Is a charge point necessary/worth it?

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Joined
May 22, 2015
Messages
10
Location
Thanet, Kent, UK.
Just waiting on delivery of my first ev/outlander and was interested in feedback from current owners on the benefits (if any) of having a charge point fitted.

All my charging will be overnight, never any need for a charge in less than 12 hours and I'm not on economy 7, is there any other benefit i am missing for having an expensive charge point instead of a waterproof socket with the supplied charger instead?.

Thanks
 
The included EVSE sucks. It's clunky, and it's annoying dealing with coiling up the cord after you're doing with it. I'd get a plug installed, and then install a 30-40A plug-in EVSE. This makes the EVSE easy to take with you if you move, and also allows you to permanently stash the included EVSE in the car and use it in any parking garage/rental house that has a plug. You might THINK you never need to charge in 3 hours but I've done errands where I come back home and go out again in 2 hours and it's nice to be able to actually put a meaningful amount of energy into the battery in that time.
 
I'm guessing you're in the UK (as you mention Economy 7), so at the moment you can get a 32A charge point installed for around £150 as there's a government grant scheme in place. Effectively you're paying for an electrician's time to fit it to the wall, run armoured cable to your consumer unit, fit a breaker and connect it up.

Something to consider - at the moment you're probably happy with slow charging an Outlander overnight (as are many people), but what will your next car need? Is it worth taking advantage of the grant whilst it exists and getting something that's overspecced for the Outlander, but may be needed in 5-10 years time on something with a bigger battery with a higher charge current demand?

The supplied charger only charges at 10A max (2.4kW), so it's not even taking advantage of the full 13A (3.5kW) available from a standard UK socket. That's why it takes over 5 hours. Using a charge point means the car can take the full 16A that it's capable of which reduces the time by almost half. Agreed that's not a big deal if you only plan to charge overnight.

FWIW I don't currently have a chargepoint, but am planning on getting one fitted next to where I park if only because it means I don't have the charge cable stretched across the drive for people to trip over because my nearest socket isn't near the car.
 
I've owned for two and a half years, only use the supplied charger, and do almost all of my charging on overnight Economy 7 - I will occasionally charge during the day if needed. Can't justify the cost of a charge point based on current usage pattern and I have a conveniently placed socket just inside the garage door so it's zero hassle.

I agree with the future proofing argument above, but I'm delaying until I decide to replace the consumer unit - I still have an old style fuse box !
 
Thanks for the replies and yes, I am in the UK.

I'm not too worried about future proofing as I'm not convinced any 'box's fitted today has much longevity and any charge point would be in the same location as the standard plug so no 'trailing lead' benefits either.

I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing out on any technical benefits that a charge point may have over the standard lead.
 
Well I'd be surprised if anything much changes to domestic car chargers, they literally just tell the car the maximum current available and switch the power on. If in the future higher powered charging is required you'll need more than just a new chargepoint! I can't really see the need for more than 32A charging on an electric car at home, why would electric cars require more than this in the future?

e.g. a 64kWh Kona will recharge at 23mph on a 32A EVSE, filling it's entire 245 mile range in 10.5 hours (if completely depleted, unlikely)

So unless you think you'll never have an electric car after this one (some other vehicle type will become more prominent, hydrogen?) £150 is a bargain, I'll certainly be taking advantage of the grant! Even if I'm wrong and something radical changes (why would it?), at least you have a cable installed to the right place and hopefully an earth spike; just replacing the box will be a much cheaper job.

Worst case you have a handy place to plug your current car in and charge it slightly faster which may come in handy if you've popped to the shops before going on a longer journey later etc.

It's only £150, well worth a punt IMHO.
 
ps44 said:
I've owned for two and a half years, only use the supplied charger, and do almost all of my charging on overnight Economy 7 - I will occasionally charge during the day if needed.
Although I've only owned my PHEV sonce October I also do this and can't see me changing any time soon. I installed an outdoor 13A weatherproof socket on a wall near where I park which is switched on and off remotely so no-one can steal my electric when I'm out. A 5 hour or so overnight charge is fine for me, and even if I do run about a bit during the day when I'm at home the top-ups available from the 10A charger are still useful.

