Electric cars and charging - some questions!

[alex_b]

It’s really not the big deal other people (who generally don’t own EVs) claim it is. Full charged our Polestar 2 has a range of 250 miles. It only really gets used for shortish runs to Costco or places that a pain by public transport. Even when my wife commuted with it most days, it still only needed charging every other week.
 

Generally, I recharge when we hit 20-25% and top it back up to 80-90%. That’s an overnight charge on the char.gy on street chargers at the off peak (midnight to 7am) tariff. There are five chargers on Everthorpe Rd, another three on Oxenford St and at least another five in the surrounding streets - all of these are a five minute walk from my house. So a ten minute detour after dinner on evening to start charging and then another ten minutes to pick it up. 

In the unlikely event they were all full/blocked (which hasn’t happened in three years of ownership) then either I’d leave it for another day or if I really needed to go somewhere further than say 30 miles I’d stop at a super fast (150kW) charger and pay the higher fee for a top up (70-80p per kW vs 35p per kW). We sometimes do use the expensive fast chargers when we do longer trips but not that often. 

If we were a family that drove 100+ miles a day regularly then having an EV without off street parking wouldn’t work for us, but for us (and I expect most Londoners who have a car) it’s fine. A car club and occasional car hire would probably be cheaper for us, but the convenience makes it worthwhile.  Overall, even with the price hikes for public chargers I still think it’s marginally cheaper than our old diesel.

 

EDIT: When I owned a combustion engine car I also tended to refill when I hit quarter of a tank

Edited August 27, 2025 by alex_b

[figgins]

I agree the lack of marked bays at the lamp-post chargers is annoying. Having said that, our experience is pretty positive in the nearly five years of EV ownership. I now charge at a char:gy lamp-post overnight. I plug in and then start the charge at midnight and stop it at seven AM for half-price charging, all from the comfort of my home. Our car still provides 230 miles of range at this time of year. For the kind of mileage we do, it's great. For longer journeys you just have to take the hit and do fast/rapid charding at higher cost. ED seems well stocked with chargers all over the place. The BP garage on the Sarf Circular is my go-to when I need a rapid charge nearby.