New RAV4 PHEV owner

[ernieb]

Doh! Philip “it’s not a spreadsheet it’s a graph”…….. 😁

[Flatcoat]

There is a myth that charging an EV is ultra cheap or free. I suspect quite a few EV ‘adopters’ are in for a rude awakening….. I rarely used public chargers with my previous PHEV, in part because of unreliability and need for a phone full of ‘apps’ to access the many suppliers. It’s like having to use a different app or currency for each brand of petrol, who would put up with that? 

[CBphev]

23 hours ago, Catlover said:

24 charging points in what seems to be a small station. Strewth, that seems over the top.

https://www.zap-map.com/pts/2uw6kgt/

It is a new station (open for 12 months), I think the aim is that anyone who lives this side of aberdeen that works in the city would use this as a commuter hub.   It does seem overkill at the moment but crime isnt a major issue here and it is out of the village a little way so hopefully vandals will leave it well alone!

[Stopeter44]

3 hours ago, philip42h said:

Early adopters of EV technology were, are and maybe will be able to take advantage of promotional and off-peak EV tariffs ... I bet it won't last! 

I was just thinking along those lines, something has to replace all the tax collected from vehicle fuel sales.

[nlee]

2 hours ago, philip42h said:

That's not a spreadsheet - it's a graph! 🙂

And while the graph looks correct, the annotation is wrong - I assume that you are using 3.5 miles / kW rather than 3.5 kW / mile (which wouldn't be very efficient)! 😉

But it closely mirrors the calcs that I have done. My hybrid (like your notional diesel) cost about 15p/mile to run (depending on how you drive and where you buy fuel). And the breakpoint for an EV is around 50p / kWh.

Early adopters of EV technology were, are and maybe will be able to take advantage of promotional and off-peak EV tariffs ... I bet it won't last! And, as you say, for the ultra fast chargers that make long range EV driving realistic and practical the cost per kWh makes ICE and hybrid more attractive stilll!

You're right Phillip, there is a typo on the title that I hadn't spotted  I never thought I'd share it publicly so it didn't undergo full quality control!.

I agree, some have the perception it's virtually free to run an EV. It was certainly much more beneficial only 6 -12 months ago when the average price per kWh was closer to 15p and great for those who are still on old fixed rate deals. Unfortunately those with fixed rates of around 15p will be coming to the end of a two year deal anytime now.

When out of good existing deal, you can still get a good EV tariff with most suppliers. I'm with Bulb at the moment and that would work out at the best overall deal for me to go on their EV tariff. I just don't seem to be able to sort it because I now found their customer service is awful. They also will only take existing customers onto their EV tariff at the moment. Octopus Go is the next best from my calculations with 25.8p per kWh in the day, 5p from 00:30 to 04:30 and 17.75p per day standing charge (variable by area). If I don't get anywhere with Bulb soon, that's were I'll be going because looking at my smart meter usage, I'm using more than double normal use on the days I charge the car. They will accept new customers on that tariff if the sums add up.

Maybe the EV rates will increase but I do think we will still see preferential EV rates because although we know the grid is at breaking point between 4-7pm on a wet cold winter's day with light wind, we still have an excess of electricity in the small hours because you can't ramp down generation fast enough. Until there is much greater storage capacity, they actually want us to use it.

It will also be interesting how these tariffs affect other usage patterns. I'm already looking at what timers I can use on hungry appliances. The wife doesn't seem to keen on having dinner at 2am though!

[nlee]

2 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

There is a myth that charging an EV is ultra cheap or free. I suspect quite a few EV ‘adopters’ are in for a rude awakening….. I rarely used public chargers with my previous PHEV, in part because of unreliability and need for a phone full of ‘apps’ to access the many suppliers. It’s like having to use a different app or currency for each brand of petrol, who would put up with that? 

Yep. The whole different networks and apps is a mess and needs sorting. I can't see me using a public charger unless it's free with the PHEV and it would only be from real necessity if I had a full EV.

I stayed in a hotel on business last week and used their charger free and my local Tesco is also free which I used on Monday. I didn't really need to but I'm originally from Yorkshire so it always feels really good to me to get "owt fur nowt"