Always Be Charging? I rely on public charging for 1 month. Here's what happened.

[@danielbarton1694]

Having bought my first EV last week, I found your video very informative. No brainier subscribing to your channel, I’ll be bing watching the rest of your channel content over the next week!

[@MrEV]

Thanks so much!

[@decimal1815]

What did you get?

[@danielbarton1694]

@@decimal1815A new MG ZS EV Trophy with 72kWh battery. The spec is very impressive for what we paid, that coupled with a 7 year warranty, we are very happy we made the switch from an ICE car.

[@dgilbert222]

Thank you for an honest video without any flapping, waffle or drama! Your costs I estimate at £20-30 cheaper than a diesel at 42mpg average. Yes, public charging is too expensive but with the right choices it can come in just under diesel.

[@vmlinuz]

When I got my EV in January, I expected to mostly use public chargers - I live in a terrace with no driveway, but I was hoping to move this year, which didn't happen! In the end, I've done almost all of my charging at home with a granny charger, a high-load-rated-and-fused extension and a rubber cable cover for the pavement - never had any complaints from the neighbours on my small side street. Unfortunately, I've now got into the habit of paying 7p per kWh at home and find it really hard to bring myself to pay public charger rates!

[@bastogne315]

Me too..ive a rubber mat on the footpath😂😂😂❤

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Similar. I have a driveway but I use a granny charger at 8A to charge as i please.

[@scottoreilly4785]

I live in a 2 floor flat in a new build in hackney east London. When I got my ev, I had planned to use street chargers until I got a parking ticket for charging on a council lamppost charger which thought was scandalous. I bought a 25m extension lead and a 13 amp EV trickle charger and now hang the extension down to the street and then plug my car in. It normally takes between 8 and 10 hours and costs about £10. Thanks for the parking ticket, it has ultimately saved me a fortune in this long run.

[@hcw199]

Imagine if everyone was hanging electrical cables down the street.... Real genius!

[@Banyan314]

@@hcw199Needs must. Not so much a reflection on the user, more a reflection on the inadequate provision on the local council. Lamp post chargers are so much easier to use MBA cheaper to install as are pavement gullies for charging cables to reduce trip hazards. The tech and solutions are there, it just takes some vision, money and political drive to put it in place.

[@ohyesitsme]

@@Banyan314 Can you imagine in the future 50% of flat owners have EV's and are sharing a lamp posr charger.

[@scottoreilly4785]

@@hcw199 it would be really colourful if we all use different colour extensions

[@decimal1815]

Yeah, we're not quite there yet with public charging. Lots of gaps in the rapid charging network, and councils don't have enough funding to roll-out chargers in public carparks at the scale required for 2030. Hopefully things will improve..

[@decimal1815]

It's also worth remembering that around 1 in 4 households in the UK don't have access to any sort of car. This hit home for me when visiting family in my EV - I had to park a couple of miles away from their flat. They couldn't own a car if they wanted to, realistically, and there's virtually no public charging nearby either. Ironically, they live right next to a petrol station.. and an MOT garage!

[@johnnodge4327]

We home charge here in Cornwall. However we visit Horsham quite often, so I get the Tesla subscription for the month we're travelling. For the subscription to save money, we need to know we're going to use about 90 kWhr to offset the £8.99 subscription fee, which we do on that trip. We charge at Tesla Crawley, Dorking or Guildford, depending on where we are when we need to top up.

[@AlistairHughes]

I've had an EV for almost 3 years now, and have relied on public charging the entire time as I live in a terraced house. Once or twice it's been a drag, but most of the time I either charge in work (which is a no-brainer as I'm in the office for 8 hours and my car's outside in the carpark) or at supermarkets. As you said, there's no need to keep the battery at 100% every day, so I'll charge once or twice a week, with occasional top-ups if needed. Lamppost chargers would be great, but most British councils have spent the last 40 years moving potential crash hazards, such as lampposts, cabinets, masts, and poles away from the kerb. Government guidelines are for street furniture to be places at the rear edge of footways, especially lighting as this allows the light to illuminate the pavement as well as the road. This leads to fewer accidents, fewer injuries in the event of accidents, and less damage to both street furniture and vehicles if an accident does occur. But to prevent trips and falls most councils won't allow cable to be run over pavements, which makes lampposts unusable for chargers in most of the UK.

[@AncalimeNL]

I have an 11 kW charger on the road behind my house. I find it to be no faff at all. And, €0,39 per kW. These British prices are insane compared to here in the Netherlands

[@MrEV]

It's an absolute paradise in the Netherlands for charging!

[@tonrotterdam]

Just to rub it in; in my neighbourhood in Rotterdam we have at least 15 points with 2 connectors each. Prices vary; 32 cents and 61 cents per kWh depending on the charger. I'm dependent on a public charger as I'm in an apartment.

[@zvdfk]

The same in France, between €0,23 and €0,32 per kWh, and chargers everywhere

[@johnw65uk]

If you compare home electricity prices though Uk is quite cheap compared to the continent. I’ve spent £40 on 1500 miles charging at home. A few days ago my electricity company paid me 44p to charge from 40 to 80% overnight. But yes public charging is a ripoff . Can only hope it’s due to all the investment that is currently going on.

[@stephencrowther524]

@@johnw65uk No,it’s due to vat and the various companies trying to screw as much as possible from their customers….thats the current idea of good business practice….grab it and run.

[@mikehainsworth747]

when I bought my Tesla it took just under a week to get the V5 in my name so I could register the ownership with Tesla. It was difficult finding chargers that working fine. 2-3 time to connect and paying £40 ish each time. Now I charge at Tesla and the majority of the time it’s only £0.24 kWh, at peak time it’s £0.53 kWh . Plug-in and charge and charged directly to my debit card. I feel for people who use public chargers as it’s a lot of hassle and extra expense.

[@nigell1652]

To be clear £40 is a pre authorisation. It can be a pain but it is refunded within a week.

