T8 Type 2 charging cable

[andyfromembsay]

Hopefully collecting my XC90 T8 in a couple of weeks, and need to buy a couple of cables - one for my home charger and one to stay in the car alongside the 3-pin jobby for charging away from home (our offices have a mixture of 3-pin and proper charge points).

Anyone got any suggestions for good suppliers of said cables (especially one that'll give a discount as I'm buying two!)?

I think I'm right in saying there's no point in buying a 32 amp cable as the T8 won't draw that much current (even though my wall charger is a 7kW one)?

[filace]

The cheapest I've found online seem to be EVOneStop (https://evonestop.co.uk/), who are the consumer arm of Rolec as far as I can tell. No idea what their cables are like, but I do have a Rolec charging station and it hasn't caught fire yet.

The XC90 only has a 3.5kW (16A) charger onboard, so no point getting the 32A cable unless you want to 'future-proof' the cable, at the cost of additional weight and expense.

I've still not got around to purchasing a cable, I really should sort that out...

[nu11eaf]

Do all electric, or hybrid cars have a standard vehicle side plug or are they all unique to the car, Betamax/VHS, iphone/android etc etc.

[filace]

Originally Posted by nu11eaf

Do all electric, or hybrid cars have a standard vehicle side plug or are they all unique to the car, Betamax/VHS, iphone/android etc etc.

There's two primary types in the UK: Type 1 and Type 2, broadly split between "Japan" and "Europe" in terms of what you'll find on each car. There's also two types of 'Rapid/DC' charge socket - ChaDeMo and CCS, again split Japan/Europe.

Oh, and Tesla do their own thing, too - but come with adaptors to convert to Type 2 I believe.

The Volvo's have a Type 2 charging socket, and all public chargers (at least in the UK) have either a tethered cable or a Type 2 socket (i.e. you will need a Type 2 to Type 2 cable for your Volvo).

There's also different current carrying capacities depending on the internal charging module in the vehicle - the Volvo can only draw up to 3.5kW/16A from a single phase, so there's no point going for a 32A or 3-phase cable.

(Interestingly boring fact: The 'electric car chargers' you see out and about are nothing more than a slightly advanced three pin plug - technically known as an 'EVSE' - Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment. The actual 'charger' is built into the vehicle; all the EVSE does is supply voltage and current in the same way a three pin plug does)