AppleGreen Electric

[Rolfe]

Does anyone know anything about this outfit? Yesterday I encountered banks of chargers of theirs that don't appear on ZapMaps at all.

I drove down from Scotland to Yorkshire on Tuesday and didn't stop to charge until I was at Southwaite, well into England. I saw Gridserve at Southwaite and Killington Lake and Instavolt at Kirkby Lonsdale, all as expected. I drove back yesterday and conversely I didn't stop to charge until I was in Scotland. I saw what looked like an AppleGreen takeover in two places and suspect a third is about to appear.

At Gretna there were 12 AppleGreen connectors, that is six chargers each offering dual operation. About half were occupied by people apparently charging happily. They seemed newer than the two Gridserve chargers which were next to the Tesla Superchargers, nearer to the food court. Initially I took the car to an AppleGreen charger because they were the first ones I encountered. I was surprised that the charger insisted on a £30 "authorisation charge" before it would try to connect to my car. Well, I tried this three times. The first time I don't remember what happened, but no electrons flowed. The second and third times I got the message "the car did something unexpected" and was kicked off the charger.

I moved the car to one of the Gridserve chargers, which promptly set up communication with my car and started to charge it. (It then decided it was out of order when I'd only got to 67%, but that's another story. 67% was enough to get me home anyway, where electrons are less than half the price.)

I drove on north and decided to check out the charging arrangements at Annandale Water, for future reference. A couple of Gridserve chargers beside the restaurant, but the area of the car park next to them was a building site. Hmmm.

Lastly I nosed around Abington. A few Gridserve chargers right beside the food court, but in front of them no less than sixteen (16) AppleGreen connectors (eight chargers).

I didn't see anyone else turning the air blue beside one of these chargers, and in all fairness the authorisation charges from Gretna are merely sitting in the pending file of my bank account and presumably nothing will actually be debited. Just as well I had £90 that could be frozen for a few days. I'm not a fan of this way of operating, but if they aren't charging for services not rendered then it's possibly not a big issue.

What has struck me most is the huge expansion of charging facilities this has introduced at both Gretna and Abington, and I suspect is also pending at Annandale Water given the construction work going on. And that ZapMaps doesn't seem to know anything about it.

What's going on? Are these things appearing in other areas too? Anyone know anything about them? Is this the future of motorway charging? Connectors appearing by the dozen?

All they need now is a canopy/roof over them with lighting, and we're sorted.

 

[Les burrows]

Very interesting post I have been looking at the charging for EV in Scotland as we are thinking later this year we might vist again and your right this Apple green is not on zapmap which is strange.
Les
Edit a quick search on google gives you some information about them 350kw units and a map which shows many here and in the USA

 

[Rolfe]

This is what the chargers at Gretna look like. You can see the Tesla ones in the background, and the Gridserve ones were to the left of the Teslas.

It seems that I'm writing it wrong. From the script on the charger, it should be "applegreen". e e cummings would be happy.

 

[BrianG]

Applegreen is the name of an Irish Company that bought out Welcome Break. They own other petrol stations in the UK as well as in Ireland.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Just checked with Companies House on the government website. Electricity company started in September 2021, so a new player. It'll be interesting to see how they fare in the network provider competition.

Edit: Applegreen PLC formed in 1995 in Europe and US markets. Applegreen Electric UK started in 2021.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm afraid I assumed they were part of the late Steve Jobs's outfit!

They certainly seem to be taking over the southern stretch of the M74, whatever else. I was very surprised to see them, given that ZapMaps makes no mention of them, and given how many there were. This represents a hugely significant expansion of motorway charging in this area.

My experience of the charger was pretty negative. Having £90 frozen in your bank account as the price of getting no charge at all is off-putting to say the least. I have no idea why it wouldn't connect to my car. The other connector on the charger I was trying to use was charging, and so were several other connectors, and nobody else seemed to be having problems. I didn't want to risk trying another Applegreen connector after that, so moved to a Gridserve one, but it could just have been that particular connector. After that I think I'll go straight to a Gridserve one if there is one available rather than risk that again. But if they do work and my experience was atypical, it's quite something to have so many.

The situation at Abington was even more of an eye-opener. In front of the modest number of Gridserve connectors which have obviously been there for some time, sixteen of the new Applegreen ones. If this is the start of a general trend (and the building works at Annandale Water suggest it is) if could mean much less concern about finding all the connectors at a motorway service station in use and having to queue for ages.

Now all they need to do is to realise that EV drivers would like a bit of shelter and light, same as ICE car drivers, when they get out to fuel their vehicles, and the New Jerusalem will be here!