[@bellshooter]

I've had EVs since 2017, but lost access to home charging a couple of years ago. Then I had limited access to local public charging, with only 3 local rapids and they were unreliable/busy. Since then our local infrastructure has improved and I have access to 9 stations with 29 chargers.....at 3 supermarkets , 2 pubs, 2 retail areas. Not too shabby!

[@seanashmore8785]

A really informative and helpful video.

[@mgortega07]

Mr Andrew Love your information Your a Star ⭐️⭐️👍😎

[@glynmoore3730]

Great video and great experiment. I haven't had to use a public charger yet, and I've had my Enyaq for over 7 months. But based purely on your figures for using public chargers for 1 month, it would have cost me £40 more to use my previous ice car, a petrol 1.4 Mokka. So pleased I've gone electric, and certainly don't miss topping up at petrol stations any more.

[@RideshareBuddyUK]

trouble with electroverse is that you never quite know what you're going to be charged. I charged up yesterday using my electoverse card, the app showed 30p kwh and I was actually charged 75p kwh. Deceptive pricing should be made illegal. It does not happen in the petrol world, it should not happen in the EV world

[@MrEV]

I've not heard about that before. Have you contacted Electroverse?!

[@RideshareBuddyUK]

@@MrEV yes I sent them a message this morning asking for a refund of the difference - they've not answered yet 🤣

[@DB25k]

Graze graze more grazing.... Great video .....thank you so much for putting this together. I graze all the time....

[@nigell1652]

The availability of chargers is still very patchy. I live in Telford and wouldn't fancy doing without a home charger. There are zero chargers on local council car parks or the main shopping centre for example. The local Telford council have just announced they're finally making improvements so hopefully things will improve. Shropshire council is a basket case so little hope for Shrewsbury and nearby towns.

[@michaeledwards8079]

I think one of the main problems with public chargers is the cost, my EV does 3.8 miles per KW and a recent public charge was 89p per KW so this cost me 23.42 pence per mile, but my old petrol car averaged 50 MPG and petrol is 125p per litre or £5.68 a gallon making it 11.36 pence per mile, this is the main drawback to running an EV, but most of the time I charge at home at 18p a KW so cost is 4.7p a mile

[@charlesbrown447]

I use Chargeplace Scotland's chargers at 37p/kWh DC.

[@_Dougaldog]

@@charlesbrown447 Same here 22kW charger (7kW a.c to my MG) but 25p/kWh, and localised Tesla 250kW chargers (so far 90kW d.c to my MG) at 39p/kWh. Worth watching some of the ChargeplaceScotland stations are cheaper (47p drops to 27p)after 8:00 p.m. to 08:00 a.m.

[@craggy4749]

Where are you? cheapest near me is £1.38 for unleaded.

[@johnnodge4327]

You should be on an EV tariff. We pay 6.7p per kWhr between 00:00 and 07:00. I don't need to drive our EV efficiently unless I'm on a long journey and fast charging, because the running costs on home charging are literally 2.3p per mile.

[@BalintGulyas]

50mpg petrol? What car was that?

[@Queenmania2007]

As a wheelchair user I was a little apprehensive about taking the plunge, as at the time I was living in rented accommodation with no prospect of a home charger. I now have a home charger which is so much better, but in general I've found public charging stations to be reasonably accessible, even if not deliberately. The size of the apparatus often means there's extra space for the cable/charger around the side of the car anyway, which means manoeuvring a wheelchair isn't as hard as it otherwise would be. Occasionally the plug socket or payment screen is just out of reach which is very frustrating, but overall not as bad as I thought it would be!

[@shaunpowelluk]

I'm a Tesla owner. I wouldn't be disgruntled if it helps. I won't lie though, I've seen many owners make grumblings about it, and it's quite split in how owners perceive the idea of sharing the network. I've seen Tesla owners use the stalls as their personal parking space, to one blocking several stalls whilst they charge as they refuse to unhitch their trailer. As long as it's being used respectably and according to how Tesla themselves have advised users, I see it only as a good thing as the network continues to improve and expand.

[@iansinclair7581]

I’ve been doing the same since the 18th of October. I did have a date for fitting a home charger but that was cancelled and am now waiting for the 13th of December. In the town centre we have an 80kwh @75p, a 120kwh@85p and a 300kwh@95p. The only one that worked properly was the InstaVolt @85p. The 300kwh would not communicate with my vehicle and the 80kwh would not either. So not so good for public chargers. There are no Tesla chargers in my county. The cheapest fast chargers are Ospreys @69p 13 miles away. There is a bank of Gridserve chargers again 13 miles away but they have been waiting for over a year to be commissioned. So public charging is not so good in Fife.

[@octarinehk]

Had our little eUP for 6 months now. Always charged publicly and usually for free (thanks Sainsbury’s). We don’t do many miles so only charge every couple of weeks when we are shopping.

[@johnbaker5533]

Interestingly Uckfield had planning permission granted for a massive Gridserve Electric Forecourt but that was 4 years ago now....

[@MrEV]

I talked to someone at Gridserve about it and they were a bit evasive! I'm not sure it'll ever happen. ☹️

[@johnbaker5533]

@@MrEV Yeah I doubt it too. They had crazy plans for 50 forecourts by 2025! But they have 4 now and 1 more in construction atm. They are beautiful locations but must be crazy expensive and will only work financially for the footfall for the shops is for everyone charging (and more loads more bays) and on busy motorway like locations. Uckfield doesn't meet those requirements sadly.

