Which car to charge at day rate electricity?

quenching

A slight change in schedules means I will sometimes need to charge one of our cars, Nissan Leaf & Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, using day rate electricity. The Outlander might be at 25%, the Leaf at 40%, and I’d have about 2 hours to charge either, after which the Outlander would be almost full, the Leaf at about 70%.

My quick guess is that the Leaf is much more efficient so I should charge it for the 2 hours and leave the Outlander to use the cheaper night rates. I know we’re talking very small amounts of money and it’s not going to impact on finances but if I can do either I may as well do it the cheapest way!

n97 mini

You don't state the distance covered by both cars. Charge the one that does the greatest distance (on electric) at night first.

quenching

A “full” Outlander will do 45km on a good day (12kW battery) but this drops to 30km if you turn on the aircon, the 24kW Leaf claims about 140. The Leaf is rarely below 20% but I don’t like to start a day without at least 60%. The Outlander could be empty at the end of most days. 2 hours of charge will get me about 30km (without aircon) in the Outlander, about 45km in the Leaf, I think.

This makes the Leak about twice as efficient (km/kW) so I should charge the Leaf rather than the Outlander for 2 hours during the day. I think!

unkel

quenching wrote: »

This makes the Leak about twice as efficient (km/kW) so I should charge the Leaf rather than the Outlander for 2 hours during the day. I think!

Indeed, but the Outlander on electric is 10 times as efficient as the Outlander on petrol!

The one thing you should try and avoid is for the Outlander to be running on petrol