Another Electric PVC

[Pudsey Bear]

Grounded RV Unveils Electric Camper Van That's Actually Affordable

The range is only 108 miles, but a 250-mile version is coming later this year.

insideevs.com

 

[wildebus]

Kev, you might find this interesting ... A review of a prototype Winnebago Transit EV.

They talk about a lot of 'real life' limitations on what running an EV Camper would come up with at the moment, and I think is very relevant to the UK.

I like the "Fit RV" channel. James does lots of electrical tweaking

 

[Lee]

Call me a cynic but has anyone been to a campsite with EV charges?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Bloody cynic.

 

[trevskoda]

When they can do a 600 mile run and recharge in ten mins and be bought cheap like old school buses etc im in.

 

[GeoffL]

Call me a cynic but has anyone been to a campsite with EV charges?

ISTR that C&MC site policy is that you can plug an EV into your caravan but not directly into a power pillar. So I presume that you can plug your EV motorhome into a 240v socket in the habitation area. However, you'll be limited to the 16A/3kW and won't have much left for habitation. Also, I can see either this policy changing (or pitch fees increasing) as the number of EVs being charged increases, costing the club more and more.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

ISTR that C&MC site policy is that you can plug an EV into your caravan but not directly into a power pillar. So I presume that you can plug your EV motorhome into a 240v socket in the habitation area. However, you'll be limited to the 16A/3kW and won't have much left for habitation. Also, I can see either this policy changing (or pitch fees increasing) as the number of EVs being charged increases, costing the club more and more.

So do you mean that you can have EHU as normal but not charge the EV batteries, unless you have UK plug for it.

 

[GeoffL]

So do you mean that you can have EHU as normal but not charge the EV batteries, unless you have UK plug for it.

Pretty much that. Because a UK plug top is fused 13A max, that's all you'll get for your EV -- and just 3A left for habitation. However, I just found a discussion on the C&MC website that said (in 2020) that there will be an additional charge (up to £8/night) if you tow with an EV and even then the car had to be plugged into a 13A socket in the caravan. That said, there seems also to be plans to introduce dedicated EV charge points (no doubt EV users will have to pay for the electricity they actually use for those).

EV Charging on Club Sites

I see from the latest magazine that the Club will be introducing a charge (!) of £8 per day for electric vehicles and that users will need to plug into their van/motorhome not into the bollard. 24 hours charging through a “granny lead” (13 amp plug) will just about fully charge a...

www.caravanclub.co.uk

 

[CriftinsCampers]

Most EV granny chargers are 2.5kw so around 10A into the vehicle, note I said vehicle not battery!

Granny chargers are for very infrequent use only. Although some who have done zero homework or money to burn use them full time!

The plug and more especially the socket needs to be electrically clean and a tight fit otherwise there is a risk of overheating and melting and in some cases due to the high current over many many hours.

The onboard charger in an EV (the rectifier that converts 230v AC to typically 400v DC) plus other related vehicle electronics has an overhead, in mine it’s around 3A.

Hence my granny charger is only 67% efficient that equates to a lot of extra expensive electricity wasted over around 24 hours to charge.

On a 7kw (32A) fast charger my obc efficiency increases to 85-90%

A commercial rapid charger is direct DC to DC so any overhead is in that machine you only see and pay for the KW going into the battery however as these rapids cost usually 3x the domestic price of electricity they are more than covering off the machines internal overhead.