Charging with no home charger is just as expensive as petrol?

[kashmachine]

Just wanted people's thoughts on this. I live in a flat so am currently unable to have a charger installed due to various reasons.

I've been surviving on public chargers but with consistently increasing prices, charging the battery costs as much as fuel

For example, BP Pulse Rapid Chargers as a member charge 0.32p/kW so charging say 40kW is £12.80 and assuming you need one charge a week with the reduced range in winter then that's already £51.20 a month

Does anyone else have any tips or suggestions to reduce the price of charging? Is an EV only feasible if you have a home charger?

 

[M109Rider]

Home charging is the way to go. If you don’t have that option, you’re at the mercy of the rates third parties charge.

It does depend on where you live as well. Here in Canada it’s cheaper than gas, even at third party chargers.

Is there a Tesla Supercharger near you at all ?
That’s likely cheaper and faster than third party

 

[Forty_Two]

Is possible to get a power supply to the flat's designated parking place?

 

[Alan J]

Have a search in your local area on Zap Map and see if there are any cheaper options around, some Supermarkets offer free charging.

 

[Jason71]

Have a search in your local area on Zap Map and see if there are any cheaper options around, some Supermarkets offer free charging.

except for this I agree its pretty bleak.
I have a drive so I pay 5p/kwh those without pay at least 5 times that and rising. Partly because you are paying 20% VAT on top of the higher kwh rate and I am paying 5%. It's not a viable system. The tax needs to be equalised but even then its still a problem and I don't know what the solution is

 

[kashmachine]

Home charging is the way to go. If you don’t have that option, you’re at the mercy of the rates third parties charge.

It does depend on where you live as well. Here in Canada it’s cheaper than gas, even at third party chargers.

Is there a Tesla Supercharger near you at all ?
That’s likely cheaper and faster than third party

In the UK, I think Supercharger prices are on par if not more expensive than 3rd party chargers I'm afraid!

Is possible to get a power supply to the flat's designated parking place?

I think the biggest challenge is the flat being a leasehold so having to go through the leasehold management company, but I will try again and see if we can come to an agreement, If I offered to cover all the costs then I don't see what issues would remain other than insuring the charger is linked to my flat's power supply

Have a search in your local area on Zap Map and see if there are any cheaper options around, some Supermarkets offer free charging.

Yup I have done, we have some 7kW ones but not close enough to just drop the car and return home to let it charge but I have spotted a 22kW so that would take a few hours but still can get a decent top up for 1/2 hours

 

[Alan J]

The way to go is little and often, if you can combine Charging with say a twice a week Shop, Lunch, Movie etc. then that will really help.

 

[Nujec]

I'm in the UK too. Yes, you're correct. Charging an EV is much cheaper and more convenient if you have off street parking.

I don't see this situation changing. Every charge point is installed with the intention of being profitable which means 30p/kWh is about as cheap as you're going to get. Local authorities may get involved in providing street charge points but they will also be covering their costs and aiming to make a profit to make up for the huge cuts to their funding from central government in they same way as they do with charges for parking permits. EV drivers will be perceived as an easy target because they must be relatively wealthy to afford an EV at the moment. I read that Ubitricity lamp post chargers where available cost at least 24p/kWh.

This government is not going to intervene in the charge point marketplace as that would contradict their political ideology and frankly they really won't care if richer people with the advantage of off street parking also benefit from cheaper charging. There will have to be a major political shift this to change.

On the plus side you won't have to pay for the installation of a charge point. My Zappi installation cost £1000 though there are cheaper alternatives. Charging at off peak 5p/kWh instead of publicly at 30p/kWh it will take 4000kWh or 12-16K miles to recoup the cost of the charge point installation. Those cheaper off peak rates may also disappear over time.

 

[LukeUK]

Yup, charging away from home, especially using CCS, is comparable, if not more expensive, than fuel, especially in winter.

If you assume 250 Wh/mile, 40 p/kWh is 10p/mile.
If you assume 300 Wh/mile, 40 p/kWh is 12p/mile.

Bear in mind that Tesla charge for DC out of the supercharger, where as third party chargers charge for AC in to the charger, so around a 10-15% premium, due to losses in the charger itself.

 

[Mr H]

I always thought that driving an EV was not about how cheap to run it is, because that won't last forever, but more to do with the evironmental benefits in cities etc

 

[init6]

You'd need to be getting around 65mpg from an ICE car to get the cost/mile down to 10p.

 

[UkNorthampton]

Tesla charge for power received by car, others for power sent to car (which will be more), so assuming same price, Tesla is cheaper.

Zap map free chargers
Charge at shops, WORK, friends, relatives (eg visit parents once a week and graze elsewhere).

It might help if OP said where they were, commute to or otherwise regularly visit, some old timers might know some local tricks.

Search the forum for Gridserve, Osprey etc

Eventually Gridserve and others will be setting up local Electric Forecourts to serve areas (Gridserve Electric Hubs are for motorways etc).

‘Electric Forecourts’ and Hubs bringing ultra high-power charging to UK EV drivers

The biggest motorway EV charging upgrade to date in the UK will soon be underway, with the announcement from Gridserve of 11 new ultra-high-power 'Electric Hubs', plus two new 'Electric Forecourts' including a world-first flagship charging site at...

eandt.theiet.org

Daft Gridserve map as no key, not clickable - but shows ambitions - GRIDSERVE | EV Charging price is 30p/kWh

Osprey doing similar local/route hubs/forecourts

UK-first EV charging hub opened by Osprey Charging using Kempower technology | Traffic Technology Today

A UK-first electric vehicle (EV) dynamic charging hub has opened in Wolverhampton. The site is the first of over 150 charging hubs being delivered across

www.traffictechnologytoday.com

Osprey’s charging hub rollout will see a total of 1,500 150-175KW rapid chargers installed over the next four years. Each hub will be located on strategic A-roads and adjacent to motorways, hosting up to 12 high powered chargers.