[@Jaw0lf]

Had you learnt about the EVDC charger before hand? Having watched your video, I have given their details to a friend as they are a lot cheaper and he does not have home charging. Several near me are at 46 pence per kWh. I do think that the ABC mantra is the way to charge your EV if no home charging. If I did not have home charging I would move our weekly coffee stop to one with the cheaper chargers. The benefit of a free charge is always possible and some places still offer this. If my friend was to visit, I would happily charge his car especially if he stayed overnight, so we could enjoy a few beers! Great to see that you managed and also reminding people that any 3 pin plug can allow you to charge. My Kia E Niro never managed above 58kWh, but on a long trip it was ideal as 3 to 4 hours of driving meant I would be ready for a break. Toilet and then coffee would take about 30-40 minutes, food maybe towards 45 minutes, by which time the E Niro was at 80% or near to. It fit in perfectly for us. The Tesla Model 3 that I now have has required stops around 12 minutes, so only enough time to get the coffee, let alone eat or drink anything!

[@MattGarnham1]

They need to take the 20% VAT off public charging

[@g.d2450]

when the government get enough sheep into the pen then you will find the price rapidly increasing as they're already suggesting they're losing too much in fuel duty and vat, road tax is coming in as well..... so expect 20 percent vat to be the least of your worries 😂😂😂

[@johnjames7332]

Exactly, this is the UK afterall where the government is growing faster than the economy [like an agressive cancer] so they will have to increase taxes/vat/levies/duties to satisfy their spend.

[@robertblood3722]

Hi Andrew. Been following you both for years and found this very interesting. We live in Gillingham Kent so not far from your old homes in and around Canterbury. Anyway thanks for this just showed you can do it. We run a MG4 and a Zoe both being electric. Keep these films coming. Also had Solar for 11 years, 4 years with an Air to Air system that gives us heating and cooling of the house and a battery. Having our gas meter removed in two weeks time because changed cooker so don’t need gas anymore. Will keep following you and hope you get that conservator of yours sorted out when you have the money. Regards Bob Blood Gillingham. Kent. England.

[@bartvanhoof6278]

From a Spanish perspective ... we've moved house as well, did so on Aug 1st ... but we still don't have a home charge point in the garage (coming this month on the 10th!). Over those 4 months we've driven 11,617 km , which is an average of 2,904.3 a month (yes, we use our EV a lot) ... the average price for charging was €0,34/kWh ... we charged about every 3 days, there are not enough chargers in our region to "graze" as you do. We have exactly 2 charge points in our village, but no real issues ... the only thing we have to take into account is that if we charge on Friday night we have to pick the car up at around midnight because Sat. morning (early) the local market is held right where the chargers are so you can't move the car until 14.00! (kid's football games are usually at around 10 am on the weekends, so yeah). We hardly did any fast charging (50+ kW), and the extra cost can be offset by some of the times we were able to charge for free. Result ... we still saved around €75 each month if we compare the kms driven, the current price of diesel (as it fluctuated over the 4 months ... I keep an Excel) and the efficiency of the diesel car we traded in for the EV over 2 years ago. Once the charger is set up the savings will shoot up to €250+ a month (as they were previously). EDIT: I should say ... these savings also include the petrol costs for the Yaris (our second car) ... the more we have to drive with that, the lower the savings ... it did effect the savings. The Yaris kms are not included above.

[@bartvanhoof6278]

I can add so much more data ... For example, for 2020 (when we had the diesel and the Yaris hybrid) our total fuel costs for the total kms driven (23,403 km) came down to an average of €0,068/km Since 08.2022 when we changed out the diesel for the EV the total kms driven have been 76,539.2 km (EV + Yaris) with an average cost of €0,038/km ... the cost of the EV use for on street charging over the past 4 months doubled ALL charging costs since car purchase. So, it used to be at under 3 cents/km. We used to fill the Yaris up weekly, now once a month. Since the EV purchase ... we have spent almost the same amount of money charging the EV (including these past 4 months) where it did almost 60,000 km ... as we spent fueling the Yaris, which did around 16,500 km over that same period.

[@murph10375]

It’s a shame you didn’t move into the neighbourhood a year ago. Crowborough train station was free charging with a £2.60 parking fee for the weekend day. Essentially a tank of fuel for £2.60. Helped me whilst waiting for the home charger instalation.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

I love those Kempower chargers.First encountered them down in ? Devon? (Darts Farm, i think) They've just installed 4 double bay units at my local Sainsburys as you've said in another vid, they are rolling them out at a massive rate. Id like to see some discounts for electricity in the same way many supermarkets have been discounting petrol with so much off for shopping .

[@nicolalionello4421]

welcome to Sussex! I live in a flat and have charged my EV in public charging in/around Haywards Heath for three years.

[@cbromley562]

Great video. Hopefully, it'll become common practice for workplaces to provide charging...3kW would do it in most cases.

[@ComeChargeWithUs-e8x]

Nice video. As you say the amount of hassle is very dependent on where you live and where you spend time so it will differ wildly for different people. If you can charge at your workplace or supermarket or somewhere else you spend a lot of time then it's pretty easy. One thing with AC chargers is that they involve an extra degree of hassle because you have to use your own cable, so I personally wouldn't bother if I was there less than an hour. A final point is that your challenge was a little tougher because your car charges relatively slowly, I guess the Leaf would have been even harder!

[@danielbarton1694]

Charging away from home will also incur paying VAT at 20% whereas VAT is only 5% from your home electricity supply.

[@decimal1815]

Now do the same thing only using the LEAF exclusively! That would be a real challenge :) A colleague of mine has dumped his 24kWh LEAF and bought a petrol car just because he was relying on public charging, and chargers in Huddersfield are terrible. Not enough to cope with demand. Shame, but the reality of most 'affordable' (cash purchase, sub-£8k) EVs is that the battery is =< 50kWh, which means more frequent charging and sub-50kW slower charging speeds. The 64kWh eNiro makes public charging a lot easier as you can top-up on a rapid charger less frequently and it will take a lot of charge. But it's still too expensive for a lot of people.

