1st public charging experience
Discussion
Not as easy as we hoped!!
Collected our first EV on Friday and we have a home charging box ordered but apparently it will take up to 6 weeks to be fitted, but that's another story.
So public charging for the first few weeks.
Had a look on Zap Maps and a few chargers around us which is good. Downloaded the BP Pulse app and registered as most local were covered with them. taken out the 3 month subscription trial, again easy so far.
So off my wife and me go for our first experience (this is going to be my wife's car so she wanted some handholding for the first time). We decided on a charge point at the local Aldi supermarket wok we could do a bit of shopping while we waited. As we do not have the RFID card yet, we had to use the app. First go - problem with connection. Second go - stopped charging after a few seconds. Third go - started charging ok, but then had a warning it had stopped. So I left the wife shopping and went to investigate. Sure enough it had stopped. So re started and went back to help shopping.
Came out of store and app would not let us stop the charging - Cable disconnected from car but not from charging station. In the end had to ring up support. A few mins on hold and agent managed to get us unlocked (issue with the charging station and nothing we did wrong apparently) So after an hour an hour parked we managed to add around 10% battery charge.
Lessons learnt - an RFID card seems to be an absolute must, the apps are flaky and we desperately need the home wall box to give us confidence.
So asking if this is a true reflection of public charging???
Collected our first EV on Friday and we have a home charging box ordered but apparently it will take up to 6 weeks to be fitted, but that's another story.
So public charging for the first few weeks.
Had a look on Zap Maps and a few chargers around us which is good. Downloaded the BP Pulse app and registered as most local were covered with them. taken out the 3 month subscription trial, again easy so far.
So off my wife and me go for our first experience (this is going to be my wife's car so she wanted some handholding for the first time). We decided on a charge point at the local Aldi supermarket wok we could do a bit of shopping while we waited. As we do not have the RFID card yet, we had to use the app. First go - problem with connection. Second go - stopped charging after a few seconds. Third go - started charging ok, but then had a warning it had stopped. So I left the wife shopping and went to investigate. Sure enough it had stopped. So re started and went back to help shopping.
Came out of store and app would not let us stop the charging - Cable disconnected from car but not from charging station. In the end had to ring up support. A few mins on hold and agent managed to get us unlocked (issue with the charging station and nothing we did wrong apparently) So after an hour an hour parked we managed to add around 10% battery charge.
Lessons learnt - an RFID card seems to be an absolute must, the apps are flaky and we desperately need the home wall box to give us confidence.
So asking if this is a true reflection of public charging???
Going to try our second experience today - Off to Morrisons and now a new app GeniePoint.
But also I have added Octopus Juice as we are an Octopus customer
Locally we have either BP Pulse (Chargemaster) or GeniePoint only.
A few cards now on order as I still feel the apps add another layer of possible challenge. Having said all of that, she loves the car just not the charging so far. Roll on the wall box
But also I have added Octopus Juice as we are an Octopus customer
Locally we have either BP Pulse (Chargemaster) or GeniePoint only.
A few cards now on order as I still feel the apps add another layer of possible challenge. Having said all of that, she loves the car just not the charging so far. Roll on the wall box
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