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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Etiquette about electric cars- views??

134 replies

AWanderingMinstrel · 28/12/2023 20:53

First thread, long term user. Just interested in views.
Given that more people are buying electric cars , what do you think will become the correct etiquette for charging when visitors come to your house?
Given that if someone comes to visit me in a petrol car, I don’t pay for their petrol to visit me ( should they need to fill up) what do you think is the right approach if someone arrives in an electric car to your home ( possibly staying overnight) has no more charge , and then charges their car enough to get home using your electricity??
AIBU- to not allow people to charge, you are not responsible for their costs to visit you
AINBU- visitors are coming to see you, their car needs charging, it’s convenient for them to charge during their visit to you, you bear the cost of their travel

OP posts:
Echobelly · 28/12/2023 20:56

Interesting question - in some ways it's more on the guest; I think it would be polite to offer to pay your host for charging so they can either say 'Thank you, much appreciated' or 'No need, just plug in'

Qwerty556 · 28/12/2023 20:56

I think letting people charge their car if they are staying overnight will become the polite thing to do.

Shinyandnew1 · 28/12/2023 20:57

We don’t have an electric car so I don’t know much about them (or have a charging point) but how much does it cost roughly to charge a car up?

CormorantStrikesBack · 28/12/2023 20:59

How much does it cost to do a full charge overnight at home? If it’s under £10 I wouldn’t care, more than that I wouldn’t want to be out of pocket but I’d also feel awkward saying yes if someone offered money and I certainly wouldn’t ask for money. But I’d also be annoyed if they didn’t offer. To be honest I think it would make more sense for the guest to find a paying charge point nearby and pop there before arrival and pay.

Waitingfordoggo · 28/12/2023 21:00

I have an electric car. I’ve never needed to charge it at someone’s home but if I did, I would obviously offer them payment for the electricity. I think it costs around £12 to charge my car fully.

Grimchmas · 28/12/2023 21:01

CormorantStrikesBack · 28/12/2023 20:59

How much does it cost to do a full charge overnight at home? If it’s under £10 I wouldn’t care, more than that I wouldn’t want to be out of pocket but I’d also feel awkward saying yes if someone offered money and I certainly wouldn’t ask for money. But I’d also be annoyed if they didn’t offer. To be honest I think it would make more sense for the guest to find a paying charge point nearby and pop there before arrival and pay.

Am I being naive, I thought an overnight charge cost maybe £2-5?
Especially if they are using a travel charger not your properly fitted one, as they don't do much charging 😅

chompargh · 28/12/2023 21:01

How much does it cost?

CMOTDibbler · 28/12/2023 21:04

We have a regular visitor with an electric car, and we offer him charging. He offers to pay, we decline. It makes the journey easier as there isn't a convenient fast charger on the route apart from close to his home

Waitingfordoggo · 28/12/2023 21:05

Actually just checked and it might be nearer to £8 than the £12 I said earlier. Somewhere between those two numbers!

That’s for a full charge on my Leaf, on which a full charge is only about 100 miles. Am assuming it costs a lot more to fully charge a Tesla or something else with a longer range.

Tiggles · 28/12/2023 21:07

It costs me about a fiver to charge my car overnight. On the rare occasions I have charged it at my brothers I've offered to pay, but he has never accepted it.

Original poster
AWanderingMinstrel · 28/12/2023 21:07

Cost depends on your tariff (daytime/nightime) and type of car of course but generally our cars cost between £6 -£25 depending on if it’s a full or partial charge, nighttime or daytime.

OP posts:
Caspianberg · 28/12/2023 21:11

I would offer to cover if I needed it. But our car does 500+km, so unless you live really far away it wouldn’t be a problem. I would happily just look on route or local town for charging options if I couldn’t anyway.

Our car costs us less than €7 for a full charge at home. So most people we know would be happier if we just bought cake and wine or similar instead

PermanentTemporary · 28/12/2023 21:11

Id always be delighted to offer a charge (assuming there wasn't some urgent need for the morning that required us to charge all night). Id expect the car owner/ guest to offer to pay and at present Id probably refuse as we are comfortably off. However, id expect it to be ok for the charger host to accept if money were tight/frequent guest. I'd also expect the same back if at their house.

MargaritaThyme · 28/12/2023 21:12

If I was staying the night at someone’s house & needed to charge my EV, I would offer to pay for the electricity. If they refused to take my money, I would buy wine / chocolates etc as a gesture of thanks.

If a guest staying at my house needed to charge their EV, I would expect them to offer to pay for the electricity, but I wouldn’t accept. If they then bought wine / chocolates etc as a gesture of thanks, I would accept gratefully.

That all sounds very polite & British, doesn’t it? 🤣

HappiestSleeping · 28/12/2023 21:13

Depends on the tariff. Likely to cost £20 - £30 for an overnight charge for someone on a normal tariff (I.e. not a discounted overnight rate).

I might let a one off occurrence go, but I would expect any visitors to sort themselves out. There are plenty of local car parks here with charging points, so I think it would be rude to expect my host to foot the bill.

bellac11 · 28/12/2023 21:13

I think it will become difficult, because not everyone will be able to afford to hav someone charge their car, and not all car owners will offer to pay

There will be tons of threads about it I suspect.

MrsClatterbuck · 28/12/2023 21:15

What if the host also needs to charge their car and only one charging point

Doublerainbow23 · 28/12/2023 21:16

Isn't it about the fire risk too? I thought that simply plugging into a normal plug was a fire risk compared to a properly installed charger.

User101223 · 28/12/2023 21:18

We have regular visitors who come a long distance and charge at our house. It costs about £27 for a full charge. It takes longer than just overnight. The first time they didn't pay us or offer and I was really annoyed because we would have never paid their fuel costs. Its nice to see them but they come to us because of the costs for us to visit them, and we earn far less than them.
The next few times however they have paid us the charge. My main issue though is that we only have a drive for one car and they complained about the width of our drive being too narrow to fit their car on safely. They wanted to trail a cable across the pavement for 24hrs. Which to me is dangerous to anyone walking down the street. So now they speak to our neighbour on arrival and park on their drive as they have a much larger drive.

Doublerainbow23 · 28/12/2023 21:18

And yes, a lot of the figures above are for those charging ona dedicated ev rate which is lower overnight

Caffeinequeen91 · 28/12/2023 21:19

We don’t have our own EV so no EV rate for our electricity. It would cost far too much for a visitor to fully charge!

Smerk · 28/12/2023 21:20

When I invite people to my house I pay for their residents parking on a visitor permi which costs around £4.50. No one's offered me the money but I've never expected it. Similar situation I'd think. Did they at least bring some wine?

Tiggles · 28/12/2023 21:23

Presumably when most people have electric cars most people will be on a cheap tariff overnight though....

zigzag716746zigzag · 28/12/2023 21:24

If someone was staying with us, as we have an EV charger and a smart charge tariff, it is unlikely to cost much more than £5 to give them a full charge.

Totally different though for someone with no charger and on a standard tariff.

Longma · 28/12/2023 21:25

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