This week's EV bargain that I'm not buying

I would have thought that it would depend on the range available on the car and whether that would suit the person considering buying it. Would be tempted to pick up a cheapish leaf to be used as a second car, but would still need to install a home charger for it so am not sure that I would go to that trouble.

Thanks for the help everybody,I am going to look at one tonight.

But to counter it, before our ampera was eligible for the charger grant, we charged it off an external socket which we had specifically added to the outside of the house for charging the car. This was wired to later be upgraded to a charge point. The socket itself ended up shorting out and needed to be replaced, it was completely charred and damaged but luckily didn't actually catch fire.

Most sockets are not suitable for running a 2kW load continuously for 4+ hours so you do need to be a bit aware of things.

Ive been charging a leaf 24 on the granny charger for 8 months now with zero issues. It was used as our only family car for 6 of those months, now we have a backup ICE for summer and weekend use

it’s not necessarily the wiring or installer competence, it’s the quality of the socket internally.

If there is a bad contact it will get worse over time each time you plug in/out. It’s asking for trouble if it’s your long term solution. I used one myself for months but it shouldn’t be recommended for long term use.

When I did it for a year+ for my first leaf that was my daily at the time for 60k km / yr(and now every time I charge my leaf24 too), I simply left the granny cable plugged in at the socket end and plugged or uplugged the car end only.

Bad Contact = Bad wiring /install

But if it is installed properly, on an outside wall, there will be no bad contact or any safety issues.

that’s not true.

An electrician doesn’t wire the internal contacts. He will connect the cables but that’s not necessarily where the arcing will occur. It’s where the plug meets the internal parts of the socket. It’s two metal surfaces sliding against each other, it wears. If it’s poor quality to begin with then the risk is higher

you guys are basically saying “it works for me so it works for everyone”. That’s not how safety works!

There are enough pics of burned sockets from EV charging to know it’s not a zero risk problem.

I didn’t have an issue myself but I had an issue with a bouncy castle on my socket. Probably because the castle plug was worn and didn’t have a tight contact.

if using granny cable long term you need to be monitoring it for heat regularly.

I don't think you got his point.. a socket has moving parts in them this is manufacturer thing from the earth that opens the safety covers to the moving contacts on the live and neutral they are constantly used if charging all the time

This is not the same as say a 16amp outdoor socket which just has pins.

you haven’t read what i said. The socket quality and wear over time is just as important.

it works until it doesn’t!

you can connect a granny cable to that, powering cars 24/7 without issue. 

sure the people who have explained that they had issues only a few posts back are liars so. It works for you and that means it’s good for everyone and just blame the sparky after that! It’ll be grand!🙈

I know its still a Smart car but the fact it has 4 doors and 4 seats makes it a very usable city car. Definitely better suited for somewhere like London, Paris, or Rome etc.