7Kw public chargers - how useful?
Discussion
Seems there is a proliferation of these (and some of them free at Tescos) but I'm struggling to figure out how get effective use from them. I guess they only work if you can park all day in the location (work, nearby car park etc) as anything less is only going to give the smallest top up. Looking on the Podpoint app, as an example, the huge public carpark in Bishops Stortford that contains 52 x 7 Kw chargers, only has one use as I type this before 5.00pm on a Tuesday - so maybe I have a point!
rewild said:
Context is everything.
They make a lot of sense in a park and ride, but not much sense in a motorway services.
I don't think they're any use in a supermarket carpark, but I guess being able to say "free charging while you shop" is worth the expense of installing them.
I see the benefit of them at the supermarket, my Model 3 will charge at 29mi/hour at 7kW, so with a weekly shop taking around an hour, and the round trip being 3~ miles, I’m getting 26 miles of free “fuel” per week.They make a lot of sense in a park and ride, but not much sense in a motorway services.
I don't think they're any use in a supermarket carpark, but I guess being able to say "free charging while you shop" is worth the expense of installing them.
For anyone that lives within a 15mi radius of the store, the journey is essentially free.
The supermarket ones are mainly just to entice people to shop there, although if they break then they hardly ever get fixed. At Bluewater where there's no maximum stay limit I'm pretty sure people just go there in the morning, hog a space for the whole day and get a free charge. Never seen a free charging point there ever.
Interesting points arising here. I have used Tesco chargers twice in the last week but only the higher powered version. Perhaps I need to try the 7kw and walk very slowly around the store. Sadly there are non in my town but I agree if you are three miles away it would be a net gain so long as the car park doesn't have a very low time limit such as 1.5 hours.
Very useful depending upon your own individual needs. I use one at a local train station. I take the train into the city and leave the car to charge for several hours quite happily. They're not much use if you're on a long journey and need to charge quickly though but that's stating the obvious, isn't it?
Mine is just a PHEV, the Tesco network is decent for this. My local one gives 2 hours free parking but the one from where my mrs is from is 3 so can fully charge. Handy so we can charge charge for free running on electric drive only while we're up there.
They are designated as top up chargers so I guess for the full EV crew that's what you're getting.
They are designated as top up chargers so I guess for the full EV crew that's what you're getting.
Mark V GTD said:
But my point is that the low power chargers are pretty useless at such locations as people are only there for an hour or so. Personally I think more in town, higher power units are the way forward.
Useless?I disagree. Plenty of people only drive short distances per day, especially the sort of people who say drop the kids off at school then pop into Tesco's. An hour adds say 25 miles range, for many people that is more than their daily mileage, so you come away with a positive charge state compared to how you arrived. This, for people with cheap, small battery BEVs without off street parking (the ones everyone seems so concerned about on PH) is the difference between a BEV "working" and "not working".......
annodomini2 said:
When they're free or cheap they work to a certain extent, e.g. Work car park or to a certain extent supermarkets or shopping centres.
For most on the go, they don't work and a good rapid is necessary.
i suspect the vast majority of drivers aren't 'on the go' with any kind of frequency. i reckon i'll be able to count the number of rapid charges we do annually on my fingers. For most on the go, they don't work and a good rapid is necessary.
For me in my PHEV that can only charge at 3.6 kW, they are pretty pointless. There is a Tesco with some of these chargers around half a mile away from my house. If I do a shop that takes about 30 min, it’ll add around 5 miles of range that would have cost me 90p at home to add, woop de doo! Then you end up spending more in Tesco anyway because it’s more expensive than Aldi.
Mark V GTD said:
I should say that I don't have a home wall charger and not really intending to shell out a grand to get one at this stage so that makes me completely reliant on public chargers. Although when I drove an ICE car I was completely reliant on petrol stations so not much change there!
You are seriously missing a trick by not getting a home charger installed. It just makes life so easy. Mine paid for itself in well under a year. The usecase for these chargers is very different to more on the go charging, where time is of the essence. 50kW+ chargers are expensive to purchase, install and maintain. This cost will only get increase with Gov legislation mandating various rules around accessibility, payment means etc.
These 7kW chargers are going to be everywhere in the future, shopping centres, cinemas, supermarkets, council owned car parks etc. This way people without access at home can get a few kWh here and there and stay topped up. Generalising here but the 7kW user isnt really the powerfully built director, with a home charger and happy to pay for convienience rather than the user that is happy to charge slower for the cheapest rate possible.
These 7kW chargers are going to be everywhere in the future, shopping centres, cinemas, supermarkets, council owned car parks etc. This way people without access at home can get a few kWh here and there and stay topped up. Generalising here but the 7kW user isnt really the powerfully built director, with a home charger and happy to pay for convienience rather than the user that is happy to charge slower for the cheapest rate possible.
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