Just how do you manage with these public ev chargers
Discussion
I’ve had a Tesla model S for 4 years now and done around 80k miles in that time.
Wife bought a Zoe last month. Decent range (200 miles) but OMG what a terrible experience she’s had whilst charging ‘away from home’.
Firstly, the multitude of different apps she’s had to sign up with. Secondly there are so few ‘fast’ chargers. Thirdly when she arrives at one, they’re either full (as generally only a couple) or they’ve got ICE cars parked in them. It’s been a complete nightmare for her.
I’ve realised how lucky I am to have a Tesla and their infrastructure behind it. I genuinely do not believe that I could have done 80k miles in 4 years in a non Tesla EV.
Tell me she’s just been unlucky? I regularly travel up and down the M1 and I’ve never waited at a supercharger (ok they’re getting busier these days).
How do you guys manage? Or are EVs mainly for local travel and charge at home (which hers is great for). But long journeys and she’s going to take mine.
Wife bought a Zoe last month. Decent range (200 miles) but OMG what a terrible experience she’s had whilst charging ‘away from home’.
Firstly, the multitude of different apps she’s had to sign up with. Secondly there are so few ‘fast’ chargers. Thirdly when she arrives at one, they’re either full (as generally only a couple) or they’ve got ICE cars parked in them. It’s been a complete nightmare for her.
I’ve realised how lucky I am to have a Tesla and their infrastructure behind it. I genuinely do not believe that I could have done 80k miles in 4 years in a non Tesla EV.
Tell me she’s just been unlucky? I regularly travel up and down the M1 and I’ve never waited at a supercharger (ok they’re getting busier these days).
How do you guys manage? Or are EVs mainly for local travel and charge at home (which hers is great for). But long journeys and she’s going to take mine.
Use an app to check they're available - and scan recent reviews which will always alert you if there's a fault, because that fault has already pissed off the previous users..
You're right though, the mess of apps and often convoluted payment methods is not good enough. I'm sure it'll improve sufficiently to no longer be an issue over time though.
The best answer to your question is that for the vast majority of EV owners, it's basically a non issue because we hardly ever use public chargers. I've used 5 across three journeys in getting on two years. Naturally that doesn't apply to everyone but it seems to be fairly common for owners to do virtually all their charging at home.
You're right though, the mess of apps and often convoluted payment methods is not good enough. I'm sure it'll improve sufficiently to no longer be an issue over time though.
The best answer to your question is that for the vast majority of EV owners, it's basically a non issue because we hardly ever use public chargers. I've used 5 across three journeys in getting on two years. Naturally that doesn't apply to everyone but it seems to be fairly common for owners to do virtually all their charging at home.
It's a nightmare. Anyone who says otherwise has either been very very fortunate or they don't charge away from home on a regular basis.
If you travel familiar routes it's OK.. I got to know where chargers where on my trips, you'd build a general feeling of which ones would be busy, and which places fixed faults quickly (and the opposite).
I always had to keep 50 miles in reserve battery just in case your first one or two planned apps were bust.
I'm back in a diesel now. My EV wasn't tesla but its the only one that get me out of my diesel
, that's if I could afford a model Y!
If you travel familiar routes it's OK.. I got to know where chargers where on my trips, you'd build a general feeling of which ones would be busy, and which places fixed faults quickly (and the opposite).
I always had to keep 50 miles in reserve battery just in case your first one or two planned apps were bust.
I'm back in a diesel now. My EV wasn't tesla but its the only one that get me out of my diesel
, that's if I could afford a model Y!
LimaDelta said:
I suspect the vast majority of EV owners will charge at home. In 3 years we've never once used a public charger. I guess that's the difference between adding an EV to the fleet, or going all-in on the EV 'experience'.
Wife and I share a single EV and it's fine, we always charge at home. Wifey working from home is a big factor and when I work away I either hire a van if in the UK or fly and hire a car. We've done a few long trips though, we were let down by a charger once but the others have been fine. Could be faster in some cases but it's such an infrequent thing for us that it' just not a bugbear. I'd rather rely on the current charger network once in a blue moon than go back to the forecourt - in terms of hassle and cost.My sis had a Zoe for 4 1/2 years and never has a problem with charging. Mostly charged at home, but she had the early one with the shorter range and other than a couple of times, never had an issue.
As I keep saying about EV’s, it’s all down to your use case. She didn’t work for around 3 of those ownership years so was never out and about at peak times. Charging wasn’t an issue.
I would mention that she’s jumped back to ICE as she is going further afield and to more isolated places. Camping and the like, and an EV didn’t really fit for that. She will return to EV’s at some point when the charging network is better.
