revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Posted: **Sun Mar 08, 2026 9:27 pm**

Nordboy wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 12:20 pm
Taff wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2026 8:50 pm Your 130 miles would need 43kw at 3 m/kw, charging for 6 hours at 7kw is 42kw, so it entirely depends on how much charge your other car needs if you only want to charge @7p.
But charging at full rate is still much cheaper than petrol, the last time I worked it out electric needed to be less than 47p to be cheaper than petrol but now that the price of petrol is going north....
I have thought about the possibility of needing to do a short public charge mid week, just so the wife could chuck hers on the home charger. Otherwise your calculations mean that I should have no problem with the 130 mile round trip?

In fact, i'm now wondering if I need something with a theoretical, rather than real 300+ mile range? If I'm going to have to top it up every night then I'd only really need 200+ miles?

I'd go for the bigger battery every time, if there's a failed charge over night it's not too much of a drama of you've got enough power left to get to work, you can always find a public charger if need be to get home.

I assumed that you've got a7 KW home charger, and so having your car plugged into that every night and your wife's car plugged into a granny charger with the car set up to charge in the cheap rate hours could work.

For info, today's run from fod to the NEC was a 150 mile round trip and I used 55% at 3.5 mile/KW, sitting at about 75 on the motorway.

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 7:22 am**

Taff wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 9:27 pm
Nordboy wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 12:20 pm
Taff wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2026 8:50 pm Your 130 miles would need 43kw at 3 m/kw, charging for 6 hours at 7kw is 42kw, so it entirely depends on how much charge your other car needs if you only want to charge @7p.
But charging at full rate is still much cheaper than petrol, the last time I worked it out electric needed to be less than 47p to be cheaper than petrol but now that the price of petrol is going north....
I have thought about the possibility of needing to do a short public charge mid week, just so the wife could chuck hers on the home charger. Otherwise your calculations mean that I should have no problem with the 130 mile round trip?

In fact, i'm now wondering if I need something with a theoretical, rather than real 300+ mile range? If I'm going to have to top it up every night then I'd only really need 200+ miles?
I'd go for the bigger battery every time, if there's a failed charge over night it's not too much of a drama of you've got enough power left to get to work, you can always find a public charger if need be to get home.

I assumed that you've got a7 KW home charger, and so having your car plugged into that every night and your wife's car plugged into a granny charger with the car set up to charge in the cheap rate hours could work.

For info, today's run from fod to the NEC was a 150 mile round trip and I used 55% at 3.5 mile/KW, sitting at about 75 on the motorway.

Yep, I've pretty much dismissed the 200 mile thing and back on to the theoretical 300+ mile range vehicles. Keep flip flopping between the Tesla M3 or MY LR or the BMW i4 40 at the moment. They seem to be the couple that I keep coming back to. The Teslas seem slightly cheaper for what you get, the BM a bit more premium build wise.
Maybe one of the other choices will pop back in at some point. I'm not currently in any hurry to change, so keeping an eye on auto trader constantly

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 3:20 pm**

: EV.jpg (102.94 KiB) Viewed 614 times

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 4:45 pm**

Wifey took the Model Y for a spin this afternoon and loved it, I see an electric car arriving at some point. I need to work out home charging next. For anyone that doesn't know, I'm off grid, so it'll be a dedicated panel/inverter setup just for the car. I'll have a chat with the electricians in the village to see if we can come up with something.

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 4:49 pm**

Taipan wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 1:17 pm
Nordboy wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 12:35 pm Or, using Couchy's suggestion of a 3 pin plug. I'm not sure if my calculations are correct?

Octopus go so 7p/kw between 11.30pm and 6.00am, 34p other times.

If I used a 2.4kw/h 3 pin charger, from 6pm until 6am, 12 hours. The first 5.5 hours would cost me about £4.08, the cheaper session then about £1.09 so £5.17'ish in total.
I should be able to put in about 27.6kw in total, therefore if I was getting 3 miles/kw, that's a theoretical range added of about 80 miles?

If I had 100 miles range left at the end of the mid week drive, i'd therefore have more than enough charge to do my 130 mile return journey?

I have no idea if my above maths is correct though
If you use Octopus Intelligent Go, you tell it what time you want your car ready for and it'll create a charging schedule. Often these packages of charging are outside of the cheap rate hours, but you'll still only get charged cheap rate.

They've changed that pretty recently, it's now officially restricted to the 6 cheap hours (11.30pm-5.30am)

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 5:43 pm**

Sunny wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 4:49 pm
Taipan wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 1:17 pm
Nordboy wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2026 12:35 pm Or, using Couchy's suggestion of a 3 pin plug. I'm not sure if my calculations are correct?

Octopus go so 7p/kw between 11.30pm and 6.00am, 34p other times.

If I used a 2.4kw/h 3 pin charger, from 6pm until 6am, 12 hours. The first 5.5 hours would cost me about £4.08, the cheaper session then about £1.09 so £5.17'ish in total.
I should be able to put in about 27.6kw in total, therefore if I was getting 3 miles/kw, that's a theoretical range added of about 80 miles?

