Can there ever be enough DC chargers?

[mg4mc]

My friend with a Kia EV6 tried the BP Pulse chargers near Manchester airport. Nightmare, took 15 minutes faffing around before it finally started a charge. Then it peaked at 80 kW (no other charger in use) when it was rated at 150 kW.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Thanks, I have looked at the list and see BP is bottom, where I believe it belongs, what gripes me most is it was raining (normal for UK ATM), I tried the card reader (Contactless) which said had failed, so I tried to load £20 onto the app which was in a dead spot for internet but succeeded eventually, then it failed again so I contacted customer services which did not help really, they reset the machine etc to no avail. I then went to an Osprey machine and this worked well. I subsequently went back to another BP system and this also had issues charging the car with a catch 22 put the plug on, the system detected someone plugged into the charger please disconnect, then I go around and around trying to use the £20 I previously put onto the card. My next port of call is to try to get the £20 back, I'll let you know how that goes but I'm not holding my breath.

BP were supposed to be buying $100 million worth of Tesla superchargers for their Pulse Network;

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/bp-boosts-ev-charging-network-with-100-million-dollar-order-of-tesla-ultra-fast-chargers.html

Which, believe it or not, is 0.000657% of their $15.2 billion profit.

BP: net income 2023 | Statista

BP reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of 15.2 billion U.S.

www.statista.com

Cheapskates.

 

[tsedge]

Funnily enough BP chargers have always worked for me first time, and I have used a few. But they have been relatively new ones.

 

[Jacko]

New to the forum and a recent MG purchaser. Been reading the thread with interest. Looks like the Tesla network might have peaked.

Tesla staff say firm's entire Supercharger team fired

The division responsible for the car-maker's huge fast-charging network is being axed to cut costs.

www.bbc.com

 

[Rolfe]

God knows what that's all about. The three YouTube videos I just listened to about it certainly don't.

 

[Jacko]

It seems a really weird decision from them or rather from Musk. I can only assume cost cutting for a while but this is part of what makes them successful. I expect their reliability to be affected going forwards.

 

[Rolfe]

I heard a slightly more plausible story. That one of his lieutenants was arguing with him about how many staff he wanted to lay off, and to show who was boss he just laid everyone off. Rumours of a lot of people being rehired are circulating.

 

[Jacko]

I heard a slightly more plausible story. That one of his lieutenants was arguing with him about how many staff he wanted to lay off, and to show who was boss he just laid everyone off. Rumours of a lot of people being rehired are circulating.

Elon Musk a billionaire displaying erratic behaviour to throw his weight around? Surely not!

 

[Rolfe]

Absolutely unprecedented!

 

[tsedge]

Yes, this is how he operates. We can debate whether that's a good thing or not.

Right now he's on a mission to cut costs and his approach is to slash entire groups and then know he has cut enough people by the evidence that he has to hire some of them back again to keep the lights on.

It is a pretty unique management style and not one I'd ever want to be on the end of. But it does enable him to make changes at a pace other companies cannot.

Personally I think it is time he stepped back from Tesla and focused his energy on his other companies. To become mainstream and reach 20% global market share Tesla needs mainstream products and a mainstream reputation for continuity and reliable decision making.

He just cannot do that. There's nothing mainstream about him.

 

[Coulomb]

BP were supposed to be buying $100 million worth of Tesla superchargers for their Pulse Network;

Which, believe it or not, is 0.000657% of their $15.2 billion profit.

Err, it's 0.00658 of their profit, or 0.658%.

Still amazing. And I believe they'll still buy them. Elon will find a way to keep the charging business running, just with a lot of the old staff fired.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Err, it's 0.00658 of their profit, or 0.658%.

Still amazing. And I believe they'll still buy them. Elon will find a way to keep the charging business running, just with a lot of the old staff fired.

Ooops. Too many zeros's in the calculator.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

BP were supposed to be buying $100 million worth of Tesla superchargers for their Pulse Network;

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/bp-boosts-ev-charging-network-with-100-million-dollar-order-of-tesla-ultra-fast-chargers.html

Which, believe it or not, is 0.000657% of their $15.2 billion profit.

BP: net income 2023 | Statista

BP reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of 15.2 billion U.S.

www.statista.com

Cheapskates.

Sadly for us, BP bought them for their USA charging network, not the UK one.

 

[Rolfe]

Most people on Twitter were expecting the platform to fall apart after he sacked a huge number of staff, but although there were a couple of very glitchy days, here we are a year later and it all still more or less works. And he has persuaded a remarkable number of idiots actually to pay for it.

 

[tsedge]

Ok, so I tried the Tesla Supercharger at Amesbury today and all worked a-ok.

I was the only non-Tesla and got some funny looks from Tesla drivers but nobody said anything. Mind you, this one is a funny setup, it is hidden behind the Holiday Inn hotel and you have to enter the Holiday Inn car park and drive all the way around the hotel to access it.

It was tricky to get connected because it has the older Tesla V3 chargers with the short leads and huge rubber bump stops. The only way I could get it to reach (backing in) was by parking over on the left hand line of the space and going right up to the bump stops. Then it just fitted ok.

Everything connected fine and the stats are below (I charged from 53% to 90%). The 28kW is the rate I was getting at 90%, it peaked at over 100kW when I started the charge.

Way cheaper than the Gridserves by Greggs, I was smiling at the cost!

 

[mg4mc]

Ok, so I tried the Tesla Supercharger at Amesbury today and all worked a-ok.

I was the only non-Tesla and got some funny looks from Tesla drivers but nobody said anything. Mind you, this one is a funny setup, it is hidden behind the Holiday Inn hotel and you have to enter the Holiday Inn car park and drive all the way around the hotel to access it.

It was tricky to get connected because it has the older Tesla V3 chargers with the short leads and huge rubber bump stops. The only way I could get it to reach (backing in) was by parking over on the left hand line of the space and going right up to the bump stops. Then it just fitted ok.

Everything connected fine and the stats are below (I charged from 53% to 90%). The 28kW is the rate I was getting at 90%, it peaked at over 100kW when I started the charge.

I've spent far too many days in that hotel!

 

[Rolfe]

I didn't have too much trouble at Dundee. When I went right to the bump stop the car's tail was practically in the trees, but the lead was easy enough to plug in. The Tesla drivers were friendly.

On the other hand, looking at that photo, I don't see a bump stop, only a kerb.

 

[Jacko]

I didn't have too much trouble at Dundee. When I went right to the bump stop the car's tail was practically in the trees, but the lead was easy enough to plug in. The Tesla drivers were friendly.

View attachment 26273

On the other hand, looking at that photo, I don't see a bump stop, only a kerb.

I'm hopefully going to be installing a massive new battery buffered charger in Dundee later this year. I'll have to sort you a free charge if you're around that area to try it out and let me know your thoughts.

 

[Rolfe]

Sounds great, although I'm not often out that way. I was actually driving back from Aberdeen, and as I'd started with only 80% from an ultra-rapid, I popped into the Tesla site to make sure I had enough to get home on. Much quicker than charging back to 100% in Aberdeen. (I arrived there with only seven miles on the GOM, having left home on 100%.)

 

[Jacko]

I have other Scottish sites in the pipeline in Beauly and Wishaw. I might even start a thread to get feedback from the esteemed members of the forum as more come on line. See if I can work out a way of giving a preferential rate.