Another infrastructure rant!

[robertb]

So I took the missus down to the South West of Scotland for a short break this week. There were a few places she wanted to visit down that way including a gem museum.
So off we popped with a full charge in my LR taking the scenic route through the Galloway Forrest. It was beautiful. I had no idea just how beautiful it was.

The first issue arose when I stopped in at the Castle Douglas CCS chargers to do a quick splash and dash before heading on to Dumfries. To my dismay (despite the CPS app telling me they were online and available, both were offline. AC only. I gave them a call and the guy on the phone tells me they're both faulty and they are awaiting an engineer to look at them as they can't sort them remotely. Luckily, I had plenty to get to Dumfries where there were multiple sites with CCS. A lady pulled up to me in Castle Douglas in a Peugeot, I informed her the CCS were down but there were more in Dumfries. She didn't have enough to make it to Dumfries. She was left sitting on a 7kw AC. I hope she had a good book with her!!

Cut a long story short, none of the chargers we visited were operational. I had to use the Instavolt at the Bannatyne spa just off the bypass. Even the Morrisons CCS wouldn't work (Not CPS fault). Luckily, I had my Electroverse card so got an 8% discount from InstaTurpin.

On the way home back to Glasgow, I decided to take the scenic route again via Stranraer and set off along the A75. I could have made it home but thought I would stop at a few CPS chargers en route. We stopped at 3 different CCS sites along the way including Stranraer, Ballantrae and Girvan. None of them worked. Every one of them was out of action despite the app saying they were online. The only one that worked was at Downhill Farm just north of Girvan.

What the hell is happening with CPS? They used to be so reliable in the past. It's like someone has decided to give up. The infrastructure down there is in dire need of some TLC. If I hadn't had the long range model, I would have been bang in trouble. This is now my second EV in 7 years and I don't ever see myself going back to an ICE or Hybrid but I can see now why many people are still reluctant to commit to an EV.

Come on CPS, get your finger out and get some maintenance done down there!

 

[Pebblefeline]

It’s really sad. We tried several CPS sites over the summer and either they were all broken or simply couldn’t connect to the car.

 

[5teep]

So I took the missus down to the South West of Scotland for a short break this week. There were a few places she wanted to visit down that way including a gem museum.
So off we popped with a full charge in my LR taking the scenic route through the Galloway Forrest. It was beautiful. I had no idea just how beautiful it was.

The first issue arose when I stopped in at the Castle Douglas CCS chargers to do a quick splash and dash before heading on to Dumfries. To my dismay (despite the CPS app telling me they were online and available, both were offline. AC only. I gave them a call and the guy on the phone tells me they're both faulty and they are awaiting an engineer to look at them as they can't sort them remotely. Luckily, I had plenty to get to Dumfries where there were multiple sites with CCS. A lady pulled up to me in Castle Douglas in a Peugeot, I informed her the CCS were down but there were more in Dumfries. She didn't have enough to make it to Dumfries. She was left sitting on a 7kw AC. I hope she had a good book with her!!

Cut a long story short, none of the chargers we visited were operational. I had to use the Instavolt at the Bannatyne spa just off the bypass. Even the Morrisons CCS wouldn't work (Not CPS fault). Luckily, I had my Electroverse card so got an 8% discount from InstaTurpin.

On the way home back to Glasgow, I decided to take the scenic route again via Stranraer and set off along the A75. I could have made it home but thought I would stop at a few CPS chargers en route. We stopped at 3 different CCS sites along the way including Stranraer, Ballantrae and Girvan. None of them worked. Every one of them was out of action despite the app saying they were online. The only one that worked was at Downhill Farm just north of Girvan.

What the hell is happening with CPS? They used to be so reliable in the past. It's like someone has decided to give up. The infrastructure down there is in dire need of some TLC. If I hadn't had the long range model, I would have been bang in trouble. This is now my second EV in 7 years and I don't ever see myself going back to an ICE or Hybrid but I can see now why many people are still reluctant to commit to an EV.

