Pod point woes .....

[Deleted member 2439]

Hi,

Ok, I’m at day 3 of ownership and still finding my way round the new wheels. I’ve bought a type 2 cable and yesterday thought I’d try it out. I live near Lincoln and located 2 Pod point chargers which were reportedly free. One at Lidl and one at Tesco, which I thought I’d combine with the Christmas shop. I registered with Pod Point - so far so good.

I arrive at Lidl first and find that the charger has a captive cable, but hey ho. I then discover it’s not free, but hey ho again and proceed to start charging and confirm this on the app. Half an hour later I’m back, load the car up and see about stopping the charge. The touchscreen has a stop button, which does nothing. A skim through the MG‘s manual doesn’t help and the Pod Point app just says to unplug to stop - which I can’t as the connector is locked into the car. At that point another EV driver arrives and I ask for help - his response is to press the emergency stop button on the charger. This does the trick, I unplug and set off after checking the app to see that I have in fact received a couple of kWh. So somewhat mixed success.

This morning I go to Tesco early and get the last of their (VW branded) Pod Point places. I use my own new cable, start the process and then do the last of the shopping. I return to the car and again, can’t stop the charge! No emergency button this time, so I use the under bonnet release - which works, but seems a bit of a brutal way of doing it. At least my cable works and I had a couple of free kWh, thanks Tesco. Mucky things to play with in the wet aren’t they!

So, is this just me? I’ve looked at the manual again (page 145 onwards) and it really doesn’t help much. My only consolation is that any type 2 connector has the sense pin which will switch the power off before the main contacts are broken - due to it being a shorter pin which is broken first.

Hopefully one of you will be along to berate me - which I’d welcome frankly as the process seems somewhat inelegant.

Cheers - Rob

 

[Dossdes]

May be obvious but have you unlocked the car? I only ask as I sometimes have to unlock mine a couple of times before the charger will release. From memory it’s something to do with the BMS update that allows charging whilst unlocked.

 

[Deleted member 2439]

May be obvious but have you unlocked the car? I only ask as I sometimes have to unlock mine a couple of times before the charger will release. From memory it’s something to do with the BMS update that allows charging whilst unlocked.

Hi, yes as I’m sat in it looking through the manual. I’m not adverse to trying it again though. Waiting a couple of minutes or multiple lock/unlocks doesn’t inspire confidence though really does it? Not being critical , just stating an opinion ?

 

[Dossdes]

Ah I see. So if you’re sat in it whilst the car is unlocked then after the cable has been inserted it will lock into place. you then need to unlock it by pressing the unlock button on the fob, which seems counter intuitive as the car is already unlocked. I presume its a safety feature so it’s locked in place for the charge to start

 

[Mark Holmes]

Yes if the car is unlocked you need to press the unlock button again to remove the cable, if you don’t remove the cable it will re-lock itself.

 

[Kithmo]

I don't have the BMS update yet and I'm rapidly going off having it done with the problems and faffing about people are having. ?

 

[Deleted member 2439]

Yes if the car is unlocked you need to press the unlock button again to remove the cable, if you don’t remove the cable it will re-lock itself.

Brilliant, thanks - ive just tried that at home and it works fine. Shame it’s not documented in the section on charging or about the key fob isnt it! ?

 

[Deleted member 2439]

Ah I see. So if you’re sat in it whilst the car is unlocked then after the cable has been inserted it will lock into place. you then need to unlock it by pressing the unlock button on the fob, which seems counter intuitive as the car is already unlocked. I presume its a safety feature so it’s locked in place for the charge to start

It will be interesting to see what you think of the ZS vs the 330e at some point

 

[Jake]

Hi,

Ok, I’m at day 3 of ownership and still finding my way round the new wheels. I’ve bought a type 2 cable and yesterday thought I’d try it out. I live near Lincoln and located 2 Pod point chargers which were reportedly free. One at Lidl and one at Tesco, which I thought I’d combine with the Christmas shop. I registered with Pod Point - so far so good.

I arrive at Lidl first and find that the charger has a captive cable, but hey ho. I then discover it’s not free, but hey ho again and proceed to start charging and confirm this on the app. Half an hour later I’m back, load the car up and see about stopping the charge. The touchscreen has a stop button, which does nothing. A skim through the MG‘s manual doesn’t help and the Pod Point app just says to unplug to stop - which I can’t as the connector is locked into the car. At that point another EV driver arrives and I ask for help - his response is to press the emergency stop button on the charger. This does the trick, I unplug and set off after checking the app to see that I have in fact received a couple of kWh. So somewhat mixed success.

This morning I go to Tesco early and get the last of their (VW branded) Pod Point places. I use my own new cable, start the process and then do the last of the shopping. I return to the car and again, can’t stop the charge! No emergency button this time, so I use the under bonnet release - which works, but seems a bit of a brutal way of doing it. At least my cable works and I had a couple of free kWh, thanks Tesco. Mucky things to play with in the wet aren’t they!

