Newbie here with very little car expertise: hence, apologies for very simple queries but have been struggling to recharge my Q5 since I bought it at Christmas

I don't think my cable is correct and then I have suffered a number of slightly farcical issues with local charging stations being out of service or not having the correct cables missing, etc

Net result is that I have only recharged successfully once since I bought it!

1. Recharging cable 

This is the cable that came with the car. I understand it to be a Type 2. The socket on the right of the picture attaches successfully to the recharging station, but then the other end (left) isn’t big enough to fit my car charging port.

Can anybody please advise:

i) what is the correct cable that will work with my Q5 TFSIe?

ii) is there an adapter I can buy to fit on that existing able to successfully attach to the car port?

2. Cost

The only recharge was for about 80% (circa 25 miles), took 90 minutes, and cost £9.39. That is roughly the same cost as petrol when I was expecting it to be much cheaper. Have I missed something?

3. Potential replacement car 

I'm so fed up with having a PHEV hybrid because of the inconvenience that I am already considering part-exchanging for a HEV or MHEV (took me a while to understand what the different acronyms mean). I also reversed the car into a bollard causing hundreds of pounds of damage!

What advice can people give on whether I am better with a HEV or MHEV?

I would prefer a more sporty version if possible - what is the difference between Sport and S-Line?

(for info, Audi live chat wouldn't help me with any of these queries unless I went into a dealership)

Many thanks in advance for any help offered

Jerry.

There was no picture in your post for me to comment on, however a new UK car would normally be supplied with a type 2 cable which has 7 pins and looks like this:

https://evwired.com/blogs/blog/type-1-vs-type-2-ev-charging-cable-explained-complete-guide-for-uk-ev-drivers

It is designed principally for home charging and plugs into a standard wall socket.

Ignore any references to type 1, which is for the USA, and Chademo, which is for Japan.

The public type 2 charge points you will meet are few and far between, and have been more or less abandoned. You often need to take your own cable. Instead you will find that most public outlets are CCS, which looks similar to type 2 with an additional two pins and looks like this:

https://voldt.co.uk/collections/ccs2-plugs-and-cables

CCS charge points are the de facto standard here because of their ability to charge rapidly. It should be easy to see if your car is fitted with a type 2 or a CCS socket.

In summary, if your car has a type 2 socket you can charge it slowly at home but rarely anywhere else; if it has a CCS socket you can charge it slowly at home with the type 2 cable and rapidly anywhere else with CCS cable.

PS. Public charge points are expensive to use, often being similar to the cost of petrol in terms of cost per mile. It is always better to charge at home, even more so if you have cheap overnight electricity.

Any response to the above Matt, or did I waste my time writing a detailed explanation? I know you visited the forum two hours ago so you must have seen it.