If I use a bit of unleaded occassionally it would be very rare unless on a longer journey which is well beyond EV range anyway. So I can easily justify my decision not to install a 16A charger (even with the grant available, which would still cost me £150..) when I can do it myself with standard components; Outdoor weatherproof socket, 10m of required cable, clips, and a breaker - total cost less than £35 and a few hours work, most of which was drilling a hole through some very tough brickwork!
 
I agree, well worth getting if only to avoid overuse/risk of breaking the supplied lead. When you come to sell it will be a deal breaker for any buyer and iit'll be alot more than £150 to replace.

I also didn't think i'd need to charge quickly but have found that I often do. Even if it's not enough to cover the cost of the cable it sure grates when you're running on petrol instead of EV in one of these things!

Have fun and welcome to the club!
 
On my second outlander phev now. Had first one 4 years and put an outside waterproof garden socket in when I got the first car. Have had no issues at all with just using the supplied lead. Only thing is to use the hanging rope to support the unit and not hang it just on the plug itself. I lock the garden socket so leave the charger turned on pretty much permanently so it's just plug and go. Had zero issues. (My fuse box etc is inside the house so was quite a bit of work to get a cable run to the front of the house for a charge point).
 
Hello allplayandnowork
I charge using both methods daily. I have a dedicated wall charger at home and plug in at work using the 3 pin. Work is 18 miles from home. I know which I prefer: the wall charger. I agree with reasons such as future-proofing, not wearing out your in-car charger and also the speed (which helps when at home, say at the weekend, and you run a few errands during the day, and want EV) but mostly the benefit is one of less hassle. Much less hassle.
 
With 3 x PHEV's at work, we have not had the need for any fancy chargers. When we got them, we simply put 2 x double waterproof sockets on the wall, then plug the supplied chargers in there. A hole drilled and a padlock fitted to each socket means the chargers cannot be nicked, nor any electricity either (EV charging excepted). But since thats negligable risk in these parts, its not a consideration.
 
I have a wall unit at home paid for by the Government. Fantastic ... 4 hours or less for a full charge. I also have the 13 amp charger but it’s a mess, a faff, and slow. I use it on holiday (overnight only). With wall unit I have a cool car in summer and a warm one in winter ...
 
We already had a point for our Zoe when we bought the PHEV. Initially we just left the Zoe using the charger, and the PHEV used the 3-pin charger. But I noticed the plug getting very warm during the hot summer, so we now share the chargepoint and leave the 3-pin charger under the boot floor for occasional use
 
Cheers for the insight.

My fusebox is nowhere near where the car needs to be plugged in so it's going to cost me significantly more than £200 even with the 'free' money from the government!.
I'm going to put in an outside socket and try that for a while and see how I get on before deciding.

My main concern was lack of some technical ability but that doesn't seem to be an issue.
 
allplayandnowork said:
Cheers for the insight.

My fusebox is nowhere near where the car needs to be plugged in so it's going to cost me significantly more than £200 even with the 'free' money from the government!.
I'm going to put in an outside socket and try that for a while and see how I get on before deciding.

My main concern was lack of some technical ability but that doesn't seem to be an issue.

Certainly seems the quick way to get up and running. I went looking for a way of fitting one that was a smart meter but couldn't work it out as any solution exposes it to the elements. Just mention it in case you can work it out. Maybe even just an outdoor socket that has a timer integrated may be useful as you're adding it a fresh.
 
I have decided after three days of ownership that I will be getting a charge point installed, but really just for convenience - ie not having to open the garage door to plug the charger in to the sockets inside there and drape the cable across my driveway to where the car is parked right across the path to the front door. You'd have thought they could have made the cable a hi-visibility colour to reduce the chance of people tripping over it!

Where I need the charge point is about 9m from the fusebox so I'm within the OLEV grant limit, although there are a couple of walls to go through to get to the outside of the house.
 
VillageIdiotDan said:
I went looking for a way of fitting one that was a smart meter but couldn't work it out as any solution exposes it to the elements. Just mention it in case you can work it out.
Easily done - every kW of energy I've ever put in to my Outlander has been via a smart socket;

http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3979&start=11

Current status as of this morning attached. Total so far 385.51 kWh used.
 

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