What’s the best charging cable ??

[Kithmo]

Anyone have any experience with a coiled cable? I like the look of those.. So it's not trailing on the ground as much..

You'll get the weight of the whole cable hanging on your plug and socket, more chance of a poor connection due to wear after a while IMO.

 

[Coulomb]

what the 11 kW european MG ZS's can achieve on a single phase, is it 3.6 or 7 kW?

Looks like it's 7.4 kW, per evdatabase. Assuming that the EVSE can provide 32 A, of course.

I'm intrigued that the single phase 7.4 kW charger can only do 3.7 kW on a 3-phase 16 A EVSE (11 kW). I would imagine that the 7.4 kW on-board charger is just two 3.7 kW modules in parallel. Surely it would be easy enough to put one module on one phase, and the other module on another phase. It's the same current through the neutral cable as 3.7 kW, so that can't be the reason.

But I guess you need some relays and logic for that to work, and they cost a little money (£10-20 perhaps? Totally wild guess). Plus some extra metal in the type 2 socket, and one extra 16 A wire in the loom. Another £5??. For Europe especially, that would seem worth the extra cost.

Oops, I see that the Tesla Model 3 has the same limitation, according to evdatabase. So either it's harder than I think, or evdatabase is wrong, or Tesla is slack too.

 

[Deleted member 3150]

You have to distribute the power across “3“ phase outlets from the supply which has a maximum draw in amps. Ohms law prevails - any 415v sparkys here?

 

[Coulomb]

It's 400V phase to phase, but it seems that EV On Board Chargers operate exclusively in Y (star) connection with a neutral wire present. So three phase then boils down to three separate feeds of 230V. So if you have two 16A charger modules, you can connect each one to a phase, and leave the last phase unconnected. It's no more unbalanced than a single phase load. By the magic of three phase though, the neutral return current is only 16A, not the 32A you'd expect if the phases were in-phase (0° apart electrically). Of course, if you have three charging modules all pulling the same current, then the neutral current falls even more magically to zero.

any 415v sparkys here?

Not a sparky, but I'm an electrical engineer (not power engineering, but I know the basics).

 

[Gwynfor Hughes]

I had coiled one with my Merc, always ended up tangled when in the boot and if stretched so that it dose not sit on ground, it puts a strain on the plugs and sockets due to weight of cable especially 5m. i prefer standard 32am. At home I have a water hose crescent plastic holder above the charger and loop just as you would a hose pipe.

I'm still trying to get my head around the charging technology.
I've done a few long trips now and always charge with CCS fast charge connection.
I always carry my type 2 in the boot on a long journey and used it only once at Bristol Airport .
On that occasion I got caught out by how little mileage range the type 2 put on my car in just over an hour.
Please excuse my ignorance but what is the benefit of a type 2 connection on a long trip?

 

[Cleverpops5]

I'm still trying to get my head around the charging technology.
I've done a few long trips now and always charge with CCS fast charge connection.
I always carry my type 2 in the boot on a long journey and used it only once at Bristol Airport .
On that occasion I got caught out by how little mileage range the type 2 put on my car in just over an hour.
Please excuse my ignorance but what is the benefit of a type 2 connection on a long trip?

Incase that's the only charger you can get?

 

[Hotlush]

I'm still trying to get my head around the charging technology.
I've done a few long trips now and always charge with CCS fast charge connection.
I always carry my type 2 in the boot on a long journey and used it only once at Bristol Airport .
On that occasion I got caught out by how little mileage range the type 2 put on my car in just over an hour.
Please excuse my ignorance but what is the benefit of a type 2 connection on a long trip?

Ideally in that scenario you'd be trying to get a CCS charge.
If you're in no rush, say charging overnight at a hotel, or all the CCS are in use or broken then you can get some charge albeit slow.
There's also ABC (always be charging) so if for example you're doing the shopping you can get a top up, and often for free.

 

[Gomev]

I'm still trying to get my head around the charging technology.
I've done a few long trips now and always charge with CCS fast charge connection.
I always carry my type 2 in the boot on a long journey and used it only once at Bristol Airport .
On that occasion I got caught out by how little mileage range the type 2 put on my car in just over an hour.
Please excuse my ignorance but what is the benefit of a type 2 connection on a long trip?

and terminology...CCS is rapid charging not fast, that is the type 2.

 

[Coulomb]

CCS is rapid charging not fast, that is the type 2.

In the UK perhaps. Elsewhere, I believe that fast refers to 50 kW DC charging (the only kind there was for a while), and rapid to much faster than that, say 350 kW. But of course it all gets tricky with all the in-betweens. And what do you call 24 kW DC charging?

 

[Alan]

In the UK perhaps. Elsewhere, I believe that fast refers to 50 kW DC charging (the only kind there was for a while), and rapid to much faster than that, say 350 kW. But of course it all gets tricky with all the in-betweens. And what do you call 24 kW DC charging?

Yes, fast for us here in the UK is 7kw - 50 kw and rapid is 50kw+
We dont have 24kw dc here either! 11kw three phase is available at service stations, and some homes, though most homes are single phase.

 

[Gwynfor Hughes]

Thanks for the information.