I’m guessing (just based on you using pounds instead of dollars) that you’re on 240v. A 7kW charger is going to draw just shy of 30 amps (a little more if it’s 230 or 220). Also, some of the chargers give you the ability to dial down how much current they draw. I have a 40amp charger, but only have (off the top of my head) 10awg wire and on a 30amp breaker running out to my garage, so I dialed the charger back to 24amps. It might take longer to charge, but we’re taking about 3 hours instead of 2. A small enough difference that it doesn’t matter since I’ll be home for 12 hours.
That’s something to keep in mind if the company would otherwise have paid for your gas. Not that the electricity is going to break the bank, but if the company pays for it for ICE cars, hopefully they’ll give you a way to charge it at work.
Now, for my question. I’ve been following this thread on and off since it started. I finally bit the bullet and got a 2021 Kia Niro EV last week. I picked up a Wallbox charger (I know, EVSE) and it’s not staying connected to my wifi. Once or twice a day (if I feel like it) I have to power cycle the unit to get it to reconnect. I emailed them about it and they asked me to uninstall and reinstall the app and suggested it’s my routers fault. I have no idea what they think reinstalling the app will do (I can see it’s connectivity status on their web portal as well) but when I did that, I noticed a lot of the reviews for it mentioned the same exact problem I was having. Further research showed that this seems to be a very common problem.
Since I got it from Amazon, I was all ready to return it and pick up a different brand, but it seems like a lot of them have this problem.
Is anyone else having wifi connectivity issues with this brand? Other brands?
On the one hand, it’s not like it’s that big of a deal. It connects to my phone via bluetooth with no problem and there’s not a whole lot on the web portal that I really need. OTOH, for $650, I think it’s fair to expect all the bells and whistles to work.
In one of my emails I mentioned that I’ve seen a lot of other people mentioning this and they claim there’s no known connectivity problems and that sometimes it just takes a bit more troubleshooting.
The return window with Amazon is about 3 more weeks. If it’s not sorted out by then, and there’s a suitable replacement, I’ll probably just send it back and get something else. I’m not going to let them wait out the clock on the return period.
I have a dumb charger, and I don’t miss the bells and whistles because I can control charging through the car. No harm in trying to debug this for a couple more weeks, but if you can’t resolve, I’d consider if it’s worth the hassle if it’s a known problem with wifi chargers in general.
Because you already have 230 volts at the outlet, you’re way ahead of home users in the US who only have 110 volts. I think, if I understand correctly, you can then pull 13 amps from a single receptacle. What I’m not sure of is how that works with the 32 amps total on the ring circuit.
Anyway, if I’m right, then just using a standard household receptacle, you can get about 3kW, which is pretty good compared to the US’s 1.3kW.
You should be able to connect a 7kW charger, and then just tell it to only pull 3kW. On Teslas that will be set by the plug adapter that is on the mobile charger (the one that comes with the car), and you can also limit the maximum amperage car will use to charge. On Tesla wall chargers (that you optionally buy separate) I think it is set with switches inside the box.
On a Model 3, that should give you about a charging rate of about 13 miles per hour.
That’s all before you go to the trouble of wiring up a dedicated charging circuit.
I’ll start with the simple question, is the problem perhaps that your garage is just far away from the wifi access point? The charger might not have a good enough antenna to keep the connection up reliably.
You can get a phone app like Ubiquiti’s wifiman to measure the signal strength in the garage, and if it is low, then try all of the repeaters and stuff that people do to fix holes in their wifi networks.
If your wifi access point is pretty close, and signal strength isn’t a problem, then it probably is really the fault of the charger.
It’s about 30 feet from the router to the (attached) garage, and it’s on the same floor, so the signal is just going through a few sheets of drywall and some insulation. I use my phone in the garage all the time and never have any issues. However, that’s on a brand spankin’ new phone connected to the 5gHz band. I haven’t tried my phone on the 2.4gHz band. I know my old phone would struggle on 2.4, but it struggled with everything towards the end.
Something odd is that the wallbox people suggested I try connecting to 2.4 because it tends to send the signal further. However, it’s already connecting to 2.4, it doesn’t even see my 5ghz network. I assumed it only worked with 2.4. I’m not sure what to make of that comment.
They also asked me to move my router closer and while I understand that, and understand that it’s not a big deal for some people, I use ethernet cable whenever I can. If I move my router somewhere else, I’d lose internet to a lot of wire devices. Besides, when the wallbox is connected, I see the signal go between, as reported by the wallbox itself, ‘normal’ and ‘high’. Although the customer service person told me it was connecting at 50%, but needs to be at 75-100%.