[@IDann1]

Only commute 15 miles a day, so my granny charger is working just fine for me at 3kw (13a) But I been using public charging for over a year, its been good and bad, the bad has been stealth parking tickets to Tesco and PodPoint

[@roundel52]

Andrew, you didn't try hard enough :). If you park to the right side of the bay, the correct port for that bay does indeed fit in an e-Niro; though it is a little tight.

[@fredgray2376]

I never managed to do this in my e-Niro, but the new Niro EV has its port in the centre and I find it is just possible.

[@RossCollinsUK]

Did you try this during the recent sub-zero temperatures? My EV range dropped massively then because the battery heater come on with every drive (as well as higher cabin heater energy costs) - having the battery cold soak overnight, not plugged in, in those temperatures meant that short trips that used to use 3% battery were now using 10%! That changes the calculation a bit when not having home charging.

[@stephencrowther524]

Electric cars are the most popular cars in Norway,which has far lower temperatures than us. Some small loss of range does not appear to be an issue for them.

[@gordonmackenzie4512]

Interesting ! Thank you. I’ve had a my Renault Megane Etech for 3 months, but I’ve only charged at home with my wall box. Some solar, but mostly cheap rate during the night. 25% - 80% costs £2.70 and lasts me a week or so.

[@FFVoyager]

4:25 - no-one on your estate with an EV. I'm amazed. I deliver flyers for our (now) local MP and have been doing so for 4 or 5 years and have noticed the uptake in EV's (and chargers) in the houses around me. When I started doing it there was just one, an early Leaf, by the time I got mine there were three or four more. By the local elections there were 15 or so and by the general election last summer so many I lost count. Certainly more than 25 in the 300 odd houses I push flyers through the doors now. A few houses (including ours) have more than one EV too.

[@robertosfield]

We've just traded in a Diesel C4 Picasso for a MG5 SE. Average cost per mile for was 11p/mile for the Diesel, with home charging on Octopus Go were are charging the MG5 for around 2.5p/mile. Haven't tried public charging yet, but am prepared for it to very expensive compared to home charging. Public charging has to pay 20% VAT vs 5% VAT for home electricity so that's small but significant extra cost public charging has to add.

[@imamiddleagedman]

East Sussex is a charging desert. I’m fortunate to have a 7kw charger at home and can use but a real lack of anything useful, especially in the rural bits.

[@bigbadthesailor5173]

even a centred port on the front of the car works at Tesla superchargers - charge my Zoe there parked on the correct slot without difficulty. this was our life for about 15 months but we were very lucky to be in Scotland: granny chanrging at home now, but before we moved 10 months back I used public charging all the time - I was heavily reliant of a set of FREE chargeplace scotland fast chargers right next to where I swim - sadly these are now 45p/kWh - not bad at all. there were also some council run fast chargers near my work which were only 35p, but the council have now commandeered these for their own vehicles. Things do keep changing - mostly for the better. In these 2 years the rapid charging network has been revolutionised.

[@usaverageguy]

The cost of electricity in the US is cheap by European standards. I pay $0.11 per KWH at home. I have seen public chargers from $0.32 to $0.78, but I rarely use them. I do not recommend driving an EV unless you can charge at home. Fortunately 72%of Americans live in single family homes with a driveway.

[@darrylrichman]

Where are you in the US? I wrote a reply above about my experiences in California. Gas and electricity here are very expensive. My utility charges me between $0.38-0.60/kWh, for example.

[@usaverageguy]

@@darrylrichman South Georgia. I also forgot to mention I have solar panels. So I charge off the sun.

[@darrylrichman]

@@usaverageguy Yes, I do too, it's the only reasonable way to go here.

[@Petelmrg]

We've had an ev for years now with no home charging, three different cars with no hassle, much easier as time has gone on. We were staying near you a couple of months ago - have the Podpoints at M&S Maresfield not gone live yet? - they looked to be putting quite a few in when we were there. Nice to see a non click-bait approach to the subject.

[@MrEV]

I checked on Zapmap and yes, they are live. 10x 7kW chargers with a maximum stay of two hours. I'd rather see a couple of 50kW rapids to be honest as two hours isn't enough for a meaningful charge in a location like that.

[@Banyan314]

I actually park straddling the bay line with my E Niro at a V3 Tesla Charger when it’s not busy. V4 chargers are so much easier to use.

[@vincentvanderkemp2041]

Here in Holland in the street where i live there are 14 publick charge points . All within 300 meters . Price from €0,31 till €0,50 . Tesla super charger within 1 KM and there is also a Nio swap station.

[@foppo100]

I like the UK it is my home country lived her more than 50 years,.You got to remember this. The Brits like meetings about meetings so to get anything done local is a long tedious haul.

[@TheWinstn60]

When I got my 1st EV in 2019 it was easy charging for free for at least 2 years. Now no chance. The Government now pay for the grid connection so we are still being ripped off and electricity pricing is artificially high as its set by the price of Gas

[@ISuperTed]

Great video, very informative. The big issue of course is the massive disparity between the worst public chargers and cheap rate home charging. Given probably 40% of people can’t home charge, this has created a huge us and them situation. Hopefully this will eventually start to change as more EV’s are out there and economies of scale begin to kick in. However, like you said, businesses need to make a profit so I don’t ever expect prices to be much less than petrol/diesel. As we get faster charging cars over the next few years and longer ranges, grazing won’t be so much of a needed strategy, but IMHO that’s 5 to 10 years ahead.

[@ziggarillo]

80 % of people who drive cars , could charge at home. Not everyone drives.

[@MartynDix]

Please add in the unnecessary time needed to hang around charging @£40 per hour, all the food bought at services and the miles travelled off route to find a charger.. Not knocking EVs at all but the utter mess of all those different apps and broken charge stations make ice cars ATM perfect for most people.

[@0-Will-0]

With Electroverse you just have one card and a map full of chargers. Definitely people with long commutes or no home-charging should think carefully but we've swapped two ICE cars for EVs and genuinely find it a lot more convenient and enjoyable to drive them, not just cheaper.

