Charging at motorway service stations

[Rolfe]

They have all the facilities required while you stop and are usually well lit and covered.

That part. That part right there. This is not true of any of the motorway EV charging stations I have been to. They are not covered and they are not well lit. They are open to the elements and I suppose the advantage of the darkness is that at least you'll be able to see the screen on the charger and your phone, as opposed to being completely blinded by sunshine. And there's little sign of this being addressed. The brand new banks of chargers I saw at Gretna and Abington were as bad as all the rest. Out in the open, no shelter, no light. Not only that, they are unattended, leaving lone female drivers (in particular) vulnerable, at least in some locations.

This has got to change.

Back in the day I could be driving my car in my party frock and strappy sandals, and even in bad weather I had a reasonable expectation of being able to stop to fill my car with petrol without getting soaked to the skin, frozen stiff and/or blown away. Sure, sometimes I had to pick a petrol pump that was on the downwind side of the forecourt and run from the canopy to the shop, but it was doable. Nowadays I could "pay at the pump" and save even the run to the shop.

It can take just as long to get your car connected to a charger sometimes, as it takes to fill up with petrol. Even if everything goes swimmingly you have to get out and fiddle with cables and a charging port door and your method of payment. You can easily end up looking as if you've been swimming by the time you've done that. Then you have to do it again at the end of the charge.

Sure, you can sit inside your car (steaming gently) while it's charging, or you can go into the food court (to be fair, the chargers I've seen have been located reasonably close to the food court or restaurant) and dry off, but there's no escaping a period of time when you're exposed to the elements. I really dread having to charge the car away from home come winter, even at a motorway service station where at least there's food and shelter while it's charging. I am seriously wondering where my old one-piece waterproof nylon motorcycling suit is, and whether I can still get into it. If the weather is bad enough it's not going to be enough just to carry waterproofs in the car, it's going to be necessary to drive wearing them.

I give no guarantees that this rant is over at all.

 

[smokie]

Before we all go moaning at our MPs, can someone provide a link to the £90m mentioned above?

I've found some detail of a £56m scheme which comprises "£22million of money from central Government and £17million from private firms, with local authorities putting in £2million" and that has specific aims like "The LEVI pilot scheme (which) is aimed at boosting the wider on-street residential chargepointscheme (ORCS), helping councils in England to work with private companies for the purpose of installing EV chargers.".

Apparently the scheme is currently piloting in specific areas.

I know there are a lot more on street chargers around London so maybe it's working. It's fairly important to bring charging capability to city dwellers who do not have drives and garages in which they can charge their car.

So where are the other millions targeted and is there any evidence they're not either being spent or in some plan?

 

[Gadget Geek]

They have all the facilities required while you stop and are useally well lit and covered.

Not the ones I've ever been to. I think the Braintree Electric Forecourt business model is the one which should be used at motorway services. At the moment the Gridserve upgrades I have seen are just Ecotricity's old chargers being replaced with new updated chargers without improving the environment surrounding them.

I do see a time in the near future though where all fossil filling stations will install more and more chargers until fuel pumps will be phased out. It has already happened in some Shell and BP forecourts.

 

[wandle MG4 trophy]

A positive note about motorway charging - in my limited experience they are often 10p - 30p cheaper per kWh than some chargers in the outskirts of Leeds!

 

[Tweed98]

What3Words may be better, as not all charge points receive mail. ?

There are post codes around here that encompass a couple of square miles. What you actually need is an OS grid reference.

@Rolfe: Have you tried what3words? They have divided the globe into 3x3m squares, each square is assigned 3 random words so you can pin point yourself/charging points in the middle of nowhere and navigate them to you/you to them. The emergency services use it and lots of website are starting to use it.

 

[Gadget Geek]

@Rolfe: Have you tried what3words? They have divided the globe into 3x3m squares, each square is assigned 3 random words so you can pin point yourself/charging points in the middle of nowhere and navigate them to you/you to them. The emergency services use it and lots of website are starting to use it.

Have you tried putting What3Words into the sat-nav? I'd be interested to hear where you end up.

 

[smokie]

I tried it when it came out more than 7 years ago but didn't see a lot of need for it unless you really needed that granularity, which I didn't think I did.

I know my daughter has also used it for calling taxis and I guess if you need to pinpoint a charger then that's also useful. If you're walking in countryside and had an emergency you can also easily tell someone where you are (if you have signal!!)

I don't have it loaded but from memory you can type in the words then ask it to navigate you there, and it asks you which app you want to use and passes on the location.

 

[evcog]

I unfortunately got the government figure wrong by a factor of 10. Sorry about that as its actually £950,000,000.

Rapid charging fund

This was promissed in 2020 and the particular section was promissed to be completed by 2023. Currently not one penny has been forthcoming. Thats why you should ask your MP why not.

Charge companies cannot plan installations, planning permissions etc at a moments notice. That costs them huge amounts of money which they will have to pass onto customers or lose the investment if it never happens because of bureaucracy or lazyness..

