PHEV + EV or PHEV... Two car set up?

[Nick72]

We are gaining another car to make 3 in total given offspring wants one. 

Missus thinking of getting a Mini Cooper EV. Either way our drive is long but narrow, sloped and curved. So it's single file. You could get 3 cars on it. Just one after the other. But I don't think I could live with the car juggling. Been there.

Instead I've put down grass reinforcement plastic sheeting on the lawn. The grass will grow through it but it stops the lawn turning into a mud bath and developing ruts. Feet keep dry too. Being old, infirm, multiple health issues these days it did take me a while to lay it.

So I wondered 2 things...

How do you manage for parking space? Any interesting ideas?

And if you have 2 cars with wall box needs, how are you getting on switching between cars and who gets the charger? Does woman have priority over man (like in my house as there are 3 females here)? 😂

[Nick72]

That's 2m wide strip number one. There's another to make 4m wide. About 7m long.

Ground is sloping btw so it is very well drained. 

[Heidfirst]

sure you don't need to be told this but put the lightest car on the grass ...

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Nick72 said:

And if you have 2 cars with wall box needs, how are you getting on switching between cars and who gets the charger?

We currently have two hybrids and no charger but that's just too boring for words so ...

The RAV4 is going - I have a bZ4X on order and have just now submitted my photos to Hive for my 'free' charger.

The plan is to upgrade the mk1 C-HR to a CH-R PHEV within the next year or three so we will then have two rechargeable cars (and still have a very effective fallback in the event that EV motoring becomes "too fraught").

We won't have any parking issues - both cars go into the garage. The EV charger will be installed on the back wall between the two so that it can be shared as appropriate, Happily the charging port on the bZ4X is left front and on the C-HR PHEV it is right rear. 🙂

If both need charging at the same time the bZ4X gets the 7.4 kW charger and the PHEV gets charged at 2.3 kW because:

1. That's sufficient to supply a decent charge overnight, and
2. It doesn't need charging anyway 'cos it's got an ICE.

[NASY]

1 x 7.4KW charger from mains and 1 x 7.4KW from Battery storage  of solar panels deals with two EVs and mains for a PHEV through 3 pin plug - simple enough. As for parking space it looks like you need to move to a place that fits your future needs better, unless you have sentimental reasons to remain where you are of course.

[Nick72]

1 hour ago, philip42h said:

We currently have two hybrids and no charger but that's just too boring for words so ...

The RAV4 is going - I have a bZ4X on order and have just now submitted my photos to Hive for my 'free' charger.

The plan is to upgrade the mk1 C-HR to a CH-R PHEV within the next year or three so we will then have two rechargeable cars (and still have a very effective fallback in the event that EV motoring becomes "too fraught").

We won't have any parking issues - both cars go into the garage. The EV charger will be installed on the back wall between the two so that it can be shared as appropriate, Happily the charging port on the bZ4X is left front and on the C-HR PHEV it is right rear. 🙂

If both need charging at the same time the bZ4X gets the 7.4 kW charger and the PHEV gets charged at 2.3 kW because:

1. That's sufficient to supply a decent charge overnight, and
2. It doesn't need charging anyway 'cos it's got an ICE.

Sounds like a neat plan. ❤️

[Nick72]

1 hour ago, NASY said:

1 x 7.4KW charger from mains and 1 x 7.4KW from battery storage  of solar panels deals with two EVs and mains for a PHEV through 3 pin plug - simple enough. As for parking space it looks like you need to move to a place that fits your future needs better, unless you have sentimental reasons to remain where you are of course.

No plans to move at our age. Not after I've spent so much time on DIY. Great spot. End of a cul de sac. Great area. Backing into acres of woodland and walking trails. Solar and Battery too expensive. Feels overkill?

Reason I'm not concreting or block paving to create space for more cars than we have is hassle, prefer real green than grey, and cost in that order. 

Philips suggestion is a good one. Made me think. Wife can use wall box and if I put an external mains socket on the front (easy DIY)  I can plug in a granny charger when I have to. 

[ernieb]

@philip42h, congratulations on the bZ4X, hope it works out for you, good luck with betting the charger installed.

[philip42h]

22 minutes ago, ernieb said:

@philip42h, congratulations on the bZ4X, hope it works out for you, good luck with getting the charger installed.

Thanks Ernie. I'm convinced that it is one of the stupidest decisions I have ever made - the RAV4.5 is the best car that I have ever owned, but it has to go so that I can embark on a new 'adventure' ... 😉

I am resigned, and quite prepared, to survive on the 2.3 kW 'granny' charger for six months or so. But the world would be a better place if one could easily get the first EV and charger bought and installed / delivered as a package to avoid the hiatus! 

