Electric car and in laws.

[Cowcheese]

My in laws are here visiting in their new electric car. They’ve plugged their car in every evening for the whole week using an extension cable. Never once offered us money to pay for this, or even asked us - they just plug it in. If it was just one night of charge I wouldn’t mind, but every night for a week? They are wealthy and holiday all the time, we are struggling to hover above the breadline. How much does it actually cost to charge a car and why is it assumed that’s it’s ok to do this? It’s not the same as just charging your phone is it. Am I being cheap by letting this bug me?

I drive an electric car.
I honestly thought charging little and very often like this is bad for the battery's lifespan.
Pretty sure my handbook (Kia Niro) says to only use the 3pin plug in an emergency (i.e. you have 0 battery and need a few miles to get to a charger)
Maybe you can look into this and then convince them it's a poor decision in the long term.

I would have thought so. But like mobile phones and what not. Drain the battery low ish before charging

I think you're unreasonable unless they're really mean with you? I'm sure it's just normal for them to plug it in. Unless it's really putting you in hardship I wouldn't say anything. Are they paying for food etc too help you out? If I was staying with family I would be sure I left them better off financially.

Why are they charging it every night? Surely they're not driving hundreds of miles every day for it to need daily charging?

We’ve had this before with family members staying and saying “oh we’ll need to charge the car”. Not asking or suggesting to pay. Had them once stay overnight and charge the car. Smart meter showed something like £14 worth of electric that day - our usual is £3-5. So basically paying for their mileage. It’s not a huge deal but an offer to contribute would be nice (which I would probably refuse anyway, but more the principle).

Unless they are using a special extension lead built for this then it is a fire risk. Just keep switching it off. You should plug the car charger wire directly into the 3 pin socket. It won’t actually cost much but is incredibly rude and you need to tell
them to stop

How much are they driving per day? Surely they’re not charging from empty every evening?

I hope you don’t plug your cat in???!

If this was me I would keep switching off at the mains power and say the car is tripping the switch.

Years ago I lived in a house where if you ran the kettle and multiple other appliances at the same time it would cut out all of the electricity to that circuit but the lights would still stay on. It was very handy when we wanted people to leave because it would just cut power to the wifi.

It’ll be the same. The plug in granny charger will just fill the battery at a slower rate.

Would you think the same if it was your parents?

We do this when visiting DD - will plug in so it is full when we travel home. She doesn't expect payment and we don't expect payment when we are looking after the children if she has to work extra days or helping with decorating or gardening.
If she travels to us by train I don't expect to be paid for collecting her from the station (about 20 mins drive)
Maybe OPs in laws still have charge anxiety that they won't be able to find a fast charger when they leave.

My friends is £7 a charge. Not sure how often they do it.

I can't believe the cheek of them just to plug in without asking.

It depends on the battery chemistry. My LFP battery will likely outlive me, so I just plug it in most nights.

Do you ask before plugging in, or have a conversation when you first got the car? There’s a world of difference between having it be a thing that works for you all because it’s been chatted about and part of your normal routine with your family, and somebody just assuming they can do it because they want to.

I use a prepayment meter. If somebody just randomly plugged their car in at my house I would have to stop it, family or not, because I wouldn’t be able to absorb the cost of the extra power.

It’s about basic manners really.

How far are they driving each day? I don't understand why they're charging every night unless they have an old ev with only 80 miles range and are driving 50+ miles a day. It seems very odd. They absolutely should have asked and should offer to cover the cost. Your DP needs to raise it with them.

I can remember when we first got the car there was a discussion. There is a lot of give and take within our family - if anyone is putting washing on they will ask if anyone needs anything going in, if I pop out to shops when visiting I will come back with milk or coffee etc.

Yup, in this case the OP could quite legitimately say 'if you use up all the electricity charging your car, I'll have to give you bread and jam for dinner because there will be no money available to cook a meal'.

But that's how some of the newer EVs are meant to be charged. You plug in every night, like a phone.

Edit - sorry, replying to the wrong person!

Maybe they are making up the deficit from the initial trip.

My car charges about 10 miles per hour on a granny charger.

So say it has a 240 mile range and it was near empty on arrival then it would take 24 hours of continuous charging to make up the initial deficit, plus any additional mileage they might do while they are staying.

It could easily take 3 nights to get it back up to full if it were fully depleted from the long initial trip and they were charging using a granny charger.

I think they should have asked and offered some cash initially. But wonder if you have any means of estimating how much electricity they have used.

10 amps 220 v = about 2kWh per hour = 50 p, but unless they are driving some serious distance then it will be negligible. My car takes 78 kWh to get to full 300 mile charge, so about 40 quid IF I fully depleted the battery coming to you AND wanted to leave fully charged. If on overnight for the maximum time of 10 hours, it’s a fiver a day if you have quite pricey electric. So, it’s a bit cheeky, they should ask, but it’s not a lot of cash. It is a lot cheaper to charge off the mains than on a fast charger, which is why they are doing it.

it really used to annoy me when my stepfather made an issue of it AFTER WE HAD OFFERED TO PAY, and WHEN HE HAS BLOODY SOLAR PANELS AND WE WERE CHARGING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY.

Exactly this. It’s a lot cheaper for them to charge on domestic, but it’s still money. It does annoy me when I go to my mum’s and her husband is a prick about it, because I absolutely offer to pay, I know how much I have charged, he refuses the money and then is passive aggressive about us using all of the electricity. Which is mainly solar during the day.

A great idea but very, very difficult to do in practice.

Start a conversation about the car and then ask them how much it's going to cost to charge it a night. Then point out it's pricey enough. Also point out it's a fire hazard to use the extension cable