That time of year again and my diesel contract hire vehicle is potentially due to go back.
Would be happy to carry on paying the current premium for it, it’s not the newest but I don’t really care.
Given that similar VW diesels or indeed any petrol cars seem to be unavailable or would require a light hybrid engine and a 6 month lead time, I took a drive to the Cupra garage and was pretty impressed with the design of the cars which seemed far more interesting than the current VW range. No test drives available until January!
I then nipped to the Tesla ‘store’ and asked if many customers simply used their fast charging rather than home charging. ‘You’d be surprised how many do’ was essentially the answer.
I think I was told that the Tesla superchargers were around 33p/kWh for current Tesla vehicles but more for non-Tesla charging (which might not be allowed in the future).
I’d dismissed EVs being unable currently to charge at home, but if say a Model Y can do a mile for 0.3 kWh it’s 10-11p/mile. Is that reasonable or just pitiful compared to home charging costs?
If I misheard and it was 53p/kWh to charge then much more expensive.
I asked about a test drive as I’d never driven one and was told no problem you can do so now and would you want to keep it overnight too? Jumped at the chance and quite impressed at the simple demo procedure allowing you a 200 mile test drive with an unaccompanied demo!
Tesla typically charge about 46p per kWh at their supercharger stations for Tesla vehicles, just above what some electrical providers charge for standard daytime electricity. Edit - my bad, just rechecked I actually pay 24p per kWh during the day so delete “just” insert “well”. Price can vary depending on time of day and historical usage at the charge station. I believe non-Tesla are charged a little more (not sure how much more) and have to sign up to use them. I recently completed a couple of long journeys which required me to use Tesla supercharger at Mansfield both outward and return journeys. On both occasions 5 out of the 12 charging points were occupied by non-Tesla vehicles. I did have to wait to get a slot on outward journey, but not long. Opening up their chargers to non-Tesla vehicles is a topic of much conversation on EV forums with many Tesla owners indicating that one reason for buying Tesla was access to their chargers and that opening up to other non-Tesla vehicles impact was being assessed, am awaiting outcome as it is a consideration.
That isn’t right is it, the average UK SVT rate is currently 24.5 pence per kWh… which is nearly half what you are saying.
However the big differentiator is the charge rate… and home EV chargers on single phase supplies are limited to 7kW. If you have three phase supply you can have a maximum of 11 kW.
The Tesla super charger can provide up to 250 kW.
According to Zapmap for public charging prices for Nov 24.
Weighted average price/kWh - Slow/Fast 56p, Rapid/Ultra-Rapid 80p
Power ratings defined as Slow/Fast <50kW, Rapid/Ultra-Rapid 50kW+.
Hi @Simon-in-Suffolk
Many thanks for point, you are of course correct. I just rechecked my account and can confirm that I am on about 24p per kWh during the day and 9p per kWh for a period during the night. Standing charges obviously on top of that. I’ll see if I can amend my earlier post.
Depends how you look at it I guess, assume you’re suggesting it’s all factored into the sale/monthly price in some way, but as I can’t compare with prices before this ‘promotion’ I don’t know.
No idea if they run similar offers at other times but this seems to be only for this model until 31st Dec. Maybe a new version on the horizon and they’ve got a lot of stock lying around?
To me if I leased one for 24 months it would mean paying on average 50% for charging at that site.
All a bit confusing really, as I could have sworn the chap said 33p/kWh, but will have to find out later - my assumption was that other EV brands paid more. There was a suggestion that allowing other cars to charge might be stopped to reduce congestion.
If you have 3P at home you can get 22kW although many EV’s limit it to 11kW.
We use Intelligent Octopus Go and get at least 6 hours of charging per night at the lower rate (8p/kWh) which works out at 3p/mile on my EV.
That said, I’ve paid up to 85p/kWh when out and about for work.
HMRC recommended mileage allowance is 7p/mile which is clearly too low for anyone doing a lot of miles (and therefore using a lot of public charging points) and I needed to remind our FD that this was advisory only and paying more didn’t have to mean BIK tax as long as I could prove I wasn’t making a profit. My company settled at a higher rate which was fair.
It all comes down to how many miles you do per week and where .
