Charge Place Scotland & Electroverse issues

[SimonS]

I went for a little drive yesterday from Ayr down to Monreith on the Galloway coast. I set off with 82% and ABRP was suggesting I would need a 15 minute charge on the way. While passing I dropped in at the 50kW CPS Charger at Turnberry to check it as it was dead last week. Well this week it seemed to be working (I didn't need to charge so didn't try) but The CHAdeMO plug is now held together with sticky tape and the cable looks like it has been run over by a bus. Not the best impression for any visitors to this area.

I then continued on down to Ballantrae to another CPS 50kW charger where ABRP had suggested I stop. I plugged in, the charge started and then failed after a minute. No error was displayed on the screen so I unplugged and restarted and the second time it worked for about 5 minutes before failing. The charge rate had been bouncing around between 26 & 40kW so I think the charger or its supply were having issues. The CCS option was now greyed out on the charger screen so I left. I now had sufficient to complete the route with a forecast 10% on arrival home.

It's just as well that I had decided to stop at Ballantrae. Before leaving home I'd looked at the Electroverse app and saw that there were now 5 new Ionity 350kW chargers in Stranraer and I had planned to go there instead. It now looks as though Electroverse have jumped the gun as Zapmap does not show them and the Ionity app shows them 'Planned". EDIT: now, 24hrs later, the Ionity app shows them as open.

The rest of the drive went fine and although I didn't need to I stopped to check another CPS 50kW charger at Dalmellington. It did have power but the screen said it was out of service due 'no comms'. You might ask why I even bother with CPS chargers given their reliability. Well in South Ayrshire there is no charge to use them. (There are 2 that do charge.)

So this is one that might work (Turnberry). Two that Didn't work (Ballantrae & Dalmellington) and five that don't exist. There were sufficient others that I could have used had I needed but I can see why so many suffer from charger anxiety.

The reason for the trip was to visit the Gavin Maxwell Memorial on the coast. Even on a blowy day it is a lovely spot.

The day was warmer than it has been recently and I arrived home with 19% and 3.4mi/kWh.

 

[Rolfe]

What a lovely drive! I've only once encountered a broken CPS charger (in Moffat), and the guy on the helpline was very helpful, asking me where I was going, how far was it and what range did I have on my car. We established that I had enough to get home on, but he told me that if I ran into any trouble I should phone him back. He also confirmed that the next charger up was definitely working, although since that charger is 400 yards from my house (a) I knew that, and (b) I wasn't going to need it.

The charger in Moffat had been broken for at least a fortnight though, according to the helpline guy, and I didn't sense any urgency in fixing it. A lot of their units are quite old, and I'm not that confident in their maintenance schedule. I did check on a bank of type 2 chargers near a cinema I was going to in Glasgow, but half of them were listed as out of order. I didn't even try going to them, even though they were free to use. I saw comments in the app such as, why don't you charge us a bit of money and use it to repair these things? Not reassuring.

It gives the impression that EV drivers are second-class citizens and not worth investing in. The fact that these sites are all unmanned doesn't help, as opposed to a petrol station when there's usually someone there manning the shop and faults get picked up and fixed. This will change, but not fast enough.

 

[SimonS]

I think we get a bad deal in South Ayrshire simply because the council provides these chargers for free so the lack of income must be a factor in the lack of maintenance. I think it might also be a factor in the lack of chargers from other companies. Osprey have two 50kW chargers outside Lidl which I have never seen being used because there are 3 council/CPS ones within half a mile and there are a couple of Instavolts (also 50kW) out by the bypass. If you are looking for 100kW+ then the BP garage at the bottom end of the A77 where it meets the Prestwick bypass is currently the only option (and is usually u/s) unless you head north to Glasgow or east to the M74.

Things are getting better though. As mentioned in my post above Ionity have now opened in Stranraer with I think six 350kW units. They have also just broken ground on a site on the Ayr bypass which I assume will again be six chargers and the Arnold Clark garage between Ayr and Preswick has six Kempower chargers that look ready to go but are still fenced off. Their website says that you will have the option to book a charger so you know you won't have to queue. They are also talking about having 300 sites. It looks like we may have a reasonable year.

Anyway - to finish, another pic of Mij.

 

[Rolfe]

Super pics!

We have had CPS charging for 30p, which I thought was good because it wasn't penalising people who couldn't charge at home but was still providing some income. But I heard a rumour they were going to put the price up. I suppose we'll be looking at 70p same as Highland. It's so short-sighted if they want to promote EV uptake. People don't necessarily want it for free, but they don't want to be ripped off either.

