No way, unless a SuC location is nearby and you set that as the destination to trick the car to preheating but I'm guessing that's not the case or you wouldn't be using IONITY! The car will manage the charging safely, no need to worry about that.
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There's nothing to be uneasy about. The car only receives power at the rate it can handle ... you can plug in a car with 50kW maximum capability and that is the maximum the 350kW charger will send. If the battery is too full or too cold it won't even get 50kW out of that 350. It would indeed be a good for Tesla to add the feature of auto or manually defined precondition for 3rd party charging to take best advantage of super fast chargers.
Jason71
Well-Known Member
If I was desperate enough to want to use an Ionity charger in the first place I guess it would mean I was in a hurry to get somewhere so would want to charge as quickly as possible. so probably yes. I haven't been that desperate yet though.
Ditto. I don't know the science behind battery preconditioning, but I wish there's a preference option for it, especially for cars with heat pump installed.If I was desperate enough to want to use an Ionity charger in the first place I guess it would mean I was in a hurry to get somewhere so would want to charge as quickly as possible. so probably yes. I haven't been that desperate yet though.
There is an easy sequence you can do to force the Ionity chargers into diagnostics mode and get free vend.... not that I'd condone such behaviour...
stonecoldrmw
Member
Jason71
Well-Known Member
Yes but only from IonityDoes anyone else suffer from this strange and unexplained desire to get free charging? It saves like practically pennies compared to Octopus Go but... I just can't help myself.
The car will slow the rate of charge initially, and use some energy to heat the battery.
So it's a bit of a wash.
I do find it funny people complaining about these stations being out of service, but also being expensive.
Reality is it costs real $s to purchase, install, rent the space, likely upgrade power supply, pay for the electricity and maintain the unit.
If you assume a 5-yr life for your home charger.. and divided the purchase and install costs by the estimated kWh you will use in 5-yrs, how much more expensive does home charging look.
ACarneiro
Active Member
I would hope my home charger would last a lot more than 5 years, bearing in mind it’s not really a charger as such, just a contactor. The charger (that doesn’t the AC/DC conversion) is in the car
I do take your point on the costs of running a high-power DC charger, though.
I wonder what the business model looks like. It seems like they’ll take a LONG time to get a ROI from the sale of the electricity alone…
https://ionity.eu/_Resources/Persis...8116b/20211012_IONITY_Plug-and-Charge_EN3.pdf
Thought I’d take a look at Ionity Plug & Charge…
Just tried opening the app, realised they have a new app & the old app no longer works. My old credentials don’t work either. Zero comms from Ionity. New app seems better but no sign of Plug & Charge?
Let’s see when they turn it on if the experience is as good as Tesla’s.
[TBH I’ve never actually managed to charge at an Ionity site. The first and only time I tried I couldn’t get it to work and no one answered the phone. Given the price I do try to avoid. ]
Thought I’d take a look at Ionity Plug & Charge…
Just tried opening the app, realised they have a new app & the old app no longer works. My old credentials don’t work either. Zero comms from Ionity. New app seems better but no sign of Plug & Charge?
Let’s see when they turn it on if the experience is as good as Tesla’s.
[TBH I’ve never actually managed to charge at an Ionity site. The first and only time I tried I couldn’t get it to work and no one answered the phone. Given the price I do try to avoid. ]
I have a little knowledge about this but can't say too much for commercial/privacy reasons, other than I have no idea how Tesla do it for their SC's, but the remainder of the problems would apply to their site as any other I presume. The site is usually selected by an operator as it fills a gap in coverage for an area. This is no different to phone masts and other utilities that have coverage gaps.
The operator then makes an approach to the site owner and offers to install the charger but will require a lease of the site for a long number of years. The site owner has to provide the electricity free for the first few years and then can charge a fee after that. The operator presumably makes all their money for the install in the tariff free first few years, and then presumably just has a cut for the rest of the operating life so an income stream.
The site operator is sold a marketing story about footfall/ customers coming in to purchase coffee food etc. In reality most are just using the toilet facilities and so literally doing a "splash and dash"! If they buy a coffee or bar of chocolate and then put it on a plastic card/apple pay etc then the transaction costs for the purchase will eat the profit of the sale in any event as transaction costs are paid by the operator for credit cards and might be 10 or 20p per transaction, sometimes even resulting in a loss for the site operator. Site operator provides and pays for bins and rubbish collection and toilet paper, hot water, lighting, heating, electricity, maintenance and cleaning etc. Whilst the driver may stay for 20 mins or so at a site, it will certainly take a VERY long time to get any ROI from a charging station in my opinion.
Eh? Every business pays card charges anyway. The price of the coffee takes care of that because the customer pays it! Every transaction is a bonus. I agree that payback will be a long time but this aspect of your argument is a bit wayward.
MrBadger
Badger out
A few superchargers sited where there is no customer facilities or any obvious benefit to site operators so not sure they are setup with commercial gain in mind.
I always viewed them as a loss leader by Tesla to help make EV ownership a viable option. We are going through a different transition now where Tesla have gained that initial traction and the accountants are having more of a say on things so a different set of models appear to be slowly being implemented.
I always viewed them as a loss leader by Tesla to help make EV ownership a viable option. We are going through a different transition now where Tesla have gained that initial traction and the accountants are having more of a say on things so a different set of models appear to be slowly being implemented.
Yes the business pays a charge, usually per transaction. If you buy a bar of chocolate or a coffee there may a fairly small profit to the business from that sale when all costs are considered and if the customer then pays for it with a credit card that may be 10p or 20p per transaction the business can sometimes lose money!
If the business is having to “give” you even 1kw at todays prices … well the sums don’t stack up.
Businesses set their prices accordingly to take account of any card costs... they would be mad not to... that's business. Cards are charged at a small percentage so it is broadly in proportion to the sale cost. Sometimes there is a tiny fixed card authorisation fee by some card payment companies but it's not 10 or 20p ... and if it is then the business should change its account! A business at a charge point location is not going to lose money because people using the chargers buy small items. There may be various reasons why Ionity charging areas may struggle to make money but I don't see this particular aspect as being significant.
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