I really don’t have any signal gaps in my house. Occasionally if I’m out in my backyard I might lose the signal, but I’ll either take a few steps towards the house or just switch over to cellular data.
I also keep forgetting I need to try changing the channel on the router and see if that clears anything up and maybe download a wifi analyzer and see if that tells me anything.
Whether it’s the fault of my router or the charger, I’ll either return it or ignore the problem. It’s neat to look at the statistics, but not neat enough to start adding repeaters or WAPs to my network. And as annoyed as I’ll be if it doesn’t work, I’m not sure if I’ll return it. Taking it off the wall, reattaching the original plug and getting all back into the original package seems like it’s going to be a whole big project.
Good question. I haven’t started at the company I’m moving to yet (I’m working out my notice period at my current place), so I don’t know for sure. They’re a big, households name firm with a commitment to sustainability so I’d be amazed if they don’t have chargers in the car park… but since they seem to be mandating EVs as company cars, there may be high demand.
Thanks - these are encouraging.
I’ll be paying for my own fuel / electricity. Fuel and Benefit in Kind (BIK) tax are pretty much the only costs when you get a company car in the UK.
Thanks for the responses. I’m at a loose end this morning so I’m going to wander around a couple of dealerships. My current car is a Ford Focus. I don’t need anything much bigger than that (a bit bigger would be nice - I had an Octavia hatch that I liked). Something like the Kona or e-Niro would be about right.
Then you’ll almost certainly come out ahead. I don’t know what kind of charger comes included with cars in the UK. In the US, with the standard outlet being 120v 15amp, a Level 1 charger really only works for people that typically don’t drive much. They work fine for people that don’t drive much, it would be easy to get yourself into a jam if it’s all you have. IIRC from BigCliveDotCom, in the UK you have 13amp outlets, right? So your Level 1 chargers are probably the same.
The Level 2 Chargers can be expensive and likely require someone to wire in a higher amperage outlet near the car. So keep that in mind.
13A @ 240V is about 3kW compared to a standard 15A @ 120V circuit at 1.8kW, just shy of twice the power delivery. It’s nowhere near a proper Level 2 charger, but it would be noticeably more capable than Level 1 in North America.
I have a Mach E, and I love it. I had the charger installed in October, took delivery in March. I’ve only take a couple of extended road trips, and planning charging was a bit of a PITA, but not worrisome once charged.
Ignore the power plant; it’s a great car, and I love it. Now throw in the power plant, and it’s still a great car, and I still love it.
Wife got a Tesla Model Y a month ago. I’m very impressed with it. We’re doing level 1 charging for now, and it’s been enough for the 20 miles/week that she drives.
But now I want a Tesla. Though I’ve admired the 3 since it came out, I wasn’t ready to give up on the ICE. But all the recent forest fires and flooding have made me feel a little guilty about global warming. I’ve owned a long series of high performance gas hogs for 40 years now; it’s time for me to stop buying gas. I plan to buy a new or used Model 3 before the new year.
I have a dual motor 3 (not the performance version), and I love the guilt free acceleration. I used to granny shift my old VW GTI, because of the big MPG penalty for shifting at 4500 RPM instead of 3000. Now I only have to think about the tires…
I totally get that. I’m in a VW Golf R. It’s so fun to drive, but every time I get on it, there’s guilt.
I’ll probably get the Dual Motor, like yours. Maybe the Performance, if I can find a decent deal on a used one—a new one is a little over budget for me.
Any regrets/complaints?
Complaints are mostly just the usual Tesla stuff. The paint is poor, the build quality is way worse than it should be at the price point, and the interior is divisive. Mine is a 2018, so some of those things are improved on the newer cars, but still probably not at the level of a similarly priced car.
Personally, I’m fine with the Model 3 interior. The single screen works fine. The majority of my interactions with the car while driving are through the few buttons, knobs, and levers, not the touch screen. Generally the only time I use the touch screen while driving is to adjust the temperature. That is a single tap to either side of the number, so it’s not like I’m digging through menus when I should be paying attention to traffic.
Also, you’re driving a phone. If you’re fine with technology either because you like it, or it’s just a tool, but you’re competent at using it, then it won’t be a big deal. If the clock on your phone is flashing 12:00, then the interface is liable to be frustrating. Not because it’s poor, just because it’s DNA is closer to a phone’s than to a traditional car’s.