If I had 100 miles range left at the end of the mid week drive, i'd therefore have more than enough charge to do my 130 mile return journey?

I have no idea if my above maths is correct though
If you use Octopus Intelligent Go, you tell it what time you want your car ready for and it'll create a charging schedule. Often these packages of charging are outside of the cheap rate hours, but you'll still only get charged cheap rate.
They've changed that pretty recently, it's now officially restricted to the 6 cheap hours (11.30pm-5.30am)

Not quite, currently if your car needs say 8 hours of charging, they'll let you get away with using 8 hours and they set the schedule as to when it actually does the charge, the 11:30 - 5:30 is still cheap rate regardless of the charging plan that they give.

What they announced is that they are going to be strict on the 6 hours of charging per day, they still set the schedule and the rest of the house still gets the overnight cheap rate.

There's still a bit of confusion on when this is going to start (or even IF they're going to manage to get that working)

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 5:58 pm**

Pirahna wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 4:45 pm Wifey took the Model Y for a spin this afternoon and loved it, I see an electric car arriving at some point. I need to work out home charging next. For anyone that doesn't know, I'm off grid, so it'll be a dedicated panel/inverter setup just for the car. I'll have a chat with the electricians in the village to see if we can come up with something.

Off grid and an electric car, be interested to see the solution as that’s a lot of power needed. An average house uses 5-10kw a day, an electric car does an average 3 miles per kw so to get any meaningful mileage you’re gonna need a big increase in what electric you can produce, prob 3-4x as much

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 6:15 pm**

Couchy wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 5:58 pm
Pirahna wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 4:45 pm Wifey took the Model Y for a spin this afternoon and loved it, I see an electric car arriving at some point. I need to work out home charging next. For anyone that doesn't know, I'm off grid, so it'll be a dedicated panel/inverter setup just for the car. I'll have a chat with the electricians in the village to see if we can come up with something.
Off grid and an electric car, be interested to see the solution as that’s a lot of power needed. An average house uses 5-10kw a day, an electric car does an average 3 miles per kw so to get any meaningful mileage you’re gonna need a big increase in what electric you can produce, prob 3-4x as much

I'm interested to see what I can come up with as well.

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 6:55 pm**

Pirahna wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 6:15 pm
Couchy wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 5:58 pm
Pirahna wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 4:45 pm Wifey took the Model Y for a spin this afternoon and loved it, I see an electric car arriving at some point. I need to work out home charging next. For anyone that doesn't know, I'm off grid, so it'll be a dedicated panel/inverter setup just for the car. I'll have a chat with the electricians in the village to see if we can come up with something.
Off grid and an electric car, be interested to see the solution as that’s a lot of power needed. An average house uses 5-10kw a day, an electric car does an average 3 miles per kw so to get any meaningful mileage you’re gonna need a big increase in what electric you can produce, prob 3-4x as much
I'm interested to see what I can come up with as well.

What have you got at the moment ? You’re gonna need a huge windmill or dozens of solar panels and a big battery possibly 30-40kw plus

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 7:18 pm**

I read recently that if you could only use superchargers, it's still 1/3 to 1/2 the price of other fuels, and I believe charging costs are less in Europe compared to here?

Posted: **Mon Mar 09, 2026 9:19 pm**

Couchy wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 6:55 pm
Pirahna wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 6:15 pm
Couchy wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 5:58 pm

Off grid and an electric car, be interested to see the solution as that’s a lot of power needed. An average house uses 5-10kw a day, an electric car does an average 3 miles per kw so to get any meaningful mileage you’re gonna need a big increase in what electric you can produce, prob 3-4x as much
I'm interested to see what I can come up with as well.
What have you got at the moment ? You’re gonna need a huge windmill or dozens of solar panels and a big battery possibly 30-40kw plus

At the moment I've got 8x450w panels, 10x550w and 20kw/h of battery. I've room on the roof for 5 or 6 more 550's. There's more than enough to add miles with the occasional trip to a public charger. My problem will be mid winter. My house is on the side of a hill and I only get a four hour window during the shortest days, hence the panel capacity, it's overkill for a house with full sun exposure. Public chargers here are a lot cheaper than the UK, I think the top rated is €0.40 a kw/h, there's also free ones around.

I've just been chatting to bloke who runs his for free most of the year, he's got 26x550w panels. He has to use grid electric for a couple of months mid winter.

Edit: looking at the local chargers they're all 22kw and vary between free and €0.25. Messaging a mate who's in a similar position to me, solar and battery wise, he has Renault Scenic. I'll report back.

