[exiges]

I plan on charging my Ampera at work and home, so it makes sense to have a cable at each location instead of carrying only one with me and the mess of coiling it up each time.

Where + how much are additional 13A cables available ?

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

No idea!

But there is another option I would suggest you consider before buying another Vauxhall cable.

You can buy charging cable EVSEs on the open market. Some have more than just 6A and 10A settings. Depending on price you might want to look at possibly getting one of those. I know of one that does 6A, 10A, 13A and 16A so would be quite useful if you had the chance to charge through a 16A blue" commando" socket with a 16A supply.

They aren't cheap. Even the Vauxhall ones I would expect to be hundreds. The one I know of is over £500... or it was when I last asked the price but that was 6 months ago. They might be considerably less now I suppose. You would need to ask. Unfortunately I can't remember when I saw it! Sorry. But they are around.

Another option depends on how you intend to charge at work. Is it through an existing 13A socket or is your company installing something dedicated for EV charging? If the latter then you might suggest they install a type 2 pod from Rolec. You could then charge with a type1 to 2 cable which would also come in very handy for public charging at 16A. That would be my preferred option.

 

[proddick]

This is EU price of factory UK cable

http://www.opel-accessories.com/subprod ... 5051#anker


Your Ampera dealer should be able to order and price in UK should be same but is plus VAT - there may still be a 10% voucher on the Vauxhal owners site

 

[Parax]

The portable charger and a wall mounted charger are available from Vauxhall (and a type1-2 cable).

Does anyone know anything about the Toyota PiPrius cable? When Robert Llewellyn reviewed it a year ago, on Fully charged, the charger cable looked pretty good, a Tiny EVSE unit and spring coiled stretchy yellow cable.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

Does anyone know anything about the Toyota PiPrius cable? When Robert Llewellyn reviewed it a year ago, on Fully charged, the charger cable looked pretty good, a Tiny EVSE unit and spring coiled stretchy yellow cable.

I don't know that EVSE. It's worth looking around though because we now have some poor quality equipment on the market. If you can find anything with the Generation 2 ITT connectors they really are amazing quality.

If you have a technical background it might be possible to build your own... here's the 63A (~15kW) portable unit that I built for the Tesla;

 

[Parax]

I don't know that EVSE

The one here:
http://youtu.be/Bh-l74EMZcs?hd=1&t=9m35s

If you have a technical background it might be possible to build your own

Now you're just teasing us comon send me a Zero EVSE Module..

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

Now you're just teasing us comon send me a Zero EVSE Module..

I'm trying to get the modules into the hands of users without swamping ZCW with end user support

 

[dpeilow]

I really wish Vauxhall had kept the 16A version of the portable EVSE that early press and pre-production cars had. This should be available with a molded, fixed blue commando plug and should be available as an accessory from the shop for those that could use it. I'm sure a lot of us early adopters know exactly how and when to use these. If it were a molded plug of that type, the novices wouldn't know what to do with it anyway, so they are not likely to plug them in to other types of socket.

See http://www.opel-ampera.com/index.php/ire/ampera/faq - they had 16/13/10/6 Amp modes.


I've been asked at work whether I can be charged and out of the bay by lunchtime (because we are being overrun by EVs at the moment - not - but it will hopefully happen in the long run). As we have 16 and 32A commando sockets, it would be possible to be out in 4 hours if I had such an EVSE.


I've made enquiries with Mennekes about getting their portable 16A EVSE that is of a similar type to what I describe above.

Latest word is that it will be available in Q4 through wholesalers.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

Latest word is that it will be available in Q4 through wholesalers.

Do you know whether this EVSE will be available in the UK? Traditionally, most Mennekes kit never makes it to the UK because none of their distributors take it.

 

[dpeilow]

I will keep the pressure on until Mennekes UK do . When I called last week I got "oh, you're the first to ask for one of these", but it wasn't a no.

So if others are interested, I suggest you call them and let them know.

http://www.mennekes.co.uk/contact.html


But if someone else announces a similar product then of course that is of interest too.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

I will keep the pressure on until Mennekes UK do . When I called last week I got "oh, you're the first to ask for one of these", but it wasn't a no

What we have found in our dealings with Mennekes is that sales enquiries to the UK office get passed to a UK distributor for fulfilment. In this process the Euro price becomes the Sterling price plus ~10%.

For example, the Type 2 socket that we could buy for 250 euros in Germany was offered to us for 275 pounds. They only really got interested when we started talking about 1000's cables....

Hopefully they will become more end user focused in the future.

 

[dpeilow]

They need to realise that the market just isn't that big yet.

But perhaps we can organise a group buy.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

They need to realise that the market just isn't that big yet.

But perhaps we can organise a group buy.

Yep... or we get someone to build a smaller version of my EVSE so we have the best of both worlds - portable EVSE that uses a Type 2 to Type 1 cable (that's what I'm using with hcsharp's Roadster adapter when it arrives next week).

 

[dpeilow]

That would be cool. My only stipulation is that to be allowed to plug it in at work, it cannot look 'homebrew'.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

My only stipulation is that to be allowed to plug it in at work, it cannot look 'homebrew'.

Agreed... It would have to be a 'real' product because 'homebrew' requires a lot of end user support which we can't resource.

We have transferred the EVSE module development to one of my companies because it's a much larger project than ZCW can undertake. It is possible that we will get the module into a mainstream distributor like RS who can support end users. Either way, the module will be in thousands of low cost EVSE

 

[dpeilow]

Right, but I'm not talking about a module now. It's a complete mode 2 brick that is required.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

It's a complete mode 2 brick that is required.

I understand that... what I'm suggesting is that with a commercial Module it is possible for a third party to produce the brick you require.

 

[Craig]

Vauxhall are able to get charge cables but not sure of cost. My problem has been the cable length. I am currently waiting for charge points to be installed at my office. I have to plug my Ampera in through my window but with such a short cable I used an extension cable but after just 1 hour the trip went. It took over an hour to cool down so not great. I needed a solution. I have the same problem at home so I contacted a supplier to make me up an extension set. They did a great job, plug, extension cable, circuit breaker and then the other end has a spike to go into the ground with a waterproof outdoor socket. It works great and all of this for £160.00 + VAT. Anyone wants more details. Let me know.

 

[RayG]

I made this one up not tried it yet but only had to add the yellow cable to the item I purchased: My Extension Lead (See whole of this thread for full story)

Started of as: Original Parts

 

[dpeilow]

Craig, if you paid £160 for a weatherproof cable with a spike then you seriously got taken for a ride.

I've successfully charged at 10A from a Masterplug extension cable like this on many an occasion. I was doing it for 2 months at a colleague's house before work installed a charge point.

http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/electrical/c ... S-10549095