Charging Woes

[shaunuk]

Just completed our first longish trip in our MG5 Exclusive. Around 400 miles in total from Gloucestershire to Sussex.
Found the charging infrastructure woefully lacking. Very few rapid chargers actually working but plenty of 7.4kwh which were but of little use when on a long journey.
One rapid we found that was working, an InstaVolt was 66pkwh and I worked out that the cost was very nearly the same as it would have been to put the same amount of range on my old ICE diesel..!
I did have a free Bonnet charge that I tried to take advantage of but the only charger I found under their umbrella was an Osprey and you guessed it - it wasn’t working!
Thinking of going back to ICE for long journeys and the EV for local trips for which I can charge at home!
Things can only get better!

Well. I feel your pain. But as a 7 year ev veteran with 120k electric miles under my belt, here are my tips. it’s so good now in comparison to when the electric highway was the only game in town and they were shocking - probably 1 in 4 chargers would actually work.

1. Use zap map or plug share to plan your journeys before you go. Filter by ccs chargers with a 7/10 or higher. Then click on ones along your route and read the latest comments. If some one has reported the fault in the last month and there’s no good charges afterwards, assume it’s broken.

2. Always have a backup charger in mind well within your range.

3. Always charge. If you’re at 50 or 60% and you’re stopping for a quick wee and you see a free rapid charger. Just take it. Those first 10 minutes will buy you an hour of driving and a lot less range anxiety.

4. Ignore the per unit price of electric, the total cost of ownership of the ev and enjoyment from the drive is what’s paramount. If you see an expensive ionity charger but it can do 350kw and has 6 bays. Well… you have hit the jackpot. Regardless of cost. Use it.

5. Make the charging part of the journey. Enjoy the services, put the kids in the park, wash or tidy the car, talk to fellow ev drivers.

6. If you’re planning a 20 minute charge stop, assume it will be 40 minutes once you have waited for people to move on, deal with starting the charge, finding the charger. If it’s quicker, at least your pleasantly surprised.

7. Get the Tesla app, they are opening up their charger network and it’s the gold standard.

 

[EVsince2016]

Do the Tesla chargers allow plug & charge on non Teslas?

 

[Madgermusso]

Not sure I get the logic there, the cost to recharge is the real cost, not before

 

[ging353]

Just had a week in Bridlington.......hopelessly lacking in fast chargers........slow chargers always taken up by selfish parkers......Found 2 Rapid chargers......One in Morrisons (Geniepoint...been out of action for ages) the other in Lidl ( Podpoint......app needed to work it, which I had but wouldn't recognise the network on my phone)...... total nightmare..!!

 

[AK OK]

Just had a week in Bridlington.......hopelessly lacking in fast chargers........slow chargers always taken up by selfish parkers......Found 2 Rapid chargers......One in Morrisons (Geniepoint...been out of action for ages) the other in Lidl ( Podpoint......app needed to work it, which I had but wouldn't recognise the network on my phone)...... total nightmare..!!

Do you mean lacking in Rapids?

Not far (15 miles) to Scarborough McDonald's & another Lidl though ?

 

[BugEyed]

Just had a week in Bridlington

Simples - don't go to Bridlington. ?

More seriously, let the Council know how badly their infrastructure lets them down. The

slow chargers always taken up by selfish parkers

should have some form of parking restrictions - the Council either need to enforce them and/or tighten them up.

 

[BananaDuck]

@DK1083, I can relate to your experience because in Hampshire & Sussex (East & West) their are 2 issues:
1) The majority of rapids are out of action.
2) There are very few in these counties, especially in the central horizontal corridor (e.g. N & S of the A272).

Only yesterday I did a round trip to Gatwick and of the half dozen rapids along the most direct route only one was possibly working with all the others reported as faulty.

@DK1083 I’d love to know which ones you found to be faulty.

 

[shaunuk]

Do the Tesla chargers allow plug & charge on non Teslas?

Yea. About 10 round the country currently. And they are fast. Just get the app and go to charge a non Tesla option

 

[shaunuk]

Not sure I get the logic there, the cost to recharge is the real cost, not before

Depends if your looking at solely the cost in pounds per charge, the fuller cost or value of a rapid charger includes less lost time, less anxiety looking for chargers, paying an amount that is profitable so the charging network expands in the future, amenities onsite during the charge, enjoyment of owning an ev, environmental impact, first mover cost… these are some of considerations surrounding a rapid charger and why the price is what it is. As a side note. I saw the octopus agile price at home (grid price) was over 70p today. The networks have no control over when you charge. I suspect they are paying more than this some times.

When I plug in. I never think, oh this charge that I need to do once a month is going to be expensive. Because the most I’ve ever paid is £20 but the cars over in the forecourt are probably all squirting in £80-£100 each. And I want whoever has funded this rapid charger at great expense to make money so we get more.

 

[m4rmite]

Do the Tesla chargers allow plug & charge on non Teslas?

If you have zapmap then use the filter on network, tesla public supercharger option.
Our use the tesla app and pick charge your non tesla, zoom out to where you want and click search this region.
There's 15 public charger locations atm, mostly south east of the country.
I do believe you will need to register/setup your details in the tesla app to pay for a charge.
I could be wrong though.

 

[DK1083]

@DK1083, I can relate to your experience because in Hampshire & Sussex (East & West) their are 2 issues:
1) The majority of rapids are out of action.
2) There are very few in these counties, especially in the central horizontal corridor (e.g. N & S of the A272).

Only yesterday I did a round trip to Gatwick and of the half dozen rapids along the most direct route only one was possibly working with all the others reported as faulty.