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2026 11:58 am**

Pirahna wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 9:19 pm
Couchy wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 6:55 pm
Pirahna wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2026 6:15 pm

I'm interested to see what I can come up with as well.
What have you got at the moment ? You’re gonna need a huge windmill or dozens of solar panels and a big battery possibly 30-40kw plus
At the moment I've got 8x450w panels, 10x550w and 20kw/h of battery. I've room on the roof for 5 or 6 more 550's. There's more than enough to add miles with the occasional trip to a public charger. My problem will be mid winter. My house is on the side of a hill and I only get a four hour window during the shortest days, hence the panel capacity, it's overkill for a house with full sun exposure. Public chargers here are a lot cheaper than the UK, I think the top rated is €0.40 a kw/h, there's also free ones around.

I've just been chatting to bloke who runs his for free most of the year, he's got 26x550w panels. He has to use grid electric for a couple of months mid winter.

Edit: looking at the local chargers they're all 22kw and vary between free and €0.25. Messaging a mate who's in a similar position to me, solar and battery wise, he has Renault Scenic. I'll report back.

Tbh with public charging that cheap it’s a no brainer regardless of what you have, try and get an EV that’s efficient. Our leaf was capable of 4miles/kw whereas the buzz is 3miles/kw. The leaf is prob half the weight and power of the buzz so as always the lighter cars are more efficient

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:23 pm**

Never considered the kW/mile figure before. It really highlights the sort of levels of power/energy wrapped up in the car and what your domestic system needs to deliver.

Is this calculation reasonable?

3miles/kW at 60 mph = 60miles and 20kW/hr

So a 300 mile range needs a 100kWh battery?

Looking at the price of the domestic storage equivalent (Some are £71k

) I think I've got something wrong.

TBH I haven't been paying much attention to the all-electric vehicle market, probably time to do some homework.

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:30 pm**

Count Steer wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:23 pm Never considered the kW/mile figure before. It really highlights the sort of levels of power/energy wrapped up in the car and what your domestic system needs to deliver.

Is this calculation reasonable?

3miles/kW at 60 mph = 60miles and 20kW/hr

So a 300 mile range needs a 100kWh battery?

Looking at the price of the domestic storage equivalent (Some are £71k ) I think I've got something wrong. TBH I haven't been paying much attention to the all-electric vehicle market, probably time to do some homework.

Yup, no one takes much notice of the efficiency. Some of the bigger ev’s are only 2m/kw which means they need huge batteries to get decent range.
When you charge it’s also better to have a more efficient car so the charge is quicker, at a public dc charger giving 80kw the leaf gets 320 miles in an hour, the buzz gets 240. So the more efficient car can spend 15 mins instead of 20 for a quick top up. Tbh I’ve stopped a couple of times and had a 5-10min top up which was enough to get me home to my cheap overnight charger.

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:43 pm**

It puts the e-Tron options in perspective.

Q8 2.17m/kW - huge barge of a thing (quite desirable though

).
Q4 3.0m/kW - which doesn't look so bad for a car that size, but it is the manufacturers figure I think, so might be optimistic.

*wanders off to crunch numbers on a Renault 5 and an Alpine

*

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:49 pm**

I can get well over 4 m/kWh on my 24 mile commute home if the weather is nice. Last night it was 3.9.

This morning it was 6c and I averaged 3.2 getting to work.

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:17 pm**

Count Steer wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:23 pm
Looking at the price of the domestic storage equivalent (Some are £71k )

But you'd never need 75kw/h of domestic battery. I run 20kw/h which is enough to do extravagant things like use an electric kettle in the middle of winter. The only thing I turn off in the winter is the electric water tank, I switch to a gas boiler for a couple of months, everything else is used as normal (I cook with gas). Batteries are only half the story, you need to get the electricity into them, the bigger the batteries the more solar panels you need.

My batteries are Pylontech, around €3500 if I needed to replace them.

Posted: **Tue Mar 10, 2026 2:03 pm**

Pirahna wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 1:17 pm
Count Steer wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 12:23 pm
Looking at the price of the domestic storage equivalent (Some are £71k )
But you'd never need 75kw/h of domestic battery. I run 20kw/h which is enough to do extravagant things like use an electric kettle in the middle of winter. The only thing I turn off in the winter is the electric water tank, I switch to a gas boiler for a couple of months, everything else is used as normal (I cook with gas). Batteries are only half the story, you need to get the electricity into them, the bigger the batteries the more solar panels you need.

My batteries are Pylontech, around €3500 if I needed to replace them.

I was more wondering at the £71k for one application vs the price of a 100kWh battery powered car (or the battery replacement cost

). TBH I picked one at random, it's probably not the cheapest - it did have lots of control wizardry integrated.

In a colder climate with an air source heat pump for heating + a family of hot shower addicts and an insatiable thirst for tea and coffee I think some would find 100kWh marginal.

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2026 12:59 pm**

Listening to Jeremy Vine discussing how since the start of the war in Iran that on average petrol has gone up 7p a litre and diesel 17p... while my car is charging up for free at work is making me far too smug.

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2026 1:08 pm**

KungFooBob wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 12:59 pmsmug

Pfft, I've not fuelled up since the end of October

revtothelimit - motorbike forum

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