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???
I’ve found public charging fine with Osprey and Instavolt (contactless or app) and tend to filter for only these on ZapMap.
Will likely add Gridserve Electric Highway to the list - they’re replacing all the ancient Ecotricity chargers at motorway services as we speak (contactless and app to follow).
Will likely add Gridserve Electric Highway to the list - they’re replacing all the ancient Ecotricity chargers at motorway services as we speak (contactless and app to follow).
BP Pulse can be an odd mix of nice modern chargers and neglected old stuff. If it’s got a contactless bank card reader they’re usually OK.
RFID cards can be handy but less needed these days. Octopus Juice one is handy if you’re already an energy customer, it just comes off your bill. Shell’s one is free to have too. Wouldn’t bother paying for BP subscription just for a card unless you’re doing 50+kWh a month. I generally avoid apps unless I have to.
The chargers (and cars) can have their quirks - some it’s best to plug in then start the charge, some you activate then plug in. Just try again if you don’t get it right first time.
As said, try Instavolt, Swarco, Osprey, Shell, etc they’re usually fine and you can just use a bank card on them.
RFID cards can be handy but less needed these days. Octopus Juice one is handy if you’re already an energy customer, it just comes off your bill. Shell’s one is free to have too. Wouldn’t bother paying for BP subscription just for a card unless you’re doing 50+kWh a month. I generally avoid apps unless I have to.
The chargers (and cars) can have their quirks - some it’s best to plug in then start the charge, some you activate then plug in. Just try again if you don’t get it right first time.
As said, try Instavolt, Swarco, Osprey, Shell, etc they’re usually fine and you can just use a bank card on them.
BP pulse seem to have a very mixed set of reviews - I have successfully used their chargers at Kelso and near Malvern in recent weeks, but some users think they are worse than Ecotricity were. And I had some bad experiences when they were called Polar (50% failure rate).
Instavolt are apparently very reliable (not found anyone that says otherwise), Gridserve are shaping up to be a vast improvement on Ecotricity.
GeniePoint have a mixed set of reviews - I have found them ok, but it’s jolly irritating to have to keep a £10 deposit with them all of the time
Ionity expensive but can be useful (got me to Edinburgh and back via Gretna Green a good few times)
Instavolt are apparently very reliable (not found anyone that says otherwise), Gridserve are shaping up to be a vast improvement on Ecotricity.
GeniePoint have a mixed set of reviews - I have found them ok, but it’s jolly irritating to have to keep a £10 deposit with them all of the time
Ionity expensive but can be useful (got me to Edinburgh and back via Gretna Green a good few times)
Frimley111R said:
Sorry, quick thread hi-jack.
How much do you pay for electricity and are there any charges when you do so (connection charge for example)?
Annoyingly there is no straight answer for this, it depends on where you are, if you’re using a rapid or fast charger and what network you’re on.How much do you pay for electricity and are there any charges when you do so (connection charge for example)?
As an example my local rapid charge is 100% free, my local retail park has fast charger which is 25p/kilowatt with a £2 minimum spend, a new 350kw rapid charge station near me is 67p/kilowatt but less if you drive certain cars.
I've found the BP pulse stuff to be clunky and slow, but if you are patient with it (and I know it's not the thing you are thinking of mid journey) it usually works in the end via the app.
Ecotricity has been dodgy, as above hoping gridserve will sort it.
Ionity good but unless yih are part of the "club" way too expensive.
Instavolt - not the cheapest after having to increase charges due to 20% vat, but reliable.
I paid 27p at a 50kw BP pulse, 40p at a instavolt and 40p at an eon. drive on my roadtrip holiday last week. The only charge fail was an ecotricity, though the loos were out of action at Birmingham armada which cut short that charging session!
S.
Ecotricity has been dodgy, as above hoping gridserve will sort it.
Ionity good but unless yih are part of the "club" way too expensive.
Instavolt - not the cheapest after having to increase charges due to 20% vat, but reliable.