As I keep saying about EV’s, it’s all down to your use case. She didn’t work for around 3 of those ownership years so was never out and about at peak times. Charging wasn’t an issue.
I would mention that she’s jumped back to ICE as she is going further afield and to more isolated places. Camping and the like, and an EV didn’t really fit for that. She will return to EV’s at some point when the charging network is better.
I’m due to pick up my first EV (got a couple of PHEVs currently) in 11 days time, but am pretty confident that the only time I’ll not be home-charging is twice a year to Devon and back (from Cheshire).
There’s the possibility of additional longer distance trips, but for commuting and general round-town/county usage, I’m going to be fine with the ~7kw Zappi I have.
I guess if I had no off-road parking, or anticipated higher annual mileage then I’d be a bit more apprehensive about public charging, but as it stands I’m glad I don’t have to rely on the eleventy-billion different apps and payment methods.
There’s the possibility of additional longer distance trips, but for commuting and general round-town/county usage, I’m going to be fine with the ~7kw Zappi I have.
I guess if I had no off-road parking, or anticipated higher annual mileage then I’d be a bit more apprehensive about public charging, but as it stands I’m glad I don’t have to rely on the eleventy-billion different apps and payment methods.
As I said, home charging is fine for 90% of my journeys too but it’s immensely frustrating to see the huge gulf between the Tesla infrastructure and ‘others’.
Had I not experienced the superchargers I would be firmly in the camp that EVs are not for anything other than a second car.
Anyways. We’re now a 2 EV car family. No ICE backups whatsoever and the Zoe will no doubt be for shopping and school trips only.
Had I not experienced the superchargers I would be firmly in the camp that EVs are not for anything other than a second car.
Anyways. We’re now a 2 EV car family. No ICE backups whatsoever and the Zoe will no doubt be for shopping and school trips only.
It's not great but you are all early-adopters and although massive strides have been made it is still very early in the evolution of EV transport and so these challenges are only to be expected. Remember you are used to an ICE infrastructure that has evolved over over 100 years. EV infrastructure is always going to be less reliable and less accessible.
audi321 said:
As I said, home charging is fine for 90% of my journeys too but it’s immensely frustrating to see the huge gulf between the Tesla infrastructure and ‘others’.
Had I not experienced the superchargers I would be firmly in the camp that EVs are not for anything other than a second car.
Anyways. We’re now a 2 EV car family. No ICE backups whatsoever and the Zoe will no doubt be for shopping and school trips only.
It's interesting you're zero ICE inspite of some frustrations.Had I not experienced the superchargers I would be firmly in the camp that EVs are not for anything other than a second car.
Anyways. We’re now a 2 EV car family. No ICE backups whatsoever and the Zoe will no doubt be for shopping and school trips only.
I think it's only right to be realistic about the limitations of the current technology, public chargers for non Tesla is a major one. But there are also several other ways in which EV is superior and very hard to go back from.
Looking to the future, the fact the Tesla network is as effective as it is proves it can work. The non Tesla stuff is lacking but it will get there. I think we're headed in the right direction even allowing for things not always being ideal 'today'.
We rarely use rapids anymore especially so since the lockdowns, but at Christmas we visited the kiddlywinks which incurred two short stops for a top up in the way, outward was dead easy it was Boxing Day, very easy, empty chargers.
Coming back we miscalculated being retired for a few years now and didn’t realise we came back in the last day of the “bank holiday days” over Christmas and the trip regarding charging was a nightmare, we got over confident because of the outward trip and passed a top up stop and needed to complete the journey using the REX to get us just about to Plymouth to find an Instavolt at a back woods B&M stores we know there.
Apart from the we charge at home all the time and it works great for us, horses for course.
Coming back we miscalculated being retired for a few years now and didn’t realise we came back in the last day of the “bank holiday days” over Christmas and the trip regarding charging was a nightmare, we got over confident because of the outward trip and passed a top up stop and needed to complete the journey using the REX to get us just about to Plymouth to find an Instavolt at a back woods B&M stores we know there.
Apart from the we charge at home all the time and it works great for us, horses for course.
TheDeuce said:
audi321 said:
As I said, home charging is fine for 90% of my journeys too but it’s immensely frustrating to see the huge gulf between the Tesla infrastructure and ‘others’.
Had I not experienced the superchargers I would be firmly in the camp that EVs are not for anything other than a second car.
Anyways. We’re now a 2 EV car family. No ICE backups whatsoever and the Zoe will no doubt be for shopping and school trips only.
It's interesting you're zero ICE inspite of some frustrations.Had I not experienced the superchargers I would be firmly in the camp that EVs are not for anything other than a second car.
