prep for delivery - off peak/solar charging strategy plus preheating?

428 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Mrklaw, 7 d ago

Mrklaw

Discussion Starter · 10 d ago

Pick up my wifes egolf on Friday hopefully. I need it to be a pretty painless transition or I’ll get it in the neck

- initially I’ll look after charging until its bedded in. Have a couple of questions I hope you can help with

charging

I hope we can charge at weekends using solar. For this do I just leave the timer off in the car and control from the zappi? I normally use eco mode so it never drops below 1.4kw so shouldln’t be on/off all the time. Do I need to fiddle with the buttons in the charge flap?
overnight on octopus go - on my tesla I don’t have a schedule set and have boost set on the zappi for the off peak period. All the stuff I read about the egolf talks about the infotainment schedule, but can I just leave it all off and use zappi boost mode, or doesn’t the car like that?

In particular with some days being solar during the day and some being overnight I would prefer not having to keep going to the car to turn things on/off (especially as my wife’s settings will have the seat so far up/forward I’ll barely get in…)

preheating/cooling

can you do this from the app directly? Wife doesn’t leave at the same time every day so it’d be preferred to just do it directly when needed rather than schedule
can the car be accessed using your home wifi? I read the car only has a 3G sim (2019 model if it makes a difference) so will that affect connectivity if 3G gets turned off?

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ElectRick

· #2 · 10 d ago (Edited)

Can't help with your charging query as I only have a dumb EVSE and rely purely on the in-car schedule, which thankfully has been 100% reliable for me.

Precondition can be done from the app on demand but you will need a subscription to do this. If you are buying from a main dealer, hopefully they would be able to sort this for you. Otherwise you will need to setup an account and purchase at least 12 months of 'connected' services. First 3 years were included free for me, then £55 a year since.

3G still working ok for me at the moment, but I am standing by for when this might be switched off. I haven't attempted connecting via WiFi, and not sure if that would work for preconditioning, will find out if/when they do eventually switch off 3G.

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Snax

· #3 · 10 d ago (Edited)

I spoke to VW about the ending of 3G egolf services a while back and they seemed to think it will last a few more years yet, although they couldn’t officially say as no decision had been made. The problem ( not from VW ) is the 3G masts require a company to pay for access, and since 5G many contracts are being reviewed. The egolf has a 3G sim in the glovebox which you install when you get the service. If 3G does get switched off, which seems unlikely, then connectivity will be off as well. The question I think is wether there are enough egolfs using the service to make it worthwhile. This is often a code for charging for a previously free service, which is why we now pay £55.

you will be able to set scheduled charging in the dash screen, which has a preheat option for departure time.

at the moment I use the iOS app to preheat and also defrost windows. Also of note, if the car is plugged in during preheat it has a different process compared to preheat unplugged. I believe the preheat is better when not plugged in, quicker to get to temperature and I think it’s because the plugged in state means it’s drawing energy through the converter from the mains and therefore limited as it splits to the battery and to aircon, rather than from the car battery. I’m sure someone more technical than myself can explain it. It doesn’t make a huge difference but there it is

update: I’m actually about to renew as my service is 3 years old and the free period is up. Has it been 3 years? Anyway. There are two options, Guide and Inform which is the internal navigation system which I’ve never used as its crap. I use carplay. The other is the WeConnect Security services Plus like preheat, windows, locking, driving data and all the app functions. You can currently pay £55 a year or £85 for two years. I’ll be doing the two years and having read that email I got from VW last winter, they say the service will run to its contracted end. Anything can happen but that seems to me to say the SIM card will still operate for two years from June 2023 provided you pay for the contract.

At the bottom of the renew page:

“It is expected that the services for Car‑Net will no longer be available from 2025. Limited use of the We Connect mobile online services will still be possible with LTE.”

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ElectRick

· #4 · 10 d ago

When I last subscribed, there was a warning stating basically that despite me paying up front for the services, that it may stop working through no fault of theirs. I expect newer cars will have 4/5G connectivity and the VW servers will continue to provide them with services for some time yet.