I paid 27p at a 50kw BP pulse, 40p at a instavolt and 40p at an eon. drive on my roadtrip holiday last week. The only charge fail was an ecotricity, though the loos were out of action at Birmingham armada which cut short that charging session!
S.
As a long term EV driver, the last few months or so have been absolutely awful for public charging. Reliability seems down the pan with most providers (Instavolt a notable exception) and I'm now having to queue for pretty much every charger I use. Not really helped by the Ecotricity to gridserve transition halving the number of chademo connectors at service stations.
Really hoping things improve, or at least stop deteriorating.
Really hoping things improve, or at least stop deteriorating.
Phunk said:
Frimley111R said:
Sorry, quick thread hi-jack.
How much do you pay for electricity and are there any charges when you do so (connection charge for example)?
Annoyingly there is no straight answer for this, it depends on where you are, if you’re using a rapid or fast charger and what network you’re on.How much do you pay for electricity and are there any charges when you do so (connection charge for example)?
As an example my local rapid charge is 100% free, my local retail park has fast charger which is 25p/kilowatt with a £2 minimum spend, a new 350kw rapid charge station near me is 67p/kilowatt but less if you drive certain cars.
Had my first foray into public charging yesterday also. Granted I was driving a PHEV (the wife’s Passat GTE advance that we’ve had for around 6 weeks), so it wasn’t critical that I got the car charged, but I wanted the experience as I’m likely to go BEV for my next car.
Checked Zap Map to see what I was likely to need (the LiFe EV app) and what the status of the chargers were (6 out of 8 OK). Arrived with 1 mile of battery to spare which was good, and meant that I really wanted to get charged before going home in 4 or so hours. The first charger I tried, the app tried to unlock then told me it was broken (left hand side of the charger). It then opened the right hand side, with me now thinking “yay”, I connected the car up but diddly squat would actually happen, the charger just kept telling me that 0:00:00 of charging had occurred and to remove my cable. Moved the car to yet another bank of slightly different looking chargers and finally got one to work. £2.82 to fill the 9.9KW battery isn’t bad, but also wasn’t the cheapest rate, certainly cheaper than I could have managed on fossil fuel.
All in I’m pretty put off the public infrastructure, too many apps, too many networks, not enough maintenance, and seemingly too flaky all round. I think we need some proper regulation, and far more investment before I’d want to rely on public charging.
Checked Zap Map to see what I was likely to need (the LiFe EV app) and what the status of the chargers were (6 out of 8 OK). Arrived with 1 mile of battery to spare which was good, and meant that I really wanted to get charged before going home in 4 or so hours. The first charger I tried, the app tried to unlock then told me it was broken (left hand side of the charger). It then opened the right hand side, with me now thinking “yay”, I connected the car up but diddly squat would actually happen, the charger just kept telling me that 0:00:00 of charging had occurred and to remove my cable. Moved the car to yet another bank of slightly different looking chargers and finally got one to work. £2.82 to fill the 9.9KW battery isn’t bad, but also wasn’t the cheapest rate, certainly cheaper than I could have managed on fossil fuel.
All in I’m pretty put off the public infrastructure, too many apps, too many networks, not enough maintenance, and seemingly too flaky all round. I think we need some proper regulation, and far more investment before I’d want to rely on public charging.
My first public charging experience was at a BP Pulse 43KW station at my local park. Super easy, worked perfectly. Only tried a BP Pulse once since and no joy at all with that one. Pod-Point has been very useful as others have said. Especially the one at Center Parcs. Other than that I've mainly used free Tesla Superchargers which other than one the other day at Oxford have worked flawlessly.
It took about 10 weeks to get my charge point installed at home so was always charging from a 3 pin plug and never had a problem, granted it was during lockdown but you can still get by Ok on a 3 pin plug at a push unless you're doing a big commute every day.
It took about 10 weeks to get my charge point installed at home so was always charging from a 3 pin plug and never had a problem, granted it was during lockdown but you can still get by Ok on a 3 pin plug at a push unless you're doing a big commute every day.
