BuckinghamshireBoy

Who has one, and how do you charge it?

I've just taken delivery of a PHEV, the public charge point infrastructure where I am seems not to be exactly "joined up", so I am very likely going to put in a home charging system.

Any thoughts welcome, recommendations on home chargers, which public EU charge systems are good/not so good, whatever.

Loafing Along

Worthwhile reading :
https://insideevs.com/features/38967...v-in-portugal/

This the Galp card refered to in the article
https://casa.galp.pt/ajuda/energias/...ectric/o-que-e
Google translate will help

BuckinghamshireBoy

Thanks for that. The insideevs article is indeed a worthwhile read, and the author echoes that some of my concerns here in BE are also present in PT (inconsiderate others, charge stations not working etc).

But non-PT issued charge cards don't work in Portugal? Oops.

Luckily I differ from the author in as much as I can have a home charging solution installed fairly easily, which seems to be the way to go - I don't need to spend time going to places just to charge the car when there's nothing else to do there for however long it takes.

I have an electrician coming in a few days for some other stuff, I'll get his thoughts on home chargers.

Loafing Along

You are fortunate - a home station is an ideal solution but so many people live in apartments and , in older districts rely on on-street parking . A huge limitation

BuckinghamshireBoy

Recent Guardian article here.

---

My electrician has postponed; having done some research I've invested in one of these and am currently running it from a standard mains socket at 13 amps, with a view to moving up to having a three-phase 32 amp socket installed.

At standard mains, it charged the 15kw battery from flat in just over 5 hours, since then it takes around a couple of hours after a 40-50km round trip to bring the battery back to 100%. When I get a 32amp socket added I plan to put a wall bracket up.

Loafing Along

Now this is an interesting concept , hope it catches on :

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...co-charger-app

BuckinghamshireBoy

What an excellent idea. I've noticed on Google maps a few charging points popping up in residential areas that don't seem to be associated with any network/supplier, maybe there's something like that going on here.

My local town hall has several charge points on its land, at least one of which is available to the public, I'll check with them to see if they're aware of any similar schemes.

scrubbedexpat142

Had a case of plug rage recently in Budapest. Person with ICE car parked right in front of public charging point, making it impossible for a very irate woman to charge her EV!

The future's bright, the future's red!

BuckinghamshireBoy

Are the charge-point parking spaces clearly marked as such? Here to the north of Antwerp, they're mostly not, not even a blue or green line to distinguish "something different happens here".

Exceptions can be found in some shopping mall/fast-food outlet car parks, but they remain in the minority.

scrubbedexpat142

It's very clear & very obvious. But when you own a 6 metre long Merc, all bets are off!

calman014

Hey Buckingham, have you got Solar panels?

BuckinghamshireBoy

Sadly not, this house has a hugely shaded south facing aspect, which in itself can be fine when it gets warmer, but.... I'm pretty sure that you know where this is going.

If only I had the same exposure as I had back in CH... we were electrically self sufficient (and selling back to the grid) for 6-7 months per year.

At least the beer's good up here.

scrubbedexpat142

Are you kidding!

and another 160 of hail, sleet, snow & fog!

BuckinghamshireBoy

Just had notification of a rebate (unrequested by me ) of Antwerp Province car tax for 2020/21 due to switching from straight petrol to PHEV.

Their calculations go way beyond my attention span, so I'll await November's annual renewal to get the overall picture, but a quick stab at it looks to be a drop of around 55% tax due for the year - same model of car, old one was a 2 litre petrol downsized to a 1.5 litre hybrid.

BuckinghamshireBoy

I have absolutely no horse in this race, but came across this BBC article earlier today, thought it may be of interest to some people:

Why electric cars will take over sooner than you think