@DK1083 I’d love to know which ones you found to be faulty.

McDonalds, Bognor and an Osprey at Barnfield Drive, Chichester and another I can’t remember the location of.
We used a 7.4kwh at Tesco, Bognor but painfully slow, (all 3 in use) and the best was a rapid BP Pulse at Goodwood Hotel..

 

[ging353]

Do you mean lacking in Rapids?

Not far (15 miles) to Scarborough McDonald's & another Lidl though ?

Yes sorry ....I meant rapids.....If I'm staying in Bridlington why should I have to be going to Scarborough to charge my car.....Crazy..!!

 

[Robfer]

Just completed a trip from South wales to Stuttgart in Germany in my MG ZS EV LR .Very pleased with the performance of the car and by enlarge the charging infrastructure in Europe ,only problem I encountered were of my own making , pushed to far and couldn't find a charger until down to 35 Km in battery. Return trip was fine except for road closure where I had planed to recharge . But on the whole ,as long as you allow enough time a pleasant trip

 

[AK OK]

Yes sorry ....I meant rapids.....If I'm staying in Bridlington why should I have to be going to Scarborough to charge my car.....Crazy..!!

First world issue...

 

[AK OK]

McDonalds, Bognor and an Osprey at Barnfield Drive, Chichester and another I can’t remember the location of.
We used a 7.4kwh at Tesco, Bognor but painfully slow,

& free....

 

[BananaDuck]

McDonalds, Bognor and an Osprey at Barnfield Drive, Chichester and another I can’t remember the location of.
We used a 7.4kwh at Tesco, Bognor but painfully slow, (all 3 in use) and the best was a rapid BP Pulse at Goodwood Hotel..

Thanks, it’s even worse down here in the SE than I realised ?, I live in East Hampshire and dread driving East (West is bad but not quite as bad as East) due the lack of working rapid chargers.
The impression that I’m getting is that there’s a significant North/South imbalance in not only the installation of rapids but also the maintenance of them with so few actually working South of the M4/M25/M20.

 

[BananaDuck]

McDonalds, Bognor and an Osprey at Barnfield Drive, Chichester and another I can’t remember the location of.
We used a 7.4kwh at Tesco, Bognor but painfully slow, (all 3 in use) and the best was a rapid BP Pulse at Goodwood Hotel..

I only use BP Pulse as a last resort because from my own experience very few actually work or as per my last experience take half an hour of repeatedly attempting to connect; Yes, I know why keep trying if it fails the first time but when there isn’t a working alternative within range then I’ve no other choice other then call a recovery truck. You also might ask why keep on trying rather than phoning BP Pulse support, well I was waiting for them to answer whilst I kept retrying and it eventually connected before they answered.

I wonder if the reason that specific BP Pulse unit actually worked was because of it’s location of the Goodwood hotel or maybe I’m just being cynical because surely there’s no correlation to the wealthy clients that stay there.

 

[Shrink Proof]

Thanks, it’s even worse down here in the SE than I realised ?, I live in East Hampshire and dread driving East (West is bad but not quite as bad as East) due the lack of working rapid chargers.
The impression that I’m getting is that there’s a significant North/South imbalance in not only the installation of rapids but also the maintenance of them with so few actually working South of the M4/M25/M20.

I've no idea about a North/South divide as far as charger maintainence goes, but there's definitely one for charger installation.

"According to Office of National Statistics and Zap-Map data, there are 390 chargers per
100,000 people in Westminster – the highest rate in the UK. There may be an argument
that more chargers are needed due to car traffic. However, this does not correlate with
separate ONS stats on miles driven by region. This data shows there is an EV charger for
every 500,000 vehicle miles driven in Westminster. The UK average is one EV charging
point per 14.8 million miles driven, while in Greater Manchester, the figure is 30 million."

That's a quote from this report, compiled last year from a Freedom of Information request. It's worth 5 minutes of your time having a read to see what's really happening.

 

[Tweed98]

Just had a week in Bridlington.......hopelessly lacking in fast chargers........slow chargers always taken up by selfish parkers......Found 2 Rapid chargers......One in Morrisons (Geniepoint...been out of action for ages) the other in Lidl ( Podpoint......app needed to work it, which I had but wouldn't recognise the network on my phone)...... total nightmare..!!

That's worrying. My Dad lives in Brid and I already know the car doesn't have the range to do it in one hit even with ideal conditions. Normally only stop the night so even if the tight got lets me use his juice I wouldn't get far on it. The map options for rapids on the way didn't look too healthy either.

 

[Stuart Priest]

Just completed our first longish trip in our MG5 Exclusive. Around 400 miles in total from Gloucestershire to Sussex.
Found the charging infrastructure woefully lacking. Very few rapid chargers actually working but plenty of 7.4kwh which were but of little use when on a long journey.
One rapid we found that was working, an InstaVolt was 66pkwh and I worked out that the cost was very nearly the same as it would have been to put the same amount of range on my old ICE diesel..!
I did have a free Bonnet charge that I tried to take advantage of but the only charger I found under their umbrella was an Osprey and you guessed it - it wasn’t working!
Thinking of going back to ICE for long journeys and the EV for local trips for which I can charge at home!
Things can only get better!

Last weekend we did our first long distance trip from Yorkshire to Essex and back and we discovered that fast charging in the area we stayed was really poor (though it looked ok on zap map) - we discovered that all the fast chargers had two painted bays but they only allowed one car to charge at a time! We got down to 3% before we found a free one!
We now know that charging on the way down and way back at motorway services is the way to go! Has anyone got any other hints for newbies?
Ta!