Why Tesla?

This is why. Hopwood Park services off the M42. Non-Teslas can't use this particular site as it's deemed "high-usage". It happened to be empty when I arrived! On a 260-mile drive I needed a 10 minute charge to get home (or face driving ~150 miles at 50mph on the remaining charge). The Gridserve public chargers … Continue reading Why Tesla?

Using the EV chargers at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

This page is intended for employees and visitors of STFC-RAL, until something official becomes available. This is the situation at March 2022. Hopefully some of what I've learned in nearly 6 years of EV driving is useful. TLDR; download the Chargepoint app and plug in! At the Harwell campus there are many tenants, STFC being … Continue reading Using the EV chargers at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

“Yay my energy bill is in!” or “How we pay only 9p a unit for our electricity!”

Warning - in 2021-2 the UK electricity wholesale price has risen substantially, so an Agile tariff may not suit you. We now use Octopus "Go Faster". This post dates from 2019... We switched to a time-of-use electricity tariff from Octopus in summer 2019, from an Economy 7 tariff. This means that the price of electricity … Continue reading “Yay my energy bill is in!” or “How we pay only 9p a unit for our electricity!”

Ioniq Electric datafest- Torque, EVNotify and canIoniq

There are now at least three apps on Android that enable access to the battery and motor data from the Battery Management System (BMS) via the On-Board Diagnostic port (OBD2). It's like a customisable version of "LeafSpy" but for other cars. Why would you be interested? If you need to ask then this probably isn't … Continue reading Ioniq Electric datafest- Torque, EVNotify and canIoniq

How much can you top up an Ioniq in 10 minutes from a Polar Ultracharger?

To answer this question, I tried out a Polar Ultracharger at the Holiday Inn Swindon, in the UK. The charger is quite close to J15 of the M4, and while the M4 is fairly well-served for charging, it's on the Electric Highway network which is, how shall I put it, a little creaky right now. … Continue reading How much can you top up an Ioniq in 10 minutes from a Polar Ultracharger?

Comparing different rapid chargers on a Nissan Leaf 24. 48kW?!

Many EV drivers have noticed that newer "Rapid" chargers can deliver a lot more power than the older models. So how do the older and newer chargers compare, what does the charging profile look like, and how long does it really take? Not all "rapid" chargers are created equal. Some date from 2012/2013 when Nissan … Continue reading Comparing different rapid chargers on a Nissan Leaf 24. 48kW?!