So, is this just me? I’ve looked at the manual again (page 145 onwards) and it really doesn’t help much. My only consolation is that any type 2 connector has the sense pin which will switch the power off before the main contacts are broken - due to it being a shorter pin which is broken first.

Hopefully one of you will be along to berate me - which I’d welcome frankly as the process seems somewhat inelegant.

Cheers - Rob

Hi Robert. A couple of years ago I stayed a weekend in Lincoln and there was a multi-storey car park near the centre that had several free to use 7kW charge points run by the council. I was most impressed with this forward thinking local authority. Can't remember the name of the car park but there was a complete row of chargers on the ground floor immediately next to the entrance/exit. Hope you sort out your teething problems with the car soon I'm sure it'll become second nature with experience and getting to know all the foibles.

 

[notdodgy]

I noticed several podpoints near me ( now bppulse) but lidl is chargeable but asda and the local station are free. Next nearest station is chargeable.
I have used the Tesco one and it took me a few minutes to get the sequence right.
Unlock the car with the fob and unplug the car.
The charger end then released.

As others have said, they are not consistent and don't always display clear instructions.

 

[Deleted member 2439]

Hi,

It was probably the then newly opened central car park - which has been opened about 3 years now. Brightly painted orange floors.
These points are now part of the BP Pulse network, so are not free anymore! They have a £1.20 minimum fee, with free usage after that. Ok, but the membership then costs £7.85 per month after 3 months free. I park there from time to time, but (excluding membership fee) would need to extract 9kWh to recover the fixed fee. If you are going to park there for a long time then great, but the parking isnt that cheap there.
It’s all swings and roundabouts this game isn’t it. I hate to think how long it will take to recover the cost of my shiny new Zappi with it’s buried armoured cable. I think I’ll quietly forget about that and put it down to adding value to the house. ?
Cheers for now - Rob

 

[Kithmo]

Without BMS, unlock the car and open a door to stop it auto re-locking in 30 seconds.

 

[Deleted member 2439]

I’ve just seen Mike‘s video on the BMS update, and my car performs exactly how his does in the video. I’m very pleased that he demonstrated by opening the door at one point as the
”auto lock” feature confuses things somewhat.

 

[Deleted member 2439]

Without BMS, unlock the car and open a door to stop it auto re-locking in 30 seconds.

Our messages crossed in the ether / cloud ?

 

[Dossdes]

It will be interesting to see what you think of the ZS vs the 330e at some point

I really loved the 330e and it was the best of both worlds, perfect for my weekly work trips from Leeds to London in hybrid mode, and great for local driving on electric. Work installed a chargemaster socket at my house (and didn’t take it back when I was made redundant) so I havent had the expense of having one fitted.
330e was extremely fast, sure footed on the M Sport suspension, really lovely to sit in and had all the extras (I maxed out the options on it).
the ZS though whilst not being as quick, or as nimble, has a higher SUV style that I quite like, plus with having older parents and mother in law it’s so much easier for them to get in and out. Yes the build quality isn’t as good as the BMW but then that car was £41k and I only paid £22k for the ZS.

ive done a couple of lengthy trips in the last 2 weeks requiring using Rapid chargers, and these (when planned using Zap-Map) went without a hitch.

loving the car so far

 

[Deleted member 2439]

I really loved the 330e and it was the best of both worlds, perfect for my weekly work trips from Leeds to London in hybrid mode, and great for local driving on electric. Work installed a chargemaster socket at my house (and didn’t take it back when I was made redundant) so I havent had the expense of having one fitted.
330e was extremely fast, sure footed on the M Sport suspension, really lovely to sit in and had all the extras (I maxed out the options on it).
the ZS though whilst not being as quick, or as nimble, has a higher SUV style that I quite like, plus with having older parents and mother in law it’s so much easier for them to get in and out. Yes the build quality isn’t as good as the BMW but then that car was £41k and I only paid £22k for the ZS.

ive done a couple of lengthy trips in the last 2 weeks requiring using Rapid chargers, and these (when planned using Zap-Map) went without a hitch.

loving the car so far

Pretty much as I was expecting. I had a decent play with a 330e a couple of years back and was really impressed with the acceleration. I note they have now introduced a touring version and can’t understand why it took them so long. I think it was a very popular model for company car drivers so there should be a fair number on the used market - not that I’m in the running to buy one though.

 

[Mark Holmes]

You can keep it at that price, way out of my price bracket...

 

[Dossdes]

In fairness it was a company car and because of the co2 emissions being so low was actually cheaper on company car tax than a standard golf or Passat. Plus point was it got me into the whole EV way of thinking