[@t.d.5804]

Tesla gives 3000km a year free charging here, I do use this in winter since solar modules dont produce anything here at 53°N Nov-Feb. Luckily the next SuC (20 stalls) is at a bigger shopping center 20min away. Shopping groceries takes longer than the car to charge (20min 10-80%). Public charging works if theres a 100% usable charger at locations you always visit

[@MyMateYourMate]

Of course, it’s not all about cost. The dirty, toxic fumes you aren’t pumping out are the reason we need to change. We charged at gridserve yesterday, 75p/kWh which gave us about 15.6/mile unlike our Zafira petrol which costs 23p/mile. Should have used the Tesla chargers…

[@ohyesitsme]

You forget about the dirty toxic fumes generated by the massive digging machines scavaging the earth for rare materials for the battery construction. Then the dirty massiive trucks carrying the products to the refining plants and then the dirty refining plants making the chemicals suitable for battery production. then the dirty manufacture of the batterys followed by the dirty manufacture of the steel and transportation for the car production. Oh! and then there is the dirty transportation of the finished cars to whatever country they are destined for. Then we have the dirty transportation to the storage fields follwed by more dirty transportation to the dealers. This is the life of the "green" EV

[@stephencrowther524]

@@ohyesitsme And they are still “greener” than ICE vehicles,amazing isn’t it ! Nothing is perfect,overall though,they pollute less.

[@charlesbrown447]

I use mainly Chargeplace Scotland's network in South Ayrshire. They charge 31p/kWh for AC, up to 22kW, and 37p/kWh for DC which all seem to be 50kW. There is a £5 minimum with a maximum stay of 1 hour for DC and 5 hours for AC then theres a £30 overstay fee. It appears that fee might be charged if you're not charging tho.

[@Snerdles]

Alrernatively, just buy a small efficient hybrid and put gas in it every 2 weeks or one a month, save money, save time, don't have to plan around chargers, can drive long distances without a game plan...

[@MartinJonesamheuwr]

We have owned an EV for 15 months and covered 6074 miles, at an average cost of just over 4 pence per mile. We live in North Wales and without the ability to charge at home it would have cost us almost 20 pence per mile. Our previous car, a Citroen C4 Picasso, cost 16p per mile, when fuel was at its most expensive. As much as I enjoy driving our car, I doubt very much we would consider an EV without the home charger.

[@paulclapton7803]

In 2 ways I'm lucky and 1 not No off street parking ,but do live on a quiet street ,so cable over the pavement in the day light in a cable tray during the weekend so everyone can see it , if I can't charge i have a tesla supercharger open to all 1.5miles away , 6 months into my 1st ev .😊

[@scottchapman518]

I live in a flat do have some reasonable public charging options near me which I use to charge my car. It would be better if public charging prices were lower, however it wouldn't make sense for me to buy a house simply to charge my car, as a house would cost a lot more in mortgage, maintenance, council tax etc so whilst public charging seems expensive, it's still cheaper than buying a house to charge your car. That's assuming you don't have any other reasons to buy a house.

[@iantrayler7822]

I got my first EV in autumn 2020. I initially charged at a local BP Pulse 50 kw charger at 12.5p per kilowatt. I do question whether the actual cost of power has really gone up to justify the current 79p. As a nearby Uckfield resident, you should have been able enjoy a Gridserve hub on the A22 by now. Planning was granted over 4 years ago but still no sign of progress.

[@saintuk70]

Mentioned before that I've a PHEV down to lack of on-street and driving rural Scotland from home. Even with the PHEV I'll always graze, makes sense to take every opportunity to take a charge, no matter how small. Yes, it's a cultural change. Also, yes, if people look at their journeys and just how short they are, leccy is not such a challenge.

[@TheMrMarkW]

Great Video. Thanks as always for your tips. I'm sure if I hadn't watched your videos before getting my car back in March I'd have struggled. I've lived with a 2.4kW granny charger since I got my Polestar 2 in March '24 (78kWh battery, 75kWh usable) as I can't get a 7kW charger installed at home. Whilst I'm lucky enough to have a driveway & a garage, my Garage is a separate building at the back of my house beyond the small 'yard' behind my house. The Garage has a 16A Feed but the Consumer Unit is at the front of the house - so we'd have to run the cable through the foundations and dig up the patio and probably run 30m of cable to where the Charge Point would be sited. It's a terrace so taking it on the outside of the house isn't possible, plus I'm on a looped feed and only have a 60A breaker. The Granny charger is fine - granted it's not the fastest thing, but overnight it puts 16% per 5 hours back in, roughly, via the 2.3kW charger at 8.5p per kWh on Octopus Go. If I need it to add more charge I just turn the schedule off in the Car and let it charge at the 24p/kW standard rate - still works out WAY cheaper than the fuel I used to pay for in my Diesel Audi and as a home worker mostly, the car just sits on the drive most of the week so I just leave it on charge. At work (200 miles from my house) we have 14x 7kW free PodPoint chargers where we can just plug in. So usually I charge my car to 90% at home, drive 120 miles where there is a Tesla Supercharger next to a Cafe in Northumberland - car's normally around 40% at this point dependent on the time of year (in summer maybe closer to 50%, Winter definitely 40%) so I plug in and go have some dinner at the cafe. Car usually only takes 20-30 minutes to charge back up to 90% or so, so I have to keep an eye on the app as I don't want Tesla to charge me idle fees. If I fancy splash and dash I've stopped literally for 10 minutes to give me enough time to grab a drink and go to the toilet and that gives me enough extra (usually up to 60-65%) to enable me to get to the hotel near my office, usually with 25-30% left. (I *can* do home to work on 1 charge (remember - distance is one statistic the GOM uses, but the other is ascent/descent - so travelling through Northumberland you find that the range drops considerably due to it being quite so undulating) - but it needs me to fill the car to 100% at home and I arrive at work with 9% SoC - Too close for comfort for me (I've done it a couple of times in the summer, but I definitely wouldn't risk it in Winter). So I can then fill the car up at work while I'm working for free, and then drive home, stopping at the Fastned charge hub near Darlington to top up before getting home. Whilst I do have an electroverse card, I also have a polestar charge account which is effectively a plugsurfing card. I get 30% off at Tesla, Ionity, Fastnet, Allego and a few other chargers for £12 a month - one decent sized rapid charge and it has paid for itself, pretty much - and the Fastned 'Autocharge' is excellent and works with the Polestar Charge card - You just set it up via the app, add the Polestar Charge card as the 'charge card' and now when I use Fastned it doesn't even need me to do *anything* except plug the car in - it reads the car's MAC address via the comms pins, knows it's my car, starts the charge with my polestar charge account all automatically. Which makes it work somewhat like the Tesla's do. (I know some chargers now support the 'Plug & Charge' standard - annoyingly my Polestar doesn't support that - only mainly VAG group vehicles currently via Ionity). We also have loads of connected kerb chargers (same as the ones you showed) around here in lots of the North Yorkshire car parks - the most useful ones are the ones at the cinema in Harrogate where there are 12 charging spaces right behind the cinema, so I can top my car up whilst I'm in Harrogate for dinner or watching a movie. Occasionally you'll find there's the odd one that's been wired up to 3 phase electric too, so in my EV I can charge at 11kW then (sadly it won't do the full 22kW 3-Phase AC - it only runs at 3x16A) - The only problem with those connected kerb chargers is that funky shutter mechanism - they get gunked up with dirt or grit, and when you try to rotate them they stick and just won't allow you to connect. It's a bit of a PITA - but in most cases around here there are so many of them I just move to the next charger nearby. (BTW - I remember you saying on Threads you were getting a Polestar 2 to test - did you ever test it? What did you think?)

