[SoumenD]

So I just received a mail from my society association about commencement of EV charging station. Vendor: ElectricPe

Its a pay as you use service. Anybody here use their services? Any idea what’s the cost like usually?

[yashg]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

So I just received a mail from my society association about commencement of EV charging station. Vendor: ElectricPe

Its a pay as you use service. Anybody here use their services? Any idea what’s the cost like usually?

Awesome! Just what I was looking for. Once the chargers are operational can you share some pics and how are members going to pay for the usage? Will they pay via an app/wallet or will the society add it to monthly bill?

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by yashg

Awesome! Just what I was looking for. Once the chargers are operational can you share some pics and how are members going to pay for the usage? Will they pay via an app/wallet or will the society add it to monthly bill?

Yes they have an app as per the website. But I couldn’t find it on Apple store. Guess its only on android for now. It will be operational from next week, will share pictures and other details post that. If this clicks, I might finally be able to consider a 2W EV

Read a bit about them. The founders are ex-OLA. These guys are a startup who just raised $3Mn funding.

Source

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by yashg

Awesome! Just what I was looking for. Once the chargers are operational can you share some pics…

Here are some pictures of the setup. I see a total of 6 points. 3 each for cars and 2 wheelers. For now should do as the number of EVs is low. If this thing clicks am expecting a lot more people on fence(apartment dwellers) due to lack of charging setup going for an EV.






Cost is INR10 per unit. And the app is available only on android (that’s a bummer)

[fordday]

We too went for ElectricPe with an initial five charging points setup.

There is no upfront costs involved and for the first year there will be no convenience charge. Next year we will see.

We have set the cost at Rs 10 per unit. Our regular billing is 8.15 per unit plus tax. And rest we kept as buffer.

The user interface is very easy and the admin interface is good too.

[lina]

This is fine but I hope this doesnt prevent people from having their own sockets in their respective parking spots.

[car-o-holic]

We have booked the MG ZS EV in March and I am in a bit of a situation regarding the charging set up!

Our apartment complex in South Bangalore is about 11 years old and we have a 5 KW connection currently allotted to us. We spoke with the BESCOM official who was in our complex and he mentioned it won't be easy/ may not be possible to upgrade it to 11/ 13 KW as per our request.

Has anybody else faced this challenge? If yes, how have you overcome this?

We are planning to go down to the BESCOM office to check with them one more time and hope there is a way out!
If not, i am not sure how we can go ahead with our MG ZS EV purchase!

[lina]

Originally Posted by car-o-holic

We have booked the MG ZS EV in March and I am in a bit of a situation regarding the charging set up!

Our apartment complex in South Bangalore is about 11 years old and we have a 5 KW connection currently allotted to us. We spoke with the BESCOM official who was in our complex and he mentioned it won't be easy/ may not be possible to upgrade it to 11/ 13 KW as per our request.

Has anybody else faced this challenge? If yes, how have you overcome this?

We are planning to go down to the BESCOM office to check with them one more time and hope there is a way out!
If not, i am not sure how we can go ahead with our MG ZS EV purchase!

Dont bother with the 7kW charger. Just use the 10A charger that also comes with the car. For this, get a regular 15Amps socket installed in your car park. Get a good quality one and make sure you replace the socket every year. This adds about 14km per hour. I have been using this from August last year. Couple of times a week, an overnight charge is enough. No issues at all.

[Mortis]

We are planning on redoing the lighting in our garage and are planning on pulling new wires from the meter to replace the absolutely ancient wiring it currently has. The thought occurred to me that I might as well pull wiring from the meter that can support EV charging as I'm sure it will be required a couple of years down the line and the wire has to be routed through the office and a couple of other garages as well so don't want to coordinate and inconvenience my neighbours again.

What sort of wiring do I need to pull to support EV charging along with a few tube lights and a fan along with a couple of sockets that would power some tools ? A list of type of wire + size, earthing wire, MCB, etc would be appreciated.
Please note that I would be sticking to slow charging at home which for most cars is currently 2.5kW I believe but in say 5 years as batteries and capacity improve, the minimum charging speed would go up.
Also just wondering aloud, since my meter is 7kW if I'm charging my car at 2.5kW does that mean if my household load exceeds 4.5kW, the meter would trip ?

Thanks in advance

[car-o-holic]

Originally Posted by lina

Dont bother with the 7kW charger. Just use the 10A charger that also comes with the car. For this, get a regular 15Amps socket installed in your car park. Get a good quality one and make sure you replace the socket every year. This adds about 14km per hour. I have been using this from August last year. Couple of times a week, an overnight charge is enough. No issues at all.

