External plug question

Yakuza

Hi folks, bit of a noob question here - I assume that if I buy a plug-in vehicle (either pure EV or hybrid) and have a charging point installed outside my house, that if i were to change to a different make a few years later, that the same charging point will be usable?

It would make sense that there'd be some European standard for charging (I seem to recall that all phone chargers were meant to become USB-B, but Apple blithely ignored it when bringing out their Lightning standard)

It seems obvious that it would but can you put my mind to rest ?

KCross

Depends.

EVSE's come in two forms...

1) Tethered (cable attached which can be Type 1 or Type 2)
2) Untethered (no cable attached, just a Type 2 socket and you use your own cable that came with the car)

Nearly all new EV's will have a Type 2 socket so as long as you buy a tethered Type 2 you should be fine long term or else an untethered EVSE will also be fine long term.

If you buy a pre-2018 Leaf it has a Type 1 socket so thats where you need to watch out.

oinkely

Also watch out for the power output of the charger. Some will only operate at 16A which gives about 3 kw to the car per hour. Some cars can only take this much (all leafs that do not have the 6.6 kw charger upgrade) while some are capable of taking more.

A 32A charger will be more useful and cover all cars, regardless of what the car can take. Would recommend a 32A charger, even if your current car is only capable of 3.3kw charging.

goz83

There is also typically no price difference between a 16A and 32A EVSE.

If you do buy a pre 2018 Leaf, a type 1 tethered is the way to go. You could always swap out the thethered cable at a later stage for not much money. The convenience of tethered cannot be overstated.

unkel

Or just buy an extra type 1 cable and leave it plugged in. Can sell that when you buy another car and buy a type 2 cable. I have a 15m "tethered" charger cable like that

goz83

unkel wrote: »

Or just buy an extra type 1 cable and leave it plugged in. Can sell that when you buy another car and buy a type 2 cable. I have a 15m "tethered" charger cable like that

And you quite literally have to lock it to the wall

I prefer my option, but each to their own

unkel

I have it locked to a tree. But I can't see much of a market for stolen EV cables anyway...

goz83

unkel wrote: »

I have it locked to a tree. But I can't see much of a market for stolen EV cables anyway...

What's your address?

unkel

goz83 wrote: »

What's your address?

I've posted a picture of my house in this forum, with the geo tags in place

n97 mini

unkel wrote: »

I've posted a picture of my house in this forum, with the geo tags in place

Was gonna say! Nearly everyone posts pictures on here with the EXIF data intact.

Yakuza

Thanks for the posts, was thinking about perhaps a 2017 330e (I saw one in a Liverpool BMW Dealer for £25k, ~€28500 plus ~€2500 VRT so, say, €31500 cost to me after flight / ferry etc) compared to €39k for a similar model here (saw one on Carzone).
There's a Q5 hybrid coming out later this year (probably early '19 more realistically), so over a year before they're available on 2nd hand market in the UK (and just in time for Brexit, which I imagine will kill imports stone dead for a while).

Follow up question - presumably two EVs / Hybrids will require separate points, so would (thinking medium term here) I'd be as well off to get a twin charger installed?

I just saw today that BMW are bringing out an induction charging unit as well (will that go mainstream? ), it looks like the charging arena is still a bit in flux!

unkel

Yakuza wrote: »

Thanks for the posts, was thinking about perhaps a 2017 330e (I saw one in a Liverpool BMW Dealer for £25k, ~€28500 plus ~€2500 VRT so, say, €31500 cost to me after flight / ferry etc)

Stesaurus got one recently, a 2017 M-sport and he brought it in for thousands less than that. You could PM him for details.

In your case I'd go for a tethered type 2 charger. Make sure it is 32A. It will work with all new EVs going forward. You will get a €600 subsidy, which should pay for everything, charger, materials and install costs. If you think you might install solar PV in the future, you might consider a Zappi charger. It can divert electricity that you are not using directly to your EV / PHEV (instead of giving it away to the grid for free)