Electric Motor Vehicles

Does the charge of a 10amp plug happen over a 8-9 hour period at home if you don’t own a charger?

Yes, I charged up from 20% to 85% at a friends house overnight and it took just under 10 hours.

Obviously, if you were doing this every night, chances are the battery would not be that low (unless you are driving 250km+ per day) and the charge time would be a couple of hours.

1 Like

Ok nice

Does the type of vehicle matter or they approx the same

It will come down to battery size. Generally speaking the bigger the battery the bigger the range and longer charge time.

As a guide I was getting around 30km of range per hour of charge from a standard wall plug. With a 7kw home charger you are looking at maybe 60km of range per hour.

These numbers will vary a little per car though

On the fast charger (150kW) I am getting around 1000km of range per hour of charge.

2 Likes

Do you have a petrol station at your house?

/s

2 Likes

So if you are driving less than 100km per day, you should be able to charge through a 10amp plug once a week for approx 10hours say on a Friday night

Or maybe twice a week actually

Yes definitely. The amount of charging required depends on your driving habits and the car range but if you have around 400km range then you would likely charge on the weekend during the day if you have solar or get on an EV charging electricity plan where you get free charging periods.

Then you would top up mid week.

My mate has a plug in hybrid with around 60km electric range. That covers about 95% of his driving. He plugs into a standard power point in his garage every night and fills up with petrol once every 2 months or so.

1 Like

A mate who bought a Tesla planning on using public charging and after a couple of months ownership just decided it was worth spending the electrical work to get a power point out to his car space.

And another work colleague who has one as well, he can charge for free at his workplace during the week but admitted that if he couldn’t for convenience he would want to drip feed over night. Standard power point would cover most range he would use.

At the end of the day you want to top it up overnight - then you’re never stopping to “refuel” ever.

Same work mate had a friend who moved to an apartment block and that ev owning friend could no longer at home charge. He was finding it a pain in the arse to charge up on the road

I don’t have a power point that reaches where I can park. So no.

Yes, agree that having home charging is the best option and its how I plan to do it. If you dont have to charge on the road you wouldn’t but it doesn’t mean you can’t. Ofcourse it makes more sense to do it that way because its more convienient and cost effective.

Your original point was that there isn’t sufficient public charging available. Your examples don’t touch on that at all, just that one of your friends didnt want to do it.

I dont think anyone wants to go to a petrol station right? Its smelly, expensive, and generally the whole process is a pain.

You said that you didnt want to get an EV until the public infrastructure improves,. I dont understand this because it appears for the amount of EV’s on the road there is a massive surplus of chargers is there not? There certainly is in my area.

1 Like

You are 25k south of Brisbane

I think handypoint was talking about in inner suburbs where home charging is not available. And I guess public chargers would be scarce too

I can only speak for brisbane from experience but there are more chargers in the inner suburbs than the outer up here. This makes sense to me due to the population density.

A simple search on the plugshare app appears to confirm this is the case in Melbourne aswell. See the picture for chargers that are compatible with my car.

1 Like

Well in inner city Sydney there’s lots of suburbs where the majority of cars park on the street. And if you can’t park your car overnight and charge it? Well I think EVs become a bit inconvenient is all.

It’s all well and good to know there’s lots around but sitting in your car at a charging station for 20 minutes a week doesn’t sound so appealing to me.

I’d want to be able to charge at home or where my car can be left over night to do so.

I don’t sit by my iPhone and wait for it to charge. I stick in on its charger and go to bed

On the smartphone analogy.

I also spent 140 replacing my iPhone battery, gave me a phone as good as new at about 10% of the cost of buying a new one.

That is where battery replacement costs need to be for EVs.

On the other hand, I have a house in the Otways, and the nearest charger is in Colac, and there is only one of them.

Yes, an EV isnt suited to everyone especially if there arent opportunities for at home charging and close public charging. This problem would be rare I would have thought because if you are inner city there should be plenty of public charging and if you are outer city its more likely you would have access to home charging.

@handypoint you have brought up a perfect point and its why I mentioned having an EV is a complete mind shift. It appears you are stuck in the old ICE car paradigm with the way you are thinking.

