Gridserve / Ecotricity deal
Discussion
sjg said:
20 or 30 mins tops on a 50kW rapid, with toilets and coffee and food available is all I need most of the time to get a journey done. Not everyone is needing to fill up 60+kWh EVs.
That London Colney one is perfect for a quick pitstop if I'm heading home on the M25 and either me or the car needs it, I only need 50 miles of range from there to get home so 10 or 15 mins on charge while I grab a drink is spot on.
Gets a +1 from me also. Quick milkshake on the way home and straight onto the 414 and onto the M1. That London Colney one is perfect for a quick pitstop if I'm heading home on the M25 and either me or the car needs it, I only need 50 miles of range from there to get home so 10 or 15 mins on charge while I grab a drink is spot on.
Edit - just to add, I managed 60miles in 42mins on the 50kw charger near me. Took delivery of the Niro 4+ and tbh after driving into the city today I’m a convert to EV. I’ll still keep the MK1 focus RS though.
Matt p said:
Gets a +1 from me also. Quick milkshake on the way home and straight onto the 414 and onto the M1.
Edit - just to add, I managed 60miles in 42mins on the 50kw charger near me. Took delivery of the Niro 4+ and tbh after driving into the city today I’m a convert to EV. I’ll still keep the MK1 focus RS though.
All good EV owners have bit of petrol fun in the garage Edit - just to add, I managed 60miles in 42mins on the 50kw charger near me. Took delivery of the Niro 4+ and tbh after driving into the city today I’m a convert to EV. I’ll still keep the MK1 focus RS though.
Matt p said:
sjg said:
20 or 30 mins tops on a 50kW rapid, with toilets and coffee and food available is all I need most of the time to get a journey done. Not everyone is needing to fill up 60+kWh EVs.
That London Colney one is perfect for a quick pitstop if I'm heading home on the M25 and either me or the car needs it, I only need 50 miles of range from there to get home so 10 or 15 mins on charge while I grab a drink is spot on.
Gets a +1 from me also. Quick milkshake on the way home and straight onto the 414 and onto the M1. That London Colney one is perfect for a quick pitstop if I'm heading home on the M25 and either me or the car needs it, I only need 50 miles of range from there to get home so 10 or 15 mins on charge while I grab a drink is spot on.
Edit - just to add, I managed 60miles in 42mins on the 50kw charger near me. Took delivery of the Niro 4+ and tbh after driving into the city today I’m a convert to EV. I’ll still keep the MK1 focus RS though.
My i3 can eak out about 160 miles of range on a full battery, and i often stop for just 15 min on a 50kW and splash in a bit of a buffer, which means i can then drive like a tit on the way home.... ;-)
In these cases, stop at charger, plug in, check my insta/twitter feeds and i'm good to go, not really even time to grab a coffee from the shop. Certainly makes no significant difference to the journey time, as living in the south mids, a 160 mile journey is around 3 hours or more thanks to our terrible traffic
Also MK1 RS, brilliant, brilliant little car! Although i am a little biased in this respect.........
;-)
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 3rd July 11:46
So Saturday had a 300 mile round trip so again went to stop at Winchester M3 North Services, to use the lovely new ABB / Gridserve chargers that have been put in about 2 weeks ago to replace the old Ecotricity ones.
The setup:
Charger 1
Left Hand Side - 50kW ChaDeMo (I think)
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Charger 2
Left Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
So an electric Corsa was plugged into charger 2, LHS, so I went to try and plug into charger 1. Trying to park in the bays for it, in either direction, I couldn't get the CCS plug to stretch to my charge port, so I decided to park in the RHS bay of charger 2 and use the other CCS. As the charger doesn't seem to lock out the screen when 1 person is charging. Selected the lead not in use, plugged car in, authorised the charge and it just sat there with the message 'waiting or charge to be available... sat there like a lemon for 5 minutes and it wouldn't start.
In the end disconnected and had to park sideways across both bays to use the CCS on charger 1.
The only reason I can think of having a DC charger with 2x CCS only is I guess in case one lead breaks?
Why put in brand new chargers that can't deliver a charge to two cars simultaneously? Surely that's half the utilisation / profit you can make?
And then some bloke in a Merc 250e came up to it all, parked in a charging point spot, asked if I knew what charger plug he needed - I said Type-2 from the port, and that he couldn't charge here... but could off a 43kW type-2 further on... left his PHEV in the spot, locked it and went off into the services before I realised he wandered off and I could say to him about considering not blocking the space in case someone came by that could charge.