[@davidsonkeith8465]

Never had any home charging for our three and a half years with the Soul EV. I use both DC and AC equally. It is a right faff sometimes. But only if we keep comparing it with the re-fuelling experience (far quicker and easier to pay). Got to think, plan and organise myself more. You spot how prices vary a lot for the same kW.

[@paguk2000]

Andrew I have a I3 and my charge port is on the wrong side the same as VW group. I try to use the right hand charger and park in the bay next door that way you are only taking up ,1 ev bay

[@IMBlakeley]

I just worked out my old petrol fiesta, 14p a mile. Planning on an EV when we move soon 🤞but it will be mostly home charge. Just working out if to buy or to lease.

[@nigell1652]

You'll enjoy never having to visit another petrol station. 😉

[@EndsBowen]

Awesome video again.

[@stevenbarrett7648]

Being 'between homes' right now we have been existing on public chargers for over a month, not really seen much difference apart from the price as at home it was either free off our solar or 7ppkWh overnight from Octopus. We use Tesla in the main so its just plug and go off for our usual coffee break. Actually had our first 5 minute wait time, first time in the two and half years of driving a Tesla. Did try a few pod points at places like Tesco are recently The Springs off the A1/M but most are broken but nice near to the doors parking spots so a bit of a win there, just wish they would fix these things. Last week we spotted another 14 V4 installation getting ready to go live at the shopping centre and retail park just off the A64 south of York, very handy for our weekly escape to the East coast when it comes on line. So all in all not a lot to report as Tesla chargers just work

[@johnairs2735]

My hybrid costs 10.5 p per mile just for fuel so cheaper than using away from home EV chargers , It's always best, as you say to charge at home . A 13 amp 3 pin socket will do an overnight charge and give you 120 miles. But only If you have a drive at your house, as you rightly say. I'm a fan of EV's and like your informative videos on the subject. I'm hoping my next car will be one of the new small EVs. Perhaps the nice one you showed at its local launch.

[@nigelk780]

I have an EV which I only home charge and ICE vehicles. Charging an EV away from home (x10) equates to a similar cost/mile to an ICE. The problem is the capital cost for the EV and its amortisation is much higher. So for us local driving in a low cost simple EV combined with an ICE for everything else is the most cost effective solution. We need to tow heavy trailers, 360 miles for 7hrs yesterday for instance so EV only doesnt work for us however if we didnt have this requirement and long distance was occasional then EV only could work but for the capital and depreciation currently.

[@ipb1966]

I take your point on the Tesla supercharging but if the drivers want to be grumpy then they should direct that at Tesla, not other owners using a facility Tesla have provided. The majority of cars don’t have their charging port in the same location as Tesla. Don’t the latest superchargers have the charger in the middle of the bay or have longer cables?

[@csmdrivingsolutions]

Great video! Really helpful as usual. Any tips for someone wanting to start creating car review videos?

[@ChrisJakins]

Thanks for making this interesting video which we can see incurred some extra cost for you. Obviously it does negate most of your EV running cost savings when you rely on rapids but you pay for the convenience of getting charged quickly. If you ran the same experiment with petrol or diesel I would guess it would be comparable roughly but it isn’t all about fuel costs. I like to top up when shopping occasionally but try to charge at home as much as possible. The winter is a bit of a drag as we use more energy for the same mileage and precious little solar from our roof, but zooming out to see the whole year shows running costs are way down compared to our previous combustion vehicles. I don’t miss the fumes either.

[@capnkirk5528]

I am SOOO jealous of you in the UK. (I live in 'fake London', as in London Ontario, Canada). You have a decent selection of EVs, including affordable USED EVs. We have ... nothing remotely affordable except VERY used Leafs (as in sub-50 mile range). On the other hand, I can get an EV overnight charging rate on 100% 'green' electricity of $0.03CDN or 0.0168GBP. Teslas are VERY popular in my neighborhood.

