[Richard]

Does anyone else find all these plugs/sockets confusing? I have just the standard charger right now which is simple, 3 pin plug one and and the car on the other. Now I want to be able to charge on the road it starts getting complicated.

From what I read the standard issue charging cable will not charge at 16A contrary to the brochure, but instead at 10A? That's not great and means another £500 to get a dedicated charging unit hard wired in. I can do that. Sounds to me like a way to push the home charging station though.

On the road, some charging points have 3 pin sockets, good, min 6 hour charge, bad. Most have other sorts of sockets and plugs. My question here is just how many cables do I need and where should I buy them from? I will mostly be driving in the uk.

Thanks
Richard

 

[Richard]

Re: IEC / Mennekes / J1772 / Eu mode / this weeks favourite

Thanks for that, Very helpful and I get your point about range extended and not needing to be charged, but I'm trying to play the game here and stay away from petrol as much as possible. Most of my travelling is < 40 miles round trip so I'm right in the zone for the Ampera, but when I do travel further I'd like to have the option of getting another 40 miles petrol free. One site I visit regularly has already agreed to provide a charging point, which is a really nice gesture. Another site, is just over the road from Tesco who are apparently installing charging points. Finally, once a month I park in a car park with a source london charging point. That's £10 a year. Seems like common sense to me to charge up when I can without going out of my way to do so. Its just a shame that I'm going to have a glovebox full of rfid cards to work the charging points

 

[Richard]

Re: IEC / Mennekes / J1772 / Eu mode / this weeks favourite

Cheers for the Tip. Have applied to Polar for a card and so on.

As for the Type 2 Cable. Ecotricity say theirs is a type 2 400V 32A outlet. Can I use that (with the right cable) or is it going to set the car on fire?

 

[Richard]

Re: IEC / Mennekes / J1772 / Eu mode / this weeks favourite

Ok, Cool. So the type 2 plug seems to be 5 power pins and two 'other' pins. So, even though its three phase, our car would only use a single phase of that, and at 16A? So no smoke and fire then?

I'm almost there. Just need a type 2 cable, a home charging station, and a car full of RFID cards.

Thanks for everyone's help on this.