I’ve only had my car 2 weeks but I’ve already realised you dont fuel the car like you would a traditional car.

What I mean is, normally I would run the car down to 10 to 15% of fuel remaining before I go to a service station and put as much fuel in as possible. I essentially go from empty to full each time in order to minimise the amount of times I need to visit a station because its something I want to avoid.

With the EV its not like that. I dont drive until empty then go charge and wait for it to be full. I charge whenever the opportunity presents itself even if I only to top up 5%.

The phone analogy is perfect. You dont run it to empty before you plug it in then wait until its at 100%. You plug it in here and there when opportunity presents. In the car, at your work desk, overnight, etc. If you need to go somewhere you dont look at the phone and say “its only at 58%, I need to stay here and watch for another hour for it to hit 100%”.

Its the same with an EV. I dont wait in the car ever. Unlike an ICE car, I dont have to be there holding the trigger on the handle to fill the car. When I plug in, I go off and do something I needed to. I haven’t had to wait a single minute for my car to charge in over 1200km of driving so far.

Its where I think your Tesla owning friends haven’t figured it out yet. Why is anyone waiting for the car to charge? The mindset is (and I was guilty of this before actually owning an EV) “how long does it take to charge?” The question is irrelevant, it takes 0 time because you just do it whenever opportunity presents. The same as why I have no idea how long my phone takes to charge because I basically do a bunch of micro charging sessions every day to keep it going.

For example, the first charge I did I gave the car a bit of a clean because it was filthy from the trip up to BrisVegas. I wasnt waiting for it to charge, I went round the car removing plastic and cleaning off sticky residue left behind from the assorted stickers and tape that were plastered on the car during QA and transport. When I was done I simply unplugged and went on my way.

Since then I have charged when I go to the shops to grab something. In 10 minutes or so it takes to walk into Coles and grab some milk, bread, a roast chook, etc the car has added 150 to 200km of range. I get back to the car and unplug and go. I dont have to wait at all.

I did a drive to see a friend 100km away and stopped in at a dan murphys with a charger nearby. I plugged in, went in picking a couple of bottles of red and by the time I got back to car it had added around 250km of range. More than the round trip I was taking.

I went to a mates place for some drinks and to watch the footy and crashed for the night where I plugged into a standard power point (which I will do at home soon) and it maxed the charge to my predetermined limit overnight.

I havent had to wait a single minute in 2 weeks and over 1200km of owning this car.

That’s why I say its a mind shift. You need to treat it like your phone. When you go out, simply plan the activity to include a charger. Going for a coffee? Chances are there will be coffee shops with chargers nearby. In the time it takes to get one your car will be topped off.

Range anxiety comes about from people who drive it the same way they drive their ICE car.

So far, I have spent less time waiting on my car to charge vs filling up at the servo. It seems counter intuative but if I asked you how much time you wasted actually actively waiting for your phone to charge, what would your answer be? Mine would be 0.

3 Likes

The other added bonus I have noticed is using the charging bays as a parking spot while charging. Its like we have our own handicap parking spaces that are free most of the time even when every other spot is taken.

Its fantastic, dont you hate it when you just want to drop in to grab something quickly from the shops, a coffee, or pick up some take-away and it takes you longer to find a spot than the activity you are trying to achieve does?

You can pull into a charge bay, throw the plug in, go over to grab your take away, unplug and on your way with a few percent charge added for a dollar or so (if you are paying for it).

Again, its a mind shift. If you start to factor in charging it becomes second nature very quickly and the advantages of EV’s grow beyond what you realised initially.

Again I see this myth about the need to replace batteries. The batteries will last longer than most engines. How long are you intending to keep the car for? 40 years and 1 million km? Just like the “batteries burst into flames” insanity, this mis-information about batteries is laughable.

Compared to traditional cars, EV’s catch fire at around 15% of the rate and the batteries outlast engines.

1 Like

You may not have found them all yet. Plugshare shows there’s at least 6 chargers across 4 charging locations, a couple are exclusive to Tesla.

1 Like

The point also is that you dont really need chargers at or near your home but instead along your regular driving path/near places you regularly visit such as shops, cafes, restaurants, work, gym, etc.

1 Like