[Rupert Holdsworth]

Hi All,

After contributing to the forums a few years ago during a 2 year stint as a Leaf 24 KwH owner and having to return to diesel due to increasing weekly motorway miles I could be moving back into EV running again.. here's hoping

I'm currently putting a salary sacrifice proposal to my MD and if I can make the numbers work I may try for a Model 3 - I've looked into various other EV's but realistically for minimum fuss I would prefer the range of the M3 LR a couple of times a week. Some of the depots I regularly visit have little opportunity to charge during the day ( without a massive extension lead across a busy yard) and whilst I'm still youngish & have a fairly robust bladder I tend to make the journey there & back in one hit either way - usually getting back just in time for kids bedtime.

A few questions regarding servicing & charging..

Firstly servicing - it looks like there may be a centre opening in Stratford Upon Avon -

does anyone have any news on this?

If so could solve my service centre locality issues.

How often / how many miles between services / service centre visits are people experiencing?

Doing upwards of 20k per year in the trusty Golf is not a massive issue as the local ( & very reputable ) garage is only 2 miles from my 'normal' office. I do have a few visits per year outside regular servicing for bits and bobs but again I can generally fit this in around my working life. A half day trip to Milton Keynes or Cribbs Causeway every 3 - 4 months would be a PITA for me !

Also I have recently moved to an old - what can be described as - a badly built 60's farm shack with extremely dodgy farmer DIY electrics. I know I can probably get a new main fuse fitted and get the home charger connected directly from this rather than via the 'non existent' consumer unit, but we are also planning to demolish & rebuild in the next 2 years and whilst we rent I may not have home charging available. Not the end of the world as I can do most of my charging at my office when not travelling between sites. We have lots of Blue 16a & red 32a 3 phase commando points on site BUT ....

Can you still get the old 'red' & 'blue' connectors to plug the UMC into and if so how much are these?

Many thanks !

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

Tesla have no fixed service requirement, just take it in when it breaks, which luckily hasn't happened to me yet in 18 months (Obviously there are the build quality issues that people have although they would be clustered to just after buying the car rather than servicing).

I'd be worried about plugging long term into something badly built with DIY electrics.. at least get a sparky to look at, as you're going to be drawing potentially 11kw for several hours at a time.

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the response, there's a good sparky in the village who I'll be speaking to about it - when I had the Leaf the charger (PodPoint) was connected via an armoured directly to the main fuse; thereby avoiding everything downstream ( consumer unit etc ) (EDIT) - should have mentioned this was in our previous, building regs complaint house.

TBH I've not checked the main fuse rating yet as I can't see it through the Bakelite ;-) There seems to be 2 main fuses from the meter supplying two circuits so I'm guessing that I'll probably need a new perhaps 100a fuse upstream of this lot; if I can then it would avoid everything old & dodgy other than the meter itself. Also whilst at home I can ensure that it is only drawing a couple of Kw rather than the full whack by reducing charging rate. The likely circumstances given my regular movements are a full charge at the depot and a 'top up' of perhaps 10 kwh drawn on my commute home before any longer journeys that might be planned the next day. The most regular of which is about 270 miles. Hence the M3 LR as I'd like to be sure that I can cover this distance in the winter / bad weather. Though to be fair I rarely drive over the speed limit anymore so should be eminently achievable on a steady motorway journey.

I used to do the same journey in the Leaf but had to charge at Leicester Forest East, then at Tibshelf before leaving the M1, I could then just about make it to East Mids or Leicester Forest East on the way back; which would see me home. This was before Warwick South was operational ;-) It was doable when I wasn't in a rush and could fill the charging time with e-mails & other work but just became totally untenable when everyone in Mitsubishi Outlanders were hogging the rapids at a 3.3 kw draw and the others were more often than not U/S . Became too much to bear in the end but I was only doing it once a month. Now doing it pretty much every week, the Golf has done a good job but the mileage is getting a bit 'leggy' and I've recently narrowly avoided a couple of very hefty bills.

Good news that 18 months between visits seems doable.

