tonybridge
Established Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2023
- Messages
- 196
- Reaction score
- 233
- Points
- 83
- Location
- Berkshire
- Driving
- MG4 Trophy LR
Arrived this afternoon at Warwick South Services to top up for the final 70 miles to home. 20 Tesla stations all ful - round the corner, 16 AppleGreens for us poor people, completely empty 
So, plugged in, faffed about with the touch screen (almost unreadable in the strong winter sun) and tapping debit card with no result. Out of the blue came a guardian angel in the shape of an AppleGreen engineer! He talked us through the correct procedure - first, use the app (makes sense!), with which youget a 5p/kWh discount, so from 76p per to 71p) and in the app, set up the charge session (by swiping on-screen) and ONLY THEN plug in the cable. Worked well, and we were off, charging at 115K wow!
He then told me that he was there because all the chargers had stopped working because they had all become occupied at the same time and the total supply to the installation had become overloaded
I always knew that two cars on the same charger would share the loadOF THAT CHARGER, but wasn't aware that ALL the chargers would share a common load... maybe I misunderstood? But a couple of minutes after my car had started at a brilliant 115k, another car turned up on another station, and my charging dropped to 60-somethingk (still a quick session).
As I was unplugging, a couple of other drivers came over and, seeing I had finished a succesful charge, asked me the correct procedure, which I explained to them - fortunately, the very knowledgeable and helpful AG engineer was still on site and as I left, he was going round several other cars helping them out!
What is needed, surely, on these charging stations is a point-by-point list of clear instructions to help new EV owners through this often frustrating process?
So, plugged in, faffed about with the touch screen (almost unreadable in the strong winter sun) and tapping debit card with no result. Out of the blue came a guardian angel in the shape of an AppleGreen engineer! He talked us through the correct procedure - first, use the app (makes sense!), with which youget a 5p/kWh discount, so from 76p per to 71p) and in the app, set up the charge session (by swiping on-screen) and ONLY THEN plug in the cable. Worked well, and we were off, charging at 115K wow!He then told me that he was there because all the chargers had stopped working because they had all become occupied at the same time and the total supply to the installation had become overloaded
I always knew that two cars on the same charger would share the loadOF THAT CHARGER, but wasn't aware that ALL the chargers would share a common load... maybe I misunderstood? But a couple of minutes after my car had started at a brilliant 115k, another car turned up on another station, and my charging dropped to 60-somethingk (still a quick session).As I was unplugging, a couple of other drivers came over and, seeing I had finished a succesful charge, asked me the correct procedure, which I explained to them - fortunately, the very knowledgeable and helpful AG engineer was still on site and as I left, he was going round several other cars helping them out!
What is needed, surely, on these charging stations is a point-by-point list of clear instructions to help new EV owners through this often frustrating process?
