Electric Vehicle route to the alps

A snowHead

@Ozboy, there's a lot of suggestions online to be very cautious about where/how you plug an EV. It's not the current (usually 10A on a standard plug charger), but the very sustained nature of it - very few domestic electricals will draw 10A for multiple hours.

The long duration can cause gradual heat build up, leading to eventual failure of e.g. the plastic in the socket.

Personally, I wouldn't use a standard converter but would consider something like this https://toughleads.co.uk/products/heavy-duty-travel-adaptors-worldwide-options

Even so, I'm not sure I'd leave it charging unobserved the first time. I'd want to check that the socket and associated domestic wiring was spec'd for a sustained 10A.

A snowHead

Check out https://toughleads.co.uk/

I've had v good quality Type 1 to Type 2 converter as well as an EV charging extension lead with a modular UK and French plug end from them.

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@Ozboy, We've used a bog standard tourist adapter when staying at a friends place in the French mountains to connect my UK 3pin cable to their wall socket. Nothing caught fire, nothing blew up, and it charged sufficiently - albeit as you would expect, slowly - to get us to the next en-route charger the next day. Yes, you're pumping a few amps through it, but nowhere near as many as a 7KW wall charger.
Was it 'safe'? Well, it's all relative innit. We did keep an eye on it, checking every 30 mins or so that everything was OK, and not over-heating (warm, but not excessive: comparable to other 13 Amp charges we've been occasionally forced to do) and we didn't leave it in overnight.

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@snowdave, @MHskier, @Rob_Quads, @Arctic Roll, thanks for the info. I assume the electrics in our place are in good working order as it was a new build and met the electrical safety certifications. But appreciate things can go wrong. It is something I want to solve as EVs become more common from Swiss rental companies. It is normally our main method and most cost effective mode of transport for getting to Chatel for long weekends (late night arrovals). I am going to look at either getting my own charging cables (but I assume there are a various different plugs at the car end which may make it difficult to choose the right one?) or have a Swiss socket fitted by an electrician. I dont mind slow charging as car often does not more for a few days.

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@Ozboy, Europcar have taken the domestic (or “granny”) charging cables out of their EVs as they are concerned about people plugging them into under-spec domestic sockets. I tried with a n adapter socket at our place before we had a charger fitted and it wouldn’t play nicely.

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Is there a universal standard for the socket at the car end?

After all it is free

@Ozboy, almost! There’s a few, but nearly every car now uses a “type 2” socket for standard charging. You have the choice of installing a “tethered” charger with a built in cable, or just a type 2 socket that you plug the car into, using its own type 2-type 2 lead.

@snowdave, Thanks will look for a type 2 to EU socket cable to keep in my garage for overnight charging.

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@Ozboy, To connect a normal domestic socket to a type 2 socket in a car, you need something in the middle to handle the communications - an EVSE. This is also affectionately known as a granny charger - it’s what @andy from embsay, referred to as being removed from the rental vehicles. However, you could buy your own and it’ll work on nearly every car. Something like this: https://evonestop.co.uk/products/type-2-portable-mode-2-euro-2pin-evse-charger-10a-16a-5m

Edit - just noticed that one is only for pre 2020 vehicles, don’t get that one!

Or for about £4-500 you could get a full type 2 charger, probably add another £100-200 for a sparky to install it if you have a good one available.

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@Ozboy, all the EVs we’ve hired have standard type 2 connectors. Often VW group (audi, seat, skoda or vw) and the occasional Polestar or Volvo. All type 2.

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@snowdave, @andy from embsay, thanks now upto speed. Will be interesting to see how car rental companies equip the cars and implement charging policies in the future.

I asked our rental agents whether they thought that having a 7kW domestic charge point (EVSE) would enhance rentals. Their considered response was that yes, they thought that it’d pay for itself in a couple of years, given the current (no pun intended) level of enquiries from prospective clients who arrive in an EV. So if you’re renting out, it’s worth considering. We’d only need three or four, one-week rentals that we wouldn’t otherwise get for it to pay for itself.

Most European EVs have a standard Type 2 ‘CCS’ socket on the car, so if you have a tethered cable and standard CCS plug then it should fit any rental or private vehicle. Domestic 7kW EVSEs come in two forms, tethered or untethered. Tethered means the cable is wired into the EVSE permanently and the other end has the Type 2 plug to go in the EV. Untethered means that the charge point has a socket and the driver has to supply a suitable cable with a plug for the EVSE one end and a plug for the EV at the other.