[ernieb]

2 hours ago, philip42h said:

Thanks Ernie. I'm convinced that it is one of the stupidest decisions I have ever made - the RAV4.5 is the best car that I have ever owned, but it has to go so that I can embark on a new 'adventure' ... 😉

I am resigned, and quite prepared, to survive on the 2.3 kW 'granny' charger for six months or so. But the world would be a better place if one could easily get the first EV and charger bought and installed / delivered as a package to avoid the hiatus! 

Very pragmatic as I’d have expected and I’m sure that if push comes to shove you’ll cope on the granny charger until Toyota/BT sort things out. I went through a similar an exercise of thinking about a change to EV and calculated just how often the car sites on the drive. Plenty of time to give the car a slow charge over an extended period.

[GBgraham]

4 hours ago, philip42h said:

Thanks Ernie. I'm convinced that it is one of the stupidest decisions I have ever made - the RAV4.5 is the best car that I have ever owned, but it has to go so that I can embark on a new 'adventure' ... 😉

I am resigned, and quite prepared, to survive on the 2.3 kW 'granny' charger for six months or so. But the world would be a better place if one could easily get the first EV and charger bought and installed / delivered as a package to avoid the hiatus! 

Congrats to your up and coming new motoring adventure with the bZ4X. To be truthful I dithered going EV for about a minute but I just couldn't leave the world and the options of the ICE even though I'm sure I could have gone on at least 95% of my journeys on EV without ever needing to call in to a charging point, only the road trips to the UK would have created me a problem with EV anxiety😉

If you encounter problems and you can get a supply put in to a 32amp socket, I can vouch on this type of economical charger, I've had mine for a year trouble free.

 

 

[Broadway One]

On 10/4/2024 at 1:43 PM, GBgraham said:

"Congrats to your up and coming new motoring adventure with the bZ4X. To be truthful I dithered going EV for about a minute but I just couldn't leave the world and the options of the ICE even though I'm sure I could have gone on at least 95% of my journeys on EV without ever needing to call in to a charging point, only the road trips to the UK would have created me a problem with EV anxiety😉"

Hi all.....my reply posting could apply to several on this topic. Grahams quote I'm sure is the dilemma many are facing come car swap time. Things seem to be moving on at pace. Media tells me that EV sales to private buyers are sluggish yet I see a different story passing under my window on a daily basis. In the past 6/12 months many more vehicle reg. plates bearing the green flash on new lower cost models are evident. Causing me to think of when the eventual ICE/EV tipping point starts to bite. Improved network/home/workplace charging will arrive at some point leading to fewer petrol/diesel availability as forecourts close or adapt & repurpose. Surely this will send out the message of whats round the corner & further concentrate minds. Decisions, decisions my guess is a max. 5 year window......RIP ⛽︎ ICE 😢.......Barry Wright, Lancashire. 

 

   


 

[Nick72]

3 hours ago, Broadway One said:

Hi all.....my reply posting could apply to several on this topic. Grahams quote I'm sure is the dilemma many are facing come car swap time. Things seem to be moving on at pace. Media tells me that EV sales to private buyers are sluggish yet I see a different story passing under my window on a daily basis. In the past 6/12 months many more vehicle reg. plates bearing the green flash on new lower cost models are evident. Causing me to think of when the eventual ICE/EV tipping point starts to bite. Improved network/home/workplace charging will arrive at some point leading to fewer petrol/diesel availability as forecourts close or adapt & repurpose. Surely this will send out the message of whats round the corner & further concentrate minds. Decisions, decisions my guess is a max. 5 year window......RIP ⛽︎ ICE 😢.......Barry Wright, Lancashire. 

 

   


 

It is an inevitability. But feels like it will happen in waves. Costs falling. Range increasing. The first tipping point is coming but only for perhaps 30% of the demographic. I did look up the stats relating to this and the next paragraph from the national stats office. But my memory is knackered.

Outside of lorries the hardest part of the demographic to reach are those with no off street parking. Folks in terraces, flats, and so on. Majority of which (but not all) won't have charger access. This is now not just about cost and range but charging speed. In other words, you got to drive somewhere to charge up so it better be not much more of a time burden than filling up the petrol tank. 10 minute job feels tolerable. But you want to be able to guarantee it's working before you get there, you've got a slot, and you didn't need to drive 10 miles to get to it. All of that feels like a way off as we've been discussing before on here. 

If we could draw the adoption out on a chart it would be a shallow uptake gradient with step (steep gradient) changes every few years. But ultimately it won't top out at more than about 70 or 80% and probably not until the mid 2030s.

I've convinced the wife to wait until April.