Random EV Thoughts 2 - The Jimnying

0 to 100% is one cycle. 30 to 80% twice is also one cycle.

30 to 80% twice wears battery less than 0-100%, especially if the battery is left to sit at 100% after the charge completes. But in reality the 0 to 100% outside mobile phones etc. is more like 10-90% anyway.

I would be more worried about heat damage related to frequent quick charges on cars with poor battery cell cooling, like ID or Hyundai/Kia where only the bottom of the battery modules are cooled.

Writing it off would assume you have insurance. I doubt you could get cover in Ireland.

Honestly, please stop believing and further spreading these old wives' tales. You are basically limiting yourself to not much more than half the range of your car for no good reason. Even if you charge to 100% and down to 0% all the time, the battery will still outlast the life of the car…

Sadly, do you reckon a driver that buys such an inappropriate vehicle as this is going to give two figs what you think however?

Inappropriate in what sense ?? It’s a 1.5L BMW X1 PHEV. Pretty much the smallest cheapest mini SUV that BMW make.

We've been away for the past week, staying in a few different places on either side of the country. One of those places is a bit rural, a bit overgrown, with water nearby … I came outside yesterday morning to find that the granny cable had been gnawed in a couple of places, right through the rubber sheath in one spot where there's now metal visible through it. I don't want to risk using it again in that condition until it's been checked and hopefully repaired by my spark - thankfully I can borrow a cable from a friend for a week or so. But it meant I couldn't plug in for an overnight charge at all last night and would be leaving with only 147 miles of range, rather than 240+.

So the return trip home was "fun". We stopped in at Mayfield for the first charge as on the way there, the app showed most chargers as unoccupied when we were about 8km away. We arrived to find just the one free spot. Plugged in, saw the charge start, went in for a quick comfort break and came back out to find it charging at only 17kW. Called ESB, to be told that the charger would have to be restarted, which couldn't be done until the cars on both sides were unplugged. Of course, there was nobody sat in the other car. With the number of cars already charging there, I didn't want to risk carrying on to Ionity Kill in case I ended up stuck in a queue there as I was already behind schedule, so I had to wait nearly 20 minutes until a different charging point became free, taking on a massive 5kWh in that time. Once connected to the other charger, the fastest speed I then got was 55kW, even though I'd arrived at Mayfield with 21% after 90 minutes of driving.

Even after the full 45 minutes on the second charger, I knew I wouldn't have enough to get home, but thought I might reach the 100kW chargers in Ballymena - then we had a diversion on the way. So with just 14 miles of range left (about 3 miles after the "low battery" warning, but before actually reaching full-on turtle mode), I pulled in at Junction One in Antrim, where there are two E.On chargers outside Tim Hortons. Charging rate started off at 54kW, but just before the range indicator ticked over to 40 miles it sped up to 74kW, so by the time the shopping was done the range was up to 112 miles. Only cost 34p/kWh on PAYG, which is considerably cheaper than any other provider and is only barely above standard domestic electricity prices. Pity that seems to be the only E.On charging location in NI!

Highly recommend the Fastned Banbridge as a quick pit stop in the future - huge amount of chargers and never had any issues with low charge rates or connection errors like I do with ESB (constantly these days)

And if it's during the daytime you can pop into Starbucks or KFC and by the time you're out again you'll probably have added 20-30 miles of range.

Cheers folks. I wasn't aware of that Maxol station, but I see now there are 6 200kW chargers available as of last month - great to have another option in that general area. I've used the chargers at Banbridge a couple of times alright, but until I got diverted (as it happens, just at Banbridge) I thought my plan was reasonably sound and I drove on past it. I had only been aiming for places that (a) had multiple charging options so I wouldn't have to queue and (b) were faster than 50kW, as I thought that I'd get closer to the max 74kW my car can charge at once the battery is warm enough. As my battery doesn't have pre-heating, I even drove a bit harder than necessary towards Mayfield in the hope that it might raise the battery temperature somewhat and facilitate that slightly faster charge speed, but any benefit I might have gained from that was probably cancelled out by the length of time sat at the faulty charger. Plus it seems I'd actually need to get the SOC down closer to 10% for that to happen - not something you necessarily want to risk doing unless you can be sure of arriving at a working charger!

It was a bit of a perfect storm in terms of not being able to set off with a full battery, encountering a faulty charger and having to wait for a working one, getting a slower than expected charging speed and then being diverted - all while needing to get back in time for someone arriving at my place! Thankfully they were delayed as well. Anyway, it's unlikely that all of those things will happen again, so I'll not chuck the toys out of the pram just yet.

How long do you usually stay at their place? Because if it's anything like my visits to family, this would do 😉

https://www.diy.ie/departments/lap-13a-grey-1-gang-outdoor-weatherproof-switched-socket/5059340290874_BQ.prd