 

[BrianG]

It was these guys that caused a bit of a rumpus over monopoly at MSAs. Now that they have got their act together they seem to be cracking ahead. Being Irish owned they have connections with ESB the Irish electricity company.

 

[Rolfe]

If we have a choice of companies with chargers in the same location, I wonder if we might see some price competition?

 

[watdub]

It was these guys that caused a bit of a rumpus over monopoly at MSAs. Now that they have got their act together they seem to be cracking ahead. Being Irish owned they have connections with ESB the Irish electricity company.

Not quite true. Applegreen would in competition with ECars in Ireland, the EV charging subsidiary of ESB. Another subsidiary of ESB would be ESB Networks who run the cables & substations that power the EV charging points. And, technically, Ecars and ESB Networks are 2 separate companies within the ESB group and ESB Networks would never hinder an Ecars competitor like Applegreen with new connections, lol. Never, ever, ever!

In Ireland, Applegreen have started an aggressive role-out of charging stations & hubs. Unlike Ecars, most of Applegreen chargers are organised into hubs so there is no SPOF. They are more expensive than Ecars at the moment (~15%) but people are happy to pay because their chargers are reliable, likely to be available & more likely to be 150kWh chargers.

 

[5teep]

From the locator map on their website they have quite a network in England and some in the USA as well.

 

[Rolfe]

Why aren't they shown on ZapMaps, any idea? I was just sitting blinking at the array of chargers at Abington, having had no idea they were there at all.

 

[5teep]

Why aren't they shown on ZapMaps, any idea? I was just sitting blinking at the array of chargers at Abington, having had no idea they were there at all.

might be that they are not officially availlable yet. Powered up but not set up which might explain why you could not use one.

 

[Rolfe]

They were in use. Probably half the connectors were charging people's cars. I seemed to be the only person who was having any difficulty.

The connector recognised my debit card, took a £30 pre-authorisation payment, tried to connect to the car, then kicked me off saying "the car did something unexpected".

 

[Gadget Geek]

Probably Zap-Map hasn't been updated then. Might be worth telling them.

 

[Rolfe]

I left a note on the messages page of the ZapMaps entry for the Gridserve connectors at the two places I saw them. I don't know how else to do it. I notice that the previous message for the Gretna site was someone enthusing about how many connectors there were. Yes, indeed, but they weren't Gridserve. Someone else a few weeks ago complaining that there was only one (Gridserve) CHAdeMO connector in the entirety of the service station, that the Ionity (at the hotel) and the Applegreen chargers didn't have that facility. But still nobody has added them.

 

[Les burrows]

Well if you watch this video almost at the end 17:03 into it he talks about applegreen charging and as I said #2 they are all over the UK and parts of the USA even shows the map that I found on the google search I did but was unable to copy.
Les

 

[Gomev]

Why aren't they shown on ZapMaps, any idea? I was just sitting blinking at the array of chargers at Abington, having had no idea they were there at all.

They are shown on Plugshare, an alternative to Zapmap, and also on WattsUp.

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks for that. I should probably give up on ZapMap.

 

[Rolfe]

Well if you watch this video almost at the end 17:03 into it he talks about applegreen charging and as I said #2 they are all over the UK and parts of the USA even shows the map that I found on the google search I did but was unable to copy.
Les

That was really interesting, particularly for someone who doesn't charge away from home much.

I noticed one thing about the charger siting that Dave barely mentioned. Shelter. And light. That's two things, but they tend to go together.

The petrol forecourts shown all had canopy roofs over the petrol pumps, with lighting. That's what we expected as ICE drivers, and it's what we got. I could drive in winter in my party frock and strappy heels, and be fairly confident I could fill the car with petrol without getting soaked or blown away. Most of these new charging stations are still being built completely open to the elements. Where there is a canopy, more often than not it's a tiny thing that only covers the charger itself, not the person using it.

That film was made in May, obviously. In daytime, in dry weather. Dave was wearing a t-shirt. Let's see some of these reviews being carried out in torrential, driving rain, and compare the experience to the experience of filling an ICE car in similar circumstances. This isn't good enough, and the people with influence should be making a much bigger fuss about it.

 

[Les burrows]

You are quite right of course the only reason I posted that video was apart from you starting this thread about Applegreen that’s the only mention I have ever seen of it which is very strange, now as for Party frocks and strapping heels very nice I’m sure, I always have my big jacket and my flat cap on the back seat just in case LOL I’m joking of course.
Les