Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Charging electric car as a guest

51 replies

Idontmeanto · 27/12/2022 13:02

I’ve just worked out that, every time a certain family member visits and needs to charge their electric car it costs their host around £10.

Obviously petrol car drivers cover their own travel costs. I quite like this family member, but they have form for taking the piss and they do this when visiting family members who are struggling far more than they are with the cost of living.

I think they should use a public charging point or offer to cover the cost of electricity AIBU?

OP posts:

Willmafrockfit · 27/12/2022 13:03

its very cheeky of them

poefaced · 27/12/2022 13:05

Everyone needs to agree to charge them £10 every time. Or not let them charge.

Witchbitch20 · 27/12/2022 13:07

Find out all the local/supermarket charging points and provide a print out for them.

gingercat02 · 27/12/2022 13:08

Do you have an EV OP? If not and they are plugging theirs in to a 3 pin socket I would ask them to use a public charger.
If you do have your own charger I would insist they used the overnight, cheaper rate.
My car costs around £3:40 overnight.

Idratherbepaddleboarding · 27/12/2022 13:11

How did you get the £10 figure? Ours costs nowhere near that.

Crayfishforyou · 27/12/2022 13:11

I had friends who would charge their car through my kitchen window every time they came to stay. Then they would rave about how effective an electric car was. And ask for the heating to go on as the open window made the house too cold.

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 27/12/2022 13:11

They should definitely offer to contribute. It’s a bit mean to send them off to a supermarket because those charges are often busy/slow/broken. Totally reasonable that they should want to charge while convenient, but not at the host’s expense.

iknowwheretheothersockgoes · 27/12/2022 13:14

Crayfishforyou · 27/12/2022 13:11

I can't believe this thread! Who are these CF's?!

wonkylegs · 27/12/2022 13:16

It depends.. are they just expecting this to be ok, have they asked in advance, have they offered to pay for it?
FIL charges when here, we don't mind but we know in advance and we can do the same at theirs if we wish to (both have EVs)
We also know and they know that both parties can afford it and don't mind. We do ask people to charge overnight in winter if possible as it's a better rate but wouldn't begrudge it in the day if necessary, not so bothered in summer as we have PV.

However we would offer to pay if it were someone else's house. We have a long range car though so needing to charge somewhere that isn't our home is not needed that much.

Original poster

Idontmeanto · 27/12/2022 13:25

Ginger, have you recalculated that after the most recent price rises?

OP posts:

Tanktanktank · 27/12/2022 13:30

I sent visiting friend a list of local charging points just before they came just in case it turned into a CF scenario. then acted dumb about charging and said I though you needed a special thing to charge a car, and omg energy is just SO expensive!
They popped to the supermarket the morning they left to top up for the drive home.

Getoff · 27/12/2022 13:36

I also thought the £10 cost sounded high. That was based on my memories of electric car costs from very long ago though. I've just googled, a Tesla Model 3 has a nearly 60kwh battery, if electicity is £0.35 per kwh, 60 x £0.35 = £21.

So OP's £10 figure is quite plausible.

gingercat02 · 27/12/2022 14:10

Idontmeanto · 27/12/2022 13:25

Ginger, have you recalculated that after the most recent price rises?

Yep! My app tells me how much it costs on our current EV overnight rate with Octopus

gingercat02 · 27/12/2022 14:14

Our Octopus Go rate is 12p/kWh between 00:30 and 04:30. I know people who have a better rate than that but we only got our EV 6 weeks ago

OldTinHat · 27/12/2022 14:18

I've heard it all now, this has to be the ultimate cheeky fuckery - charging your car up at someone else's home??!! Unbelievable...

Whiterose23 · 27/12/2022 14:19

We always use the superstations to charge when visiting family.
We do have some friends with electric cars and do use their port but we repay the favour when they come to ours.
It costs us £8.00 to charge our Tesla model y at home

Tilllly · 27/12/2022 14:22

Crayfishforyou · 27/12/2022 13:11

You're kidding? That's unbelievable!

SmudgeButt · 27/12/2022 14:23

"Sorry but that charging point is being used for.....the Christmas lights, the cctv, the spare fridge, our EV, the hot tub, anything at all but your car."

dcut · 27/12/2022 14:32

It's cheeky fuckery.
Are they driving far which means they wouldn't be able to get back home without charging? Because if the distance is less than the range of the car they really are taking the piss. Most decent people would just drive home and charge once they got there.
If they are driving far and really need to charge they should pay for the electricity they have used. They wouldn't bring a receipt from a petrol station and make the hosts refund them if they still had a petrol car, so they shouldn't be doing the equivalent with the electric car.

Just tell them you can't afford to pay for charging the car and they are welcome to use the charger but they need to pay x amount for it.

Abraxan · 27/12/2022 14:36

We have electric cars.
The only house we charge up at presently is a friend who also has an electric car - they do the same, so it works out fairly even. We charge via their wall mounted charger, and they do the same at ours.

I wouldn't bother trying to plug in to a 3 pin socket as the charging time is so slow. Waste of time unless you just need to get off an empty battery to get to a decent charger.

If someone had a wall charger and I needed to charge I would always offer to cover the cost. However, we normally just go to a local charger as they are much faster. Yes, its dearer at a public fast charger, but reduces the time massively for long journeys.

279Nouveauxnoms · 27/12/2022 14:39

Interesting thread. We have guests staying soon who i know will need to recharge their car. They only mentioned having to plan their stops with having an electric car (they probably have a 600mile journey to do). But they have not actually mentioned charging it here, I assume they will want to. We only have a standard 3 pin plug here as no EV.

To be honest I would be happy with a bottle of wine in recognition. But it will be interesting to see what happens.

Abraxan · 27/12/2022 14:42

But they have not actually mentioned charging it here, I assume they will want to. We only have a standard 3 pin plug here as no EV.

If no proper charger we wouldn't charge at your house. It would be a waste of time as it is so slow. It would take several hours. Much easier to go to a service station on route and charge for 20-30 minutes there whilst having a comfort break and hot drink.

VeggieSalsa · 27/12/2022 14:45

We stop en route to friends to charge our EV, and would never ask to charge at someone’s house. Our overnight rate is 7.5p/kWh and we wouldn’t ever charge during the day unless it was an emergency, so it would be unfair to expect others to stomach that cost for us!

sixteenthirtyfour · 27/12/2022 14:45

Why not just be honest? "Sorry X, but we are really noticing the cost of living increases, so I'm going to have to ask you to pay the charging cost. I think it's about £10, but we can check the smart meter."

AuditAngel · 27/12/2022 14:58

I have a plug in hybrid, and at the moment no home charger. I will chose a certain shopping centre with free charging, or plan my week around available public charging points, but don’t worry if I have to go all petrol

Flip

1 2 3