Electric car with no charger at home?

[Leafywool]

The lease on our current petrol car is up soon and we need to be looking at a new one. There's some very good deals on EV at the moment and DH is really keen, but me not so.

We live in a terraced house with no drive. We do have access to parking around the back of our house as there's a wide alleyway and houses on our side are allowed to park there. But we live in a Grade 2 listed house in a World Heritage Site so I don't think we could even get a charger installed even if we wanted to as there's lots of restrictions on what we can and can't do. I've never noticed any other houses in this area with one installed so I assume not.

I don't drive the car much at all, only to the supermarket or if I take dd somewhere. DH commutes 12 miles each way Mon & Tues and his office has free charging points in the car park. Outside of this he doesn't use the car much either, usually only to go to suppliers for our business or if we go on a day out (quite rare as DH works weekends too).

Would it be a royal pain in the arse to have an EV with no means to charge at home? There's a Shell station at the top of our street that has just installed loads of charging points and there's loads of other places close by which have charging points (we are on the edge of a city.) DH thinks he could charge at work and it would do us all week. I have no idea!

Would love some opinions

I know someone that doesn't have a charger. But they have a drive in garage that they plug the car into inside there, and they only do local journeys in it.

How often you need to charge depends on the car, but do bear in mind that in the winter the charge is much reduced, so you may need to charge more. If he can charge at work though, I'd think that's going to be less of an issue. You can always trickle charge at home overnight if necessary.

He has a short commute and free chargers at work. Not sure I see an issue?

Thanks both, I think I'm just worried about making a huge mistake as we'd have it for the next three years!

mistake imo given logistics

what happens if he changes job?

do you have or plan to have children?

We charge ours at home, but it sounds like you have lots of charging options locally, so I don’t see that you’ll have a problem.

We have an 11yo

do you live in a terraced house with no driveway?

and never need to drive in relation to him ?

if it really is two commutes per week and one shop… then go for it

but then might as well get a cheapo run around

We have the added problem of being in a world heritage site though which is quite annoying! If we could install one out the back it would be great as we can park there (no one else does as it's 'our' space even though it's not a drive). I've not noticed any other houses here with one but I'll do some investigating! Thank you.

@steamedisbest not really no, they walk to school and we usually get the train to go into the city. All clubs etc are within walking distance

Things to consider:
What about holidays from work? If he charges on a Tuesday, will that give you the mileage you need for the week?
Are there many public chargers at the Shell near you? Are they fast charge - can you get a sensible charge within the time limit for the car park?
Electric car mileage is significantly reduced by cold weather (by up to about 40% I've found) and hills.
What if DH changes job?
Can he really use the chargers at work unlimitedly?

Do you live in the World Heritage site S in W Yorks where the streets mostly have girl's names? I'd definitely account for the hills there.

One thing to consider is most public charging is very expensive (more expensive than petrol!) I would usually say don’t get an EV without a drive to charge on, but free charging at your husbands work may swing it. Assuming they are 7kwh chargers (which is what most EV owners have at home) and he works 8 hours on those 2 days, he would probably fully charge the battery in those 2 days and only use a little bit getting to and from work. So assuming access to that is guaranteed and not likely to change, it sounds like a very good idea IMO.

We have an EV with no charging point at home. We can plug it into a normal 3pin plug socket in the garage which if left overnight gives us about 4/5 days use but takes a good 14 hours to fully charge that way. We use it to run around alot though with 3 teens and I drive it to work every day.

I don't think you'd have a problem at all if your DH can leave it charging all day whilst at work, perfect it's free! It would probably last you all week if not using it that much. Or if he forgets/moves jobs or whatever then the local rapid chargers don't take long at all.

I'm loving not having to keep filling up with petrol. I can't see an issue at all.

why not just get a second hand cheap run around if you use it 3x a week?

We got an EV last year and love it. We had a couple of months waiting for our home charger to be installed, it was not a big deal as 1) public chargers were free in our LA at that time, 2) we didn't use the car much and ds(19) took it to be charged at strange times when the chargers were available.

Few things to consider -

1. Regular rapid charging is not recommended for battery health
2. Rapid charging is pricy compared to home charging
3. Slow charging can take several hours
4. The novelty of trying to find an available charger or queueing for a charger soon wore off, especially as the darker and wet nights drew in

Love the EV, but I wouldn't have one without easy access to charging.

@modgepodge is right that it is much more expensive to charge outwith your home. We have a cheap overnight rate that we use to do the charging. It might not be very economical to charge elsewhere, so that would put me off.

I did for years, even without a charge point within half a mile. Depends how many miles a week you do - if it's under 500, easy peasy.

Yes I do! I knew someone would identify it I don't think it's that hilly to be honest but I guess it is. Maybe I'm just used to it. Will consider that thank you

Thanks everyone, lots to consider here so will have a chat with DH about it.

When everyone says about the price of charging outside the home being expensive - how does this stack up against the price of filling up with petrol? Would it be about the same?

What about days out? Visiting relatives? I wouldn't get one without a charger at home.

Can you get it to plug into a normal 3 pin plug with an extension lead? I’ve had an electric car for 3 years and just charge with a 3 pin plug overnight/when I’m wfh and I do quite a lot of miles - 300 round trip fortnightly and 60 mile round trip to work 3-4 times a week. Occasionally do a fast charge top up when I’ve got my long trip but otherwise 3 pin plug charging is fine.

Op, they have no resale value. Is it a company car?

in addition there is an Inherent fire risk, the oems are working to resolve this now, but it’s years away. Wrap it round a tree or hit something and you need out fast as the battery cells will combust and firebrigades have no ability to put it out. In addition the batteries degrade badly in the winter.

personally I would absolutely not.