Anyone near Hertford?

[culverwood]

I am a Tesla future owner from Hertford like you so interested in the answers.

 

[NullException]

Is the Tesla one not yet available?

It is. I have one. In practical terms, it's only advantage is the button on the plug that opens the charge port of your car!

Design's a subjective thing, I think it looks good, but then so do some of the other chargers that are available on the OLEV scheme.

In hindsight, I think I should have gone for an untethered OLEV-funded unit, but with a cable plugged in all the time (the risk of someone half-inching it where I live is low). I think I'll probably do what you have done and add an untethered charger and/or commando socket at some point.

For me, the cost of the wall unit was low compared to the electrical work I had to do first, but I think I'm probably unusual and for most people, the install is straightforward.

 

[WannabeOwner]

the cost of the wall unit was low compared to the electrical work I had to do first,

I'm guessing, but would it be fair to say that if you had to replace the "business end" of the wall mount with one for, say, a Leaf that the cost would be modest? I'm assuming all existing internal cabling etc. would be reused. Still got to get a qualified Sparky out and pay them for an hour or two.

Its certainly something that has been bothering me. The cost, for me, of installing a wall connector for somewhere in the region of 600 quid, against a car cost of 100K, is one thing. If I were having to re-do it for each brand of car that I bought and they were in the region of 35K each or, worse, I was a second hand buyer and the cars were say 15K, or perhaps even only half of THAT, then its starting to look like a disincentive. Until every house has the Bog Standard Definitive Connector on the wall of course ...

 

[NullException]

I'm guessing, but would it be fair to say that if you had to replace the "business end" of the wall mount with one for, say, a Leaf that the cost would be modest? I'm assuming all existing internal cabling etc. would be reused. Still got to get a qualified Sparky out and pay them for an hour or two

Exactly. It should be the cost of the new unit + a couple of hours of a Sparky's time. If you install an untethered unit, then it's just the cost of the new cable if you change cars.

For info, my total cost for home charging was around £2k. £400ish of that was the Tesla wall unit, the rest was splitting the tails of my supply, running new wiring to my garage, changing my meter to E7, installing a garage RCD and the wall unit, etc.

 

[WannabeOwner]

the rest was splitting the tails of my supply, ...

I expect that amount of complexity is going to be needed on a fair proportion of installs, which has got to be a negative point for the adoption of EVs at the lower end of the cost scale. Sadly

I would be thrilled if Building Regs mandated all sorts of sensible modern requirements, in particular insulation. If that were the case it could include the requirement for an appropriately sized cable (or a duct) to the garage in readiness for bunging an EV charging point in there.

 

[arg]

I maintain this summary of public charging networks- Tesla focused and perhaps more candid than ZapMap's version:

http://teslapedia.org/model-s/tesla-driver/uk-charging-networks/

Concening home chargepoints:

• I agree with others above that it is a huge improvement in convenience to have a tethered point. If you want the flexibility to charge cars with a type1 connector, then a socketed chargepoint plus an extra cable you leave permanently plugged in gives the best of both worlds (at significant extra cost).
• For the ideal solution, you want a plug with the 'tesla button' on it to open the chargeport on the car to plug in, and to unlock when you want to unplug (both functions otherwise needing a squeeze of the keyfob in your pocket). You get the button only on the Tesla WC (or UMC), or on special cables sold by a third party (EV Charge King). Type2 cables sold by Tesla do NOT have the button.
• The Tesla WC is actually a rather superior device, at similar or lower list price to most of the alternatives. Only real disadvantage is that it is not currently available on the OLEV grant scheme, making it expensive if you qualify for the grant. After urging from owners, Tesla have now indicated that they intend to get it listed for the grant scheme - if you've just ordered and don't expect delivery for a while you may want to hold off for a bit and await developments.
• Supplied with cars being delivered now is just the UMC. This is your solution for charging from 13A sockets and similar away from home, and also your backup in case your home charging fails. Some people use it as their main home charging solution, but I don't recommend it (you can probably find my explanation why not on several threads in this forum!). If you want the full monte of charging options for away from home, you also need the CHAdeMO adapter (from Tesla) and a type2 cable (many suppliers, though Tesla's offering is decent value). Best to look at your typical journeys and see which ones aren't covered by Superchargers and so whether you need to buy either or both of these.