Come on CPS, get your finger out and get some maintenance done down there!

Don't forget that CPS don't own the chargers, they just administer them on behalf of whoever owns them.

 

[Deleted member 13103]

So I took the missus down to the South West of Scotland for a short break this week. There were a few places she wanted to visit down that way including a gem museum.
So off we popped with a full charge in my LR taking the scenic route through the Galloway Forrest. It was beautiful. I had no idea just how beautiful it was.

The first issue arose when I stopped in at the Castle Douglas CCS chargers to do a quick splash and dash before heading on to Dumfries. To my dismay (despite the CPS app telling me they were online and available, both were offline. AC only. I gave them a call and the guy on the phone tells me they're both faulty and they are awaiting an engineer to look at them as they can't sort them remotely. Luckily, I had plenty to get to Dumfries where there were multiple sites with CCS. A lady pulled up to me in Castle Douglas in a Peugeot, I informed her the CCS were down but there were more in Dumfries. She didn't have enough to make it to Dumfries. She was left sitting on a 7kw AC. I hope she had a good book with her!!

Cut a long story short, none of the chargers we visited were operational. I had to use the Instavolt at the Bannatyne spa just off the bypass. Even the Morrisons CCS wouldn't work (Not CPS fault). Luckily, I had my Electroverse card so got an 8% discount from InstaTurpin.

On the way home back to Glasgow, I decided to take the scenic route again via Stranraer and set off along the A75. I could have made it home but thought I would stop at a few CPS chargers en route. We stopped at 3 different CCS sites along the way including Stranraer, Ballantrae and Girvan. None of them worked. Every one of them was out of action despite the app saying they were online. The only one that worked was at Downhill Farm just north of Girvan.

What the hell is happening with CPS? They used to be so reliable in the past. It's like someone has decided to give up. The infrastructure down there is in dire need of some TLC. If I hadn't had the long range model, I would have been bang in trouble. This is now my second EV in 7 years and I don't ever see myself going back to an ICE or Hybrid but I can see now why many people are still reluctant to commit to an EV.

Come on CPS, get your finger out and get some maintenance done down there!

I just recently went on a holiday trip from Scunthorpe North Lincs down to Paignton, I estimated that Strensham Services on the M5 would be the ideal place to top up my battery and tummy, the chargers available were Gridserve, I used my App and got 10% discount, and a really good interface with the charger to my phone whilst topping up tummy, 50 mins and 83% @ £24.65, it was a brilliant experience, at Premier Inn in Paignton the was a Geniepoint rapid charger also, that fulfilled my requirements as well, all in all a really enjoyable holiday with absolutely no angst about getting topped up anywhere...

 

[robertb]

I just recently went on a holiday trip from Scunthorpe North Lincs down to Paignton, I estimated that Strensham Services on the M5 would be the ideal place to top up my battery and tummy, the chargers available were Gridserve, I used my App and got 10% discount, and a really good interface with the charger to my phone whilst topping up tummy, 50 mins and 83% @ £24.65, it was a brilliant experience, at Premier Inn in Paignton the was a Geniepoint rapid charger also, that fulfilled my requirements as well, all in all a really enjoyable holiday with absolutely no angst about getting topped up anywhere...

Funnily enough, we stayed in the Premier Inn in Dumfries. There were two Geniepoint chargers in the process of being installed. One was still clearly under construction and the other looked like it was just waiting to be commissioned.

 

[Pebblefeline]

Generally never have a problem charging anywhere, but charge place scotland(cps) used to be amazing and the infrastructure seems to be being ignored now.

 

[MG Fred]

So I took the missus down to the South West of Scotland for a short break this week. There were a few places she wanted to visit down that way including a gem museum.
So off we popped with a full charge in my LR taking the scenic route through the Galloway Forrest. It was beautiful. I had no idea just how beautiful it was.

