CriftinsCampers
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One of the major downsides with cross country EV use is the very high cost of public but specifically rapid charging the profiteering going on is considerable, most are charging between 2-3 times the current capped domestic rate, one has recently put their rate up to 98p kw which is the highest I have seen to date.
There’s no fuel duty (yet) on electricity used for vehicle charging so it’s all pure profit after the initial install overhead.
One day we might see an EV public charging price cap but I doubt it, so right now it’s the wild west out there and they charge whatever they can get away with.
I always do the mental maths in my head to convert the electricity cost to diesel mpg
My car does around between 3.9 miles per KW in winter and up to 5 miles per kw in summer.
Let’s assume for this exercise the average is 4, domestic cap is 34p kw
Let’s also ignore the lower night rates or daytime charging via solar for this exercise as it’s too big a variable
Diesel around here is currently around £1.50 a litre or £6.83 per gallon
£6.83 divided by 34p rounded down = buys 20 kw of electricity
20 x 4 miles per kw = 80 so currently my EV car does the equivalent of 80 mpg when charging at home at the capped rate.
We regularly go for day trips in North Wales, Bodnant is one of our regulars and my cars 100 mile typical range just about gets us there and back from home but let’s assume we’ve been a lot further and are doing multiple stops to charge mid journey etc. and I have arrived at the multiple Instavolt rapids in Corwen current price there is 75p kw
For my equivalent £6.83 gallon of diesel that only buys me 9kw
That equates to an appalling 36 mpg way below what I get from my BMW F11.
Now do the same above for your typical leased showoff less efficient Chelsea Tractor, or Audi Etron style EV that only averages 3kw per mile
You get the equivalent of 60 mpg charging from home which is still reasonable but a mere 27mpg using the rapid.
EV vans especially when loaded worse case could easily be down to 2 miles kw.
So 40 mpg or 18 mpg respectively.
The considerable price overhead of buying EVs can make them very expensive to run if primarily using public charging extensively but they remain relatively economical when charging from home. Very few vans would ever be charging from home other than the initial first leg of any journey so is an 18 mpg equivalent viable?
I have just bought another EV with far longer range, that still will average around 4miles kw to allow me to do much longer day trips when not out in our van without (other than a few exceptions) having to use public charging. I did contemplate a phev such as the excellent Ford Kuga but the extra complexity and more expensive servicing overheads doesn’t work for me.
It’s worth mentioning there are still a few exceptions the 7kw pod points at most Tescos are currently cheaper than the domestic capped rate (last time I used one it was 28p kw) and there are still a few free charge points around the country e.g. at some National Trust sites
But these are all the slower so called fast chargers, and not the much higher capacity rapids.
There’s no fuel duty (yet) on electricity used for vehicle charging so it’s all pure profit after the initial install overhead.
One day we might see an EV public charging price cap but I doubt it, so right now it’s the wild west out there and they charge whatever they can get away with.
I always do the mental maths in my head to convert the electricity cost to diesel mpg
My car does around between 3.9 miles per KW in winter and up to 5 miles per kw in summer.
Let’s assume for this exercise the average is 4, domestic cap is 34p kw
Let’s also ignore the lower night rates or daytime charging via solar for this exercise as it’s too big a variable
Diesel around here is currently around £1.50 a litre or £6.83 per gallon
£6.83 divided by 34p rounded down = buys 20 kw of electricity
20 x 4 miles per kw = 80 so currently my EV car does the equivalent of 80 mpg when charging at home at the capped rate.
We regularly go for day trips in North Wales, Bodnant is one of our regulars and my cars 100 mile typical range just about gets us there and back from home but let’s assume we’ve been a lot further and are doing multiple stops to charge mid journey etc. and I have arrived at the multiple Instavolt rapids in Corwen current price there is 75p kw
For my equivalent £6.83 gallon of diesel that only buys me 9kw
That equates to an appalling 36 mpg way below what I get from my BMW F11.
Now do the same above for your typical leased showoff less efficient Chelsea Tractor, or Audi Etron style EV that only averages 3kw per mile
You get the equivalent of 60 mpg charging from home which is still reasonable but a mere 27mpg using the rapid.
EV vans especially when loaded worse case could easily be down to 2 miles kw.
So 40 mpg or 18 mpg respectively.
The considerable price overhead of buying EVs can make them very expensive to run if primarily using public charging extensively but they remain relatively economical when charging from home. Very few vans would ever be charging from home other than the initial first leg of any journey so is an 18 mpg equivalent viable?
I have just bought another EV with far longer range, that still will average around 4miles kw to allow me to do much longer day trips when not out in our van without (other than a few exceptions) having to use public charging. I did contemplate a phev such as the excellent Ford Kuga but the extra complexity and more expensive servicing overheads doesn’t work for me.
It’s worth mentioning there are still a few exceptions the 7kw pod points at most Tescos are currently cheaper than the domestic capped rate (last time I used one it was 28p kw) and there are still a few free charge points around the country e.g. at some National Trust sites
But these are all the slower so called fast chargers, and not the much higher capacity rapids.
