Electric car charging on Club sites

Posted on 06/12/2022 10:33 by Brian1

Regardless of the legalities, the CMCs approach to this is pretty obtuse.

1) In practice, it's pretty easy to differentiate a PHEV from a BEV - and the CMC could for example pretty easily* automatically link the car registration to its type on the website
* ... or perhaps not, knowing the hash they've made of IT over many years 😂

2) A full BEV really needs a dedicated charging point that can charge at a high rate.  It cannot do anything like a full charge overnight via the van electrics.  A PHEV, on the other hand, can simply connect up to the van and actually do a full charge at 6 Amp rate overnight (because its requirement is much less).

3) Regardless of type, BEV or PHEV, charging overnight from the van supply at 6 Amp (the maximum rate in practice before the breaker goes) would draw 6A (1.3kW) for say 10 hours, so 13 units of electricity.  Even at current open market prices, that would equate to a cost of around £3.75 - which means that the CMCs £8 fee is wildly excessive.

The C&CC has a much more sensible approach to this.

Posted on 06/12/2022 10:33 by Brian1

Regardless of the legalities, the CMCs approach to this is pretty obtuse.

1) In practice, it's pretty easy to differentiate a PHEV from a BEV - and the CMC could for example pretty easily* automatically link the car registration to its type on the website
* ... or perhaps not, knowing the hash they've made of IT over many years 😂

2) A full BEV really needs a dedicated charging point that can charge at a high rate.  It cannot do anything like a full charge overnight via the van electrics.  A PHEV, on the other hand, can simply connect up to the van and actually do a full charge at 6 Amp rate overnight (because its requirement is much less).

3) Regardless of type, BEV or PHEV, charging overnight from the van supply at 6 Amp (the maximum rate in practice before the breaker goes) would draw 6A (1.3kW) for say 10 hours, so 13 units of electricity.  Even at current open market prices, that would equate to a cost of around £3.75 - which means that the CMCs £8 fee is wildly excessive.

The C&CC has a much more sensible approach to this.

Posted on 06/12/2022 10:59 by

A reasonable estimate of the commercial unit rate for electricity is currently about 60p per kWh.  Your guestimate of 13 (units) kWh's would cost £7.80.  Not much less than CC Ltd are asking but if you add in the daily standing charge it becomes a bargain.  I think they should increase the charge or stop the practice completely.  

Posted on 07/12/2022 18:49 by Brian1

Dunno where you get that figure from.  Here's where I got my 28p / unit average from:

https://www.businessenergy.com/

Though of course the CMC might well be on a much lower rate than that if they had done the prudent thing and locked into a fixed rate term contract ...

Posted on 07/12/2022 21:07 by KjellNN

There must be a huge range of prices at present for business  customers.

The cost will depend on whether they are still in a fixed rate contract, or not.

For example, my OH is the treasurer for our local Guide Hall, she negotiated a 3 year fix in 2021, so they are on fixed rates till January 2024........approx 15p per kWh for electricity and 4.5p for gas, no standing charges.

 Costs may well shoot up dramatically after that.

 Companies who are large users can generally negotiate lower prices, so what the Guide Hall is paying was quite high at the time as they have little clout.  As a  small user, they pay only 5% VAT.

Posted on 07/12/2022 20:11 by

If those figures are accurate then why are commercial customers, including CC Ltd, whinging about the increases and raising their prices.  Frankly those are less than many domestic customers are paying.  Who is conning who.

In any event I think it is unreasonable for EV owners to expect to be treated preferentially over ICE owners.