Power Pack to Jump Start Car

Christ, EV's are at least £10K more than equivalent ICE, do they really expect us to buy them?

I suppose it depends whether you are paying full price and how long you want to keep it for. My current figures are that I am saving around £2000 a year in fuel costs (£1.40 a litre vs 7p a kWh - guessed, as I haven't looked at the price of petrol for a while).

Bear in mind that EVs have 12V batteries too which can go flat if you don't use them enough. Easier to start, but still needing a jump!

nib

I would only buy one from a recognised brand, because 'Chinese amps' are a bit like 'Chinese mAh' - they suffer from runaway inflation.

Don't buy new, buy slightly used. Most people buy cars on lease deals nowadays so the new prices are somewhat hypothetical. EVs are a very good deal as company cars because of lack of BiK taxation. Leasing companies negotiate big discounts with the manufacturer, and sell them on at the end of the lease (or the lease can be terminated early, eg change of job). At the end they throw them all at auctions, where dealers pick them up.

So a 1-3 year old EV can be picked up from a dealer for a fraction of the new price. Usually they come with 5-7 year warranties so any faults should be covered under warranty. Since they're EVs there's not much to go wrong - service schedules are less important (mostly just change the pollen filter; although some makes insist on that service to keep the warranty going, which is a scam).

Theo

Don't they charge the 12V if they're plugged in?

Theo

Not on mine (Enyaq). 12v is only chsrged when vehicle is going. I had one warning of low battery in the cold weather last winter.

It all depends how far, on average, you can travel per kWhr. My diesel car averages about 14 pence per mile, based on its average mpg and the cost of fuel.

What are the equivalent running costs, in pence per mile, for an EV?

How do you get an electricity tariff of 7p/kWhr? Do you have solar panels and is 7p the nett cost after you have reduced your household electricity usage from the grid by the amount of solar power your generate? Or there a special EV tariff that electricity companies charge you? How much is off-peak (Economy 7) tariff. Our tariff (no Economy 7) is 26.2 p/kWhr.

My parents had a Toyota petrol/EV hybrid and that was always suffering from a flat 12V battery which would not start the engine; once Dad got locked out of the car after he'd stopped at a motorway service station (after driving for several hours so the engine-charged battery should have been fully charged). Luckily he remembered how to unlock the door manually without using central locking so he could open the bonnet so the RAC man could jump-start the car. He ended up having to put the car on charge every night in case the battery had no charge in the morning. The garage where he had it serviced had looked at it many times and couldn't find a cause.

My E7 is 14.8 p/kWh and the car averages 3.34 mi/kWh so 4.4 p/mile. Special EV tariffs can be much cheaper than that.

nib

I have the same model (a Yaris hybrid) and it's been flawless - I charged the 12V battery the other day, the first time in 6 years. (the car wouldn't turn *off* due to the flat 12V battery). Had you mentioned it at the time I would have offered to buy it from your parents :-)

Theo

I have one of these and it is excellent. The type I have will charge off the car's half-dead battery - provided it has around 9v or above (doesn't have to be pre-charged). It also has an cigar-lighter adaptor which will fully charge off another car in about two minutes. Mine has got me out of trouble very rapidly when I've done stupid things like leaving the lights on.

I paid around £110 for it about 18 months ago, and highly recommend them.

For mine, about 2p per mile.

You sign up to an EV tariff that gives you cheap rate (forThe whole house) at night with a higher than average rate during the day time. You need to work out roughly what proportion of your power consumption can be time shifted to the night.

If you’re doing a reasonable mileage (12,000 miles PA say) it definitely benefits you assuming you’re not running hot tub, electric saunas etc during the day.

Nope, the 7p is the cost before mixing in solar etc.

If you have a solar system with home batteries, you can charge them at night and never pay more than 7p for your electricity. Having said that, there are charging and discharging losses so using stored power probably works out effectively nearer 10p.

I do about 1000-1200 miles a month and last month paid £61 for my energy import, but got paid £173 for my export.

Or there a special EV tariff that electricity companies charge

I pay 27.22p peak rate, 7p off peak but with a 55.92p daily standing charge. (Octopus Intelligent Go).

Tim

Never thought of advertising it on here. My dad had to stop driving at about the same time as my mum's 25-year-old Daihatsu became uneconomical to repair after failing its MOT. She had the option of using Dad's car as her car. She said "not on your nelly - I know how unreliable it's been".

If it had been my car, I'd have kicked up a real stink with the garage and with Toyota head office after it had happened a few times, because the car was clearly a lemon and/or the Toyota dealer hadn't the skill to investigate and fix the problem. I can't remember whether the bought it new or low-mileage second-hand. It's still taxed and MOTed so evidently the new owner has either got the problem fixed or has learned to live with the problem. It's 15 reg so summer 2015. And I first heard of it happening when it was maybe about 5 years old. So they lived with it for about 10 years, enduring the alarm going off if they tried to unlock the car when the battery had gone flat, and having to wait in for RAC to arrive and jump-start the car.

Flat batteries are a PITA. My 08-reg 200,000-mile Peugeot started having problems 6 months ago - it would start perfectly, especially after the starter motor was replaced (first time in its life) and then one day, without warning, the battery was as dead as a dodo. The garage couldn't find any problem with the alternator or voltage regulator, and the battery was fairly new and held its charge well once they'd recharged it. Eventually they found a problem with a poor earth contact, either with the battery to "chassis" or the alternator to "chassis". I wonder how long that repair will last - hopefully they've fixed it.

One of the problems with a lot of modern cars is jump-starting them because there isn't a good earth point to attach the -ve of the jump leads - available metal is either painted or else is too thick to get the jaws of the jump leads round. Whenever I tried to jump-start it from my wife's Honda, I struggled to get a good enough contact that the Honda battery would start the Peugeot. Not sure whether it was at the donor or recipient end of the leads. I know when my garage came out to jump-start my car so they could take it in to investigate the problem, the guy struggled to get a decent contact, trying various parts of the engine/alternator housing. And the battery -ve terminal was in a deep recess so you couldn't get a lead in there, to force you to use somewhere further away, avoiding the safety issue of hydrogen from the battery.

Cars really need to have a large, easily accessible earth point for attaching the -ve jump lead to.

Can you suggest a recognised brand please? My 2 year old charger won't charge the battery so I am dead in the water.

Noco is one, see recent thread.

BTW, starting prices on new EVs: Suzuki Vitara 1.4 petrol - £27299 BYD Dolphin Surf EV - £18650

Indeed, almost 10K more expensive... is the petrol.

Theo

Thanks, ordered, arrives Sunday.

I think a Kia Picanto at £17,250 is more on a par with the BYD Dolphin?

I love my Vitara, if I have a reliable starting solution the best thing will be to keep it I think.

Seems to me as though you just need a new battery. How old is the car/battery? They aren't too expensive to replace and can be delivered fully charged, for example:

Battery state can be determined at any battery place.

Might be something draining it...an ammeter in series will detect that

During "lockdown". my car stayed in the drive, so the battery went flat - alarms use energy. My Halfords' simple charger did nothing , so I bought a Ring 'intelligent' one, It worked a treat. It's probably made in China (what isn't) but at least there's recognised brand name on the box.