Not all chargers are equal

[tsedge]

This is not new (2 years old) but it does explain to me why I have been getting such great charge rates on newer Osprey charging hubs, such as Salmon's Leap in Devon and Bristol's Bradley Stoke, as opposed to the Gridserves I have used. The difference appears to be the charging design as explained in this video.

 

[Rolfe]

That is dead clever, and makes a lot of sense. It's a paradox of rapidly developing technology that the charging hubs being installed at the moment are becoming obsolescent almost immediately as better ideas are devised!

 

[tsedge]

That is dead clever, and makes a lot of sense. It's a paradox of rapidly developing technology that the charging hubs being installed at the moment are becoming obsolescent almost immediately as better ideas are devised!

Absolutely. What is intriguing about this design is not only that it makes the best of the power available but also that the bit we call the "charger" becomes very cheap to deploy and they can have 16 or 32 on one site very cost effectively.

Too many of the installs are stuck in the old style charger-and-supply-in-one-box paradigm so we get only 2 or 4 stalls and limited shared power levels.

Osprey have partnered with a supermarket-land-owning group and are deploying this tech to many Tesco and Morrisons sites as a money earner for the landowner, which is another clever move (rather than targeting the supermarket directly).

 

[Rolfe]

It sounds really good and I hope we see a lot more of them. The thing is, all these Gridserve and Ionity and Instavolt installations that have been going in are very expensive and they're not going to change them in a hurry.

 

[dsimpkins]

The Kempower chargers are quick, easy, and just work. I love them. Sainsburys is rolling out rapid chargers to all its supermarkets. They are contactless only as far as I'm aware. My local Sainsburys has them, and guess what, they're Kempower ones too.

 

[tsedge]

It sounds really good and I hope we see a lot more of them. The thing is, all these Gridserve and Ionity and Instavolt installations that have been going in are very expensive and they're not going to change them in a hurry.

True, hopefully competition will not only lead to lower prices but more rapid replacement of outdated technologies.

 

[Gadget Geek]

I wonder if existing EVSE's could be connected to the new power unit? That would certainly future proof them for a good while.