Charge an EV from a holiday home in France

the_amazing_raisin

So I'm considering a Eurocamp holiday home style trip next year and travelling there in an EV (hopefully a VW ID.4, but maybe a Kia E-Niro or something similar)


We'll probably be travelling somewhere in Brittany since it's our first time driving in France, and so far none of the camps there seem to have EV chargers installed.


I'd like to charge the EV using the granny lead connected to a socket in the mobile home if possible. I've checked with Eurocamp and they said where the park allows you can park beside the home, and once I explained what I wanted to do they said I should be fine.


Obviously I'd check with the local park managers first, but I'm wondering has anyone actually done this and what their experience was?


I can also use public chargers nearby and would likely use this as a plan B, but for sheer convenience it'd be nice to charge at the holiday camp itself.

zg3409

Mobile homes on Ireland tend to have a limited total supply. Often sites insist on gas cooking and heating, to limit load on esb. The reason is dozens of mobile homes add up to a massive power need for whole site.

Typically they supply a blue 32 amp connection as the input to the mobile home (in Ireland) and this limits the amount of electrical loads you can have on at once.

All that said, most granny cables are 10amp at 220 volts, so with an adapter for France you should be OK. However it may take 14+ hours to refill car. Watch the adapter is good quality and check it does not get hot every 30 minutes, particularly if you are going to sleep. Try not to use an extension lead. Do not use the kettle, coffee machine or any electric heaters while charging in case you trip the supply.

You may be able to hook direct to a blue socket on a vacant caravan site, typically the sites will have adapters available.

the_amazing_raisin

zg3409 wrote: »

Mobile homes on Ireland tend to have a limited total supply. Often sites insist on gas cooking and heating, to limit load on esb. The reason is dozens of mobile homes add up to a massive power need for whole site.

Typically they supply a blue 32 amp connection as the input to the mobile home (in Ireland) and this limits the amount of electrical loads you can have on at once.

All that said, most granny cables are 10amp at 220 volts, so with an adapter for France you should be OK. However it may take 14+ hours to refill car. Watch the adapter is good quality and check it does not get hot every 30 minutes, particularly if you are going to sleep. Try not to use an extension lead. Do not use the kettle, coffee machine or any electric heaters while charging in case you trip the supply.

You may be able to hook direct to a blue socket on a vacant caravan site, typically the sites will have adapters available.

Thanks for the info, good to know regarding the 32 amp connection, I had figured they'd use a standard camping plug or something similar.

I might look at getting a cable that can be dropped down to 6 amps if needed.

I know the charging will be super slow but the way I figure we're unlikely to do any long trips while we're there, so would likely be charging more than we use per day. After a couple of days at this the car would be back to 100%

Alun

The Kia "granny cable" defaults to 10A, but can be set to 8A or 6A by pressing a push button on the underside before you plug it into the car.

unkel

@zg3409 - that's good advice. Plenty of supermarkets in France with free CCS charging though, might be a good alternative. You don't really want to black out the whole camping site on your first night there

cruisey1987 wrote: »

I might look at getting a cable that can be dropped down to 6 amps if needed.

Many EVs can be set to only charge at a few amps. I know my Hyundai Ioniq could be set to only charge at 3A on a granny cable (Kia is a sister company, most likely similar menu settings) and my Tesla can charge at just 5A on either granny cable or Type 2. I don't know about the VW setup.

krissovo

I rented an I3 on the continent last year and went to a few Eurocamp sites. Do not rely on hooking up at your mobile home. 50% sites had the cabins in a wood and the cars were parked a short distance away. Plus the electricity supply is limited in some sites where you cannot even power a hair dryer without tripping the electrics.

I did find that most sites have a home EV charge point or two on site that were not documented. They are normally located in the main central village in the service areas around back or in the car parks near the reception.

Most the sites that we went to also had local charge points, Domaine Les Ormes in Brittany for example did have a home charger. I am not sure they would happy with something like a 60kwh e-niro hogging the charger for hours to charge up when their Zoe's they use onsite might need a charge.

Brittany in general has lots of public charging but these are more inland at the major towns and typically 22kw chargers. Lots of supermarkets have 7kw chargers so its not great for a big battery e-niro if you need to fill up but there are 50kw around if you need a big fill.

I do think you will have no trouble, if you land in say Roscoff fully juiced so say 400km of range. Its probably a maximum of 180/200 kms to your site. Potter around the local area and charge where you can you could recover the recover the battery charge no problem with just lazy lunches or dinners and if you need it head to a fast charger and have lunch in a big town to fully juice up. Roscoff has a couple of fast chargers for your way home that you could stop at or try to charge on the boat.

the_amazing_raisin

unkel wrote: »

@zg3409 - that's good advice. Plenty of supermarkets in France with free CCS charging though, might be a good alternative. You don't really want to black out the whole camping site on your first night there



Many EVs can be set to only charge at a few amps. I know my Hyundai Ioniq could be set to only charge at 3A on a granny cable (Kia is a sister company, most likely similar menu settings) and my Tesla can charge at just 5A on either granny cable or Type 2. I don't know about the VW setup.

I'm hoping to get the ID.4 which likely comes with a basic 10A cable. If the granny lead is optional then I might look at getting a 3rd party one which can be set to different current levels

the_amazing_raisin

krissovo wrote: »

I rented an I3 on the continent last year and went to a few Eurocamp sites. Do not rely on hooking up at your mobile home. 50% sites had the cabins in a wood and the cars were parked a short distance away. Plus the electricity supply is limited in some sites where you cannot even power a hair dryer without tripping the electrics.

I did find that most sites have a home EV charge point or two on site that were not documented. They are normally located in the main central village in the service areas around back or in the car parks near the reception.

Most the sites that we went to also had local charge points, Domaine Les Ormes in Brittany for example did have a home charger. I am not sure they would happy with something like a 60kwh e-niro hogging the charger for hours to charge up when their Zoe's they use onsite might need a charge.

Brittany in general has lots of public charging but these are more inland at the major towns and typically 22kw chargers. Lots of supermarkets have 7kw chargers so its not great for a big battery e-niro if you need to fill up but there are 50kw around if you need a big fill.

I do think you will have no trouble, if you land in say Roscoff fully juiced so say 400km of range. Its probably a maximum of 180/200 kms to your site. Potter around the local area and charge where you can you could recover the recover the battery charge no problem with just lazy lunches or dinners and if you need it head to a fast charger and have lunch in a big town to fully juice up. Roscoff has a couple of fast chargers for your way home that you could stop at or try to charge on the boat.

That's great to know, Domaine des Ormes is actually one of the sites we were looking at. I guess I'll need to treat the charging at the mobile home as a nice to have and plan on using public chargers. No great worry since as you say I should have a decent bit of charge when we arrive.


I'm hoping to get the ID.4, which should be capable of charging at 11kW on 3 phase. That would make using the 22kW chargers a lot quicker

krissovo

cruisey1987 wrote: »

I'm hoping to get the ID.4, which should be capable of charging at 11kW on 3 phase. That would make using the 22kW chargers a lot quicker

Thats how the I3 we had mostly charged, its a real time saver in that region. Also Domain Les Ormes is a great site and we highly recommend it especially if you have kids. Stunning site, lots of accommodation choices for every budget and loads for the kids entertainment if you have them.