Which home charger? App compatibility with different suppliers.

[stuartg48uk]

I’m looking forward to getting a new Elroq in early July and I’m trying to decide which home charger to get. We’re with Eon-Next and they’re offering a good deal on both home charger installation and what seems to be a good EV charging tariff.

The home chargers they’re offering are a Wallbox Pulsar Max and a Vestel EV04. The latter comes with the Eon Mobile App which will allow me to charge the Elroq using the lower price EV tariff. I understand that the Elroq comes with its own app which also allows me to specify charging times. In this case would I need to use the Eon App? I have read that some people have had problems with incompatibility between their electricity supplier’s app and the Elroq’s built in app? I believe this may occur when the user tries to use both apps together.

On Skoda’s website I can order an Ohme wall box through Skoda which they say is compatible with all electric vehicles and all EV tariffs and the prices quoted for installation at £975 are similar to the offer from Eon-Next. (I’ve checked with my dealer and I’m not eligible for the free EV charger.) But also on Skoda’s website they recommend the Skoda iV wallbox which is rather confusing. So which is their recommended solution, Ohme or Skoda iV? Or are they the same?

I’m probably overthinking this and whichever I choose will probably be ok but I don’t want to make an expensive mistake and find that should I choose the Skoda recommended solution (whichever one it is) will not talk to my Eon Next supply. Equally I don’t want to order the Eon Next recommended charger and find it won’t talk to my Elroq!

Any advice or comments welcome, especially from people who have experience of an Elroq (or an Enyaq) and Eon Next.

[153Steve]

Typically all the new chargers are compatible with all new cars (there are some exceptions but not in this case).
The one thing to check is the charger compatibility with the tariff you are looking at but I don’t have any experience with Eon. You also don’t want to pick a charger that limits you to one supplier.

I know that the Elroq and facelift Enyak are not compatible with Octopus Intelligent Go and possibly all smart tariffs due to Škoda withdrawing access to their servers due to the amount of requests from the energy providers charging software. Although they are supposedly working on a solution the truth is after 18 months they are no closer to releasing it…
Smart tariffs are it seems unique to the uk and Škoda do not support the third party access (unless through Tronity).
IOG is new technology which Octopus does not guarantee will work for everyone or at all times.
Any tariff that schedules a charge in one block will work such as Octopus Go, as will a charge on demand (boost) or scheduling in the car for the cheaper overnight rates.
Be aware that Ohme only works on a cellular signal and you need a strong signal to make that work, also Ohme will charge you a subscription (I think after three years but please check) for access to this cellular data.
The best option is to get a wallbox that is Ethernet connected but I accept this is not always possible. A strong WiFi connection is the next best option, with cellular the least favourable.

I thought the Škoda branded wallbox was not available in the uk but I may be wrong about that?

With regard to apps, always only use one system to control the charging. Either the energy providers app or the wallbox app or the Škoda app or scheduling in the car, never more than one system as they will confuse each other and you’ll end up with no charge.

You can purchase a wallbox yourself and get an ev qualified spark to fit it and potentially save yourself a lot of money. Many of the big energy companies have a lead time of up to twelve weeks to fit a wall box.

Hope that helps but I would recommend joining the various facebook groups or forums for the charger and energy provider you are interested in and you will get a good feel for what works and what doesn’t.