[@alexdalgleish1061]

First month had the e up didn’t have wallbox. Cost £200. This then fell massively. By time swapped for the Yaris I’d saved about 2/3 of wallbox cost. If ever afford a Tesla can save the remainder. As Superchargers are around half hour to 50 mins from me in either direction. If my wallbox really is 7.2kw (never established this) Tesla Model 3 LR would easily charge overnight. Otherwise looking at a near full day.

[@chrisbudge1159]

I looked on a fuel calculator for a small petrol car and larger diesel car and and it suggested 10.5p and 13p per mile - however based on mileage and fuel bought by my daughter in that small petrol fiesta it has been closer to 16p/mile in reality for her - as she does 1500 miles a month she has just bought a 2 year old e-Corsa and should pay off the additional cost in 2 years through fuel saving - she can charge at home - We are now a 3 EV household - she wouldn’t be able to do that if she had to rely on public charging due to cost and lack of fuel savings

[@1892Bear]

I Had a Rav4 d4d costing 200 euro per month in fuel costs, my ioniq electric cost 4.48 euro a week on my supplier ev tarrif on my home charger, glad I made the change.

[@MrEV]

That's fantastic! I bet she prefers the e-Corsa to drive too!

[@COSolar6419]

Any well designed EV charging network intended for all EVs should accommodate different charge port locations. Most charging networks do.

[@bill_heywood]

Really interesting. Just shows that it’s entirely possible. The Supercharger issue is a Tesla problem, not a you problem - they made their cables stupidly short. You shouldn’t feel bad, they need to make their hardware better

[@johnnodge4327]

Price comparison with petrol/diesel. Our 40 MPG diesel Audi costs 18 Pence per mile, plus £100 every 8k miles for an oil change, which obviously an EV doesn't need.

[@gavjlewis]

A good video showing it is possible. To make it more representative of many people's lives who leave for work at 8am and get out at 5:30pm is to not charge in these times, when many people will be at work (and can't charge there). Charging at Sainsbury's on a Thursday morning at 11am is only for retired people or people without proper jobs (no offence! 😂).

[@lp3860]

Funny how the Supercharger network is the cheapest there, yet when I see the price on screen I think "that's highway robbery!" Here in Northern Europe Superchargers are the most expensive quick chargers. You can DC charge here in the evening for 0,30 cents. The most expensive fast chargers cost 0,38 cents. I have two full years now on public chargers. In the winter (real winter with show) 100km (or 60 miles) costs me about 4-6 euros. In the summer 100km costs me about 2-4 euros. If I slowcharge at a 11kw charger near my house, my summer cost is about 1-1,5 euros per 100km. The charging prices here are excellent. Oh and I've driven 54,000km in two years.

[@ohyesitsme]

I'm sure you would love driving in the UK

[@Lewis_Standing]

I found the connected kerb ones to be a little tricky to use first time with the odd rotation you have to do. Once you've got the trick it's fine. I've seen a place in Sunderland with 165…!!!!

[@StephenStyring]

We had urban electric in Plymouth pop up street chargers they disconnected them over a year ago so much for this is the future , they only were connected for a year !!!

[@MrMannakin]

I couldn't be bothered if i didn't have home charging I'm afraid. Mind you Sainsbury's have recently added chargers to the nearest store (< 2 miles away).

[@mdshovel]

It really is down to researching your area ... and habits. On my second EV and cannot have a home charger but can use a 3pin Granny at a fixed rate of 26p. However, I have BP Pulse in the next village at 150Kw for 57p as backup. My usual charge is Ionity at 43p using my Renault "Mobilize" RFID card for a fee of £4.99 a month (half the price of Ionity passport) and 9% discount at many others. With a range WLTP of 379 miles ... I charge once a week for 30mins at Ionity

[@Roy-qn2ie]

You forgot to add all the sandwiches you ate when charging, total of that adds up too ;)

[@RonPike]

I enjoy the videos! Maybe your next car can be a Kia or another brand that has the 800 volt architecture? I love my Kia EV6 and 19 minute 20% t0 80% charging. 95% of the time I charge at home. So far just one road trip where I used a roadside charger just to get to my brother in laws.

[@MrEV]

Yes, I used to own an IONIQ 5. I *really* miss that charging speed!

[@adwol48]

We home charge a lot but guess I'm lucky in that I have gridserve norwich just up the road along with several other CPOs nearby. We also have travel Norfolk that is installing EV chargers in more rural areas so they have several 22kw (50p/kWh) chargers in a small town nearby and what's better is that they are installing the same 22kw chargers into nearby villages often at the village hall my local one is only 2 miles away.

[@Lesjaye]

I have always charged my 30kw leaf using granny charger on Octopus Go tariff. My daily mileage is 5-10 miles daily. This is just as well since almost all rapid chargers in Worksop/Retford area ( Nottinghamshire) either are faulty or most recently have had cables repeatedly cut off by scrappers! £10s worth of scrap copper & £150-200 pounds to replace & we complain that price/Kw is so high. Don’t know what can be done. Will cctv help?Surprisingly the chargers that don’t work still have their cables intact! Go figure.

[@roberthartley6629]

The Tesla in Glasgow is 41p but the subscription only saves 5p/kWh. However, Ionity at Polmadie is 79p/kWh but with the subscription it is 43p/kWh. So I would say an Ionity is worth the sub but Tesla is not.

[@KennethPaul]

First off, I have an EV but you really need to be below 41p per kW to be comparable to or less than petrol. Assuming petrol costs on average £1.35 per litre just now (per RAC 6/11/24) and multiplied by 4.55 litres per gallon is £6.14 for a gallon of petrol. The best selling petrol in the UK, Ford puma, gets around 45mpg so divide £6.14 by 45 to get 13.65p per mile. EVs typically do 3 miles per kW in winter so multiply by 3 and you get 40.95p but let's call it 41p per kW so to match the efficiency of a petrol in winter you need to pay less than this per kW. Obviously you get more like 4 miles per kW in summer so that means paying less than 55p per kW to beat petrol and your petrol/diesel might do more or less average miles per gallon so just plug your numbers in to see.