Anyways. We’re now a 2 EV car family. No ICE backups whatsoever and the Zoe will no doubt be for shopping and school trips only.
My main point is that for anyone looking to buy an EV as maybe their only car, if you intend to do serious mileage, don’t consider anything other than a Tesla. Shopping, school runs and a medium commute is fine charging at home, but I couldn’t relax on a long journey and relying on the public chargers out there.
These people who have blown £80k+ on a Porsche Taycan or something similar, how the hell do you manage?
I have confidence in that if I need to do a 400 mile round trip in a day, I can easily do it with one 30 minute stop. If I took my wife’s car (which also has a similar range) I wouldn’t dare rely on the horrible EV charging experiences she’s had after one months ownership.
Edited by audi321 on Sunday 6th March 19:45
I don’t rely on motorway services - they were awful under Ecotricity before Gridserve and now this first wave of replacement chargers are good but there’s far more cars trying to use them. It’ll improve as the next wave of bigger motorway hubs get installed (and the chunky grid connections needed) but painful for now.
I usually plan around one of the 6+ charger sites if I can, if not then Instavolt, then Shell/Osprey/others. If I’m stopping at a services anyway (with young kids you often need to stop before the car does) I’ll see if I can get on to top up. Had no issues like that. Shell are doing more 4+ sites, MFG are often doing 8 and with a car that’ll do 200+ miles you can be choosy about where you try.
Did many trips of 160+ miles when we had our egolf (WLTP 144 miles, real world 100-120), many with family in tow. Never got stuck, worst case used a plan B option if the first choice was busy.
I usually plan around one of the 6+ charger sites if I can, if not then Instavolt, then Shell/Osprey/others. If I’m stopping at a services anyway (with young kids you often need to stop before the car does) I’ll see if I can get on to top up. Had no issues like that. Shell are doing more 4+ sites, MFG are often doing 8 and with a car that’ll do 200+ miles you can be choosy about where you try.
Did many trips of 160+ miles when we had our egolf (WLTP 144 miles, real world 100-120), many with family in tow. Never got stuck, worst case used a plan B option if the first choice was busy.
Edited by sjg on Sunday 6th March 20:00
Another aspect of charger availability is that currently space and resources are split between electric and fuel. As ICE cars decrease it's a certainty that the fuel network will receed too - which open up space in all the right places for chargers.
Changes like that take an age to happen organically, which is why the world's governments have set clear cut off points - there is a timetable to work to and the entire automotive industry knows that.
I see the availability of chargers getting better despite that faster than predicted uptake of EV's. Right now we're in an awkward crossover, but the direction is clear.
Changes like that take an age to happen organically, which is why the world's governments have set clear cut off points - there is a timetable to work to and the entire automotive industry knows that.
I see the availability of chargers getting better despite that faster than predicted uptake of EV's. Right now we're in an awkward crossover, but the direction is clear.
The Road Crew said:
It's a nightmare. Anyone who says otherwise has either been very very fortunate or they don't charge away from home on a regular basis.
If you travel familiar routes it's OK.. I got to know where chargers where on my trips, you'd build a general feeling of which ones would be busy, and which places fixed faults quickly (and the opposite).
I always had to keep 50 miles in reserve battery just in case your first one or two planned apps were bust.
I'm back in a diesel now. My EV wasn't tesla but its the only one that get me out of my diesel
, that's if I could afford a model Y!
YepIf you travel familiar routes it's OK.. I got to know where chargers where on my trips, you'd build a general feeling of which ones would be busy, and which places fixed faults quickly (and the opposite).
I always had to keep 50 miles in reserve battery just in case your first one or two planned apps were bust.
I'm back in a diesel now. My EV wasn't tesla but its the only one that get me out of my diesel
, that's if I could afford a model Y!
I’m going into year 5 of EV ownership.
The only difference now is more chargers but more jeopardy on which ones work and do I have the app.
There’s some new fast chargers by Podpoint that popped up. No idea the cost of using them. The card machine said it pre authorises £35. It could be £1 per KW or 50p per KW.
The only ones i have relied on are the Podpoint free ones at Tesco, However the local ones have been out of service now for 5 weeks and so there’s only 4 which are blocked by PHEV’s topping up their 10 mile battery.
Turtle Shed said:
I am also in the ‘don’t charge away from home’ camp. Done 61k miles in my Leaf, I doubt it has traveled more than 30 miles from home more than ten times in eight years.
Me too but I don’t trust the infrastructure rather than anything else. We use the Petrol car for holidays the leaf is good for commuting.Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff