Everything you always wanted to know about electric vehicle (but were afraid to ask)

Hi all. New to this battery stuff. I have a superb PHEV. I have two questions.

1 how does the toll tag rebate/discount work. I have a tag and signed up for the levti thing with eflow. Is the 50% off peak based on the 3.20? rate or is it 50% of the 2.10 tag rate?

2 any recommendations for a home charge installation company. I have the grant emails from seai ready to go.

tia,

bop

But wouldn't you be happier if you'd paid 15k more for a premium, smaller, slower, less efficient EV, with the worst grille ever seen?

Has anyone here rented an EV abroad (specifically France)? Do the hire companies generally give you a cable capable of being plugged into a normal socket? I'm considering renting an EV this summer but won't be near a charger in the place we're staying so being able to charge at the house will be essential. Also when hire companies say 'or similar' on the booking page does that mean a car of a similar range? I don't want to book and then find that the car we get has a lot less range than what we were expecting.

Question: Has anybody imported a second hand EV recently? The 2 most likely markets are GB and Japan for obvious reasons, both non-EU countries? Just wondering how it went for you

12.3kWh/100km, Jaysus! You should post that pic in the Tesla Model S thread.

I take it from the picture, that 25 kW is available for chademo while the other side is getting nearly 43 kW? Thats nice if its the case.

Really nice would be 75kW available until the 2nd plug is in use.

How much does it cost on night rate to charge an EV per KWH?

So if I had a Tesla model 3 (big if!) how much would it cost to go from say 20% to 100% on the night rate with electric ireland for example?

In my 2020 SR+ (~50kWh battery), 20% - 80% is around 40kWh

my EI night rate is around €0.12

20% - 100% would cost me €4.80*

*over the last 3 weeks I’ve only put in 12kWh charging from the grid, so around €1.50. All the rest in that same period came from my Solar PV system (around 80kWh or 650km). Car is sitting on the driveway at 78%, so no need to charge up tonight for tomorrow’s driving, and then from Monday onwards I’d be hopeful of putting 10-20% in per day from Solar excess…..

@tom1ie - is that mostly motorway driving? None of those cars can do 400km motorway driving at 120km/h in winter without having to charge, so that's the end of the road for you there I'm afraid. Unless you are happy to stop for a fast charge on the way. Depends very much on your routes I suppose and on how often you make those trips.

@AndyBoBandy - charging from excess solar PV is bloody marvelous. I upgraded this week to a zappi (at a cost of minus €120 😂) and I have it set to eco +, with zero import from the grid allowed. I plan to charge both my EVs near 100% from the sun until autumn (I do have a rather large PV setup for someone in a small semi-d in a Dublin suburb)

You can ask a single person how much their solar setup cost, but it's a bit meaningless. You can buy a single panel and an inverter yourself for €200 in total and just plug it into a 3 pin socket - it will take the base load of your house when the sun is out in full. It will pay for itself in about 3 years. On the other end you could go with a rip off SEAI installer like active8 and spend €20k (after subsidy) for a large setup including battery. It will never pay you back what you spent. Have a look or ask in the renewable energy forum to get a better idea of what sort of setup you could get for whatever budget you have.

Hi unkel, yeah it’d be 80-90% motorway at realistically 120kph (I’ve a heavy right foot!!).

I wouldn’t mind a 15 min 150kwh fast charge stop when the battery is at a low soc (my understanding is this is when you get a high charge rate?).

However I’m mostly on the M7-M9 route from dublin to waterford and there is very little in the way of fast charging at the kilkenny/ waterford end unfortunately, also I would have to factor in the cost of a fast charge at a fast charge site (whatever that is per KWH).

I’d be making that trip maybe 3 times per week.

Also I figure that going with that figure of 300kms in winter, if I had to do a typical trip down the M11 and back up the M9 and M7 I’d arrive at the 150KWH charger at circle K M9 at kilcullen with 33% battery left (so 200kms used out of the 300kms at winter range).

How fast would the 150kw charger then charge at with the battery at 33% full? Would I get the full 150 kw?

It would only be 50kms to the house with 100kms left but just to be sure I’m factoring in having to charge to bring the battery level back up to maybe 50%, then do the rest at home.

So with 100kms left (33%/24.75kwh ), and I want to get to 50% which would be 200kms (75kwh battery in Tesla LR 50%=37.5Kwh) that means I have to add 100kms (400kms/75kwh =5.3kms per KWh), therefore to add 100 kms that’s 100kms/5.3kms= 18.86 kWh to be added. - the 150kw charger costs 0.46kwh, so 18.86 x 0.46= €8.67.

Can someone check my maths please!! 😂

Also if I get the full 150 kw how long would I take to add the extra 100 kms (18.86kwh),

so using an online calculator I make that 6 mins:

https://www.inchcalculator.com/electric-vehicle-charging-time-calculator/