[@wgemini4422]

That's the thing, EV chargers bring a lot of businesses. Yet my local coffee shop removed its charger because they think people use it too much. Sigh...

[@stuartgifford8672]

Well done for another interesting Video 👍

[@MrEV]

Thanks Stuart!

[@Un-Apologetic]

Costco diesel £6.08 per gallon. My diesel does at least 55mpg. That's 11p per mile.

[@johnnodge4327]

55 MPG round town? EVs are most efficient in the exact places ICE vehicles aren't. So motorway isn't best for efficiency with an EV, but it's good for an ICE. ICE isn't good in stop-start traffic, but an EV is.

[@Un-Apologetic]

@johnnodge4327 then with that analysis, how the hell are British drivers supposed to adopt EVs 100% ?

[@Un-Apologetic]

@johnnodge4327 my VW EOS has stop start so around town it's actually better on fuel. I've had 72 mpg on a 260 mile round trip mainly motorways. Around town it'll easy do 60 mpg.

[@Un-Apologetic]

Costco petrol is £5.85 per gallon. My PHEV does 45mpg on petrol. That's 13p per mile.

[@jovceata]

Tesla superchargers here in Australia are the most expensive for non Tesla EV's

[@AncalimeNL]

Chargingnport on the right side, which is the wrong side should be the left side which is the right side, is what Teslabjørn always says

[@tonrotterdam]

Well, aCTuAlLy... on the Continent when you're charging on the street, the right side is most definitely the right side!

[@borama7845]

Yes, Nyland‘s saying is well known, but dosen‘t mean it applies to everybody. For my personal situation the right side works much better.

[@brendanpells912]

My regional DNO has stated in their EV strategy document that when everyone has an EV, there will be enough capacity in the LV network for each consumer to take 7.5kWh per day to charge an EV. That's per house, not per car. This also aligns with Ofgem projections. So, even if you have a 7.5kW charger, get used to what the future will be like by only plugging in for an hour per day. It would be analogous to introducing fuel rationing, where each household was issued with coupons to buy 20 litres of petrol/diesel per week.

[@ianjordan8146]

Why would you charge every day when a charge would last more than one day, and you could charge the other car the next day

[@stephencrowther524]

That’ll be many years from now,when many things will have changed. A pointless speculation.

[@nigell1652]

I'd have thought when the EV is charged is far more important than how much. Electricity isn't like water gas or oil, it doesn't run out. Night time demand for electricity is about 60% of daytime so there's 40% available for EVs, domestic storage etc. at night hence 7p / kWh EV overnight tariffs. Look at how much wind power is thrown away! (>£1 billion / year). That said, electricity demand will double apparently over the next 10 yrs or so.

[@malcym3394]

It seems to depend on who you listen to. The National Grid did once say that IF every car is electric and IF everyone charges at the same time, they couldn’t cope. The point is that we WON'T all charge at the same time and, if every driver of an ICE vehicle went to the petrol station at the same time, the station would soon run out of fuel. But elsewhere, the Grid does say there will be no problems - the existing infrastructure can cope and, making it even better, we'll remove the need for power to refine fuel. But why am I wasting my time replying when you've made your mind up and you're not going to be convinced.

[@brendanpells912]

@malcym3394 Forget the National Grid, they're not responsible for getting power to your home. It's like wanting to build a new town in the middle of nowhere, and asking National Highways if the motorway network can handle the extra traffic, whereas you should be speaking to the county council that look after the narrow country lanes and B-roads that lead to the development. Nor have I made my mind up but we should be having the discussion today about the social changes that will be required, for example, that the days of getting in your car and going wherever you like, whenever you like will come to an end.

[@mab0773]

Tesla Superchargers are great, reliable and great value compared to the rest. If you use V4 Superchargers, they have longer cables and work well on my ID3 without blocking 2 chargers, I try to avoid the short cable sites during peak time. Great video, if I could not charge at home, I think I would be thinking twice at getting an EV, shame the Government did not drop VAT on public charging to 5% as it casues inequality of access.

[@stephencrowther524]

For the average guy,an EV is a waste of time if one can’t home charge…if you can though,it’s a no brainer !

[@StephenStyring]

Always be changing,not many people that clock in and out can do this

[@moragkerr9577]

Every time I've used a Kempower charger it has refused my VISA debit card. The first time I actually drove away, because the VISA logo was the only one on the charger. I found out later that it might have taken my Electroverse card, but it didn't make that clear. On another one I found that even though it was refusing the VISA, it accepted my Mastercard credit card. I do not understand this.

[@RedemptiveChief]

Last I looked ( in 2023) petrol/ diesel was between 16-22 p per mile. ( I understand they dropped since then)free charges aren't that rare so the charge you got from your brothers is not that unrepresentative as especially as 1 56% of people live in homes where they could feasibly install a charger and 2 people do visit family which is at leat2 seperate location where at least one of them could install said charger. Also loads of employers and business offer free or discounted charging. i do have an EV and don't have offstreet parking. i do the majority of my charging at a shoppoing centre close to my church where i pay 44p per KWH on a 22kw charger so i can get from 30-80% ithin the span of a church service for about £13 or i use the source london charger next to a train station less than a mile from my house where I can get a full charge of the car for about £20. I drive 67kwh battery polestar 2.

[@BalintGulyas]

I used Insta volt only with my Mx30.. they just crazy expensive nowdays... Tesla is the cheapest if you find open one use that. With my Model Y not using any other charger only Tesla if Im traveling long.. Home charging with Octopus save a fortune for use too. 2EV with one Podpoint home charger and granny - everything works fine.

[@DaveofDaveDoes]

Hi, great video, come on down to Lewes, since getting our I3 in FEB24 they've installed approx 50 chargers in town (4 x pod points in Tesco for your weekly shop:-) its also a bit boho like Forest Row... Dave