If you do have rentals with an EV then you’ll have to work out how the client is going to pay for any charging. If you can get a discounted rate like we can at home in the UK, then the actual charge session cost could be so small that it might not be worth even bothering. A 220-mile top-up from 10% charge to 100% charge costs us £3.38 at home (equals 1.54p/mile). But on a non-EV tariff, that would be more like £10.80 (4.91p/mile).

You know it makes sense.

@LaForet, We don’t rent our property but there is a good case to fit a charge in the future when we eventually convert to EV. We have just renovated in the U.K. and have installed three phase electricity and have cabling ready in front garden to install a charger in the future. The issue is now we deal with the cabling across the foot path as we have street parking but almost always in front of our house. I have seen various solutions such as trenches in the pavement with anti-trip - just waiting to see if our local council in London will adopt such solutions. They have cracked down on residents using rubber mats / covers as deemed a trip hazard.

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@Ozboy I can recommend the EV forum SpeakEV which has loads of threads on choosing EVSEs, installation experiences, challenges like cross-footpath cabling etc.

Key thing is to have an operational smart meter. It can take many months to get one installed if you don’t have one and all the ‘intelligent’ EV tariffs need a smart meter in order to operate the discounted rates. My understanding is that a 3-Phase supply needs a ‘polyphase’ smart meter. But your electrician will know all this stuff.

Next thing is that a lot of EVSEs use a 4G/5G SIM to support comms with the energy provider, again for the more advanced tariffs. So wherever the charge point is sited, it needs to have a good mobile signal. if it hasn’t, then you may need a WiFi-enabled EVSE instead, but this obviously needs a good WiFi signal from your home router, which can be an issue if it’s somewhat distant from it.

A lot of very able and experienced electricians may be excellent in terms of the electrical side of installing a home charge point, but don’t necessarily expect them to be au fait with the tariff landscape. Some of the most advanced tariffs like Intelligent Octopus Go require software integration with either specific EVSEs or specific EV models. So if your EV isn’t integrated with the energy supplier, then there may only be 3-4 models of charge point that are integrated.

For example, Steallantis simply aren’t interested in integrating with any of the energy suppliers. So our Peugeot e208 isn’t integrated with Octopus, our supplier. So if we want to use the Intelligent Octopus Go (IOG) tariff for its very cheap day time 7.5p/kWh EV rates, there are only three charge points that are integrated with IOG - Ohme, Zappi and Wallbox. All the hundreds of other charge points are usable as ‘dumb’ switches, but don’t have the software integration we need.

The other factor to consider is whether you will or might install solar panels or home batteries at a later date. Some charge points like the Zappi are explicitly designed to operate alongside solar panels and batteries. But if you don’t ever plan to have them then the choice is wider. Similarly, if you’re doing major electrical work to get the charge point set up you might find it useful to include provision for solar/batteries at the same time, rather than retro-fit later.

Quite a few people have home batteries and are on Intelligent Octopus Go. At night they have a 6-hour window when they charge the home batteries at 7.5p/kWh then in the day, sell it back to Octopus at 15p/kWh. They are basically being paid by Octopus to act as a night storage facility to help satisfy daytime peak demands.

A snowHead

@snowdave, thansk for the link to Tough Leads. I've just order the French converter. so as not to worry so much about a standard covnerter in future. It will live in the car!

@Ozboy, what @LaForet says.

We're about to switch to Intelligent Octopus Go, fortunately meet all the criteria re Smartmeter, EVSE and wifi / 4G connections. ( More by luck than judgement it has to be said).

A snowHead

@LaForet, We think we have all the necessary electrics in place and good wifi and phone coverage in our front garden. We will just need a 3 phase charger and switch provider to Octopus. Options are either get a small second hand electric run around for local runs while keeping existing family car; or exchange the 6 year old diesel MB e-class estate for a EV family car. Seems wasteful to do the latter as the car is very good and perfect for making it to Châtel from London in a day. We normally get as far as Poligny off the A39 on one tank of diesel.

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@Ozboy, if its only very local trips you do, a mate of mine has a13 yr old nissan leaf for sale. Prob only 50 miles of range left in it, but it'll be cheap!

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Electric Vehicle route to the alps

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