“The opening of our high-powered charging hub in Wolverhampton – the first of 10 in construction this year

Not a great answer, but when I was looking around I found a couple of articles, The Brighton one discusses a few things that might be coming up and might be useful for others finding post through search.

How do people with no driveway charge their electric cars?

How do people with no driveway charge their electric cars?

electricbrighton.com

Portable EV Charging | ZipCharge Go - a powerbank for your EV | London 20-40 miles per charge - pre-orders for 2022 - looks expensive - from article - "also a number of companies in the US selling portable EV solutions like EV Rescue, EV CubiCharge, Blink Mobile and Lightning eMotors"

Charge Fairy

Charge Fairy charges your car so you don’t need to

chargefairy.com

Got an electric car charger at home? Share it and earn cash

Co Charger app matches hosts and ‘chargees’ who can ‘enjoy living in a cleaner, greener neighbourhood’

www.theguardian.com

Co Charger Electric Vehicle Charging

Rent out your home EV charger and help others go electric with Co Charger Community Charging

co-charger.com

 

[DoricJim]

40p per kWh is Still a bit away from parity?

A decent petrol engine will cost you about 15p per mile (assuming 45mpg - this happens to be the average for our current gen X3 20d) at current prices. Which would be around 50-60p per kWh, assuming you are getting between 3 to 4 miles per kWh. Very achievable in our LR during winter and sensible driving.

Plus no road tax or annual services to worry about.

To provide balance I am an extra £150 per year for insurance compared to the ICE I traded.

 

[UrbanSplash]

Public charger pricing is just going to get crazy expensive soon. Cost of energy, cost and complexity of installation, high demand as there are so many EV’s now. It’s a perfect storm. Quite frankly, we’ve not seen anything yet. It won’t be long before charging a car using public chargers is significantly more expensive than petrol or diesel. This is before the government go crazy on taxing electricity, like the fuel industry. They will want a significant cut too. Sorry I’m all doom and gloom but I don’t see it any other way. Yes the government have environmental targets etc, but they will still be lining their pockets.

 

[Nick77]

Public charger here too. These are my current stats since I got the car at the end of June. Bear in mind that it was a little cheaper back then. I still pay 35p/kW and its still cheaper than petrol. Below is based on £1.40 per litre cost.

 

[Neilman]

In the UK, I think Supercharger prices are on par if not more expensive than 3rd party chargers I'm afraid!

I think the biggest challenge is the flat being a leasehold so having to go through the leasehold management company, but I will try again and see if we can come to an agreement, If I offered to cover all the costs then I don't see what issues would remain other than insuring the charger is linked to my flat's power supply

Yup I have done, we have some 7kW ones but not close enough to just drop the car and return home to let it charge but I have spotted a 22kW so that would take a few hours but still can get a decent top up for 1/2 hours

Point to note there re: "22kW" - if that is an AC charge point then the Model 3 is limited to 11kW AC (3-phase 16A each)
If it is a DC charger then yes approximately 10x rate of a granny charger and 3x rate of a typical home charge point.

 

[Mr H]

@kashmachine have a look at Zap Map Home as there may be a householder nearby that you could strike an agreement with.

 

[hingus2000]

I live in a London flat and cannot charge at home. It’s been fine though. As often as possible I try to make charging incidental to whatever else I’m doing. So whenever we go somewhere in London I leave it on charge (usually Source London) and I get electricity for the price I would’ve paid for parking anyway. Likewise on the way home from a longer trip, a return Supercharge tends to keep me going for the next week or so.

When I need a dedicated charge, I used to take advantage of the Source London overnight 4 hour price cap which brought charging down to circa 12p per Kwh. (Sadly this has now ceased).

I’m now on a local trial with Connected Kerb with chargers round the corner from my flat which charge an eco rate of 19p per KWh.

So yes, more expensive than if I could charge at home at 5p per KWh, but I don’t really bother doing the maths and still see myself as doing better than if I was driving an ICE.

 

[MrT3]

You'd need to be getting around 65mpg from an ICE car to get the cost/mile down to 10p.

and you won't get an ICE of similar performance to a M3 doing 65 mpg. My previous car averaged 22 mpg.

 

[Adopado]

Just wanted people's thoughts on this. I live in a flat so am currently unable to have a charger installed due to various reasons.

I've been surviving on public chargers but with consistently increasing prices, charging the battery costs as much as fuel

For example, BP Pulse Rapid Chargers as a member charge 0.32p/kW so charging say 40kW is £12.80 and assuming you need one charge a week with the reduced range in winter then that's already £51.20 a month

Does anyone else have any tips or suggestions to reduce the price of charging? Is an EV only feasible if you have a home charger?

Rapid chargers (DC) are generally much more per kWh than slower AC chargers ... you pay for the convenience. Is workplace charging an option? You can also still get some free kWh when shopping etc. Also check out Plugshare. Long term I would expect the cost of EV charging to be similar to ICE fuel anyway. We are getting beyond the early adopter incentive requirement.