 

[KH11]

I went for a little drive yesterday from Ayr down to Monreith on the Galloway coast. I set off with 82% and ABRP was suggesting I would need a 15 minute charge on the way. While passing I dropped in at the 50kW CPS Charger at Turnberry to check it as it was dead last week. Well this week it seemed to be working (I didn't need to charge so didn't try) but The CHAdeMO plug is now held together with sticky tape and the cable looks like it has been run over by a bus. Not the best impression for any visitors to this area.

View attachment 23237View attachment 23238

I then continued on down to Ballantrae to another CPS 50kW charger where ABRP had suggested I stop. I plugged in, the charge started and then failed after a minute. No error was displayed on the screen so I unplugged and restarted and the second time it worked for about 5 minutes before failing. The charge rate had been bouncing around between 26 & 40kW so I think the charger or its supply were having issues. The CCS option was now greyed out on the charger screen so I left. I now had sufficient to complete the route with a forecast 10% on arrival home.

It's just as well that I had decided to stop at Ballantrae. Before leaving home I'd looked at the Electroverse app and saw that there were now 5 new Ionity 350kW chargers in Stranraer and I had planned to go there instead. It now looks as though Electroverse have jumped the gun as Zapmap does not show them and the Ionity app shows them 'Planned". EDIT: now, 24hrs later, the Ionity app shows them as open.

The rest of the drive went fine and although I didn't need to I stopped to check another CPS 50kW charger at Dalmellington. It did have power but the screen said it was out of service due 'no comms'. You might ask why I even bother with CPS chargers given their reliability. Well in South Ayrshire there is no charge to use them. (There are 2 that do charge.)

So this is one that might work (Turnberry). Two that Didn't work (Ballantrae & Dalmellington) and five that don't exist. There were sufficient others that I could have used had I needed but I can see why so many suffer from charger anxiety.

The reason for the trip was to visit the Gavin Maxwell Memorial on the coast. Even on a blowy day it is a lovely spot.

The day was warmer than it has been recently and I arrived home with 19% and 3.4mi/kWh.

View attachment 23241

I used the CPS charger at Coylton Activity Centre just before Xmas which worked well with the CPS card.

 

[Archev]

I went for a little drive yesterday from Ayr down to Monreith on the Galloway coast. I set off with 82% and ABRP was suggesting I would need a 15 minute charge on the way. While passing I dropped in at the 50kW CPS Charger at Turnberry to check it as it was dead last week. Well this week it seemed to be working (I didn't need to charge so didn't try) but The CHAdeMO plug is now held together with sticky tape and the cable looks like it has been run over by a bus. Not the best impression for any visitors to this area.

View attachment 23237View attachment 23238

I then continued on down to Ballantrae to another CPS 50kW charger where ABRP had suggested I stop. I plugged in, the charge started and then failed after a minute. No error was displayed on the screen so I unplugged and restarted and the second time it worked for about 5 minutes before failing. The charge rate had been bouncing around between 26 & 40kW so I think the charger or its supply were having issues. The CCS option was now greyed out on the charger screen so I left. I now had sufficient to complete the route with a forecast 10% on arrival home.

It's just as well that I had decided to stop at Ballantrae. Before leaving home I'd looked at the Electroverse app and saw that there were now 5 new Ionity 350kW chargers in Stranraer and I had planned to go there instead. It now looks as though Electroverse have jumped the gun as Zapmap does not show them and the Ionity app shows them 'Planned". EDIT: now, 24hrs later, the Ionity app shows them as open.

The rest of the drive went fine and although I didn't need to I stopped to check another CPS 50kW charger at Dalmellington. It did have power but the screen said it was out of service due 'no comms'. You might ask why I even bother with CPS chargers given their reliability. Well in South Ayrshire there is no charge to use them. (There are 2 that do charge.)

So this is one that might work (Turnberry). Two that Didn't work (Ballantrae & Dalmellington) and five that don't exist. There were sufficient others that I could have used had I needed but I can see why so many suffer from charger anxiety.

The reason for the trip was to visit the Gavin Maxwell Memorial on the coast. Even on a blowy day it is a lovely spot.

The day was warmer than it has been recently and I arrived home with 19% and 3.4mi/kWh.

View attachment 23241

Fantastic countryside, if I had a pound for every time I drove in that beautiful area I’d be extremely heavy indeed.
I worked all over on concrete farm and commercial buildings. My last company car was a Vauxhall Chevette. At 10 months old I handed it back with nearly 90,000 miles on it. Ah memories ?

 

[Tig170]

Likewise, just done a 2000 mile trip around scotland in an basic SR - no issues what so ever in a week - mainly used tesla / CPS

- images to follow

 

[SimonS]

I used the CPS charger at Coylton Activity Centre just before Xmas which worked well with the CPS card.

I’ve used Coylton a few times. Despite it being listed as 50kW I’ve never managed to get more than 37kW from it.

