Etiquette about electric cars- views??

[AWanderingMinstrel]

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

I think this is a bit of a cheek to be honest. Why dont they fill up at service chargers, just in the same way you would with petrol?

I'd let them charge but then we have a fast charger on a cheap overnight rate, be nice to have some chocolates by way of a thank you I guess.

Because they'd have to wait for their car to charge

We've had EV's for the last 7 years and have never needed to ask friends or family for a charge.

We had a few tense, cold (no heating), no radio 'last hour of travel home' incidences back in the day mind

I think it’s only likely to happen if you have guests travelling a long distance. I would expect them to offer to pay but wouldn’t accept anything.

In our house it doesn’t cost anything anyway as we have solar panels and a battery to store excess.

That is a way off though. Of all the people I know, only one has an electric car. They are the only one with a cheap tariff as you need an electric car to be on one (as far as I know).

So what?

Thats the way they charge up anywhere isnt it? So they would be out and about and need to charge it, its the same thing

More people maybe buying electric cars but most people in this country do not have charging points at the moment so they would have to find one locally.

Moving forward there needs to be far more infrastructure put in place to support. I would expect visitors to sort themselves out using public points in the same way they have to get petrol.

in an ideal world everyone will have cards that can be used in any charging point and thus pay for their own. If this doesn’t happen I would expect payment

It can be quite tricky to find a fast charge point especially at this time of year. It just depends where you are.

So I do think it's nice offer guests to charge although they should also offer to pay.

We only ever really charge at home unless we are going a long way. Would cost a fair bit to fully charge on a normal tariff but you wouldn't get anywhere near full charge overnight on a trickle charge.

Electric cars come with an EV charger but also a charger for normal mains electricity- so with a long lead they can charge from any plug in your house. Therefore it could cost even more for a visitor to charge using your “normal” mains electricity f you don’t have an EV charge point.

I dont know enough, but dont different marques have different chargers?
So you cant charge your leaf from the same charge point as a Tesla or Volvo?

I mean at the services there are different chargers. I've seen an epic meltdown at one services when the charge plugs didnt fit.

Personally if I’ve invited someone to visit, it’s because I want to spend time with them so I’d rather they charge their car here so we can spend that time together rather than insisting they waste hours standing around at a charging point en route. Seems petty.

Well I guess as electric is generally better for the planet, I'd be happy to oblige

I’m not sure this is a question that is easily answered until more people understand how it works, as can be seen from some of the responses on this thread.

Although … DS just came back from a friend’s house where he was not allowed to charge his phone. Given the cost of charging an iPhone from empty is about 1p, I guess some people are just tight!

In principle I agree, however my finances do not necessarily agree in the same way unfortunately.

We do have an EV but wouldn't ask anyone we were staying with if we could charge in their home. If they had an EV themselves so had a proper charger, and they offered then maybe. But if they did offer, we would offer to pay. Charging via a normal socket is possible but it's incredibly slow so we'd prefer go to a commercial fast charger anyway.
If a guest with an EV came to our house we'd probably offer them the use of our charger (we have a double one so it wouldn't stop us charging our own car) and would decline payment, unless it was someone who was staying all week and wanted to fully charge their battery every night or something, but I guess I'd kind of expect a box of chocolates or them to buy a round in the pub or similar! I think it would be cheeky to expect your hosts to charge your car for nothing.

We've had electric cars for years now and now more and more people have home chargers I've twice been in a situation where people have offered this, once I just said no and it was fine but the other time they absolutely insisted. I even tried to unplug after dinner but I was shouted down. It made me feel really uncomfortable. The other friend had come on the train.

they couldnt charge at mine anyway unless they have a 20 odd foot lead

this will be fun when they make us switch

this will be fun when they make us switch

This isn't likely to happen in our lifetime though. Not anyone over 30 anyway.

it depends on what the cost of the electric is to be honest - if they/I have a 9p overnight rate then go for it I would be happy to pay for that - If I was at a siblings place I would ask but wouldn't expect it - supercharges cost ££££ but over and done with in 20 mins so its no great hardship to use instead - for a motor way charge its generally 15 to 20 quid for a full charge (although usually its around a 50% charge you do as a top up) but they are 88p a unit as opposed to 9p overnight cheapy rate or 25p standard rate for most at home

But they almost certainly wouldn't be standing around for hours at charging points en route. We usually charge if we stop for a coffee/lunch/toilet break and I don't think I've ever spent more than 30 mins on a commercial charger and mostly it's between 5 and15 mins. There's a price differential of course. It costs considerably more per kWh on the modern superchargers than the slower ones, and I wouldn't fancy charging on a 350kW charger on a regular basis because of the cost. But given we do the vast majority of our charging at home we're happy to pay top whack for a fast charge when we are away from home.
You can spend a long time charging EVs but you don't have to nowadays.

I have an electric car and I always offer. I drive to my partners 3 hours away and always pay him £15 for the charge (from about 15 to 100% taking around 18 hours on a long range car). We have a long distance relationship and it’s not fair for him to pay his fuel to mine AND my electric to his! He always says not to, but I always do.

I wouldn’t begrudge a couple of hours, but it’s an overnight charge it won’t be less than a tenner, it’s absolutely polite to offer.

it can be less than a tenner if they have the right rate

I’ve got an electric car, and never needed or wanted to charge at the home of anyone I’ve visited. If nothing else if they don’t have an EV themselves then I’d be charging from a 13A socket, which is limited to around 2Kw/H. It’d take 20 hours to charge from half full to full and at the capped electricity rate cost about £12. Overnight I’d struggle to get more than 25% charge or spend more than a fiver.. Much better to stop for 20 minutes at a fast charger and go from 10% to 80%…

It's different if friends or family are coming to visit though, I'd want them at my house having a nice cuppa in the warm with their car charging on my drive not sitting in some service station wasting time that we could be spending together.