In my experience, preheat works well when plugged into a 7kW EVSE, but not from the granny lead as it can't provide enough power when it's really cold. Preheating from the battery works ok, but it will only run for 10 minutes at a time, whereas it will run for 30 minutes when plugged in.

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Snax

· #5 · 10 d ago

ElectRick said:
When I last subscribed, there was a warning stating basically that despite me paying up front for the services, that it may stop working through no fault of theirs. I expect newer cars will have 4/5G connectivity and the VW servers will continue to provide them with services for some time yet.

In my experience, preheat works well when plugged into a 7kW EVSE, but not from the granny lead as it can't provide enough power when it's really cold. Preheating from the battery works ok, but it will only run for 10 minutes at a time, whereas it will run for 30 minutes when plugged in.

I was not aware of the ten minute/half hour period. Makes sense!

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Mrklaw

Discussion Starter · #6 · 10 d ago

can it connect to home wifi for remote control or is that mobile only? This would likely only be for preheating a cold car and I'd prefer to do that off battery rather than use peak rate electric. It may be plugged in at the time but charger would be off so hopefully it'll switch to battery. And I don't need battery preconditioning just cabin

and does anyone do the octopus overnight and occasional solar excess?

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Snax

· #7 · 10 d ago

the egolf doesn’t have a Wi-Fi server of its own, such as the id3 (I think) or mini E which have that. It’s just the SIM card for the WeConnect system/mobile app, and also for the internal sat nav which is really horrible to use.

I used to have octopus overnight but I moved house and don’t have a drive anymore. There are a few users doing the same but you might have more luck asking in the main discussion forum as there’s more traffic since the egolf was discontinued

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Jayne

· #8 · 10 d ago

When I want to charge the car from solar with a guaranteed boost overnight in the cheap go period I put the car on "charge now" (top button next to socket) and Zappi on eco+ with a boost set in the MyEnergi app for whatever time I want. By fiddling with minimum green levels I can generally avoid the car charging switching on and off when the sun goes behind a cloud.

Like this:

When I want to just charge during off peak times I use the car's schedule, because I can set it to a certain percentage. Then I use zappi in fast mode and press the delayed charge button (lower one next to the socket) on the golf.

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Mrklaw

Discussion Starter · #9 · 10 d ago

thanks - so can’t you limit the charge if you use the zappi boost overnight? only if you set it in a schedule in the car?

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Woodulike

· #10 · 10 d ago

Mrklaw said:
thanks - so can’t you limit the charge if you use the zappi boost overnight? only if you set it in a schedule in the car?

I work out roughly how long it needs to change for to bring the charge in the battery up to 80% and set the timers for that amount of time.
The car doesn't have an upper limit, which does make it a little harder, but if you're intending to charge once or twice a week it doesn't take long to set a timer on the Zappi.

I'm finding my Golf doesn''t like being left plugged in for hours before the charge period starts. If I plug it in when I get home from work and the cheap agile period isn't until 2.30am it may not change at the full rate.
If you are on Go or Intelligent it'll be much easier as it's the same every day. Agile has been more of an issue for my Golf, but the ID3 is quite happy with Agile on the Zappi timers.

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Mrklaw

Discussion Starter · #11 · 10 d ago

Sounds like some settling in will be needed - thanks

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Mrklaw

Discussion Starter · #12 · 7 d ago

picked her up today and then endured a horrible trip back round the M25. stopped at Cobham which was heaving and annoying because of the traffic missed the Mcdonalds and Greggs breakfast window :/

car seems good - very similar to the polo. in D mode its hard to tell you aren’t driving an automatic, other than the improved pickup when pulling away from a stop (the polo auto was pretty sluggish there). B mode is quite nice and I used that for the second half of the trip back. Creep is still a bit confusing. In D mode I could stop with the brake then let off and it’d creep, but sometimes it wouldn’t - wasn’t on a big hill or anything and auto hold was off. But the motor power is fairly weak so if you need to nudge the accelerator thats not so bad.

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