Currently getting a few BCH and salary sacrifice proposals together and I'll run the numbers - ultimately it will come down to cost as I need to be saving for previously mentioned house rebuild and splashing out on new vehicles isn't a good look with SWMBO. Money from the Golf might go someway towards replacing the equally leggy family empty crisp packet / dirty PE kit mobile 7 seat storage device though ;-)

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

As Tony said, servicing is mostly optional. There's a service schedule that includes things like replacing cabin filters every couple of years, and then there's coolant and brake fluid changes. But there's no set X miles or 12 monthly service like other cars. You also don't need Tesla to do any of this, there's plenty of independent garages that are used to working on EV's and for most things related to steering and braking it's the same as any other car. Use an independent local garage and make an assumption that you'll have to drop it at the Tesla SC some time in the first month to get any delivery niggles sorted, if they can't be done by one of the rangers. It's also possible that you get a car with no issues at all ... wouldn't that be nice.

Regarding the 16 and 32a UMC adapters, they were about £30 each when I last checked. And if you are worried about the state of the wiring you could always knock the charging ampage down a bit in the car so charge at 13A on the 16A adapter or 25A on the 32.

Thanks for the info, I googled a bit more on the Tesla Owners forum and see that you can still obtain them for about £40

Just trying to work out whether or not it's worth putting the maintenance & tyres through the leasing company but it amounts to about 4.5k over the 4 year term; which I would hope is more than I would expect if I took the maintenance on myself. I would expect another set of tyres over the term ( I tend to be pretty easy on tyre wear nowadays) and probably 2 services ?

Thanks again for the response.

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

Thanks for the response Jon G I'd subsequently read that the red connector isn't available anymore. We have a few blue 16a connectors knocking about at the depots but most are the red 32a 3 phase ones. I guess I could have the sparky wire up a red connector with just one of the phases connected to a female blue plug and use the 16a connector with this. Not great for phase balancing but we're talking a relatively small load compared to what is being pulled from each dist board when all the trucks are plugged in overnight pulling 10 - 20 amps each.

Or just plump up the cash and get one of these??

3 Phase CEE to Type 2 Portable Charger. 32A 400V 22kW. 10A, 16A, 20A, 24A, 32A

Type 2 Portable Charger Commando Plug 10, 16, 20, 24, 3 Phase 32 AmpType 2 3 Phase Mobile charging cable, red 5-pin 3-phase 32A CEE plug. Buy a 3-phase mobile charger cable that connects to the red 3-phase CEE / Commando sockets located in places such as industrial units. Please check your red C

www.evchargingcablestore.com

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

There are a few 3 phase after market ones, the Juice Booster being the best known. I image you could create your own adapter cable, I think the latest Tesla charger isn't even that sensitive to neutral earth voltage differences which used to plague the Tesla charger on the continent as I think it was mainly French sparkies took a fairly liberal attitude to polarity. Either that or the latest Tesla charger senses polarity and switches. If it is sensitive you may have trouble trying to wire an adapter for a delta red commando socket, or thinking about it, not possible at all as the phase to phase voltage on delta is 400v. Probably best to ask somebody who knows more than a man on the internet before you fry something!

They are all 3P N & E so should be able to get 240v between one of the phases & neutral ( he says with HV multi tester in hand going into yard to check ;-) I do have a couple of slightly more informed mates than I who are EV nuts and have wired every possible adapter for their Leaf so I'll run it by them - one owes me a favour as I gave him my old type 1 tethered charger when I handed the Leaf back - who knows he might even make me one up.

I'd rather that way than try a very expensive experiment with Tesla parts...... I could still be getting way ahead of myself as haven't had the go-ahead from the boss yet. I did put a good business case to him and have left it with him for a couple of days before hijacking him face to face later this week. Failing that there's always the 'company image' , 'marketing opportunity', 'company runs a fleet of electric vehicles on tender documents' etc etc route ;-)

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

So that happened quicker than I expected ! Not sure what to call it but given the option of fart mode but otherwise general silence, I'm thinking maybe 'The Phantom Raspberry Blower' .... Thoughts?