[Lobogris]

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.

If not, i am not sure how we can go ahead with our MG ZS EV purchase!

I have the MG ZS EV as well. I have not installed the 7KW charger and have been happily making do with the slow charger that plugs into any 15A plug. If you plug it in at night, say around 9pm, you would get around 60% to 70 charge done by the morning. Normally one does not charge from zero and should charge till about 80% for battery health. Hence if you plug it in at 20 to 30% charge remaining, you will be at 80% by the morning even with the slow charger. Unless you need to drive 300 kms daily and don't have the time to charge overnight, the faster 7KW charger is not needed. You can contact me after you receive the ZS and I can help you sell the 7KW charger if you want to do so.

[car-o-holic]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

I have the MG ZS EV as well. I have not installed the 7KW charger and have been happily making do with the slow charger that plugs into any 15A plug. If you plug it in at night, say around 9pm, you would get around 60% to 70 charge done by the morning.

Thank you so much Lobogris.

May I please know what is your current KW allowance? We have 5 KW and I am feeling more confident on being able to charge it through the slow charger now.

Thank you so much to the knowledgeable & helpful community here!

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by car-o-holic

Thank you so much Lobogris.

May I please know what is your current KW allowance? We have 5 KW and I am feeling more confident on being able to charge it through the slow charger now.

Thank you so much to the knowledgeable & helpful community here!

By the way, I meant you would add 60 to 70% charge from 9pm to the next morning. So if you plug in at 20%, you would be around 80 to 85% by 9am. I am actually using the common area wiring from our building. Hence there is no issue with the load. At home, we have a 7KW sanctioned load but I am not tapping it for my EV charging. 5KW should be fine if you don't run more than one large appliance while charging. Like 1 AC or geyser at the most while charging. You would only charge once or twice a week and thus you might be able to arrange appliance usage accordingly. If you need to run 2 or 3 AC at night then you would need to increase the sanctioned load.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

I have the MG ZS EV as well. I have not installed the 7KW charger and have been happily making do with the slow charger that plugs into any 15A plug.

Thank you for putting up your first-hand experience . It's what I have been saying from the start. 95% of car owners do NOT need anything more than the regular 15A plug. Reasons:

- Your car is anyway parked overnight for 8 - 12 hours. That is more than enough to charge your battery to a level that will exceed your daily commuting requirements. Heck, in most cases, a 10 hour charge on a 15A plug will give you enough juice for 4 - 5 days.

- No one will wait till 0% to charge an EV. Assuming you plug it in at 30%, you will easily be at 80% (or more) by the morning.

- Even with a 15A plug, the typical commuter won't need to charge more than once or twice a week.

- Plugging in isn't a hassle at all. In fact, its more convenient than going to the petrol pump. My cars are on trickle chargers and it's way more effort to plug the trickle chargers in than an EV. I have to remove the Bosch C7 from the boot, open the bonnet, place the Bosch C7 carefully, connect the positive & negative terminals, then route the power cord through a gap, plug it into a wall, power up and close the bonnet. Sometimes, I have to manually choose the mode too (AGM vs regular 12v). Repeat exercise in reverse when I have to drive away, and repeat in the same order when I return. In comparison, the ZS EV I had recently was a breeze to plug in.

[Tokengrip]

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.

Originally Posted by Lobogris

I have the MG ZS EV as well. I have not installed the 7KW charger and have been happily making do with the slow charger that plugs into any 15A plug. If you plug it in at night, say around 9pm, you would get around 60% to 70 charge done by the morning.

Agree with Lina and Lobogris, we also use the 15A socket in the garage to charge. Besides you ll rarely be in a scenario where you will have to top it up everyday. You can test it out for a month and then take a call based on your usage and requirements based on real world info.

[ADI7YAK]

Originally Posted by car-o-holic

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!

What you should really do is apply for a separate new connection dedicated for EV charging station. There must be a section on BESCOM website exclusively for EV charging stations. That’s what I have here in Pune. I had to pay around ₹13k as refundable security deposit but that’s fine, in my opinion.

You can get sanctioned load of upto 7.5kW on single phase but you will need a three phase connection if you wish to have sanction load above 7.5kW. The best part about this meter is that it has flat rate which is generally comes out cheaper than effective slab rate. I pay around ₹7.5/unit inclusive of all other charges and taxes.

