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

Thanks so much.

So in the immediate term, sign up for ESB and EasyGo and work with PlugShare.

We'll start to work it out :-)

This is a VW specific question, apologies. Their WeConnect ID app comes with a WeCharge plan type of thing. Why do I need that if I can just have my own ESB and EasyGo accounts?

Sometimes people prefer just one card/provider. And it is fine if you use it once in a blue moon. If you are a heavy user you can sign up for Go or Plus plans which have a monthly fee but are cheaper overall especially for Ionity.

I just looked up prices and DC charging for the free plan is 76c/kWh on 3rd party networks and Ionity is 73c/kWh . That is around 30c or 2/3 dearer per kWh. Even on the Plus plan DC is more expensive but the overstay begins after 90 mins.

You should signup for the WeCharge one also. Just go for the free plan. WeCharge is international and has agreements with multiple providers, not just Ionity.

You might never use it but if you signup for the PAYG plan it will cost you nothing until the day you actually need it and you might be glad of it then.

And if you own an ID car you will have the app already on your phone anyway so its not even an extra app to download/update etc.

To get the max charging speed at a fast DC charging you need a warm battery. That's primarily what the battery heating is for.

However, on a very cold day, you will also have restricted power from the car if the battery is very cold, so some cars will heat the battery to an operating temperature that allows max driving power. It doesn't heat it to the same level as required for max charging speed but just enough to give you max power.

It will affect your range, unless the heating is done while plugged in at home, in which case the heating comes from your house electricity.

In most cases you just let the car manage the whole thing itself. Its not something you worry about but it depends on the car.

Agree with both comments but, when speaking about Tesla, it is good practice to let the car know you intend to charge. On a long drive it is worth adding the SuC as intermediate destination in the navigation instead of popping up there on a whim. Even when charging at non Tesla chargers it is good idea to navigate to the charger instead of simply showing up. I did some tests in the winter and for few minutes the car redirected good kW from the charger for warming up the battery. Now that I have the SuC in my back garden I could do more tests preconditioned vs not.

Has anybody any experience with extension cables for their tethered home chargers such as this one, do they work well?

https://evonestop.co.uk/collections/extension-cables/products/type-2-extension-cable-5-meter-16-32-amp

Preconditioning of the battery, especially LFP in colder weather is an absolute must and absolutely will make a massive difference to charging speeds.

I use an extension cable on a 32a CEE evse as one of my two regular home chargers with no issue.

Picked up my new Tiguain PHEV last week and have a couple of questions that are probably fairly dumb but anyway;

1. We've priced up getting a proper EV charger in our house. House is old and requires about 3k worth of work to support an EV charger. We'll be looking at extending the house in a few years which will require a re-wire and possibly move where the charger is. Would we be better off just getting an external socket and granny charging? I have access to proper chargers in work so don't expect to use the granny charger all that much other than the odd weekend or week I don't go into the office
2. Public charging points - whats the best option for access to the most chargers? I don't expect to use them very often if at all but would like to have the option if we are away for a while or going to leave the car parked up somewhere for a few hours. Is it considered bad form to leave PHEV plugged in at these?

Does this happen often? Considering that most super fast CCS charge points are "tethered" then I would imagine that the connector will not fit in a PHEV seeing as most of them only have a type 2 socket on them. Pulling into the charger spot and not connecting anything, should have a penalty applied on it for sure though.

Did you asked the installer for only the 16A or 3.6kW charger? Maybe you don't need upgrading. You can buy a charging point that works for both 3.6kW/7.2kW the later being the most used/sold ones. Your car maxes out at 3.6kW so the wires required should be smaller.

Here an example. (I do not endorse or represent the company. They were the first result on google)

Thanks for the replies all, will take it all on board.

My commute is only about a 1km really and most of my journeys are <10k total during the week. At the weekend i might go a bit further afield. I had originally wanted full BEV but couldn't get one for January so went with this, range is about 45KM at the moment which would I'm hoping will get me through the week on electric mode. Driving it in that mode has just cemented that the next car will be BEV though, lovely to drive in that mode so that does sort of lead me to the conclusion of getting the charger installed sooner rather than later. Don't know exactly when we'll do the extension but it probably will be in 3-4 years time the way things are with building at the moment.

I'll make sure to avoid those types of fast chargers so but in all likelihood i'll probably just use the petrol engine rather than stop for too long to charge the car.