[Pictsidhe]

Because anyone with my password can access everything on my home network including personal and financial details.
Although my on-line banking etc. is further protected by its own PIN / password, all the statements etc. I have downloaded routinely are not.
A quick scan of my location shows all my neighbors have their WiFi password protected so I'm not unique in not handing out password to people/organisations I don't know/trust.
There is absolutely no reason to allow access to my personal data, my smart meter connects wireless to a dedicated network without need to access mine.

You have your info on an open server on your network? You should be more worried about that than a charger.

 

[Pictsidhe]

I have had an SE for 2 months now, in the USA. You don't need to bend over and squeal like a piggy here to pay for electricity. Mine is about 9c/kWh!
My car showed up months before I was told to expect it, so I hadn't got the wall charger done. First I was charging at 110V, 1.4kW. Forget about trying to use this for daily use. If I was at home, I was charging. A full charge from flat is around 31h in summer. It may be worse in winter
Next I had a 230v 20A outlet in my car port. 3.6kW. That was bearable. 9 1/2 hours for a full charge. Finally, I got my wall charger in. 7.2kW, which is the max that Minis will charge at with single phase. US models only have a single phase charger. Now, I plug it in every two commutes and set it to charge to around 85-90% with a time slot on the EVSE. 1% charge every 2.7 minutes.
1 commute is 36miles, around 30% battery. Using the middle part of the battery will maximise life.
Charging immediately before departure also warms the battery, that will help range in winter. I'm noticing a difference in morning commute % even now, depending on whether the car charged before I left.
I also have a Tesla UMC2 as my mobile charger. The USA has a zillion different outlets and the Tesla chargers have 8 different adaptors. I made a 9th for charging at work... For US cars, the car end plug needed changing euro Tesla's now use Mennekes, so you guys are good to go. Max is 32A, perfect! Mine is actually an EU spec, which was almost free on US ebay...
Wall charger is openEVSE. This is an open source charger, so if you can code, it can be hacked to do things it doesn't currently do. It also means other people are going to add features down the line. Out of the box, I can charge in a time slot, charge a certain kWh. I believe it can also interface with other devices on the network that tell it when and how fast to charge. It can also negotiate with other openEVSE units if you have more than one, so they can run from the same supply and cable. I went for the 48A version so I would have plenty of power if I get a 2nd EV.



I would absolutely recommend having a smart wall charger, especially with the cost disparity of peak and off peak electricity in the UK. It makes charging a breeze, instead of a juggling act. A UK granny charger is what, around 20hours for a full charge?

At 7.2kW, charging efficiency from wall to battery is 90%. With 1.4kW granny charging, I was getting 65%. Charging appears to have a parasitic load of hundreds of watts that kills efficiency at low charge rates.

 

[Pictsidhe]

No, I said exactly the opposite, my home server/network is password protected to only me.
What I will not allow is BP to have password access to my network and personal data.
I allowed the installer access for a few minutes to get the thing working then changed the password so the BP thing can no longer access the internet through my server.
And then it sulked and stopped working.

Put your server on a different password and login to your wifi. Your charger needs internet access, not personal server access. It sounds like you have it so once someone is on your network, there is no further security to access your server? That is bad, very bad. WiFi can be cracked by a script kiddy with a laptop, yes, even the current 'uncrackable' ones. That is infinitely more likely than BP building in a backdoor to illicitly rummage around people's networks. EVSEs really don't have enough processing power to spare on stuff like that.

If you are really, really paranoid, you could set up zones on a router, you may need a new one with the feature. I don't have the CIA or KGB after me, so I wouldn't bother myself. As someone with the skills to access WiFi without a password, I wouldn't do it via your charger...

 

[Pictsidhe]

Why should you? Because BP could have added a modem that connects to a cellphone network, but then the charger would cost maybe £100-200 more. Most people already have internet and would rather not spend money unless they really need to.
There is no such thing as free lunch.

If you have unusual security requirements, then you need atypical hardware. You will need to spend extra time and/or money compared to Joe Bloggs who is fine behind standard security measures. If that is the case, you really shouldn't be using WiFi for anything that you are concerned about, and definitely not mentioning that you are online...

Yes, the US has 'smart' meters, too. They report usage to supplier vehicles as they drive past. Makes meter reading a whole lot quicker. Drive down a road without stopping to read everyone's meter. There is a small discount to persuade paranoid people to have them. Frankly, I am perfectly happy to not have people knocking on my door to read a meter...

I left the UK in 2015. My Swalec digital economy 7 meter installed maybe 2010 needed reading manually, as did the one installed around 2005 at my previous place. So they were not everywhere 20 years ago.