Charging away from home

[dspencer12345]

So I've had my ZS LR Trophy for a year now, and have never travelled more than 100 miles from home, meaning I've only charged at home with my Podpoint 7.4kwh charger! And I don't have the Tesla software update by the way. So I'm still an EV novice I guess!

I've gone to Zapmap, and see CCS Combo DC chargers, many at 150kW and some as high as 350kW on my route.
I suppose the long and short of it, do they all work with the ZS okay? Any I should steer clear of?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated!

 

[GaryMG4]

So I've had my ZS LR Trophy for a year now, and have never travelled more than 100 miles from home, meaning I've only charged at home with my Podpoint 7.4kwh charger! And I don't have the Tesla software update by the way. So I'm still an EV novice I guess!

I've gone to Zapmap, and see CCS Combo DC chargers, many at 150kW and some as high as 350kW on my route.
I suppose the long and short of it, do they all work with the ZS okay? Any I should steer clear of?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated!

Your car will control the speed so any CCS will be fine, personally not had any issues with any DC chargers.

 

[dspencer12345]

Your car will control the speed so any CCS will be fine, personally not had any issues with any DC chargers.

That's really good to hear. What speed of charge do you tend to get from the 150kW+ chargers?

 

[MG steve]

Probably 50kW on average, obviously it depends on SOC, temperature and charger.

 

[fred12345]

So I've had my ZS LR Trophy for a year now, and have never travelled more than 100 miles from home, meaning I've only charged at home with my Podpoint 7.4kwh charger! And I don't have the Tesla software update by the way. So I'm still an EV novice I guess!

I've gone to Zapmap, and see CCS Combo DC chargers, many at 150kW and some as high as 350kW on my route.
I suppose the long and short of it, do they all work with the ZS okay? Any I should steer clear of?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated!

Whatever we post in reply is more or less pointless - before you go on your journey, pop around to 4-5 different chargers in the neighbourhood to test everything - including Tesla charger. Practice makes perfect... ?

 

[Jomarkh]

I second the above.
Try a few local DC CCS chargers if only for a few kWh.
Most have instructions or will tell you when to plug in the car.
Are you going to pay by CC or do you have apps and RFID cards?

 

[Rob24]

Whatever we post in reply is more or less pointless - before you go on your journey, pop around to 4-5 different chargers in the neighbourhood to test everything - including Tesla charger. Practice makes perfect... ?

I have been doing exactly that.
I'm doing a long journey at the end of the month and I have been to different charge stations to practice and prove my car.
I do use the Octopus Electroverse app and it is very good, it even links the app to my electric bill. So any payments are added to my Octopus bill.

 

[GaryMG4]

That's really good to hear. What speed of charge do you tend to get from the 150kw+ chargers?

Tha maximum I've seen was around 142kW, I think the car states 140 max but it depends on temperature and state of charge. With the high power chargers they usually stop when they reach my 80% limit before I'm ready to continue my journey.

Whatever we post in reply is more or less pointless - before you go on your journey, pop around to 4-5 different chargers in the neighbourhood to test everything - including Tesla charger. Practice makes perfect... ?

That's exactly what I did when I got mine, turned the holiday trip into a complete non-drama.

 

[Chris H]

A bit of a long explanation of my first experience, so skip if you're not interested.
I did a 150 mile journey (+150 back) from Dorset to Cambridge yesterday, I'd never charged away from home before. I started at 100% and stopped at a Sainsburys (next to Lister hospital, found on ZapMap) on the way up with 29% (52 miles) showing left with 22 miles to go. I plugged in and it showed charging at 60+kW, so went into the café and pootled round the shop for about 35 mins and it was charged to 85% but it was quite expensive, 75p/kWh. It was 9pm on the way back when we were passing the same place, 125 miles to go and 120 miles range showing so stopped again. This time it only charged at 22kW which was really annoying because it meant we had to wait half an hour to boost enough for a comfortable 30 mile differential between range and distance. When I reached home the range said 12 miles, which was a bit closer than I had planned. I was aware and worrying about the range for the entire journey, which wasn't very relaxing but the actual charging process was easier than expected.
I have 2 questions:
1. Is 12 miles spare arriving home cutting it too fine?
2. Why would the same charging station (different actual unit but same station) give me 60kW one time and 22kW the second time?

 

[Jomarkh]

The GOM is quite good for seeing what you have left. I have arrived home on a single digit percentage.
Did try swapping chargers if it was only pulling 22kW?
If you have the Electroverse card charging is cheaper on some networks in the evening.