Let’s hope there isn’t a big push to get people into electric cars ..... even if they do work can you imagine 10 cars waiting for 2 chargers to become free ?
I tried a Zoe and leaf 5 years ago and the cars were great but charging was poor, it was like being given a shell fuel card but only being able to find a bp fuel station
I tried a Zoe and leaf 5 years ago and the cars were great but charging was poor, it was like being given a shell fuel card but only being able to find a bp fuel station
stevemcs said:
Let’s hope there isn’t a big push to get people into electric cars ..... even if they do work can you imagine 10 cars waiting for 2 chargers to become free ?
I tried a Zoe and leaf 5 years ago and the cars were great but charging was poor, it was like being given a shell fuel card but only being able to find a bp fuel station
Yeah the 3 or 4 in my local park are always full at the weekend now with a real variety of EV's charging there. It's definitely getting a bit harder to charge, a couple of times I've got the last Tesla Supercharger and got back to my car to find a few cars queueing. I tried a Zoe and leaf 5 years ago and the cars were great but charging was poor, it was like being given a shell fuel card but only being able to find a bp fuel station
RobbyJ said:
My first public charging experience was at a BP Pulse 43KW station at my local park. Super easy, worked perfectly. Only tried a BP Pulse once since and no joy at all with that one. Pod-Point has been very useful as others have said. Especially the one at Center Parcs. Other than that I've mainly used free Tesla Superchargers which other than one the other day at Oxford have worked flawlessly.
It took about 10 weeks to get my charge point installed at home so was always charging from a 3 pin plug and never had a problem, granted it was during lockdown but you can still get by Ok on a 3 pin plug at a push unless you're doing a big commute every day.
We've done 15k miles in our Model 3 over the past 18 or so months charging on a 3-pin. 100 miles per night easily achievable if needed, we charge mostly between midnight and 7 on the cheaper tariff and get 60-70 miles of top up which is more than enough for us most days.It took about 10 weeks to get my charge point installed at home so was always charging from a 3 pin plug and never had a problem, granted it was during lockdown but you can still get by Ok on a 3 pin plug at a push unless you're doing a big commute every day.
RobbyJ said:
a couple of times I've got the last Tesla Supercharger and got back to my car to find a few cars queueing.
Out of curiosity, what part of the country is that?I used the 'superfast' 250kW S/C at Banbury last week (first ever long journey in my M3!)
and I amazed that I was the only car there, perhaps because it is off the motorway and/or
too close to Warwick services?
PBCD said:
Out of curiosity, what part of the country is that?
I used the 'superfast' 250kW S/C at Banbury last week (first ever long journey in my M3!)
and I amazed that I was the only car there, perhaps because it is off the motorway and/or
too close to Warwick services?
Stanstead services a couple of weeks ago and Gordano (Bristol) a couple of months ago. On that visit one of the Super Charger bays was taken by a guy trying to charge his i-pace.I used the 'superfast' 250kW S/C at Banbury last week (first ever long journey in my M3!)
and I amazed that I was the only car there, perhaps because it is off the motorway and/or
too close to Warwick services?
PBCD said:
Out of curiosity, what part of the country is that?
I used the 'superfast' 250kW S/C at Banbury last week (first ever long journey in my M3!)
and I amazed that I was the only car there, perhaps because it is off the motorway and/or
too close to Warwick services?
I live 4 miles from the Banbury S/C and agree, it's an odd place to put the site, especially as there are numerous places nearer the M40 that are more suitable.I used the 'superfast' 250kW S/C at Banbury last week (first ever long journey in my M3!)
and I amazed that I was the only car there, perhaps because it is off the motorway and/or
too close to Warwick services?
I had to wait 5 minutes to use the southbound S/C @ Keele service a few weeks ago during the Half term getaway there are only 4 though, also the S/C @ Tebay was very busy with a couple of queueing cars, the wait was probably 5 mins.
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