Troubling charges
Report 2 VW e-Golf & Nissan Leaf
£28,230*/£31,965 & £28,390*/£30,575
Month two with our electric hatches, and this time we’re talking home-charging. Who does it, what it costs, how you manage it and so on.
OM: Is the ancient monument that is your home updated with the correct main fuse? TH: It is. The 60A fuse was simply not enough to power the charger and the rest of the house, hence the upgrade to 80. Which, in fairness, UK Power Networks did for free in about five minutes. The 7kW Chargemaster Homecharge is installed and working as it should. Which is well. OM: I went for PodPoint instead. Very efficient actually, hole drilled though to the fusebox, attractive box bolted to the wall, all done in less than two hours. Did cost £359 for the 7kW charger and when you see how little there actually is inside the box, it makes you wonder about the mark-up that’s being applied.
TH: And don’t forget that’s after the £500 OLEV grant, and you need off-street parking, and to have bought your car since 1 October 2016. Anyway, mine cost £279, but isn’t as nice to look at as yours. They do a version with the lead attached, but I opted for the one where you have to use your own because neatness. OM: Ah, that’s interesting. Mine has the lead attached to the box, so I just uncoil it and plug in. The downside is that I can only charge cars that use the Type 2 plug. But then that’s everything apart, I think, from the original Leaf and first Mitsubishi Outlander, so I’m not fussed. Apparently the Type 1 plugs were fairly unreliable. Any issues with yours?
TH: None so far. I’m still getting to grips with Chargemaster’s Polar Plus app that should be able to link to the Homecharge unit. Connection is proving tricky.
OM: Downright impossible for me at the moment. A new PodPoint app that gives you info and control direct from the wallbox was due to be launched in July. Predictably, it’s been delayed.
TH: Ever feel you’re at the cutting edge of something that isn’t quite sorted yet? OM: Such as your Leaf for instance. That got out the door before they did the driving position.
TH: Ugh. Don’t remind me.