What a Ride

Got this on my BMW App. Quite interesting if ar times a little strange. 

Think average journey time of 9 minutes is a little confusing as it probably starts a new journey every time you switch the car on/off. It shows 44 journeys to UK, I went just once, stayed about 10 days & didn't get about that much. Quite possibly 4 journeys a day - to the supermarket & back, to Norwich & back etc.

But underlying this is a large amount of truth, and one of the myths that EVs suffer from. We use our cars far less than we think, but when weighing up  whether or not we could go electric,  we put at #1 the 500 mile trip to Granny in the Hebrides we do once a year, and always without taking a pee break.

So if you are thinking of a move to EV, try to be honest to yourself and work out exactly how you use your car and what range you need. Clearly having a garage/drive with electric socket makes it easier. With a PV unit, almost certainly a no-brainer not to have an EV.

73% of my charging was done at home via PV and I guess another 10-15% at the local supermarket I use in winter when PV not producing much electricity. They offer cost price charging of €0.19/kWh.

Midnight tonight, I start getting British Electricity! My contract changes to Octopus Energy. On 30th January will be getting a Smart Meter & then kWh between Midnight & 5:00 am will cost €0.20. So during winter can charge my car and the 8kWh house battery. Sadly Germany doesn't allow amazing UK nighttime £0.07 rates as most of the taxes, excluding VAT, are based on kilowatts used rather than price. So even if electricity cost is €0 or even negative, which it often is, you always have to pay a minimum €0.19.

In April 2024, I changed to a dynamic electricity tariff where you are charged the German/European Electricity Stock Market price plus a very small handling charge plus sadly taxes. It's great much of the time, but you need to watch the price daily & adjust accordingly. But just like London Stock Market,  prices go up as well as down. This autumn the long periods of fog & wind calm meant the price often went above €1.00. The constant observation, changing times in various Apps got to be a pain. If I was an IT nerd, could probably get around this. I'm not though! So leaving it down to the Brits to look after me.