 

[QLeo]

Mmm. I wonder if that first generation of council-owned CPS chargers is starting to feel its age. There are 2 in Ullapool, and both had issues the last couple of occasions we were there. On Monday, we had a weird one. We head for the Ullapool Harbour Trust owned one in the ferry car park, as it's just 20p, and had been very reliable. But the plugs are looking really manky now. Herself plugged the car in to the 22kW part as we just needed a top-up and were planning to be there for a couple of hours, then noticed that the charge had stopped. When we went back, we saw a Polestar driver, who said he couldn't get it to work at all. But our car stopped charging at the time he tried to charge. After that we couldn't get either the 50kW or 22kW to work. All very odd.
But yes, @Rolfe , if you need to phone CPS for a fault, they are as helpful as they can be, and you get through quickly.

 

[Archev]

Mmm. I wonder if that first generation of council-owned CPS chargers is starting to feel its age. There are 2 in Ullapool, and both had issues the last couple of occasions we were there. On Monday, we had a weird one. We head for the Ullapool Harbour Trust owned one in the ferry car park, as it's just 20p, and had been very reliable. But the plugs are looking really manky now. Herself plugged the car in to the 22kW part as we just needed a top-up and were planning to be there for a couple of hours, then noticed that the charge had stopped. When we went back, we saw a Polestar driver, who said he couldn't get it to work at all. But our car stopped charging at the time he tried to charge. After that we couldn't get either the 50kW or 22kW to work. All very odd.
But yes, @Rolfe , if you need to phone CPS for a fault, they are as helpful as they can be, and you get through quickly.

CPS very good if you have problems. They’ve helped me a few times over my ev ownership times.
I’ve noticed in the last couple of times it’s much quicker to get through than it used to be too.

CPS very good if you have problems. They’ve helped me a few times over my ev ownership times.
I’ve noticed in the last couple of times it’s much quicker to get through than it used to be too.

Sorry about all those times I’ve used on occasion there ?

 

[emmaD]

Due to the Oban/Mull ferry being full, I'm going up and back down via Corran and Lochaline. Things look pretty bleak charger-wise from Crianlarich onwards. I drive a Nissan so the added issue that Chademo chargers are being replaced (Tyndrum) or not repaired. Usually, I plan very carefully but there are so many broken chargers reported on that route via Glen Coe I am just going to set off super early and hope for the best.

 

[QLeo]

Due to the Oban/Mull ferry being full, I'm going up and back down via Corran and Lochaline. Things look pretty bleak charger-wise from Crianlarich onwards. I drive a Nissan so the added issue that Chademo chargers are being replaced (Tyndrum) or not repaired. Usually, I plan very carefully but there are so many broken chargers reported on that route via Glen Coe I am just going to set off super early and hope for the best.

I suppose the thinking is that there are plenty of chargers in Fort William/An Gearasdan, so the distances are manageable, Ardnamurchan always being forgotten. I thought there were some at Ardgour (we have a friend nearby, but I think she charges at home).

 

[Archev]

Due to the Oban/Mull ferry being full, I'm going up and back down via Corran and Lochaline. Things look pretty bleak charger-wise from Crianlarich onwards. I drive a Nissan so the added issue that Chademo chargers are being replaced (Tyndrum) or not repaired. Usually, I plan very carefully but there are so many broken chargers reported on that route via Glen Coe I am just going to set off super early and hope for the best.

Well it’s so hot (23 C) here in ballahuilish that I wanted an ice lolly and just as the lassie held it up to the reader all the power in the village went off. So they can’t blame my electric car for once - it was that dam orange lolly ?

 

[QLeo]

Well it’s so hot (23 C) here in ballahuilish that I wanted an ice lolly and just as the lassie held it up to the reader all the power in the village went off. So they can’t blame my electric car for once - it was that dam orange lolly ?

It's 21.4°C in our Stevenson screened outside thermometer here in Assynt today.

As this is a CPS thread, a heads-up:
I put the car on to charge in Lochinver yesterday and the destination charger said something like "Authorisation declined". I tried a few times, then had to go to an appointment. I phoned CPS while strolling back. They warned of long waiting times, but in 5 minutes or so I got through. The service agent asked my email address then confirmation of home address, then said "I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is." A few seconds later he said "Yes, your account has been blocked." I was about to go pop when he added "It's nothing you've done and I can get it unblocked immediately," which he did. By the time I got to the car the card authorised without issue.
I'm guessing this has something to do with the changeover in the payment provider, but at least it was quickly resolved.

 

[Rolfe]

I have to say the guy on the phone was very good about sorting me out when I wasn't getting any of their emails and had to give them a different email address to change my password and get back into my account.

I didn't actually need a CPS charger after all though, the destination chargers were all full so I just charged to 83% at MFG and then had a quick top-up at a Tesla site on the way home. So I can't swear it's actually working. Maybe I should try the village charger just to be on the safe side.