricity supplier that offers cheap rate electricity for charging, and you're laughing. The cost of the charger is less than the savings you make in a year.

 

[TimothyN]

The cost of the charger is less than the savings you make in a year.

If you need 30% or less per day, then that is much more true of a granny charger

 

[dx4100]

I don't speed and found the over speeding warning a nightmare. The reality is the car doesn't often read the speed limits correctly and doing 31 / 32 / 33 in a 30 is hardly "speeding" by any sensible measure. Thank goodness I worked out how to turn it off.

 

[dx4100]

I think most people would benefit from going all in on a home charger. I often think if I wasted £1k getting a proper charger installed, as I could have just granny charged every night, but what a faff in reality. If you're on a budget then defo get a granny charger over regular public charging. But an investment into a proper home charger if possible is the best way to go in my opinion.

I've got this car for at least 3 years and probably will get another EV, so it's a worthwhile investment for us.

 

[TimothyN]

I have had the car for six months and, except on the day I took delivery, before Amazon delivered the granny charger, I have never used any other form of charge and it has never been a hassle.

 

[dx4100]

I have had the car for six months and, except on the day I took delivery, before Amazon delivered the granny charger, I have never used any other form of charge and it has never been a hassle.

You have to admit thought there are limitations to granny charging. Multiple days of long distance driving become a problem. Most days that wouldn't be an issue for most of us I would guess but for example this weekend I had to do a long drive today and I have one on Sunday as well (two 100% charges required) and there is no way granny charging would have cut the mustard. I would have to public charge which is time and money.

What can you get overnight ? 30% max ?

 

[EvTek23]

With my MG 4 trophy LR 64kWh battery using a granny charger at 10A in 12hrs overnight I can use about 28kWh of electricity which equates to about 45% charge, so from 35% to 80% is feasible.

 

[dx4100]

Seems my original thinking is still right though even if you stretch it out to 45% charge. You are still in the leaky bucket syndrome. In the end you get to the point where granny charging runs out of juice compared to a proper charger, unless doing just short hops.

If you're doing consistent short journeys you are never going to have an issue with granny charging, but it's only going to take a handful of long journeys before you start to hit trouble.

So like anything else its horses for courses. I'm not going to argue against granny charging if it works for you. But its has its limit which a proper home charger does not. I can easily charge from 0% to 100% every night on a proper charger. Thats a theoretical 280 miles in the summer vs 126 miles on the granny. 200 vs 90 miles in the winter (give or take).

Doesn't take a genius to see the limitations. A proper charger empowers you to get full use of your vehicle on any given day where a granny charger does not.