Wall Charger or Not?

[deleted]

Great feedback and use case is the same as mine. Love it. I'm coming from a 2019 Golf R which honestly still shreds, but I'm sick of paying $120 a fortnight to fill it up.

The previous comment is pretty much exactly me. The range you have in a Seal is more than enough to survive with trickle charge for average person. I had some of that range anxiety you are having when first got it, but that's gone now, even doing decent trips up Blue Mountains etc. Premium is definitely best choice for person with range anxiety! Also, I'm not sure where you live, but I also have a Jolt charger close by me, and get 7kw free each time I go shopping, drop off/ pick up kids, etc I've hardly even used trickle charger. If you have the spare cash and place to put it, then getting a wall charger is not a bad thing tho.

You can definitely survive on the 10a truckle charger if you're doing short trips. Chargers are abundant enough that you will always find a spot. You just have to wait around or have errands to run. With that said, I installed a 32a outlet at home to charge. Nothing beats the liberation of charging from home. Additionally you can get energy suppliers with evs in mind. 8c per kWh between 00:00 and 06:00. Costs to run the car become essentially irrelevant.

Brand new Seal performance still on the first charge so haven’t had to charge it at home yet but I had a wall charger installed. I’ve also got solar and home battery so was keen to make the most of solar energy where I can. Like you, I felt more comfortable being able to fully charge overnight when needed. The charger brand is the same as my solar inverter which allows them to “talk” to each other and divert excess solar to the car more efficiently. I also switched to the AGL EV plan which gives me 8c per kWh between 12am to 6am. During these grey winter days which don’t fully charge the home battery I’m able to charge it cheaply overnight so I don’t have to pay peak prices when it drains. When I need to charge the car I can set the battery so it won’t discharge and then charge the car using the cheap EV plan rates. A full car charge would be about $6.50.

I’ve used Tesla premium for about 3km before I installed a wall charger. I got the AC wall charger for free with my seal and only need to pay for the installation. Without the wall charger, I charge using the trickle charger of course. Habit is whenever I drop to 50-60 percent of battery charge, I just plug in the charger. I’d get about 20% overnight. So about 2-3 nights told charging a week since every commute to office I only spend about 10% of charge. Once I have the wall charger, I only need to charge one time overnight a week whenever I batt falls below 40%. And whenever I want to travel long distance and need a full charge, I don’t need to plan the charging several days ahead. I only need to charge overnight to get it to full the next day. Comparing both, I have to say that I don’t NEED the wall charger at all if I can trickle charge from 30-40 percent to 100% in 2-3 days and I don’t travel long distance often. Having the wall charger, makes my charging pattern to once a week or once every 10 days. And I’m not worried if I have to travel long distance suddenly the next day.

getting a new byd seal but have had another ev for close to four years. I have used the myzappi 7kw charger. It is solar aware so can be set to use only the excess coming off your solar. I highly recommend it because it gives you the ability to fully charge the car or add significant range in a hurry at home if you need to. You can also set it to only charge during certain periods so mine is set to use excess solar when it is there and then do a full 7kw charge when the tariff is cheap. The true advantage to this is to move when you need to charge the car to the cheapest time. With the trickle charger you are force to leave it plugged in as it is a slow charger. With this you can take advantage of the cheaper tarrifs to get the car fully charged while it is cheap.

I have a 17.8 kWh battery in my PHEV plus solar and I have a solar aware EV charger. Looking to do what you did and ditch my STI for a Seal Performance on a lease. Your use case is slightly different but it would frustrate me being on a trickle charge, even though trickle actually means 1/3 the rate of a fast AC charge from a wall box. Obviously it comes down to budget. Without a doubt you will benefit from a solar aware wall charger at home in terms of convenience, but the circa $2000 you spend on it means you won't be saving money by charging off your solar for quite some time.

I plan on getting a wall charger at home at some point as I drive around 75km each weekday. I see this as more convenient than the included slow charger. Currently I've been taking advantage of the charger at work, so I haven't had to charge at home or at a public charger.

The cost of any accessories for the Seal will be offset by me selling the R. I'm shocked at how they've held their value - I was expecting a good resale but wow.

Thank COVID. Everything went up which did wonders for second hand car values.

The wall charger depending on what you go for can negate some of the fuel savings especially if you go for a watt pilot or other charger that will cost you $2k+ Depending if you have 3phase or not, a 5pin 32amp charge point and a portable 5pin 7kw charger are your best most cost effective option circa $750 all in. You can charge during the day between 10-3pm on shoulder tariff when you are exporting the most solar if you have the ability to, otherwise and EV plan with cheap 12-6am times would be the best bet.

My hesitation with bothering to get a fast charger installed at home is related to wanting to use solar when possible. Plugged into a normal socket it doesn’t overshoot what my solar produces so I will usually try to make sure I plug in if I am home during the day and drive for free. At worst any excess production is automatically used to heat my hot water system rather than sending it back to the grid for almost no payback. I drive over 500 km a week and haven’t needed a fast charger or experienced range anxiety yet.

My house is set up with Fronius inverters and a fronius smart meter, so I got an industrial 32amp 3 pin socket installed and got myself a fronius wattpilot go. Now only charge off of surplus solar at max 7kw, which is plenty