Battery Vehicle Society

Well, after lots of deliberation and a rather long drive to go and collect, I have finally put my money where my mouth is and I am now the proud owner of a Citroen C1 VTR EV'ie.

I have to say that the car is in great condition and is great fun to drive.

Can any one recommend an electrictian I could use to fit an outside socket, and can anyone recommend what type of outside socket I should go for. I am happy to add an extra connection and offer this plug out for local EV'ers to use if they are in my neck of the woods.

mattcarr wrote:Can any one recommend an electrictian I could use to fit an outside socket

Five Star Electrical Services have installed Charging Stations at several ZCW sites;

http://www.5starelectrical.lavoracms.com/cms/home

mattcarr wrote:can anyone recommend what type of outside socket I should go for

IMO you should fit 'dumb' 13A ("UK") and 32A ("Commando") waterproof sockets because this will allow you to charge almost any EV that visits you or you purchase in the next few years.

Ummm, got trouble with the car already !!!! My Missus wants to drive it all the time

It is great, seems very nippy compaired to my Gwiz that I had - and it has got a good top speed. We did 42 miles today and on the last leg home it limited us to 30 mph for the last mile. It is sat on the drive having a well deserved sip of electrons.

Was that the one on E-bay

They are quite nice and fun to drive, I found it to have just a little less get up and go compared to the Berlingo and of course less range, the one I had on test struggled to do a little more than 50miles even with me being careful but they are very much plug and play like the berlingo

As for outside sockets then I'd recommend a 13A MK Masterseal protected by a 30mA RCD trip, this would need to be installed by a Part P registered electrician.

Maybe Kevin might like to add one of his ZCW units to your property

ChrisB

Yes, it is the one from ebay. Spent a day with a transporter going to collect it.

My property is in a cul de sac and there is nothing close by so I am not sure if a socket would ever get any use, but I would think it would be nice to have one that any ev user could use.

I did a comfortable 29 miles this morning to 50% SOC so it seems to have well behaving batteries. We did almost 50 miles yesterday with a bit of a recharge during the day. It is quite amazing to fully realise just how much running around we do that we are now doing on electric and not diesel.

mattcarr wrote:I did a comfortable 29 miles this morning to 50% SOC so it seems to have well behaving batteries. We did almost 50 miles yesterday with a bit of a recharge during the day. It is quite amazing to fully realise just how much running around we do that we are now doing on electric and not diesel.

It doesnt take much to clock up the miles does it, and I always question folks who say EV's are no good due to range issues, most folks do less than 30miles a day
Glad your enjoying it, the vehicles are pretty reliable, the one I test drove is currently located at Worthing and I'm looking at taking it for another spin when it returns home again.

ChrisB

There is a woman near us who has one, I havnt heard from her recently. Theye were originally developed by a chap from the channel islands, who also did the Citroen / peugeot bippers etc, now being sold by Mclaren something or other,, not related to the mclaren company.

I use 16amp sockets, which are readily available and ones that you can find in places such as caravan parks. They are also more useful when having to use extension leads which I regularly have to. They dont mind being rained on, which 13amps extensions cant readily cope with. They also seem to last longer with more robust pins, When we use 13a ( A short 16am socket with a 13 amp plugon the other end) they always get hot.

So my vote is for 16amp plugs (Smaller than 32) and we have a 5m 2.5mm extension with each vehicle. (I do have spare cable if anyone is interested).

Grumpy-b

I will be arranging for a 32 amp & 16 amp socket and a single 13 amp socket to be installed on the side of the house.

Does any one have any technical documentation on these cars at all? I havn't been able to find any real information on the web about them.

Cheers

Matt