The first issue arose when I stopped in at the Castle Douglas CCS chargers to do a quick splash and dash before heading on to Dumfries. To my dismay (despite the CPS app telling me they were online and available, both were offline. AC only. I gave them a call and the guy on the phone tells me they're both faulty and they are awaiting an engineer to look at them as they can't sort them remotely. Luckily, I had plenty to get to Dumfries where there were multiple sites with CCS. A lady pulled up to me in Castle Douglas in a Peugeot, I informed her the CCS were down but there were more in Dumfries. She didn't have enough to make it to Dumfries. She was left sitting on a 7kw AC. I hope she had a good book with her!!

Cut a long story short, none of the chargers we visited were operational. I had to use the Instavolt at the Bannatyne spa just off the bypass. Even the Morrisons CCS wouldn't work (Not CPS fault). Luckily, I had my Electroverse card so got an 8% discount from InstaTurpin.

On the way home back to Glasgow, I decided to take the scenic route again via Stranraer and set off along the A75. I could have made it home but thought I would stop at a few CPS chargers en route. We stopped at 3 different CCS sites along the way including Stranraer, Ballantrae and Girvan. None of them worked. Every one of them was out of action despite the app saying they were online. The only one that worked was at Downhill Farm just north of Girvan.

What the hell is happening with CPS? They used to be so reliable in the past. It's like someone has decided to give up. The infrastructure down there is in dire need of some TLC. If I hadn't had the long range model, I would have been bang in trouble. This is now my second EV in 7 years and I don't ever see myself going back to an ICE or Hybrid but I can see now why many people are still reluctant to commit to an EV.

Come on CPS, get your finger out and get some maintenance done down there!

How about the electroverse app, was that reliable on charger status?

 

[robertb]

How about the electroverse app, was that reliable on charger status?

The app itself was easy to use but I believe they pull the "status" of the charger from the network owners via some kind of API. When I looked at the chargers on the CPS app, they were also showing as online and available despite the opposite being true.

That aside, the Electroverse app and card were flawless in starting and stopping the charges (on working chargers). I even got a nice 8% discount on both charges. Both of them were simply charged through my energy bill and seamlessly came off my credit balance. Very convenient.

 

[John1941]

I used Gridserve at Severn View last year, good and easy. Used same one last week, would not accept card payment. Eventually charged by moving to next charge point suggested by another user. Right waste of time.
A week later Gridserve at Trowell services, would not charge and unable to remove charge cable from car. Telephone to Gridserve, suggested cycling door locking 5 times, finally removed charge cable manually with difficulty, boot full of luggage. Even more wasted time.
Only solution to public ev charging - nationalise it!

 

[Rookery]

That's a shame about CPS. My trip to Scotland a couple of years ago was very easy using CPS and I am planning to go again but this news may change my plans.

 

[Joe Boatman]

It seems to be after SWARCO took CPS over. I've been having problems in Scotland with their chargers too. Some charger are fussy and don't charge unless I lock my 2021 MG5 SW after connecting.
Most motorway services now seem to have Gridserve chargers which seem reliable if I use the app.

 

[robertb]

It seems to be after SWARCO took CPS over. I've been having problems in Scotland with their chargers too. Some charger are fussy and don't charge unless I lock my 2021 MG5 SW after connecting.
Most motorway services now seem to have Gridserve chargers which seem reliable if I use the app.

This is my experience too. Since they moved, it's gone down hill. Way too many chargers left in a state of disrepair.

 

[dragon2611]

This is my experience too. Since they moved, it's gone down hill. Way too many chargers left in a state of disrepair.

I don't believe SWARCO owns most of the chargers much like their predecessor didn't.

The problem is no one seemed to think about what to do once these chargers start getting to the end of their useful life and need replacing. The grant money used to install them initially has long dried up.

So due to the age and in some cases lack of maintenance they're starting to fail left right and centre.