 

[Gadget Geek]

A bit of a log explanation of my first experience, so skip if you're not interested.
I did a 150 mile journey (+150 back) from Dorset to Cambridge yesterday, I'd never charged away from home before. I started at 100% and stopped at a Sainsburys (next to Lister hospital, found on ZapMap) on the way up with 29% (52 miles) showing left with 22 miles to go. I plugged in and it showed charging at 60+KW/h, so went into the café and pootled round the shop for about 35 mins and it was charged to 85% but it was quite expensive, 75p/kWh. It was 9pm on the way back when we were passing the same place, 125 miles to go and 120 miles range showing so stopped again. This time it only charged at 22kW/h which was really annoying because it meant we had to wait half an hour to boost enough for a comfortable 30 mile differential between range and distance. When I reached home the range said 12 miles, which was a bit closer that I planned. I was aware and worrying about the range for the entire journey, which wasn't very relaxing but the actual charging process was easier than expected.
I have 2 questions:
1. Is 12 miles spare arriving home cutting it too fine?
2. Why would the same charging station (different actual unit but same station) give me 60kW/h one time and 22kW/h the second time?

I usually arrive back home with around 10 - 20 miles remaining, because I know I can charge when I get there. I usually look at the distance on the sat-nav and subtract it from the range remaining on the guess-o-meter. If there are 50 miles extra, then I don't bother charging.

 

[Gadget Geek]

I was aware and worrying about the range for the entire journey, which wasn't very relaxing but the actual charging process was easier than expected.

I think all of us had range anxiety on our first long journey, so don't worry. Eventually, as you gain confidence in the vehicle's ability to predict how much range you have left, the anxiety turns to awareness. You don't worry about it, you just keep an eye on it and charge when you need to.

I use Google Maps in Android Auto, and it has a "Nearby Chargers" option where you can pick a nearby charger and it will navigate to it. After an unplanned journey earlier this year, I don't plan anymore. I just put the postcode in the sat-nav and go (having charged to 100% overnight).

 

[dspencer12345]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll certainly try a charger or two locally before we go, but there aren't many around this area to be honest.
I'm planning on paying by card, but am happy to install an app as necessary.

 

[Gadget Geek]

I've always paid by contactless debit card. I have applied for the Electroverse card though as it covers so many networks. Don't forget that when you use an app, you have to have an internet signal. A few people have been caught out by that.

 

[Nickel]

For what it's worth, I think arriving home with 12 miles spare is cutting it too fine.

As long as your driving style is reasonable constant and you keep an eye on what's happening, you'll probably get away with it, perhaps for a long time.

But one of these days, you'll run into a road that's been closed by accident/flood/roadworks and have to divert. And the "butter side down" rule being what it is, the diversion won't take you past a ChargePoint...

I was diverted 20 miles by HS2 works in the Midlands once and 30 miles by an M4 crash in South Wales. It happens.

 

[PremierscfcEV]

So I've had my ZS LR Trophy for a year now, and have never travelled more than 100 miles from home, meaning I've only charged at home with my Podpoint 7.4kwh charger! And I don't have the Tesla software update by the way. So I'm still an EV novice I guess!

I've gone to Zapmap, and see CCS Combo DC chargers, many at 150kW and some as high as 350kW on my route.
I suppose the long and short of it, do they all work with the ZS okay? Any I should steer clear of?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated!

I've used since may 23, Osprey, Gridserve, Swarko/Evolt, Podpoint/Lidl and Telsa (after V2L fixed) all without any issues. The only one I had issues with were Morrisons/Geniepoint (tried all 3 stalls) that was the first week I had the car. I will be trying the geniepoint again in the next few days so I will update this if it is successful.

 

[Nickel]

I should have answered the other part of your query.

We've had two ZS's, for a total of a little over four years. Now on a Trophy LR.

We're based in Swansea, travel regularly to the Midlands to see our son & his family, have been all over Wales, east to East Anglia, north as far as Perth and south as far as the Dordogne. We've never had any systematic issues with any brand of charger.

Off the top of my head, we've used Gridserve, Instavolt, Ionity, Podpoint, Geniepoint, BP, Shell, Swarco, Osprey and a bunch of French ones whose names I can't remember.

Individual chargers may play up or not work at all, but not a brand. The worst problem nowadays seems to be the card readers not recognising some cards when they should. If we have a choice, I'd head for Instavolt, which tend to connect more easily, and avoid Geniepoint, which I've found to be slow. But normally it's whatever's convenient. Don't spend time and miles looking for favourites.

Lately the car has been charging at about 50-60kW, dropping to 25kW when it reaches about 85% and under 20kW just past 90%, finally down into single figures. Even on a long run, we've give up by then. Even plugging to to high power chargers won't necessarily guarantee a high charge rate. I've been on 150kW chargers that never went over 30kW. The actual charge rate is set by the car, depending on a variety of factors (temperature, state of charge, etc.) and by the point itself, which may be load sharing with other points.

