February Magazine - Nick Lomas EVs

RollerMan181 replied on 29/01/2021 12:55

Posted on 29/01/2021 12:55

I started to read the Nick Lomas' article published in this month’s magazine regarding the transition towards electric vehicles with scepticism at first. Having owned two electric vehicles for over 4 years, I have seen so much biased reporting by ill informed journalists or in journals with “other” agendas that are clearly out to recredit EVs, that I thought here we go again.

So it started off well, then I got to the bombshell. The article states that running costs are lower and implies that, this will go a long way to offset the initial costs of purchase.  Very true, in my case, the cost of the lease and low charging costs mean that I can run an EV for much less than that of a comparable petrol or diesel car. Then he states that it costs £20 to charge “at home”!  Where on earth did he get that figure from? Well done he just may have alienated thousands of potential people thinking about converting to an EV.

Please find below the true cost of charging at home on an Economy 7 tariff

KIA SOUL EV (30KWh battery). To charge from 50% to 100%  will give a total range of 130 miles in summer, 100 miles in winter)

DAY RATE £2.47 plus vat @5%

NIGHT RATE £1.59 plus vat @5%

The latest KIA SOUL EV, (64KWh battery) for comparison will do more than twice the range, so to charge from 50% to 100% :-

DAY RATE £5.28 plus vat @5%

NIGHT RATE £2.97 plus vat @5%

I have Economy 7 tariff and additionally I have solar panels, so when the sun is shining, any excess electricity goes in to my car. So I can charge for free sometimes. Even at Public chargers that charge 30p per KW, I’ve never got anywhere near paying £20. Last year I did 10k miles for less than £300.

So to allow people to make informed decisions,  could you please add a correction in next month's magazine.

 David Bell

Moved from the Story Section

brue replied on 19/02/2021 16:38

Posted on 19/02/2021 16:38

David, we top up charge on some days, we don't charge at all on others and every now and then we run it right down to give it a "big" boost. This week the computer screen let us know that we needed to give the REX (range extender) a run. We get various messages via the car computer to keep everything running well. As well as the charge we get regeneration when out on the road and this can add extra running miles, sometimes we end up with more than we started with! 

JVB66 replied on 19/02/2021 16:55

Posted on 19/02/2021 16:13 by DavidKlyne

You can pick the charging element apart a bit. For those people who have a property with its own parking will be the ones where charging an EV will be most convenient. Even if not supplied with a ready made charging facility when the house is built they will either be able to use a standard plug via what I believe is called a "Granny Lead" or pay for the installation of, I think, a 7Kw charger. (Government grant available to help with this currently) I am sure in time there will be innovative solutions to those issues that JVB has raised on roads with no off road parking. I would be interested to know what Brue's charging regime is but surely an EV won't need charging every day unless you do a daily high mileage? If I had an EV, with the exception of the odd long journey, I doubt I would need to charge it more than once or twice a week. We all have to go shopping so that seems to be the place where most will do their main charge with little inconvenience whilst they do their shopping. On other occasions they may have to drive to their nearest charging point which will eventually be much more numerous than they are now as one would fill up with petrol. I think the more proactive Councils are already thinking about the installation of charging points. It should be something all councils are thinking about now.

David

Posted on 19/02/2021 16:55

I can see you did not watch the programme on ITV last nightundecided

cyberyacht replied on 19/02/2021 19:04

Posted on 19/02/2021 11:47 by JVB66

One "Blue sky thinking idea?" Is to use lamp posts? that our local  CEGB retired engineer advises unless a higher power cable supply in installed would not work as many present supplies are upwards of 60yrs old and would not cope with power requiredundecided

Posted on 19/02/2021 19:04

I've seen charging points on lamp posts in Putney, round the corner from my daughter's house.

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