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What charging points can I use?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 7:26 am
by Weechancer
Hi
Q4 arrived at the beginning of the week! So far have been playing with charging at home (zappi and solar panels - fuel for free, but hasn’t been hassle free), but am planning a 400 mile trip next week. I want to use a quick charger, but when looking at the zap app, there appears to be a range of options, Tesla, CCS CHAdeMO). I assume I cannot use the Tesla ones, but can I use the others?

Thanks in advance.

BTW really enjoying the Q4, only niggle is the privacy statement when I switch on (apparently A3 owners also have the same problem…..)

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 7:44 am
by Edam77
CCS are the ones to use, I have used instavolt, osprey and ionity and all have been fine. If you are looking for a quick pit stop on a journey go for 50kw+ fast chargers, I think we have all found you realistically don't get near the top charging rate, for me it's been 50-70kw depending on the state of charge of the battery, how many others are charging and the temperature, but we have done a couple of long journeys and been fine with a 25-30 min stop along the way, or charged at a pub while having lunch.

Have you registered for the Etron charging service, if not do as you get it free for a year and it discounts ionity and some of the others, plus I think if you WhatsApp them they are still doing £150 free credit.

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 8:47 am
by Weechancer
Thank you. I activated the Enron card that came with the car, but it is difficult to see how to use it via the rather poor Audi app

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:02 am
by Edam77
It should be linked to your bank or PayPal account and you get billed monthly for usage. The card is contactless for activating a charger, you can just us a bank card but if you have the Audi membership for the year it is slightly cheaper than contactless and the free credit is obviously worth having. You can also use the app to activate chargers, I haven't as had the card, and that also shows the chargers and route planning albeit you can't send it to the car currently which is a pain we are all well aware of!

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:06 am
by lozzd
Weechancer wrote:
Fri Apr 01, 2022 7:26 am
zappi and solar panels - fuel for free, but hasn’t been hassle free
Can you elaborate on this please? I've just got a quote to install this very system...

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 3:37 pm
by Weechancer
The Zappi is a very clever system, just not intuitive. Before the car arrived, things were easy - solar power generates electricity and any that was not used flows into the battery and then the grid. Now we have the EV and have to get the Zappi to understand that we want to use the solar to fill the house battery and then the car and not to take power from the house battery. This is taking a little bit of time to configure - nearly there, some very helpful people on the GIvEnergy forum who are wonderful and providing great advice. Probably less of a problem as we get longer and sunnier days and have longer to power both batteries.

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:41 pm
by lozzd
Ahhh thanks for that. I've opted to not get batteries for now since the Q4 will be my 55kWh of batteries on wheels, priority is get that charged up first, then immersion heater with any spare. Sounds like you're a fan other than the priorities situation? App decent etc? I'm hoping the Home Assistant integration I found is decent too so I can track it all separately.

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 6:42 am
by Geh2021
Hi,

Where you said you have registered the etron card, so just asking if you claimed the £150 credit by sending a message to Audi Whatsapp, or called them. I didn’t realised this at first thinking the credit went on once the card was activated.

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:01 am
by Weechancer
I didn’t realise I had to do anything other than register - what is their WhatsApp number?

Re: What charging points can I use?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 7:12 am
by Weechancer
I believe you have two options. Set the Zappi to FAST and it will charge as soon as you plug it in, but will use grid if you are not generating. Set to ECO and it will charge when you have 1.4Khz of excess generation from solar, - if the excess drops, it will continue to charge, but take what it needs from the grid - the car needs a minimum of 1.4Khz to charge. The setting I’m having fun with is ECO+ where I can balance the excess between the car and battery. With flexibility comes complexity,…..