Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

myglaren wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 08:05 All sounds less than ideal Neil. Still much to resolve compared to liquid fuel.
CitroJim wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 08:15 Yes, I think that's something of an understatement Steve :twisted:

Steve/Jim
A lot of that yesterday self-inflicted. None of it would have happened if I had just nipped into Blaydon Morrisons :-D

Some other things contributed.....again self-inflicted

1. We have no internet access while on the move ie no smart phone
2. No paper map in the car.
3. Dont subscribe to nissan carwings/connect so the sat nav maps are 5 years out of date.

That contributed to an a second near miss where I had an idea there was a rapid charging point at West Denton/ Westerhope at a Jet Garage. We actually drove within 200 yards of it but it was off to the left in the Chapel House estate, whereas we turned down to the right to see if Morrisons West Denton had a geniepoint which they didnt.

AS I found out when we got home, it wasn't a Jet Garage but a Gulf Garage, and it had 2 ultra dependable Instavolt Chargers, again that would have nipped off in-the-bud, all of the the subsequent problems.

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by CitroJim »

Ahh, that nicely clarifies it Neil...

So, from that, it looks like mobile Internet access is pretty much essential when running an e-car... I have excellent mapping on my smartphone so that avoids needing paper maps and possibly even a satnav update as my smartphone is also a very competent satnav too!

On mapping, and because I love maps, I have an OS subscription that gives me access to all OS maps right on my phone and if I'm lost it'll even tell me where I am ;)
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 08:52 Still learning
Me too and loving the journey courtesy of your Electric BB adventures Neil :D
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Had something in mind today, but didn't work out, and more evidence of lets say an irritating charging network.

I had a conversation with Pod-Point, who partner with LIDL and others and have a few useful locations around the north-east for their charging stations. All currently inaccessible to us seeing as we dont have a smartphone.

I had an idea that if I registered an account on line, which I did and primed it with £10 credit, that on arriving at one of the LIDL rapid chargers I would be able to phone the number and get them to start a charge. This possibility was explored with them on the phone before we left, and we would give it a try.

Arrived at Consett LIDL about 4.00 ish and tried to get them to activate the charge. It soon became clear that the person I was speaking to couldnt do this because she was part of the "out of hours team" , and only the "main office" would have access to my account information. Irritating and off-putting.....am I going to bother trying the "main office" during "main office hours" to see if they can start my charging session remotely and take appropriate payment for it from my credit balance :?: Who knows, certainly not at the weekend and can I put myself through the irritation of trying to get round a system they have set up which requires all users to have a smart phone and "the app".

As many including me have said on the thread before it needs to be easy and all charging points should have a PAYG option with a bank card. Or even a voucher with a code for the charger you can get with some grubby cash you hand over at the Lidl Tills.

The other point of the day re chargers was having to wait. Charger 1 was occupied with a car on 35% ish charge which was going to take ages to complete. Had to drive 5 miles to the next one....bingo charger free. Then the LIDL one, the charger was occupied when we arrived, so we were waiting half an hour for the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV driver to come back, even before the failure to get POd Point to remotely start the charging session.

Not a good couple of days for the North East Charging network although today we did stop off at Morrisons Geniepoint at Blaydon which we knew would be working and was also vacant to correct the Consett debacle with Pod-Point. Its a decent run economically wise from Consett to Blaydon mostly downhill and the milage left guessometer invariably goes up :-D

REgards Neil
Last edited by NewcastleFalcon on 09 Sep 2020, 08:57, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by mickthemaverick »

NewcastleFalcon wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 19:47 Had something in mind today, but didn't work out, and more evidence of lets say an irritating charging network.

REgards Neil
You're definitely not boosting my desire to go electric Neil, bearing in mind that the network around you does seem to be far better than around me too!! :(
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

mickthemaverick wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 19:57
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 19:47 Had something in mind today, but didn't work out, and more evidence of lets say an irritating charging network.

REgards Neil
You're definitely not boosting my desire to go electric Neil, bearing in mind that the network around you does seem to be far better than around me too!! :(
Its easier in the BB Micra Mick I have to say :-D

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

NewcastleFalcon wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 19:47
Not a good couple of days for the North East Charging network although today we did stop off at Morrisons Geniepoint at Blaydon which we knew would be working and was also vacant to correct the Consett debacle with Pod-Point. Its a decent run economically wise from Consett to Blaydon mostly downhill and the milage left guessometer invariably goes up :-D
Good day for Consett AFC though. They were playing, as our Pod Point drama was unfolding, just across the road from LIDL in the FA Vase semi-final against Bitton. Consett won 1-0 AET and are going to Wembley :-D

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

M&S partnering with BP Chargemaster now.
https://bpchargemaster.com/bp-chargemas ... -ms-store/
https://bpchargemaster.com/bp-chargemaster-goes-live-in-trial-at-ms-store/
https://bpchargemaster.com/bp-chargemaster-goes-live-in-trial-at-ms-store/
The first electric vehicle rapid chargers at a Marks & Spencer store are now live at Maidstone Eclipse Park in Kent.

Supplied and installed by bp Chargemaster, the three new 50kW chargers are now available at the company’s newest store, just off junction 7 of the M20 in Kent.

