Skoda Enyaq Forum

Hi

If my car gets delivered before May I intend to take it to France.

I'd like the ability to charge it at our rental house if possible.

A few questions please?

1) which cable does the car get delivered with? Is it a UK 3 pin plug granny charger which I believe is called type 1? Or is it a type two charger to plug into a wall box?

2) I've purchased a French plug to UK 3 pin plug adapter for use on other trips when camping in my campervan. Can I just plug a UK granny charger into this? Or do I need to worry about the voltage difference ?

Thank you

IanEV wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 11:57 am Hi

If my car gets delivered before May I intend to take it to France.

I'd like the ability to charge it at our rental house if possible.

A few questions please?

1) which cable does the car get delivered with? Is it a UK 3 pin plug granny charger which I believe is called type 1? Or is it a type two charger to plug into a wall box?

2) I've purchased a French plug to UK 3 pin plug adapter for use on other trips when camping in my campervan. Can I just plug a UK granny charger into this? Or do I need to worry about the voltage difference ?

Thank you

1. It's a type 2 cable that comes as standard. (Granny chargers aren't type one though, it's an older standard of the current cable)

2. Voltage isn't a problem, the French use 230v. The bigger problem is current, I'd keep a very close eye on how much heat is generated through the adapter.

1) Car comes with a Type 2 AC cable, suitable for up to 11kW AC charging. It does not come with a domestic mains 'granny' charger. You can get one from Skoda for about £250, or Screwfix for £150 if you want one (but be aware that charging an 80kWh battery at 2.3kW will take a while).

2) The UK and France have identical electrical supplies, 230V (+10%/-6%) at 50Hz. Not ideal to use an adapter though as it could get warm due to a high current being drawn for several hours.

Really you should be charging the car at rapid DC chargers (ie 50kW+ with Type 2 CCS connector) or if you can't find one, then 7.2kW or 11kW AC wallboxes will suffice if you have several hours to spare. Granny chargers are a last resort, so you can put it on charge for a few hours to enable you to drive to a rapid charger. Have a look on ABRP or Google Maps to see if there are any rapid chargers near your rental house. Some parts of France are quite well covered. Rapid chargers don't need a cable as they have a permanently attached (often water cooled) cable, and will charge the car from flat in well under an hour.

The 3rd Rock Energy charger allows selection down to 6 amps - much safer where you don't know the condition of where you are plugging in.
https://thirdrockenergy.co.uk/collectio ... e-chargers

If you need an extension, get a good one designed for EV charging:
https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev ... sion-leads
Note the one with travel adapter built in.

Thank you for the responses. I've got a Tough Lead supplied extension lead already - excellent quality.

The Third rock energy cables look interesting - I would think quite useful for travelling in the UK and still being able to have a small amount of charge when visiting people.

Another question what does the does the Skoda option of 'iV Universal charging cable with industrial connector 32 A / 230V' do - it was a £645 back in August.

The Skoda universal charger lets you use a variety of input connectors (including three-phase) to get the Type 2 output, at up to 11kW. Skoda also sell a 'normal' 10A 2.3kW granny charger, but it's not in the Accessories catalogue, not the main Enyaq configurator. Most of us that have one, have third party ones from Ring, MasterPlug, Third Rock etc. There isn't much in a granny charger, it's basically just a couple of relays and some safety cutouts. In fact it's not really a charger at all, the actual AC charger is built into the car

orrery wrote: ↑Wed Mar 02, 2022 2:54 pm The 3rd Rock Energy charger allows selection down to 6 amps - much safer where you don't know the condition of where you are plugging in.
https://thirdrockenergy.co.uk/collectio ... e-chargers

If you need an extension, get a good one designed for EV charging:
https://toughleads.co.uk/collections/ev ... sion-leads
Note the one with travel adapter built in.

I've just come back from 2 weeks in France and the Netherlands. From your post I bought a 3rd rock energy charger and a tough leads adapter, and charged overnight at the house, trying the settings from 6A to 13A (I was confident of the house wiring, though)
Can recommend them both.

I also got a full house of charging cards for public charging stations to cover all my bases:

• https://chargemap.com/pass The one I used most, with Ionity, Fastned (in Belgium and the Netherlands) Shell and Total Energies. All fairly simple to use.
  The map was handy to check on current status of the next charging station on the journey, and for looking for charging point
• Tesla - signed up for the app. I charged at Eurotunnel Folkestone while waiting for my train to be called. Solid and simple.
• Shell ReCharge. I didn't use it because the ChargeMap pass had worked so well.
• https://www.izivia.com/ (edf) There are apparently some local charging networks which are not covered by ChargeMap, but I didn't come across them.
  I did need it to charge at the Engie chargepoints at Eurotunnel Coquelles terminal though. They seem to bill at the end of the month, because I haven't been charged yet.
• https://www.kiwhipass.fr/ - a prepaid card said to work in France when all else fails. I put €20 on it but didn't need to use it.

https://ouestcharge.fr/ in Brittany has put a 50kWh DC, and 22kWh AC charger in many small to medium sized towns. I thought I would need the Izivia card here, but Chargemap was fine.
And Lidl also provides free 22 kWh AC chargers at many stores during opening hours for shoppers, and even some paid rapid DC chargers at some stores. Also haven't heard from them yet.

I found the public charging in France, Belgium and the Netherlands to be fairly easy. Hardly ever had to wait, and didn't see many out of action chargers. Screens on some hard to read in the sunlight.
Once a charging station on the motorway in Normandy (Bolleville) was out of action, so we carried on and detoured into Le Havre.

I used https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ a lot to plan the trip over to the Netherlands, and then back across to Brittany.

I was maybe over cautious on the way over, always charging to 80% at each stop, giving myself way more in reserve than I really needed to. From NL to Brittany (920km) took 14h as a result, but I wasn't so tired because of all the breaks (7 stops)
On the way back, I did the same number of stops, but only charged enough to arrive at the next stop with around 20% in reserve. It took 12 h instead.

I am planning to go Pornic, Loire Atlantique in June from St Malo, return ferry from Caen (Ouistraham) As a woman I sfufer from Range Anxiety!!! Are there good charging facilities in Loire Atlantique> I don't want the holiday spoilt by consistently worrying about finding a charge point!!

Check out https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

I've only been a far as Brittany, but use the planning apps and check the route for backup options.

Also, since I posted in August, I signed up for PowerPass

I've charged with a granny charger at a rental property abroad with no problems. This is fine, especially if you do not intend to use the car too much during your stay.

The box on the granny charger limits the current to about 10 amps. So about 8 miles an hour added.

I suggest that you have a guesstimate on the quality of wiring in the property and until you are confident that it's has the capacity only charge while you are around.

The box itself does a lot of checks and can drop out if there is a problem.

So yes, enjoy the benefits of charging while drinking wine on the terrace.