[shortbread]

Looks like the most popular measure for most building associations is converting visitor parking to charging spots managed by EV charging vendors. This I suppose is the quickest stop gap solution to the problem.

But long term I think govt. regulation must be introduced so that future buildings have dedicated power points at each parking spot.

[rakirank]

Here is an example of EV charging challenges in apartments.

The owner here is running wires from his flat in the 6th floor.

[shortbread]

My sister just mentioned a story at her apartment complex. They had converted a pair of visitor parking spaces for EV charging. But with the number of EVs reaching a dozen odd, arguments are getting heated up at association meetings. Her family is taking particular interest in the matter because they'd like to purchase an EV next. For now, perhaps adding few more bays for EV charging will help patch up, but what happens when the number of EVs say double.

[lordtottuu]

I've now run into a brick wall with my complex's association with this topic. I specifically got my parking allocated, when buying, next to the meter room as I figured this would be a requirement in the future but the association is refusing to let me install a regular 15A socket in my designated parking slot. To be clear, I'm not asking for a fast charger, just the regular, bog standard 15A plug. They're hell bent on bringing a public charging setup which won't happen if there aren't enough EVs to justify their investment!

I've already linked to this thread as well as another popular article on Adda but they remain staunch. I'm now feeling so embittered that I feel like maybe taking the war path here. I have half a mind to just drop wire from my balcony (challenging as it's a high rise) or talk to the electricity board and simply get a new connection just for my EV. Honestly, beyond frustrated. Is there any other option other than these?

My day job is around modelling greenhouse emissions for EU retail so this is a very passionate topic for me. Which basically means I'd like to stick to my guns unless there's absolutely no other option but to back down.

[EV Fan]

Originally Posted by lordtottuu

Honestly, beyond frustrated. Is there any other option other than these?

Make a friend in Ground or first floor & run a charging setup with meter and compensate them.
Something like this.
https://aha.store/product/ev-travel-charging-kit/


Or


Convince more owners to switch to EV's and get the required majority..

[lordtottuu]

Originally Posted by EV Fan

Convince more owners to switch to EV's and get the required majority..

Which is part of the chicken and egg problem, right? No one will want to buy an EV if faced with such basic, existential questions?! And no 3rd party provider will setup charging stations if no one has an EV? Majority means 350+ homes with EVs which will not happen in the next 5 years, with the current supporting infra.

I never thought this would be this problematic, to be blunt. I thought the bureaucracy will be from the government side, not the association.

[EV Fan]

Originally Posted by lordtottuu

I thought the bureaucracy will be from the government side, not the association.

While i had personally almost a decade back seen even the discoms & regulators who were blind on EV's, had policies that were detrimental.
They did not allow a company to set up charging ports for its own employees in the parking lot, stating that the company is not licensed to sell electricity. No matter if it is free, as per regulator even free disbursal requires the company to have license for sale/distribution of electricity.
So it has come a long way from that.

While i do hope this does not become a full fledged case but sharing this Plugin India video for your info -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ii2Rn66LYE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVwdahoZzZE

As the EV owner states, he did try all the regular venues official letters from authorities, social media etc before going the legal route.
Do let us know how it goes for you.

See if you have some Team Bhp members in your the community.

[abn6362]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

I have the MG ZS EV as well. I have not installed the 7KW charger and have been happily making do with the slow charger that plugs into any 15A plug. If you plug it in at night, say around 9pm, you would get around 60% to 70 charge done by the morning. Normally one does not charge from zero and should charge till about 80% for battery health. Hence if you plug it in at 20 to 30% charge remaining, you will be at 80% by the morning even with the slow charger. Unless you need to drive 300 kms daily and don't have the time to charge overnight, the faster 7KW charger is not needed. You can contact me after you receive the ZS and I can help you sell the 7KW charger if you want to do so.

Hi Loborgis - Facing similar dilemma. I have the 11kw charger that came with Hyundai Ioniq 5 where the wiring cost and hiring kw supply cost does not warrant installing the charger given we have a Tata 7kw charger right there in the building.

Was exploring selling the charger - would you be able to help here and what's the best way to contact?