As early adopters of electric vehicles, we have a wealth of experience which we love to share.
What truly makes us an electric car specialist?
In 2019, we took the step to embrace being fully electric. These were still the early days for electric car owners, but we knew if we were truly going to offer our clients unrivalled levels of advice and service, we would need to become experts ourselves.
Our managing director, Jon has driven almost every electric car on the market and done lots of tests to push the limits of not only the cars, but the infrastructure as well.
Commonly Asked Questions
This varies on the size of the battery and the peak charge rate of the car. For ease, I will use our most popular model, a Tesla Model 3 Long Range.
- 3 pin plug – 3kW = 12 miles per hour
- Home charger – 7kW = 28 miles per hour
- Office charger if 3 phase – 22kW = 88 miles per hour
- Tesla Supercharger – 250kW, up to 1000 miles per hour
- Rapid chargers – 50kW to 350kW, 200 miles per hour – 1000 miles per hour.
It is important to note that the 350kW doesn’t offer any improvement over the 250kW charger as the maximum the Tesla Model 3 Long Range car take is 250kW. The 350kW charger will not do the car any harm as the car will only take as much as it can handle.
When using rapid and superchargers, the car will charge much faster then when the battery is low and slow down as it fills up.
Running out of battery in an electric car is the same as an ICE car. You gently roll to a stop following lots of warnings from the car.
Your lights should still work for a while, as these are powered from the 12 volt battery. The car is driven by the high voltage battery, which is separate to the 12 volt system.
If you do run out of battery, you’ll normally need the car to be recovered to a nearby charger, but if this isn’t possible or practicable, a portable battery pack can be used to top of the car to give it a few miles or range to drive to a charger.
Thankfully this shouldn’t be anything to worry about as a stationary electric car it isn’t using the battery because it isn’t turning the motors. However, much like you need an ICE engine running for the heating or air conditioning, an electric car is no different. On a full charge a Telsa Model 3 Long range would be able to heat the cabin for approximately 18 – 37 hours, so you shouldn’t be in a situation where this is likely to be an issue.
The UK uses the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) is a test for measuring the range of an electric car. Based on experience, we recommend using 80% of the WLTP quoted range to get a more realistic figure and as low at 65% for the winter.
Yes. Batteries don’t like the cold and are less efficient in colder weather. If it’s raining, the wipers will use very little extra power (A reduction of about 5 miles on a full charge). But the car punching through the rain, does affect the overall range more significantly. Worst case, it is safe to assume up to a 20% reduction in range in extreme cases.
Most manufacturers warranty their battery for 8 years and 100,000 – 150,000 miles. With a warranty for a battery retention of 70%.
Real world testing has shown a battery with a mixture of charging (30% DC and 70% AC) will retain 92% of its battery capacity over 100,000 miles. There are also cases where some cars are showing as little at 7% degradation over 250,000 miles.
Five things to consider when establishing the speed of a charger
Some cars can take a faster charge rate than others. E.g. the Tesla Model 3 Long Range can charge at a rate of 250kW, where as the MG ZS EV has a maximum charge rate of 50kW.
The reason why manufacturers often quote a 0-80% charge time, is that the lower the state of battery charge, the faster it will charge. E.g. If a Tesla Model 3 Long Range has 5% of its battery remaining and is on a 250kW charger, it will charge at 1000 miles per hour (250kW). But the same car on the same charger with 50% of its battery remaining will see a charge rate of approximately 125kW, half that of what the supercharger is able to delivery and about 500 miles per hour. Once it reaches 90% state of charge, this number reduces all the way down to 40kW which equates to 160 miles per hour.
In summary, The Tesla Model 3 Long Range will charge from 0-80% in the same amount of time it takes to charge from 80-100%
Public chargers can range from 3kW to 350kW, whilst this might seem difficult to navigate, there are plenty of tools to help you.
Some cars, such as Tesla will tell you the speed of the charges available to you. But others might require you to use third party apps, such as ZAP Map. This is a fantastic resource that not only stores information about all the chargers in the UK and their speed, but also allows users to report issues to others using the app.
Tethered means that the charger has its own cable.
Untethered means that you need your own cable.
Slow, Medium and fast chargers (up to 43kW) (AC) are often, but not always untethered.
DC Rapid and ultra-rapid chargers from 50kW – 350kW are always tethered.
Type 1
This is an AC connecter that was used by early electric cars and PHEV such as the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi Outlander
Type 2
This is used by all the current electric cars for AC charging
Chademo
This was used by some early electric cars and PHEVs such as the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi Outlander DC rapid charging. All new mainstream electric cars have moved to CCS.
CCS (Combined Charging System)
This has now become the standard charger for all new electric cars in the UK for DC charging.