Home Charging a Hybrid Car

Any current ratings on charger?
voltage x current = power
if it is plugged into domestic 230v house socket, assume 10A
Thats what my matesTesla operates at.
thats 2.3 KW/h

PragueAddick said:

Finally got my new plug-in hybrid. Only 10 months after ordering, but anyway, I like it a lot. 

My question is, how do i work out how much it costs me to charge up the battery? I cannot easily monitor how much electricity the charging cable is drawing from the mains, I only have an old Owl for that kind of thing which is a bit hit and miss. I daresay some of you have an idea how much you use up in kWh? I'm currently only using the standard charger, as I'm still waiting for the wallbox to be fitted, but I understand from earlier comments that they use up much the same amount of juice on the way to powering up the battery, is that right? The only thing I can get from the car's manual that might help is that the "installed capacity" of the battery is 12.4kWh. 

Somebody must have nailed this question, I'm sure of it. I hope so. My wife was following up all kinds of leads in vain, and I told her  "it's OK,  I'll just ask Charlton Life!" ...

Not sure what Hybrid you have but most have an app that you use to connect to the car wirelessly that shows you.  I have a Mini Countryman S Hybrid (only good for about 16 miles electric only) but I have a free Mini app that I put in the cost per KwH (UK currently 34p) and it shows me what it costs to charge...which at the moment is slightly more (per mile) than petrol...

PragueAddick said:

R0TW said:

Any current ratings on charger?
voltage x current = power
if it is plugged into domestic 230v house socket, assume 10A
Thats what my matesTesla operates at.
thats 2.3 KW/h

Thanks, I'll take a look and report back later today

Turns out to be almost the same. Label says 10A and 2.4kW/h

bobmunro said:

PragueAddick said:

Finally got my new plug-in hybrid. Only 10 months after ordering, but anyway, I like it a lot. 

My question is, how do i work out how much it costs me to charge up the battery? I cannot easily monitor how much electricity the charging cable is drawing from the mains, I only have an old Owl for that kind of thing which is a bit hit and miss. I daresay some of you have an idea how much you use up in kWh? I'm currently only using the standard charger, as I'm still waiting for the wallbox to be fitted, but I understand from earlier comments that they use up much the same amount of juice on the way to powering up the battery, is that right? The only thing I can get from the car's manual that might help is that the "installed capacity" of the battery is 12.4kWh. 

Somebody must have nailed this question, I'm sure of it. I hope so. My wife was following up all kinds of leads in vain, and I told her  "it's OK,  I'll just ask Charlton Life!" ...

In the absence of an app or wallbox (that will come with an app) then an approximate calculation will be the installed capacity you have added:

e.g. battery at 20% - fully charged will be 100% of 12.4 KWh - 80% added = roughly 10 KWh x your unit cost. In the UK that would be something like £3.40.

Thanks Bob, I think that's the best calc. I can make, and Which mag suggested something similar. At this year's fixed rate that costs me only £1.17, but I'm expecting it to double - although hopefully once our solar panels are installed in April there should be some free trips.

@CafcWest its a DS4, and the app isn't helpful for this. It shows the state of the charge but only chooses to tell me the "charging speed" which is expressed in "km per hour" , i.e how much range is built up. It offers things like "pre-conditioning" whereby you can switch the heating or aircon on before you get to the car. For me that's pretty unnecessary when it lives in a garage which stays cool in summer. I also thought it would tell me where it is remotely, but that doesn't seem work very well either - although it may be a work-in-progress with my brain, like a lot of the stuff in this car  

CafcWest said:

Hi @PragueAddick.  I guess it's down to the App developers.  The Mini App shows where the car is and (recently) added a facilty to allow you to follow a walking path back to the car.  One thing you needed to do was enable that in the car's settings.  Yes the app is quite good will also let you lock/unlock remotely and pre-condition if you want to.  On the DS4 - when it shows state of charge is that only in available KM or KwH?  If it shows KwH then maybe you could work out how many KwH were added during charging and then multipy by the cost per KwH...just a thought!

Hi, no it does not show kWh, even though in the car itself when I end a journey it shows me the data for that journey including how many kWh the battery used up for it. I'll maybe drop a line to DS and mention all the things the Mini app does :-) after all the DS3 is a direct competitor, and as you say it looks like app developers could easily add these functions. The walking path back to the car is something I was really hoping for, especially when parking in big retail car parks...

Ross said:

No idea if any of you watch Shmee150 on YouTube (automotive YouTuber for those who don’t know). He’s posted some very interesting videos regarding real life experiences with his Porsche Taycan (albeit full electric rather than hybrid). The most interesting thing for me that no one has never mentioned before is that pretty much all electric chargers, even abroad, are all open air, as opposed to under canopies like petrol stations. It’s going to be fun charging your electric car when it’s chucking it down.

Good job you’re allowed to sit inside your car then. 

The Red Robin said:

On a more serious note, I’ve been looking at an electric/hybrid lease. Cheapest on a lease is around £300 a month - anyone found any better? 

Depends on the car, but see if your work do any sort of scheme, some do a salary sacrifice type scheme.

So I've just returned from a 3 day break with the car so it was the first time we needed to re-charge the battery away from home. The cable at the charging point that fitted my car (labelled Type 2) was rated at 22kW/h. The other cable was rated 50kW/h but it had a different plug which didn't fit my car. It was labelled CHAdeMO. What kind of vehicle is that intended for?

Once plugged in we were a bit disappointed to see that a full charge would take two hours. After 66 minutes we decided we had enough . The app (of the chargepoint) showed we had received 6,899kW/h (for which we paid equiv of less than £2). The battery was about 60% and that quite neatly got us home just at the point when the battery was dry again. However I've still got some questions. (anyone able to answer, please bear in mind this car is still hardly run in, only done about 800 miles!)

Firstly for a PHEV is 2 hours on a fast charger typical? Some people told me it might be as little as 40 minutes. (I still haven't got my wallbox at home activated, but it should be next week, so I will see what that does)

Secondly, does your PHEV battery manage to re-charge itself on a long journey so that it at least supports the petrol engine in the way a mild bybrid does? That's what a guy told me on the under-populated Briish webforum for DS owners, but if the charge has run down to 0%, isn't it dead? In which case I'm driving a petrol car that is lugging a heavy battery around for nothing, until I can charge it again. I can't believe that is really the situation, but so far I don't see much evidence to the contrary..