When are you going fully electric?

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,648
Location
Chillin' on the Boat
I'm not worried about or comparing refuelling times or rates, just how much time I'm inconveniencing other people when there's no need which is what the original point was, that EV's shouldn't charge to 100% because it hogs a charger from somebody else.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
24,796
Lets not forget the discussion started not from an educational point of view, that someone might not know and can be helped out - it started from a comment that implied the very behaviour of wanting to charge to 100% is rude.

"I sat watching an Audi eTron charging up at a fast charger all the way up to 100% (gotta Love Audi drivers EV etiquette)."
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,047
Commercial charging will soon need to have a cost related to duration of charge as well as quantity of energy,
which may be an additional bonus of eg. paying for the higher rate VW charging options.
Most EV public chargers have an overstay fee of £10 per hour after 90 minutes
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
18,300
Location
Birmingham
I'm not worried about or comparing refuelling times or rates, just how much time I'm inconveniencing other people when there's no need which is what the original point was, that EV's shouldn't charge to 100% because it hogs a charger from somebody else.

No. EVs shouldn't charge to 100% because it takes twice as long as charging to 80%, which means for any given requirement over 80%, it is quicker to repeatedly charge to 80% than to 100%

You're still making the mistake of treating every journey as a distinct entity, rather than looking at the overall picture.

Say you need to drive 800 miles/week, and you can do 100 miles on a charge

You can either charge 8x to 100% or 10x to 80%

Charging 8x to 100% = 8x1hour = 8 hours
Charging 10x to 80 = 10x 30 mins = 5 hours

Assuming public charging with people waiting each time, by choosing to charge to 100% instead of 80%, you are inconveniencing other people by an extra 3 hours/week

Lets not forget the discussion started not from an educational point of view, that someone might not know and can be helped out - it started from a comment that implied the very behaviour of wanting to charge to 100% is rude.

It's possible to be rude (or at least seen as such) unintentionally :)
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2005
Posts
19,205
Location
Norfolk, South Scotland
Lets not forget the discussion started not from an educational point of view, that someone might not know and can be helped out - it started from a comment that implied the very behaviour of wanting to charge to 100% is rude.

"I sat watching an Audi eTron charging up at a fast charger all the way up to 100% (gotta Love Audi drivers EV etiquette)."

And it is rude if someone is waiting. Just like people first had motor cars they had a certain degree of camaraderie and they’d help each other out. Indeed, even when my dad started driving in the early 1950s, if you saw someone broken down you would stop and offer to help. Nowadays people won’t even move over or slow down when they see an AA or RAC person trying to change a tyre or something on the hard shoulder of the motorway. We’ve turned into a right bunch of ******** in our cars.

I’m making no claims for BEV drivers being any different, but the common purpose that did exist before the tax breaks did encourage a slightly eco-club aspect to the ownership demographic and I don’t see anything wrong in being courteous although I’ve been laughed at before on these forums for being nice to other charger users.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
6,648
Location
Chillin' on the Boat
No. EVs shouldn't charge to 100% because it takes twice as long as charging to 80%, which means for any given requirement over 80%, it is quicker to repeatedly charge to 80% than to 100%
You're still making the mistake of treating every journey as a distinct entity, rather than looking at the overall picture.
I can't be bothered any more, we're just going around in circles and I think coming at this from different perspectives. I can't be bothered to try and explain my side any more as I'm really not that worried :)
I've been driving an EV for the last three years, I don't need help explaining charge times or what is more efficient as that's not really the point I was making.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
18,300
Location
Birmingham
I can't be bothered any more, we're just going around in circles and I think coming at this from different perspectives. I can't be bothered to try and explain my side any more as I'm really not that worried :)
I've been driving an EV for the last three years, I don't need help explaining charge times or what is more efficient as that's not really the point I was making.

The point you were making is that an ICE has the same refuelling speed curve as an EV, which is just plain wrong. That's possibly not the one you were trying to make, but that's what came across :p
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
24,796
So if charging my hypothetical EV to 100% (which I may need to) is rude, what is the accepted etiquette? I get to 80%, unplug, let someone else go while I wait for them to spend 30 minutes doing their 20%-80% and then i'm allowed another go to get my last 20%?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,158
So if charging my hypothetical EV to 100% (which I may need to) is rude, what is the accepted etiquette? I get to 80%, unplug, let someone else go while I wait for them to spend 30 minutes doing their 20%-80% and then i'm allowed another go to get my last 20%?
I guess the rationale is that 80% is enough to get you home, and you should charge it up there. Doesn't really work if you can't charge at home, though.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
18,300
Location
Birmingham
So if charging my hypothetical EV to 100% (which I may need to) is rude, what is the accepted etiquette? I get to 80%, unplug, let someone else go while I wait for them to spend 30 minutes doing their 20%-80% and then i'm allowed another go to get my last 20%?

Why would you want to do that?