The driving experience is fantastic. The acceleration is effortless. No noise and drama. No waiting for turbos to spool up, or rev matching. All of of those things can be fun, but there is also fun in just pressing the go pedal, and having the car go, always, at any speed.
Do we know what OS it’s running? Did Tesla develop their own, or is it something open? I always like when I get a new piece of tech (like our most recently acquired credit card terminal) and find out it’s running some flavor of Android. Being an Android person for nearly 20 years now, it’s all very intuitive to me.
But, I’m guessing, it’s not the case.
As interested as I was in a Tesla, the one thing that was bugging me about it as that, from some of the reviews I’ve read, it seems like Tesla is the Apple of the EV world. Granted, the only example I have is the different shaped charging ports (and I know there’s adapters) but if they did that, I’m assuming there’s other things as well.
I see Elon Musk talking about opening the Tesla Supercharges up to other cars, which would be nice. I’m seeing more and more Tesla charging stations and not a whole lot of ‘generic’ EV stations.
I sorta considered installing one at my work, but it’s just a small store and how much is someone really going to be able to charge in the few minutes they’re in there. But I’ll still look into it. Might be a nice perk for people.
Just look at their stock prices! Yes, the charging port on the US cars is proprietary. In Europe they use CCS ports, because the EU mandates it. I think the US government (with Canada, Mexico, and any others) should really get together and setup some proper charging standards. (Yay, a new standard to fix all of the problems with the old standards!)
Teslas are similar to where the iPhone was in 2015 or so. It used proprietary connectors, but was also far and away the dominant platform (in mind share, if not actually market share), so it didn’t matter.
I don’t think a level 2 charger will do much to attract customers, so only get one if you plan to use it yourself and make the business pay for it. A supercharger or other form of DC fast charger may be good for business. I don’t know where you’re located, how close to a freeway, etc., or what the actual contract is to put these in your parking lot, so this might not make sense.
My limited experience with the supercharger outside a small grocery store in Clayton, NM is that it brought in a continuous stream of customers who otherwise would have had no reason to stop there. Each one was there for 10-30 minutes, with probably 1-5 cars an hour. Many of the people probably only used the bathroom, but hopefully the profit on the soft drinks, packaged and prepared food, and other stuff that the rest bought more than covers a few pumps of soap.
I finally have a complaint about my Kona. It’s trivial (and unrelated to the EV part of the car), but it’s the kind of poor UX decision that drives me batty.
To cycle through the radio presets, there’s an up/down rocker switch. If the screen is on the radio controls, the screen shows the presets in descending order (1 at the top, 6 at the bottom). So to go from 1 to 2, you press down on the switch to go down to the next selection. But if the screen is on anything other than the radio, then you press the switch up to go from 1 up to 2.
By itself, each action makes sense. But put them together, and the same control does the opposite thing depending on what screen is showing. As a product guy, I just want to slap someone.
That’s good to know. I assume people are putting their own little spins on it to tweak (or fix) things. If/when I get a Tesla, I’ll certainly be looking into that.
And yet, somehow, I see to have a dozen different styles of Universal Serial Bus cords.
The problem with that (from the consumer POV. I understand why they do it) is that so many things are Apple based, it can be hard to deviate from it. If Apple or Tesla had said 'here’s our propriety (for example) chargers, anyone can license them from us and package them with your own product, it would be different.
Close enough to a freeway, though hardly a exit, fill up, get back on situation. But we’re also a small local store with local stuff, so a lot of people passing through town stop in to pick stuff up. Plus, we get a lot of people stopping in because they’re lost. That is, if you’re trying to get home to Illinois and take a wrong turn, you’ll end up at my store eventually.
Installing it for customers is something I’ll have to look into. I have no idea what the costs are (and what the going rate is to charge up at one). But it’s one of many things WRT bringing in customers I’ll keep in the back of my mind.
Tesla has (or maybe had) a program to install level 2 destination chargers at businesses. AIUI, Tesla would pay for the hardware and install it but the business would have to pay for the power. Have no idea if it’s still a going program. Also don’t have any idea of how a business qualified for it.
Tesla has said they offered their network to others, as long as they paid their share, but there were no takers. Tesla is currently saying that they’ll open up the network to other EVs with use of an adapter, maybe later this year.
It vaguely sucks having only a proprietary connector on the car, but the Supercharger network is so far ahead of everyone else at the moment that it’s hardly a downside. Even once the other networks pull ahead (as they surely will eventually), the Superchargers will still be commonplace enough that I doubt it’ll e much of a downside. And there’s always adapters for that direction, too.