Thank you Lina. This gives us some courage to go forward with the purchase.

Also, for using slow charger through a 15 AMP socket, how much KW would be typically needed?

[lina]

Originally Posted by car-o-holic

Thank you Lina. This gives us some courage to go forward with the purchase.

Also, for using slow charger through a 15 AMP socket, how much KW would be typically needed?

15 amp socket will support max of well, 15 Amps. This at 230V will be about 3.5kW. But, the portable charger that comes with the car draws only 9Amps. So your power requirement will be 2.1kW. This is about the same power as a Geyser or an AC and will fall well within your 5kW limit. You will not need to upgrade your connection if you are ok with this.

Also, please do not cancel the booking! This car is an underrated gem. You will love it and probably never want to drive an ICE car once you get used to this.

[lina]

Originally Posted by Mortis

We are planning on redoing the lighting in our garage and are planning on pulling new wires from the meter to replace the absolutely ancient wiring it currently has. The thought occurred to me that I might as well pull wiring from the meter that can support EV charging as I'm sure it will be required a couple of years down the line and the wire has to be routed through the office and a couple of other garages as well so don't want to coordinate and inconvenience my neighbours again.

What sort of wiring do I need to pull to support EV charging along with a few tube lights and a fan along with a couple of sockets that would power some tools ? A list of type of wire + size, earthing wire, MCB, etc would be appreciated.
Please note that I would be sticking to slow charging at home which for most cars is currently 2.5kW I believe but in say 5 years as batteries and capacity improve, the minimum charging speed would go up.
Also just wondering aloud, since my meter is 7kW if I'm charging my car at 2.5kW does that mean if my household load exceeds 4.5kW, the meter would trip ?

Thanks in advance

If this is your own house, I would highly recommend upgrading your connection to a 3 phase 11kW connection. The ZS already comes with a 11kW charger abroad which is almost 4-5 times faster than the portable charger. For future proofing, I would recommend just upgrading the connection. Whenever you buy the car, they will pull the wiring for your fast charger.

If you just want to have good 15amps sockets to power your EV, pull 4sq mm wires to these sockets. the slow chargers are usually rated 10-15 amps, so you can put a 20Amp breaker for these circuits.

If your total power consumption exceeds the rated capacity it might trip. Though there usually is some buffer. But as mentioned above, if you are anyway planning an upgrade, go for a 3 phase 10+ kw connection

[car-o-holic]

Originally Posted by lina

15 amp socket will support max of well, 15 Amps. This at 230V will be about 3.5kW. But, the portable charger that comes with the car draws only 9Amps. So your power requirement will be 2.1kW. This is about the same power as a Geyser or an AC and will fall well within your 5kW limit. You will not need to upgrade your connection if you are ok with this.

Also, please do not cancel the booking! This car is an underrated gem. You will love it and probably never want to drive an ICE car once you get used to this.

Thank you very much for the quick response, This has brought a huge smile on my face!

Looking forward to joining the EV bandwagon soon!

[Mortis]

Originally Posted by lina

If this is your own house, I would highly recommend upgrading your connection to a 3 phase 11kW connection. The ZS already comes with a 11kW charger abroad which is almost 4-5 times faster than the portable charger. For future proofing, I would recommend just upgrading the connection. Whenever you buy the car, they will pull the wiring for your fast charger.

If you just want to have good 15amps sockets to power your EV, pull 4sq mm wires to these sockets. the slow chargers are usually rated 10-15 amps, so you can put a 20Amp breaker for these circuits.

If your total power consumption exceeds the rated capacity it might trip. Though there usually is some buffer. But as mentioned above, if you are anyway planning an upgrade, go for a 3 phase 10+ kw connection

Hi I'm not buying the ZS. Just want to do some future proofing since I'm pulling new wires for the lighting and stuff anyway. No plans on upgrading the meter right now.
Will only be using slow charging for the car.

So just a single 4mm wire for the socket Live wire but what about for neutral and earthing ? I believe earthing needs to be good for EV chargers

[lina]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Hi I'm not buying the ZS. Just want to do some future proofing since I'm pulling new wires for the lighting and stuff anyway. No plans on upgrading the meter right now.
Will only be using slow charging for the car.

So just a single 4mm wire for the socket Live wire but what about for neutral and earthing ? I believe earthing needs to be good for EV chargers

Ideally all have to be same thickness. Live and Neutral without a doubt. You can choose a lower 2sq mm for earth if need be but technically they should all be the same thickness as all wires should be capable of taking the max power.