Obviously if you can charge at home that’s the cheapest especially if you have solar panels.
Motorway chargers are most expensive usually, like diesel is.
Some charger providers vary the tariff depending on time of day. If you can charge say at 2300 then that would be cheaper than during peak time.
Yes with 3 phases the maximum is up to 22 kW AC but it does depend on your utility 3 phase supply to your property, charger, and vehicle. 11 kW can I believe be always supported on 3 phase systems.
The fact that most home chargers are AC as opposed to DC does limit the rate on many cars as well. The Tesla Model 3 has a maximum charge spec of 3 phase 11kW AC for example, whether you use a 22kW charger or not. The super high power public chargers use DC.
There do seem to be some good lease / PCP deals around to meet manufacturer EV targets - good dealer contributions, free insurance etc. Might be a good time to move to an EV if the finance / hassle works for you ?
Yes, that’s a good article and reinforces what I’ve been coming to understand over the last 24 hours.
I’ll admit the whole eco push in many areas has made me feel quite anxious for the future, so I’m glad I took a test drive - really liked the way the vehicle handled, though also quickly found a few niggles with some of the automation but it all seemed more polished than on the current diesel VW.
I somehow got a very good monthly price on the lease VW a couple of years (they sent me 2 quotes for the same thing, one was considerably cheaper but they honored it). I can no longer get like for like with a new contract and newer cars with fewer features/smaller engine size would cost maybe 60-80% more a month - I was therefore surprised to see that Tesla’s offerings were potentially in between these prices.
Checking trip logs I could see the Model Y was using maybe 0.3 kWh/mile - mixed urban and motorway/dual carriageway driving. Local Supercharger site is not too far and was 38-39p/kWh off peak - times which actually suit me which would be just under 12p/mile. If I could charge at home on an eco tariff even at say 10p/kWh it would be 3p/mile or less which is pretty cheap - trouble is I can’t
Current diesel probably costs £76 to fill up (around 55l) and I get maybe between 400-560 miles depending on how much motorway driving I do - mostly it’s more urban stuff these days so 400 is more realistic - around 19p/mile I think.
Certainly worth looking at I agree. Tesla’s preferential charging rates seem to be an incentive currently. The real problem is being unable to predict how much these might rise in the future.
I think the Model Y is due to be replaced next year so they are trying to move the current model on. One of the kids is looking at a Model Y so was filling me in on the latest on these as she’s very keen to go this way.
Although I can’t stand the man, the Tesla vehicles are very impressive and his SpaceX activities help keep me in gainful employment.
Not quite ready to make the EV transition myself, but always interested in reading about other’s experiences.
Hi Alley Cat,
Over 20,000 miles, we average just under 4 miles/kWh. Over 50% of our charging is at home on a 7.5kW charger, so home rate applies (whatever that is for you).
For Tesla Superchargers, Tesla now seems to vary the price per unit depending on time of day. I have seen prices range from 33p/kWh to about 60p/kWh depending on time of day and location. An average of 48p/kWh might be a reasonable starting point for Tesla Superchargers.
If you start looking at Ionity, Gridserve, Instavolt etc., then something like 80p/kWh is nearer the mark for a typical charge rate.
He is certainly a marmite character. We find his technical exploits to be utterly remarkable, his social media views much less so. I don’t quite get why his social media views should influence a car purchase but each to our own.
What I would say about the cars is that they have by far the best charge network of any manufacturer. They are also much better as electric cars than any volume European manufacturer has managed. However, I find the cars to be a functional tool rather than a source of driving joy, and some of the ergonomics are simply poor.
We much preferred our Skoda Enyaq as a place to be than the Model Y but we got tired of all the fast charge anxiety on long journeys, so switched to the Model Y and overall are pleased that we did so.
Fair enough, that’s your choice and I can respect that. Hope the Renault meets expectations as well as the other installations you mention in your thread.
My problem is currently I can’t do off-road home charging - maybe in the future with some reconfiguration of the rear of the property.
I may be wrong but for many people (not necessarily forumites) the drive for EVs may be cheaper motoring costs overall rather than ethical ones but if you can charge at home and it ticks both boxes then great.