The setup:
Charger 1
Left Hand Side - 50kW ChaDeMo (I think)
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Charger 2
Left Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
So an electric Corsa was plugged into charger 2, LHS, so I went to try and plug into charger 1. Trying to park in the bays for it, in either direction, I couldn't get the CCS plug to stretch to my charge port, so I decided to park in the RHS bay of charger 2 and use the other CCS. As the charger doesn't seem to lock out the screen when 1 person is charging. Selected the lead not in use, plugged car in, authorised the charge and it just sat there with the message 'waiting or charge to be available... sat there like a lemon for 5 minutes and it wouldn't start.
In the end disconnected and had to park sideways across both bays to use the CCS on charger 1.
The only reason I can think of having a DC charger with 2x CCS only is I guess in case one lead breaks?
Why put in brand new chargers that can't deliver a charge to two cars simultaneously? Surely that's half the utilisation / profit you can make?
And then some bloke in a Merc 250e came up to it all, parked in a charging point spot, asked if I knew what charger plug he needed - I said Type-2 from the port, and that he couldn't charge here... but could off a 43kW type-2 further on... left his PHEV in the spot, locked it and went off into the services before I realised he wandered off and I could say to him about considering not blocking the space in case someone came by that could charge.
caseys said:
So Saturday had a 300 mile round trip so again went to stop at Winchester M3 North Services, to use the lovely new ABB / Gridserve chargers that have been put in about 2 weeks ago to replace the old Ecotricity ones.
The setup:
Charger 1
Left Hand Side - 50kW ChaDeMo (I think)
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Charger 2
Left Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
So an electric Corsa was plugged into charger 2, LHS, so I went to try and plug into charger 1. Trying to park in the bays for it, in either direction, I couldn't get the CCS plug to stretch to my charge port, so I decided to park in the RHS bay of charger 2 and use the other CCS. As the charger doesn't seem to lock out the screen when 1 person is charging. Selected the lead not in use, plugged car in, authorised the charge and it just sat there with the message 'waiting or charge to be available... sat there like a lemon for 5 minutes and it wouldn't start.
In the end disconnected and had to park sideways across both bays to use the CCS on charger 1.
The only reason I can think of having a DC charger with 2x CCS only is I guess in case one lead breaks?
Why put in brand new chargers that can't deliver a charge to two cars simultaneously? Surely that's half the utilisation / profit you can make?
And then some bloke in a Merc 250e came up to it all, parked in a charging point spot, asked if I knew what charger plug he needed - I said Type-2 from the port, and that he couldn't charge here... but could off a 43kW type-2 further on... left his PHEV in the spot, locked it and went off into the services before I realised he wandered off and I could say to him about considering not blocking the space in case someone came by that could charge.
Unfortunately they don’t offer dual charging yet, they’re awaiting a software patch:The setup:
Charger 1
Left Hand Side - 50kW ChaDeMo (I think)
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Charger 2
Left Hand Side - 120kW CCS
Right Hand Side - 120kW CCS
So an electric Corsa was plugged into charger 2, LHS, so I went to try and plug into charger 1. Trying to park in the bays for it, in either direction, I couldn't get the CCS plug to stretch to my charge port, so I decided to park in the RHS bay of charger 2 and use the other CCS. As the charger doesn't seem to lock out the screen when 1 person is charging. Selected the lead not in use, plugged car in, authorised the charge and it just sat there with the message 'waiting or charge to be available... sat there like a lemon for 5 minutes and it wouldn't start.
In the end disconnected and had to park sideways across both bays to use the CCS on charger 1.
The only reason I can think of having a DC charger with 2x CCS only is I guess in case one lead breaks?
Why put in brand new chargers that can't deliver a charge to two cars simultaneously? Surely that's half the utilisation / profit you can make?
And then some bloke in a Merc 250e came up to it all, parked in a charging point spot, asked if I knew what charger plug he needed - I said Type-2 from the port, and that he couldn't charge here... but could off a 43kW type-2 further on... left his PHEV in the spot, locked it and went off into the services before I realised he wandered off and I could say to him about considering not blocking the space in case someone came by that could charge.
https://gridserve.com/2021/06/22/dual-charging-on-...
caseys said:
- sighs* if it's purely a sw / firmware issue... why even enable people to try? Just lock the damn functionality out for now.
Info on the screen would be perfectly adequate - its like most things, absolute bare minimum rather than logical information for the masses.
JonnyVTEC said:
Indeed, you have to be quite 'into it' to even know stuff like that.
Info on the screen would be perfectly adequate - its like most things, absolute bare minimum rather than logical information for the masses.
even outside of DC chargers. Why, at a software level, allow a user to try and use functionality that just plain isn't there?Info on the screen would be perfectly adequate - its like most things, absolute bare minimum rather than logical information for the masses.
The only thing it does is give a negative impression of your product.
Otherwise, ABB chargers = pretty good. Leads could be longer tho, as on my i3 I definitely cannot get the CCS plug into my car from both spaces the charger serves.
