Electric cars and towing

[GaryB]

Why don’t the chargers at M Way services bill board their prices.The chargers at Bath Hospital show no costs. Seem you have to plug in and stick your CC in first. A bit late to pull out the 😉

Most seem to rely on you using their phone app which will show you the price in kwh. I suppose it's one of those things with EV use in that you have to plan ahead before venturing out. There are apps that list all charging points (such as Zap-Map) but some of those charge points listed require you to go to the providers app to view the prices. As Tobes points out, using an EV economically does involve a lot more thinking than just pulling into a petrol station.

The other issue is the different plug/connection types (that I think reflect the charge rate?), I smugly pulled into a charge bay at our Aldi before realising that it was a different connection to my car's Type-2 plug.

 

[Tobes]

Most seem to rely on you using their phone app which will show you the price in kwh. I suppose it's one of those things with EV use in that you have to plan ahead before venturing out. There are apps that list all charging points (such as Zap-Map) but some of those charge points listed require you to go to the providers app to view the prices. As Tobes points out, using an EV economically does involve a lot more thinking than just pulling into a petrol station.

The other issue is the different plug/connection types (that I think reflect the charge rate?), I smugly pulled into a charge bay at our Aldi before realising that it was a different connection to my car's Type-2 plug.

There are some location that are now displaying pricing on a sign outside. For example, this location near Cherwell valley services on the A43.

Prices tend to vary by network, rather than by location, with the one exception of Tesla who do charge by location. On the rare occasion I do want to know about pricing, I tend to use the Octopus Eletroverse app. It has live pricing for most (but not all) locations.

@GaryB, I think your experience with a PHEV is different to that when you have a full EV for a couple of reasons.

1) absolute EV range. With a shorter range EV (like a PHEV) you are far more likely to be in a position where you want to charge. A 25 mile each way journey in your 40mile car would leave you out of electricity, and gets you asking the question, should I charge (which is expensive in public) or use petrol (which is always expensive), and you end up doing the latter.
With a full EV (and a range of 160 mile upwards), this event is far less likely, meaning almost all of your journeys are on home charging, which is so cheap that the occasional higher price public top up is easily bearable as its a rare occurrence.

2) The "wrong plug" thing. There are really only 3 kinds of public chargers Type 2 (that you have) Type 2 CCS (the DC variant of type 2, which you may have) and ChaDeMo, the older DC standard that is now being phased out (no new cars are available with it other than the Lexus RX idiocy).
With a "new" EV (anything over 7 years old except a Nissan Leaf or the Lexus) you will have type 2 and type 2 CCS. One is slow and you carry your own cable, the other is fast and it's built in. Again - you make the mistake once, and you learn what is good for you.

 

[GaryB]

@Tobes , thanks, always interesting to hear "real life" experiences. I appreciate that a PHEV is a different world/reality to a full EV but some of the KWh prices quoted an EV ppm is considerably more than an ICE vehicle. I'm certainly not one of the anti-EV brigade and really do see their benefit regarding inner-city pollution but you have to be smart/plan ahead to avoid getting financially drained when it needs topping up.

The only charging company I subscribe to is Pod-Point, simply because there is one at Tesco so I'm usually guaranteed a parking space and at 35 p/kwh it isn't expensive. However, looking on their app I can pay almost double that a short distance away.

I'll stick with an ICE/hybrid variant for as long as possible, but I do enjoy reading how others manage their EV choice.

 

[Boxerman]

Anyone got any thoughts on towing with an electric car and range please.

We have hybrid elec & petrol it ok but with hindsight I would stay with Diesel our hybrid it’s a Hyundai Tucson 24 plate and towing a 1500kg van it returns 24mpg. But you end up using the paddle to change gear as the car doesn’t always get it right

 

[Dustydog]

What an eye opener!
Asda 65p, Tesco 35p kWh.And neither are motorway services!
Is some one profiteering🙀

 

[Gafferbill]

Good job very little if any tax is added to the price!

The sale of every litre of diesel equals 65p tax to pay for government services.
Surely there is a dilemma rushing towards electric car use in the form of future taxation to replace that lost from diminishing fossil fuel sales.

 

[otherclive]

What an eye opener!
Asda 65p, Tesco 35p kWh.And neither are motorway services!
Is some one profiteering🙀

I suspect that until the market becomes mature and competitive drivers may well be ill served. Wonder as so many EVs are run by businesses or costs reimbursed then drivers are not so price sensitive as private owner drivers.

 

[otherclive]

Good job very little if any tax is added to the price!

