Electroverse EV Charging

Image
My PV5 Passenger Plus is my first EV, and I'm very impressed with almost all aspects (see my other blog posts). One area that Kia haven't done well is their Kia Charge network. It's expensive and patchy. Where I live, charging points on all charging networks are bit hit and miss, so any charging subscription will force me to drive out of my way if I leave the range of my home charger (and buying a EV only really makes financial sense if you can have a home charger). The Solution So, what to do if you don't want a subscription and don't fancy the poor Kia network offering? The answer was pretty easy, Octopus Electroverse. It ticks all the boxes for me. Fantastic network coverage. No subscription or upfront costs. Exceptionally good app. Competitive pricing. Addional discount for Octopus Energy customers. Easy to get charging receipts. Easy setup. The Plunge pricing is worth mentioning. When the UK grid predicts there will be excess capacity, the Electroverse app will...
Post a Comment

PV5 External V2L Socket

Kia off course will sell you an overpriced adapter, with barely anything inside other than a resistor.  You really don't need to spend their silly money.

This came from AliExpress for £17 delivered and works perfectly.  Just make sure you pick one suitable for Kia/Hyundai, and some other manufacturers use different value resistors inside for reasons unknown.

Simple as popping open your top (AC) charging socket on the front of the PV5

 


Plugging this £17 bad boy in:


You get a UK and EU 230V mains plug capable of 3.6KhW


Perfect for a kettle or induction hob.  Of course you also have one INSIDE the PV5, but this works with the car off and the doors locked with no leads to trail outside.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Camping with the PV5

Image
The main reason I went for the PV5 was the room inside, it was one of only two EVs on the UK market that had sufficient safe driving headroom for a tall driver. I looked at getting a short term camper in the past, but the market was quite messed up, the VW Transporters sold for a lot of money even with massive mileages on them, as a primary vehicle, there was no way I was spending over £20k for something that's already done over 100,000 miles, regardless of how well someone claims to have looked after it, so I put the idea of the camper away and moved on. With the PV5 Passenger, this is now absolutely back on the table, as whilst it wasn't the primary reason for my PV5 purchase, it costs so little to adapt, and no permanent modifications, it's a no-brainer not to.  I'm going to detail what I have done, and the costs (as of Summer 2026). The Game Changer Before I do so, there is a total game changer that is rarely spoken about with EV camper.  It's the air conditioni...
Read more

Immense Boot Space

Image
One of the great design features of the PV5, something I don't seem to recall a single YouTube "reviewer" mention, is how well designed the boot space is. I don't just mean the size of it, which is already huge, I mean the adaptability of it. We are off to a music festival next week, taking the PV5, with the bed platform , and wanted to maximise the space under the bed platform.   What's great about the PV5, and something Kia clearly spent some time working on, is how easy it is to pull the boot floor storage bins out to give you even more volume. The lids slide off, the bins lift out, as do the plastic seperator bars, giving you lots of extra room below. It's a couple of minutes to reconfigure, no tools needed. Here are some pics, including the install of the coombe valley campers bed platform. The Start Slide off the tops Lift out the bins Lift out the divider bars Thats it for the boot floor, the next pics are...
Read more

PV5 Production Line (Video)

Image
Find this pretty amazing. So much automation is in play at the PBV factory in Korea.  The PV5 is designed to be built build robots, and the factory of robots is designed to handle all the different configurations of PV5 (and PV7), including many configurations not seen in Europe. The video is in Korean, click the settings cog and you can get it in English.  Enjoy!
Read more