JonnyVTEC said:
Indeed, you have to be quite 'into it' to even know stuff like that.
Info on the screen would be perfectly adequate - its like most things, absolute bare minimum rather than logical information for the masses.
Agree, should be some kind of clear info.Info on the screen would be perfectly adequate - its like most things, absolute bare minimum rather than logical information for the masses.
I plugged in my i3 on a dual headed GridServe ABB and came back to find it had stopped charging as a Leaf driver had connected with the chademo - he said he hadn’t knowingly stopped mine charging! (presumably due to it being on free vend, else he’d have had to wait)
Was it £160m the govt has pledged to support upgrading motorway charging infrastructure.
There are 190ish service areas, so thats nearly £1m per SA.
For 12 chargers? ( 6 each side)
What muppet did the sums on this crazy scheme? £80k a pop !
Probably a chum of The Hon Grant has got his ear.
If you look at the average SA petrol station it has a min of 12 pumps, each occupied for 5 mins, so to replace those with charges taking 30 mins, it will obviously need 6 times as many ie 72 chargers on each site so long term an investment of 2 billion or so.
Who will pay for that? we will, the price of charging on the motorways will ramp up to eye watering Ionity type prices - just look at the price of gas on motorway SAs now.
Make the most of your penny a mile Octopus charging while you can.
There are 190ish service areas, so thats nearly £1m per SA.
For 12 chargers? ( 6 each side)
What muppet did the sums on this crazy scheme? £80k a pop !
Probably a chum of The Hon Grant has got his ear.
If you look at the average SA petrol station it has a min of 12 pumps, each occupied for 5 mins, so to replace those with charges taking 30 mins, it will obviously need 6 times as many ie 72 chargers on each site so long term an investment of 2 billion or so.
Who will pay for that? we will, the price of charging on the motorways will ramp up to eye watering Ionity type prices - just look at the price of gas on motorway SAs now.
Make the most of your penny a mile Octopus charging while you can.
paracetamol-pete said:
Was it £160m the govt has pledged to support upgrading motorway charging infrastructure.
There are 190ish service areas, so thats nearly £1m per SA.
For 12 chargers? ( 6 each side)
What muppet did the sums on this crazy scheme? £80k a pop !
Probably a chum of The Hon Grant has got his ear.
If you look at the average SA petrol station it has a min of 12 pumps, each occupied for 5 mins, so to replace those with charges taking 30 mins, it will obviously need 6 times as many ie 72 chargers on each site so long term an investment of 2 billion or so.
Who will pay for that? we will, the price of charging on the motorways will ramp up to eye watering Ionity type prices - just look at the price of gas on motorway SAs now.
Make the most of your penny a mile Octopus charging while you can.
The UK government funding was to support the grid connection upgrades, not the chargers themselves.There are 190ish service areas, so thats nearly £1m per SA.
For 12 chargers? ( 6 each side)
What muppet did the sums on this crazy scheme? £80k a pop !
Probably a chum of The Hon Grant has got his ear.
If you look at the average SA petrol station it has a min of 12 pumps, each occupied for 5 mins, so to replace those with charges taking 30 mins, it will obviously need 6 times as many ie 72 chargers on each site so long term an investment of 2 billion or so.
Who will pay for that? we will, the price of charging on the motorways will ramp up to eye watering Ionity type prices - just look at the price of gas on motorway SAs now.
Make the most of your penny a mile Octopus charging while you can.
I think it's fair to say that rapid charging will get more expensive, but that's hardly a surprise to anyone when petrol prices also continue to rise quickly.
I see a lot of people being unhappy with EV charging.
It is worth pointing out that the industry is new and evolving rapidly. There are bound to be bumps and challenges on the way. EV owners are early adopters of this tech and can't expect (although they do) for everything to run smoothly/perfectly. It has come on massively in a short space of time already.
It is worth pointing out that the industry is new and evolving rapidly. There are bound to be bumps and challenges on the way. EV owners are early adopters of this tech and can't expect (although they do) for everything to run smoothly/perfectly. It has come on massively in a short space of time already.
Frimley111R said:
I see a lot of people being unhappy with EV charging.
It is worth pointing out that the industry is new and evolving rapidly. There are bound to be bumps and challenges on the way. EV owners are early adopters of this tech and can't expect (although they do) for everything to run smoothly/perfectly. It has come on massively in a short space of time already.
The issue with the electric highway is somewhat the opposite. It worked okay originally, but the equipment aged poorly and ultimately no one with any prior knowledge felt they could rely on it.It is worth pointing out that the industry is new and evolving rapidly. There are bound to be bumps and challenges on the way. EV owners are early adopters of this tech and can't expect (although they do) for everything to run smoothly/perfectly. It has come on massively in a short space of time already.
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