These rapid chargers, backed by 100% renewable electricity, feature easy-to-use contactless payment terminals and connectors for all capable electric vehicles. The chargers are part of the Polar public charging network and are accessible with a Polar Plus membership RFID card or the Polar Instant PAYG app .
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Gibbo2286 »

I noticed on Thursday that they're ripping up part of our Tesco Lydney car park, wondered if chargers are coming, couldn't find out but did come across this list.

https://pod-point.com/rollout/tesco-ev-charging
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Mandrake »

mickthemaverick wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 19:57
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 05 Sep 2020, 19:47 Had something in mind today, but didn't work out, and more evidence of lets say an irritating charging network.

REgards Neil
You're definitely not boosting my desire to go electric Neil, bearing in mind that the network around you does seem to be far better than around me too!! :(
Public charging is still a bit of a mess in some parts of the country (it's actually not too bad around me - we have many Instavolt sites in a 50 mile radius, and they are very reliable) and it urgently needs to get sorted, however for balance I think it needs to be pointed out that Neil is relying 100% on public charging in an EV with a fairly modest range (around 70 miles) and does not charge at home.

This is not typical of most EV drivers at the moment with the majority charging at home. This makes a night and day difference to the usability of an EV and actually makes it more convienient than a petrol/diesel car if you're doing less than the range of the car each day as you never have to visit a service station, even to charge.

We've had our Leaf (with more than double the range of the Ion) for about a month now, it gets charged daily at home giving me between 95-120 miles range depending on how fast I drive. (95 miles at 70mph, 120 miles at 30mph)

As a result all our normal commuting, shopping, visiting/errand running etc is well "within range" of the car and therefore is handled by overnight charging while we sleep. (I have the timer in the car set to charge in the wee hours of the morning between around 2am and 6am)

Despite daily use, we have only used public charging 3 times in the month since we got the car - and all three were long trips to various beach/holiday spots which amounted to about 120 miles of driving round trip - so a bit beyond the motorway range of the car. And in each case it only took about 12 minutes of rapid charging on the way home to get the battery up from about 40% to 80% to get us home with a good 50 miles to spare. (In other words, free to go as fast as the traffic allows and blast the air conditioning as much as we wanted) That top up cost me £3.50 even at Instavolts relatively expensive 35p/kWh. (vs charging at home for about 13p/kWh)

120 miles in an EV which could do that 120 mile trip easily just from charging at home at 13p/kWh would cost about £3.90 for the entire trip...

As the range of EV's continues to increase the need for public charging for those with home charging diminishes even further. If I was driving an e-Niro with a realistic motorway range of 250-300 miles I could do the 120 mile round trip to the beach we did in the Leaf without stopping for a top up and get home with 130-180 miles still left - enough to do the work commute for 4 days before needing a charge...

In fact I would pretty much never charge an e-Niro using public charging unless we went hundreds of miles from home, so maybe once or twice a year...
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Most of our charging dramas are when we head South, trips to Scotland like last Wednesday are a breeze!

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

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NewcastleFalcon wrote: 06 Sep 2020, 22:41 Most of our charging dramas are when we head South, trips to Scotland like last Wednesday are a breeze!
Be thankful you weren't in Scotland over the last couple of days - CPS's back end network (run by Charge your Car) was down for two days affecting all CPS chargers and leading to many drivers being stranded at chargers that nobody could get working. No mention about it on the news that I noticed... (lots of complaining on twitter though)

CPS was good when I started EV driving in 2017 but it's a bit of a shambles now to be honest (councils not maintaining equipment when it breaks and still far too many remote, single charger sites with no nearby alternative) and needs a shake up like many of the other networks. I stick to Instavolt anywhere I can as they seem to be one of the few UK networks who have their act together and are yet to let me down.
Last edited by Mandrake on 06 Sep 2020, 22:58, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by mickthemaverick »

That is a very valid argument Simon which no doubt applies to a large proportion of ev drivers. However I have an awkward set of issues which make that operating method a non runner. Firstly SWMBO keeps her car in our garage at the bottom of our steeply sloping drive and invariably uses her car in the morning before me, often before I get up. So home charging presents the obstacles of having to leave the car overnight on a 1in5 slope and then get up earlier than I might want to to move it out of the way.. It may seem obvious that she could move it but there is more chance of a muslim pope! She won't even drive either of my cars because they are automatic and she " can't drive without a clutch" [-X . So I would need to copy Neil's methodology to ensure a smooth domestic life, not to mention that I frequently cover 150 miles in a day. A Niro or similar range vehicle is my only real option and it is just not financiallly viable!! So I would like to see ICE technology developed to the point of 0 emissions before 2035!! :-D
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

"Based in Brighton and founded in 2010, Charge Your Car was originally set-up by Elektromotive, but now is owned by BP Chargemaster. This allows Polar Plus customers to access Charge Your Car points as well as those on the BP Chargemaster network."

This is the charger in Kelso we used last Wednesday all logoed up with BP Chargemaster, accepts the Chargeplace Scotland Card and also does PAYG. Didnt try the polar plus card.
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 02 Sep 2020, 18:45 Three free chargers today on our trip over the border. Chargeplace Scotland Coldstream, Polar charger at Carfraemill junction of A697/A68 and BP Chargemaster/Chargeplace Scotland at Kelso.

Image

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Today was a day when the charging infrastructure worked for us on an "out of Northumberland" trip out into South Durham and Teesdale. I did check the destination charger at Bowlees Visitor Centre with BP Chargemaster, who confirmed that my polar plus card should work.

and it does, and it did, and it was free.
Charger at Bowlees Visitor Centre<br />Worked with My Polar Plus Card
Charger at Bowlees Visitor Centre
Worked with My Polar Plus Card
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Mandrake »

Remind me Neil, does your car have the 3kW charger or the 6kW one ?
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