The sale of every litre of diesel equals 65p tax to pay for government services.
Surely there is a dilemma rushing towards electric car use in the form of future taxation to replace that lost from diminishing fossil fuel sales.

That’s been recognised for quite a while ever since petrol cars below a certain emissions level were £0 or £20 VED. This train has been coming down the tunnel and apart from a vague look at road pricing it would be a brave politician who introduces that one.

 

[GaryB]

I suspect that until the market becomes mature and competitive drivers may well be ill served. Wonder as so many EVs are run by businesses or costs reimbursed then drivers are not so price sensitive as private owner drivers.

As things currently stand with HYBRID drivers, if they use their private vehicle for company use they claim fuel back from their employer at the current ICE rate of 45ppm. If their employer lets them charge their vehicle at work this ISN'T taken into account for expense claims so they can in effect get a double-payment whammy. I'm sure all the loop-holes, grey areas and perks will get ironed out eventually, but at the minute it's far from fair!

 

[Tobes]

What an eye opener!
Asda 65p, Tesco 35p kWh.And neither are motorway services!
Is some one profiteering🙀

As I say, prices are by provider, not location. BP charge through the nose at 89p, Gridserve is more like 75p, both present at Stafford north services. Tesla have no open chargers on the motorway network, so its hard to compare directly, but Preston south right next to the M6 junction, is between 44p and 56p depending on time of day, and is as low as 33p with membership (£9 per month).

 

[Tobes]

As things currently stand with HYBRID drivers, if they use their private vehicle for company use they claim fuel back from their employer at the current ICE rate of 45ppm. If their employer lets them charge their vehicle at work this ISN'T taken into account for expense claims so they can in effect get a double-payment whammy. I'm sure all the loop-holes, grey areas and perks will get ironed out eventually, but at the minute it's far from fair!

Private EV drivers claim mileage at the same rate. Private cars used for business are agnostic from a fuel perspective from mileage charges. On site charging is not considered a taxable benefit, so if your company provides it for free, it is truly free. Cars that are business owned (company car or salary sacrifice) have a different set of tax rules.

 

[Tobes]

I suspect that until the market becomes mature and competitive drivers may well be ill served. Wonder as so many EVs are run by businesses or costs reimbursed then drivers are not so price sensitive as private owner drivers.

In my experience, private EV drivers are not sensitive to public charging, because they almost never do it. We have 4 EVs in our household. One has never public charged (in 2.5 years), one has done it 3 times in 16 months, one has three times in nearly 2.5 years. Mine does more frequently, but I drive around 15,000 miles a year and tow. Perhaps 1000 to 1500 of those miles are public charged. All the rest are at home at 7p per kWh (2p per mile).

Again - this assumes you can home charge. If you cant - its a different story, one that needs resolving.

 

[otherclive]

In my experience, private EV drivers are not sensitive to public charging, because they almost never do it. We have 4 EVs in our household. One has never public charged (in 2.5 years), one has done it 3 times in 16 months, one has three times in nearly 2.5 years. Mine does more frequently, but I drive around 15,000 miles a year and tow. Perhaps 1000 to 1500 of those miles are public charged. All the rest are at home at 7p per kWh (2p per mile).

Again - this assumes you can home charge. If you cant - its a different story, one that needs resolving.

Thank you, that’s an enlightening post based on real world experience. Brings some valuable context to the debate.

 

[Oscarmax]

I've been running a PHEV for nearly six months now, mine has a very usable 40-odd miles running solo as an EV. I'm a devout petrol-head but I just love running the Audi in EV mode, it's seamlessly quiet with ample power and charging it at home equates to (very roughly) half the price of running it on petrol. It wasn't cheap (£63.5K new) but buying it as an ex-demonstrator at 3 months old saw the price drop to a more palatable £45K. At the end of the day, there's very few "cheap" new tow cars nowadays.

Driving with the (1500kgs) caravan on the back the other day in full hybrid mode saw an economy of 36mpg, returning home just on petrol (battery flat) saw 23mpg (yes, I KNOW that a diesel would do more but a diesel doesn't suit the 95% of my driving that isn't towing).

The negatives for me are the proliferation of charging point providers that charge a bewildering difference in price, I use Pod-Point as they have a charger at Tesco that charges around 30p/kwh, but another Pod-Point charger 1/4 mile away charges 65p/kwh. I'd love to use public charging points more but the majority are more expensive that running it on petrol.

EV's and their infrastructure are undoubtedly getting better but not good enough for me, not yet anyway.

Starting with a full battery in late September we see around 36mpg towing 175 miles returning home with a depleted battery 29.84mpg measure fill to fill.