Take a variety of credit/RFID cards, don't overthink the problem and chill out. Try and have a plan A, B & C in case you turn up and chargers aren't working, there's a queue, etc. It's a lot easier than it was, especially if you are briefed to venture off motorway.

Oh, and Read The Fine Instructions on the chargepoint. They don't all want things to happen in the same order. And they work a lot better if you do what they want instead of trying to persuade them to do what you think they should.... Machines are like that!

 

[Drop Bear]

Tip for new players - if you have scheduled charging enabled in the settings of the car, disable it before leaving on your long trip.

 

[Bradford Chap]

I should have answered the other part of your query.

We've had two ZS's, for a total of a little over four years. Now on a Trophy LR.

We're based in Swansea, travel regularly to the Midlands to see our son & his family, have been all over Wales, east to East Anglia, north as far as Perth and south as far as the Dordogne. We've never had any systematic issues with any brand of charger.

Off the top of my head, we've used Gridserve, Instavolt, Ionity, Podpoint, Geniepoint, BP, Shell, Swarco, Osprey and a bunch of French ones whose names I can't remember.

Individual chargers may play up or not work at all, but not a brand. The worst problem nowadays seems to be the card readers not recognising some cards when they should. If we have a choice, I'd head for Instavolt, which tend to connect more easily, and avoid Geniepoint, which I've found to be slow. But normally it's whatever's convenient. Don't spend time and miles looking for favourites.

Lately the car has been charging at about 50-60kW, dropping to 25kW when it reaches about 85% and under 20kW just past 90%, finally down into single figures. Even on a long run, we've give up by then. Even plugging to to high power chargers won't necessarily guarantee a high charge rate. I've been on 150kW chargers that never went over 30kW. The actual charge rate is set by the car, depending on a variety of factors (temperature, state of charge, etc.) and by the point itself, which may be load sharing with other points.

Take a variety of credit/RFID cards, don't overthink the problem and chill out. Try and have a plan A, B & C in case you turn up and chargers aren't working, there's a queue, etc. It's a lot easier than it was, especially if you are briefed to venture off motorway.

Oh, and Read The Fine Instructions on the chargepoint. They don't all want things to happen in the same order. And they work a lot better if you do what they want instead of trying to persuade them to do what you think they should.... Machines are like that!

In my experience this is very good advice. ??

 

[Garnett]

I should have answered the other part of your query.

We've had two ZS's, for a total of a little over four years. Now on a Trophy LR.

We're based in Swansea, travel regularly to the Midlands to see our son & his family, have been all over Wales, east to East Anglia, north as far as Perth and south as far as the Dordogne. We've never had any systematic issues with any brand of charger.

Off the top of my head, we've used Gridserve, Instavolt, Ionity, Podpoint, Geniepoint, BP, Shell, Swarco, Osprey and a bunch of French ones whose names I can't remember.

Individual chargers may play up or not work at all, but not a brand. The worst problem nowadays seems to be the card readers not recognising some cards when they should. If we have a choice, I'd head for Instavolt, which tend to connect more easily, and avoid Geniepoint, which I've found to be slow. But normally it's whatever's convenient. Don't spend time and miles looking for favourites.

Lately the car has been charging at about 50-60kW, dropping to 25kW when it reaches about 85% and under 20kW just past 90%, finally down into single figures. Even on a long run, we've give up by then. Even plugging to to high power chargers won't necessarily guarantee a high charge rate. I've been on 150kW chargers that never went over 30kW. The actual charge rate is set by the car, depending on a variety of factors (temperature, state of charge, etc.) and by the point itself, which may be load sharing with other points.

Take a variety of credit/RFID cards, don't overthink the problem and chill out. Try and have a plan A, B & C in case you turn up and chargers aren't working, there's a queue, etc. It's a lot easier than it was, especially if you are briefed to venture off motorway.

Oh, and Read The Fine Instructions on the chargepoint. They don't all want things to happen in the same order. And they work a lot better if you do what they want instead of trying to persuade them to do what you think they should.... Machines are like that!

You mention travelling all over Wales, so may be interested - we go every year to Aberdaron, a village at end of the Lleyn peninsula. There's a National Trust car park there (free to members, otherwise a fee), and whilst not advertised, hidden round the back of the main building is a free type 2 charger socket (need own cable), and next to it a standard 3 pin socket so could use the granny if type 2 occupied. We live 280 miles away near Hampton Court so do a minor approx 10% charge on the journeys in ZS long range.