If you really need that last 20%, then no, by all means carry on until you have enough charge to get to wherever it is you're going that has no other chargers en route.

The point I and a couple of other posters were making is that it's almost always more time efficient to charge to 80%, continue your journey, and charge again (to 80%) when you get to ~20%
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,047
So if charging my hypothetical EV to 100% (which I may need to) is rude, what is the accepted etiquette? I get to 80%, unplug, let someone else go while I wait for them to spend 30 minutes doing their 20%-80% and then i'm allowed another go to get my last 20%?
I'm with Haggisman - charging over 80% on a public EV charger is pointless and doesn't make sense, due to the added time to finish the last 20%. You should charge up to 80% and if you that doesn't get you home, or you need more, then stop at another charger further along your route.
Doing this benefits everyone, but yourself more :)
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
24,796
Why would you want to do that?

If you really need that last 20%, then no, by all means carry on until you have enough charge to get to wherever it is you're going that has no other chargers en route.

Well because the point being made was that it's poor etiquette / rude to charge to 100%, especially so if someone is waiting, so I was asking what is the accepted etiquette to charge to 100% without people sitting there silently judging you for your rudeness.

I'm with Haggisman - charging over 80% on a public EV charger is pointless and doesn't make sense.. You should charge up to 80% and if you that doesn't get you home, or you need more, then stop at another charger further along on your route.

Pointless is one thing, circumstance dependent. Rude in and of itself is another IMO.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
If you really need that last 20%, then no, by all means carry on until you have enough charge to get to wherever it is you're going that has no other chargers en route.

Presumably your remark here is supposed to imply that there will obviously be other chargers en route. So in reality then you expect what, MULTIPLE charge ups on a journey? So stop charging before its full, and drive on to another charger? :D
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,047
Presumably your remark here is supposed to imply that there will obviously be other chargers en route. So in reality then you expect what, MULTIPLE charge ups on a journey? So stop charging before its full, and drive on to another charger? :D
Unless you're driving through North Devon, Mid Wales or North of Dundee it's highly likely there be multiple, available and working chargers on your route.

80% is very often 150+ miles of range so shouldn't be an issue even in those locations.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Oct 2004
Posts
18,300
Location
Birmingham
Presumably your remark here is supposed to imply that there will obviously be other chargers en route. So in reality then you expect what, MULTIPLE charge ups on a journey? So stop charging before its full, and drive on to another charger? :D

Exactly :)

Now whilst the infrastructure is still in its infancy, there are obviously going to be routes where this isn't feasible, but that's becoming less of an issue as time goes by and more chargers are being installed.

Well because the point being made was that it's poor etiquette / rude to charge to 100%, especially so if someone is waiting, so I was asking what is the accepted etiquette to charge to 100% without people sitting there silently judging you for your rudeness.

As I said before, you can be perceived as rude unintentionally.

If you've only just got your EV, the salesman was crap, and didn't explain charging speeds, you might be sat there naively thinking you should just charge to 100%, because why not? It's what you did in your old petrol car.

That's not rude, but might be perceived as such. Although then you could argue that the person assuming you're being rude is actually the one being rude by making that assumption, and so on :p

Ultimately it comes down to everyone having a bit more consideration for each other; don't charge to 100% when someone else is waiting unless you actually need it and dont assume someone else who is charging to 100% is being a **** for the sake of it, strike up a polite conversation with them, they might not realise their charging slows right down at the end, you might find out they're driving into the middle of nowhere and there are no chargers around.

Maybe they'll thank you, in which case high fives all round, maybe they'll tell you to **** off, in which case sure, feel free to think they're rude :)
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
24,796
As I said before, you can be perceived as rude unintentionally.

If you've only just got your EV, the salesman was crap, and didn't explain charging speeds, you might be sat there naively thinking you should just charge to 100%, because why not? It's what you did in your old petrol car.

That's not rude, but might be perceived as such. Although then you could argue that the person assuming you're being rude is actually the one being rude by making that assumption, and so on :p

Which is all lovely but still doesn't explain what the etiquette is to avoid being perceived as rude if you need to charge to 100%?

Do I perhaps need to go and explain myself to make sure the other person knows why I might need 100% before they just assume i'm being an idiot / rude for not unplugging at 80%? Put up a little sign in the car window?

I just find it odd the readiness with which people are keen to dish out the judgement on someone else without any idea why they might need to be charging to 100%.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
13,997
Location
Sandwich, Kent
Are EV owners really looking down on other EV owners who want to use the charging infrastructure to charge their car to 100%?!
No, it's just some narrative that Fox made up to drum up his post count and rally up the anti EVers.

My point was that I noticed it didn't slow down when it got over 90% - and I wondered what effect that would have on the long term battery health. Based on someone saying that VAG ev's had software issues - I wondered if this might be something they change in an update, to help protect the long term life of the battery.
 
Back
Top Bottom