 

[smokie]

Apparently a target of the RCF was that each m'way services would have 6 rapid chargers by end 2023. This is unlikely to be hit because they are finding it really isn't as simple as just plonking one there and plugging it in. These sites are, in many ways, quite remote and they weren't built with sufficient grid infrastructure to serve the required additional demand, and as you say it's not something which can be put in overnight. I imagine it's National Grid has some responsibility but I don't know if it's funded by the RCF.

I can't find a particularly recent update to see exactly what progress is so meantime here's a reasonably up to date document showing spend and numbers of chargers/installations on other government schemes. Electric vehicle charging device grant scheme statistics: January 2023

 

[Rolfe]

I've never used WhatThreeWords because it seems to be re-inventing the wheel at least as far as Great Britain is concerned. We were all taught how to use OS grid references at school - weren't we? That's what I was always used to using at work when it came to the location of a wildlife fatality or casualty for example. The guys out in the field had devices that would give an eight-digit OS location. At least. Pinpoints the location within inches. I've got the OS maps on my phone.

 

[evcog]

Smokie the money was set asside to pay for upgrading the infrastructure ( getting the power to locations where rapid chargers can be installed). Only the national grid are allowed to do this. Charging companies are NOT ALLOWED to do so. Thats why the money was promissed to allow the national grid to do so. They have not recieved the money promised to even start the work yet 2023 was the date chosen by the government. Why has it not been released? Why has no progress in distributing to the national grid been planned or organised? Very simple questions for our MPs so yes start chasing or you will be forever trying to find a 3 letter word to track down an expensive off route charger that when you arrive is broken.

 

[smokie]

I'm not usually one for writing to my local MP (not least as it's John Redwood) but in this case I have, to ask what the status is, as I can't find anything which either supports or disproves your assertion.

I'll update when I hear back

 

[Tweed98]

Have you tried putting What3Words into the sat-nav? I'd be interested to hear where you end up.

Easy Peasy, did this in the car yestarday and it works when connected. Your mileage may differ on iPhones however.

 

[Gomev]

I've never used WhatThreeWords because it seems to be re-inventing the wheel at least as far as Great Britain is concerned. We were all taught how to use OS grid references at school - weren't we? That's what I was always used to using at work when it came to the location of a wildlife fatality or casualty for example. The guys out in the field had devices that would give an eight-digit OS location. At least. Pinpoints the location within inches. I've got the OS maps on my phone.

I would say very few people use OS grid references nowadays in normal life. They're long and hardly memorable.
What3words is so much simpler. I'm currently at landed.menswear.desire for anyone who has w3w.

 

[DBedford]

I would say very few people use OS grid references nowadays in normal life. They're long and hardly memorable.
What3words is so much simpler. I'm currently at landed.menswear.desire for anyone who has w3w.a

I would say very few people use OS grid references nowadays in normal life. They're long and hardly memorable.
What3words is so much simpler. I'm currently at landed.menswear.desire for anyone who has w3w.

Agree total W3W is the way to go!

 

[evcog]

At the Fully Charged Live Show last weekend several industry leaders as well as the fully charged team talked on this topic in several of the featured talks. Charger compaines have thankfully got together and are meeting ministers next week to make a combined voice to get things going. It dosnt matter what flavour of politician is your representative. Although John Redwood was a member of the cabinet I believe when this was agreed.

If you want further information ask them the question of what progress there has been on the Rapid Charging Fund and will it be achieved by the governments own date.

I know its difficult to write letters to your MPs finding the right questions and researching the facts. However, direct experience has shown me that very little progress has been made on the M5 South of Gloucester. Which I believe is John Redwoods constituency. If you cant do it hopefully there are otherinterested members who might consider it.

As soon as I hear any feedback from that industry/ministerial meeting I will update here. Likewise if any of you get a reply from your MP show it in this forum subject. Perhaps together we can make something very usefull to we EV drivers happen.

I'm not usually one for writing to my local MP (not least as it's John Redwood) but in this case I have, to ask what the status is, as I can't find anything which either supports or disproves your assertion.

I'll update when I hear back

 

[Tweed98]

I would say very few people use OS grid references nowadays in normal life. They're long and hardly memorable.
What3words is so much simpler. I'm currently at landed.menswear.desire for anyone who has w3w.

Enjoy, I used to go on holiday to my Nan and Grandads caravan at hurricane.stealing.vitals in the late eighties and early nineties. Check out Oulton Broad if you haven't been. It was always rather pleasant.

 

[Gadget Geek]

£3.7m boost will bring more electric vehicle charging points to Somerset

Somerset Council is to be allocated nearly £4m of government funding to expand the county’s electrical vehicle charging network.

www.burnham-on-sea.com

Some news local to me.

 

[DBedford]

Doubling the number of rapid charging points in the west country to 6 would help!
Yes I know, 3 may be an over estimate!!?

 

[evcog]

An article for those requiring more information on the questions to ask your MPs.

Government not on track to hit motorway EV charger target | RAC Drive

The Government is set to miss its important EV charger target, with less than a quarter of motorway services in England currently having the target of six high-powered chargers

www.rac.co.uk