My upcoming MG ZS EV
 

Four weeks to go til pick up, I'm going to chart the trials & tribulations of the process of getting a 7kw wall box charger with the OLEV grant. Already hit the first snag with BP Pulse regarding the charger!

I ordered the car 1st November but they've been so busy with installations it's taken until now for them to contact me.


They need lots of pictures of your property and where you want the 7kw charger installed, they need to know how many people live there, what type of electric appliances you have.
One of the criteria besides needing off road parking or garage which I have both is the household needs to have a modern electrical system, My old house built around the first world war doesn't :duh:


You need pictures of earth bonding clamps to all the metal pipework i.e. gas, water, shower, boiler which this house doesn't :eek:


I got electricity north west out t'other day to safety check our electricity system, it passed well within specs including the earthing wires which go under the floorboards to I'm guessing the pipework but they're certainly not the 10 mm gague you need for today's code. :o


They said it will need an upgrade from the bakerlite system I have to a comsumer unit & isolation switch, with the Christmas holidays this will have to wait.

Congratulations Ian, you must be very excited. :xmas-smiley-008:

We were looking at the ZS ourselves, but I'm just not sure I would be happy with it overall, it's a lot of money to part with, and I reckon I would fall out of love with it quite quickly.

I see the household energy suppliers are now offering catered tariffs for EV owners, EDF keep sending me offers with a range of tariffs available to suit certain EV lifestyles, I didn't realise such tariffs were available.

We have found buying an EV isn't as simple as some would have you believe, it sort of puts you off a little.

Cheers Wes, Yes excited, I ordered it at the beginning of November because I didn't know what would happen to prices regards Brexit, WTO !!! BMW announced they were putting a £3000 price increase on their cars for the UK market & Hyundai said they will honour the prices of their cars if you ordered before 31/12/20 :shrug:


It fits our needs as we don't do a lot of mileage these days & there's more room in this MG for my lanky frame, I find the seating position very comfortable & it's very well put together.

They could fit a separate consumer unit just for the charger. We had one added when we added a small extension and the builder refused to connect to the existing supply, despite not mentioning it in the original quote. I had showed the fuze box to him as part of the quote process. He wanted his mate to do a complete rewire well into the job. One of those little extras that come up.

Once the builder was finished I got 3 quotes and a full rewrite done whist the kids were away at uni. Funny enough the original electrician didn’t quote when invited along with others. Re-wire: Loads of disruption. Carpets and floorboards up, channels in the wall, dust, power off etc.

Yes I'm hoping to get just a consumer unit just for the 7kw charger, I don't want all that disruption of a full re-wire nor do I have the funds anyway now, Especially as the electricity board engineer gave the old system a clean bill of health t'other day.

We are waiting for a couple of quotes to come back but am planning to get a 7kw charger.
Have to say that our ZSEV is a solid 10/10

That's good to know. :icon_lol: I'll just have to wait til the OLEV guys get back to me about the 7kw charger, I've done all the online forms & pics they needed.

I’ll be dropping into this thread for updates as I’ve been thinking about getting an EV myself.
It’s not straight forward unfortunately.
1. I park 20 meters from my house.
2. We currently rent our home.

I spend about £200 per month fuelling my car and my wife’s. The EV is allegedly available for £249 per month but will that allow for my annual mileage of 20k?
I can just see the look on the salesman’s face as he has to turn me away.

Being VAT registered may open some doors for me on a business finance plan but I still see practical problems.

Certainly worth asking a few questions, the MG5 has a longer range.
On 20000 miles a year you will save money on fuel and servicing but loose time charging. Like all things there are pros and cons

20k/year is a lot of charging annually especially if you cant at least charge at home overnight on a cheap tariff.



I read the other week that the government are throwing £millions at on-street EV charging like converting lamp posts & pop up pavement chargers to charge EV's (London seem to be getting the lions share at the moment) https://www.electrive.com/2020/08/27...rgy-in-london/. They're going to need hundreds of thousands of these across the country before much longer. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/g...c-car-charging


Or Get a VW id 3 & order the mobile charger robot from your phone to come & charge your car. https://media.giphy.com/media/8vpeyWA3OWOhG/giphy.gif