 

[5teep]

It seems to be after SWARCO took CPS over. I've been having problems in Scotland with their chargers too. Some charger are fussy and don't charge unless I lock my 2021 MG5 SW after connecting.
Most motorway services now seem to have Gridserve chargers which seem reliable if I use the app.

I don't think that's got anything to do with whoever runs the network, they don't control how the chargers work or how they communicate with your car.

I don't believe SWARCO owns most of the chargers much like their predecessor didn't.

The problem is no one seemed to think about what to do once these chargers start getting to the end of their useful life and need replacing. The grant money used to install them initially has long dried up.

So due to the age and in some cases lack of maintenance they're starting to fail left right and centre.

I think we'll see a big upgrade in chargers this next year. A lot of existing chargers don't have contactless and since that's now a legal requirement I reckon a lot of older models will be replaced.

 

[kevin ellard]

I don't think that's got anything to do with whoever runs the network, they don't control how the chargers work or how they communicate with your car.



I think we'll see a big upgrade in chargers this next year. A lot of existing chargers don't have contactless and since that's now a legal requirement I reckon a lot of older models will be replaced.

My fear is that they will just be turned off or removed. Seems ridiculous to make a law change that could result in fewer available chargers.

 

[ALANB]

So I took the missus down to the South West of Scotland for a short break this week. There were a few places she wanted to visit down that way including a gem museum.
So off we popped with a full charge in my LR taking the scenic route through the Galloway Forrest. It was beautiful. I had no idea just how beautiful it was.

The first issue arose when I stopped in at the Castle Douglas CCS chargers to do a quick splash and dash before heading on to Dumfries. To my dismay (despite the CPS app telling me they were online and available, both were offline. AC only. I gave them a call and the guy on the phone tells me they're both faulty and they are awaiting an engineer to look at them as they can't sort them remotely. Luckily, I had plenty to get to Dumfries where there were multiple sites with CCS. A lady pulled up to me in Castle Douglas in a Peugeot, I informed her the CCS were down but there were more in Dumfries. She didn't have enough to make it to Dumfries. She was left sitting on a 7kw AC. I hope she had a good book with her!!

Cut a long story short, none of the chargers we visited were operational. I had to use the Instavolt at the Bannatyne spa just off the bypass. Even the Morrisons CCS wouldn't work (Not CPS fault). Luckily, I had my Electroverse card so got an 8% discount from InstaTurpin.

On the way home back to Glasgow, I decided to take the scenic route again via Stranraer and set off along the A75. I could have made it home but thought I would stop at a few CPS chargers en route. We stopped at 3 different CCS sites along the way including Stranraer, Ballantrae and Girvan. None of them worked. Every one of them was out of action despite the app saying they were online. The only one that worked was at Downhill Farm just north of Girvan.

What the hell is happening with CPS? They used to be so reliable in the past. It's like someone has decided to give up. The infrastructure down there is in dire need of some TLC. If I hadn't had the long range model, I would have been bang in trouble. This is now my second EV in 7 years and I don't ever see myself going back to an ICE or Hybrid but I can see now why many people are still reluctant to commit to an EV.

Come on CPS, get your finger out and get some maintenance done down there!

The real issue...CPS was a project funded by EU funds. Tory government hated Scotland and EU....go figure, sad but true.

 

[5teep]

My fear is that they will just be turned off or removed. Seems ridiculous to make a law change that could result in fewer available chargers.

I guess that will happen too. There are a number of community owned chargers that will probably disappear because they can't afford to upgrade or replace them. I think in most cases they got government grants to install them but funds are no more for that. (

 

[Mitch AC DC]

I guess that will happen too. There are a number of community owned chargers that will probably disappear because they can't afford to upgrade or replace them. I think in most cases they got government grants to install them but funds are no more for that. (

So what's the chances of Labour addressing that problem, unless you dress it up in a dress