Electric vehicle charging

bmwguy

Hi, I am the proud owner of a gas guzzling high tax petrol bmw and have resisted the diesel route for new cars as they just don't make sense for me and the logical diesel for me to move to is riddled with timing chain problems. I often look at New cars and the one that has caught my eye now is the bmw 330e mainly due to a thread on this forum. It seems to make sense for me, but that's not what I want to discuss, I will figure that at a later date. There will be a large range of electric/hybrids available soon I imagine.

My query is on how I would charge it. I live in a duplex house (with my own front door, ground level) and my car is parked either on the road just outside my house about 10 feet from front door or in my own designated parking spot in a secure, underground car park. I would need to charge the bmw 330e almost every day I would think.

When parked on the street, there is a public pathway between my door and the car park space so I couldn't really throw a cable across it to the house.

Underground I could charge it no problem but what way do you do this with charge points? There is plenty of electricity points down there for shared development expenses such as lighting etc. It's not my electricity but I do pay part of it through service charges.

What do you get when you buy an electric vehicle? What are the options for someone with living situation like me?

Sorry but I am clueless on this at the moment but it is one of the few things that could tempt me out of my now 11.5 year old 5 series which I love!

stesaurus

t-minus 5 mins until this thread gets dumped to the EV forum.

You'll need to work with your management company and possibly local council to get approval and then source your own install as ESB won't entertain your situation. Tricky but can be done.
I believe Cros13 has a charger in an underground carpark and then there are some people on the FB groups who have had secured pedestal installs outside their homes.

stesaurus

haha moved already

bmwguy

s.welstead wrote: »

t-minus 5 mins until this thread gets dumped to the EV forum.

You'll need to work with your management company and possibly local council to get approval and then source your own install as ESB won't entertain your situation. Tricky but can be done.
I believe Cros13 has a charger in an underground carpark and then there are some people on the FB groups who have had secured pedestal installs outside their homes.

Didn't realise I was in wrong forum my audience is probably lower now, my first time in here anyway.


So its not all plain sailing just yet charging these. I presume there is an option to throw a cable in a window as kind of a fall back is there? I could do this in work no problem and that would do me for 90% of my driving making it an interesting prospect my work commute is about 20km round trip.

But now that I am in this forum I will have a look for answers or might drop into a dealership to have a look

BoatMad

bmwguy wrote: »

Didn't realise I was in wrong forum my audience is probably lower now, my first time in here anyway.


So its not all plain sailing just yet charging these. I presume there is an option to throw a cable in a window as kind of a fall back is there? I could do this in work no problem and that would do me for 90% of my driving making it an interesting prospect my work commute is about 20km round trip.

But now that I am in this forum I will have a look for answers or might drop into a dealership to have a look

There's no simple answer where you cannot get your car onto your own property. Even if you do get permission to install a charge point next to the car , you could easily drop 2K on the works depending on distance and complexity and this assumes access to your consumer unit is practical.

Ultimately the solution is a government grant to enable installation of these devices by management companies , workplaces , schools etc, the gov , despite loads of talk, actually seriously need to start promoting EVs.

stesaurus

Apartments and places without a dedicated space at your front door are problems for home charging. It can be done but seems like you're at the mercy of management companies and local council understanding the problem.

You can use a standard 'granny cable' which has a 3 pin plug and can be used on any standard socket. They are a little slower but with smaller batteries in a hybrid it would be still pretty quick to charge.

Maybe a strange suggestion but maybe take a test drive in a PHEV Outlander. It will be similar in electric range to the 330e but are available now at least to test drive.
If you could live with that for a day without a dedicated home charger then you'll have a much better understanding.

bmwguy

s.welstead wrote: »

Apartments and places without a dedicated space at your front door are problems for home charging. It can be done but seems like you're at the mercy of management companies and local council understanding the problem.

You can use a standard 'granny cable' which has a 3 pin plug and can be used on any standard socket. They are a little slower but with smaller batteries in a hybrid it would be still pretty quick to charge.

Maybe a strange suggestion but maybe take a test drive in a PHEV Outlander. It will be similar in electric range to the 330e but are available now at least to test drive.
If you could live with that for a day without a dedicated home charger then you'll have a much better understanding.

Ah no rush I will do a bit of research and see how it pans out. I will more than likely stick with used petrols for a while if I can get one and get a PHEV in a few years. Don't want to take the early adopter risk on a new technology

BoatMad

bmwguy wrote: »

Ah no rush I will do a bit of research and see how it pans out. I will more than likely stick with used petrols for a while if I can get one and get a PHEV in a few years. Don't want to take the early adopter risk on a new technology

The auld electric motor predates them fancy new fangled petroleum engines, you know

Rafal

BoatMad wrote: »

The auld electric motor predates them fancy new fangled petroleum engines, you know

Indeed, examples of early electric cars: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=early+electric+cars&t=ipad&iax=1&ia=images

My favourite is the lady showing how to operate her chargepoint: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=early+electric+cars&t=ipad&iax=1&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2F1.mshcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F07%2Felectriccar-11.jpg