Electric Car Charging

[jimharri]

Never had an EV, so I'm coming at this from a position of ignorance. Can't you charge them from your mains? A cable with a three pin plug at one end and the appropriate fitting at the other end?

 

[inbetween]

Never had an EV, so I'm coming at this from a position of ignorance. Can't you charge them from your mains? A cable with a three pin plug at one end and the appropriate fitting at the other end?

Yes but it takes ages. UK mains run at around 230V @ 10A max at the plug which gives 2.3kW added per hour.

For a basic EV battery capacity of around 50kW that's 21hrs to charge. You also wouldn't want to run a home plug at 10A for too long as it's just plastic and you're essentially using the power of boiling a kettle on that plug for 21hrs.

Home chargers typically run at 7kW so just over 7hrs to charge a 50kW battery. They also have to run on their own circuit with their own protection in case of surges etc. We have ours on the garage circuit from the consumer unit, the garage only has a light in there which we never use so it's as good as isolated on its own.

You can get more than 7kW but you'd have to convert your entire house from single phase to 3 phase (£££).

 

[jimharri]

Yes but it takes ages. UK mains run at around 230V @ 10A max at the plug which gives 2.3kW added per hour.

For a basic EV battery capacity of around 50kW that's 21hrs to charge. You also wouldn't want to run a home plug at 10A for too long as it's just plastic and you're essentially using the power of boiling a kettle on that plug for 21hrs.

Home chargers typically run at 7kW so 7hrs to charge. They also have to run on their own circuit with their own protection in case of surges etc. We have ours on the garage circuit, the garage only has a light in there which we never use so it's as good as isolated on its own.

You can get more than 7kW but you'd have to convert your entire house from single phase to 3 phase (£££).

Thanks. As I said, I was coming at the issue from a position of ignorance.

 

[pirate]

Never had an EV, so I'm coming at this from a position of ignorance. Can't you charge them from your mains? A cable with a three pin plug at one end and the appropriate fitting at the other end?

you can
when I do charged at my mums it took 14 hours

 

[jimharri]

you can
when I do charged at my mums it took 14 hours

Already been pointed out. Thanks.

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

The problem seems to be that the government is trying to tax and legislate us out of hydrocarbon vehicles and into electric but the infrastructure is not there. If they are serious and honest about this every pavement in the country needs to be dug up like when cable TV came in. Ultimately I think it will lead to a massive reduction in car ownership and increase in Uber etc, particularly in cities.
We then just need the do gooders and greenies to get on board with nuclear so we can stop burning thins to make fuel for electric cars.

 

[Johnny Mars Bar]

Never had an EV, so I'm coming at this from a position of ignorance. Can't you charge them from your mains? A cable with a three pin plug at one end and the appropriate fitting at the other end?

Yes but it takes a LONG time - like an entire day on some cars. Which is why people have higher powered dedicated fast chargers installed.

 

[southamptonblue]

if they don't drive they are already paying for the upkeep of parking spaces they dont use, so not much diffetrence

Seriously? Upkeep of a parking space? Lol ....massive difference to paying towards 6/8/10 or more cars being charged constantly.

 

[jimharri]

Yes but it takes a LONG time. Which is why people have higher powered dedicated chargers installed.

Yep; already been pointed out to me a couple of times.

 

[Blue Mist]

The problem seems to be that the government is trying to tax and legislate us out of hydrocarbon vehicles and into electric but the infrastructure is not there. If they are serious and honest about this every pavement in the country needs to be dug up like when cable TV came in. Ultimately I think it will lead to a massive reduction in car ownership and increase in Uber etc, particularly in cities.
We then just need the do gooders and greenies to get on board with nuclear so we can stop burning thins to make fuel for electric cars.

They are trying to force us onto public transport simple as.
Yes they will lose millions in revenue, which they probably haven't even considered, but ultimately, they know they can't force electric onto us all, it simply wouldn't work.
The problem is we are not set up for public transport without huge investment either.