Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

[NewcastleFalcon]

Still the odd freebie

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

Is there a map for those Neil?

My home charger is being installed tomorrow though.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Is there a map for those Neil?

My home charger is being installed tomorrow though.

Zap Map has it as does plugshare. Not entirely free in that you have to pay the car park charge, but everyone else visiting Craster does in any case. In the summer in particular it is a bit of a honey pot and no car parking is allowed other than in the official carpark.

I've found one or two charging points at village halls and not on any of the maps.

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Missed the conclusion to this story...the design of "the iconic British Charging Point" revealed at COP26.
Will it become as iconic as a red pillar box, or telephone box?

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/electr ... car-charg/

Grant Shapps with a Green Union Jack...


Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Tagged onto the press release from the Department for Transport, Office for zero emission vehicles about the cut in subsidies for new EV's, was this on mandating contactless payment for all new chargepoints 7.1 kW and above. This has needed to be done for years, and I thought it had been, but its still "next year" so it not quite there even now.

"Meanwhile the government is also setting out that it will introduce new rules next year that will increase confidence in our EV charging infrastructure. These rules will mandate a minimum payment method – such as contactless payment – for new 7.1 kW and above chargepoints, including rapids. Motorists will soon be able to compare costs across networks which will be in a recognisable format similar to pence per litre for fuel and there will be new standards to ensure reliable charging for electric vehicle drivers."

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

There were four cars in the EV spaces at the two Osprey Charging Points near M&S today.

A VW ID3 on the CCS 50 kW DC plugged in and charging, with a "new" Nissan Leaf logoed Enterprise Car Club next to it in the Charge point 1 bays.

A new Nissan Leaf on the Chademo 50 kW DC, and a 71 Reg Renault Zoe "Business" logoed up with a company's name in the chargepoint 2 bays.

A decent rule of thumb is that most chargers are only capable of supplying 50 kW DC to one car at a time, even though there are usually 2 DC supply cables, one chademo and one CCS.

I suspect the "Enterprise car club" were newbies, as was the driver of the Renault Zoe, and neither realised when I offered them the advice that the difficulties they were having were due to another car being plugged into the DC charger, and those chargers did not allow 2 cars to charge on DC at the same time.

The Zoe driver/ enterprise car club drivers could at least plug their own cable into the AC 7kW outlet while they waited for the Leaf/VW ID3 to finish. The Osprey units do allow the 7kW AC connection, and one 50kW DC connection to operate simultaneously.



Regards Neil

[myglaren]

All this 'app' s**t drives me mad.
Removed all the removable ones from my new phone.

[Gibbo2286]

The Pod-Point app works fine with the Tesco free charging, I've used it several times now, even at the first go it was easy enough to work out.
When you plug the car in it starts charging immediately and will continue for fifteen minutes while you log in and hit the 'confirm' button, with the Zoe it takes about forty minutes to go to 95% from 20% so enough time to do the weekly shop while it charges.
It keeps a record of the usage for both the free Tesco and home charging sessions and the amount spent if you tell it your tariff price.

[mickthemaverick]

Is it just me or is it odd that he bought a Tesla and then didn't try using the Tesla charging network?

[myglaren]

He was exploring the local possibilities and how easy they were to use.
There may not be a Tesla charger available when he needs one.

[mickthemaverick]

He was exploring the local possibilities and how easy they were to use.
There may not be a Tesla charger available when he needs one.

I just had a quick look at the Tesla network and they are planning to open a supercharger in Liverpool in Spring this year so hopefully he'll try that out in due course!!

[myglaren]

I'm sure he will although most of his charging is at home - he doesn't use the Tesla as his learner car.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Here's our first time Charging at a public charger experience November 2019 Newbiggin Sports Centre...of course the freebies have mostly come to an end although Tesco and Pod Point still offer that incentive for the 7KW chargers.

If you are considering an EV, one of the immediate joys, occurred today.

The location Newbiggin Sports Centre just up from Ashington Northumberland
.
Day 1 of filling up at a "Fuel Station" and guess what, didn't have to pay for filling the tank
Parked up next to a 30kw Leaf from Taxi Firm Pheonix of Blyth, and got another freebie, a decent 20 minutes in the classroom for me as a new boy, and a list of free charging points in and around Northumberland.

For now its like "Welcome to EV motoring" here's some freebies.





REgards Neil

[white exec]

This made an interesting read.
What are you doing, Shapps?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ectric-car

[NewcastleFalcon]

This made an interesting read.
What are you doing, Shapps?

A fair assessment in the article, as as for the question...the very simple standardisation required right at the beginning was...mandating contactless payment on all chargers. Even now they haven't quite got round to doing it as my highlighted comment outlines.

The other thing they did recently was a design competition as a stunt for COP26, to come up with the iconic British charging point. I wonder if they are going to mandate the design for cities for the 7kw Charging posts in the urban streetscape. Certainly rapid chargers are as different as petrol pumps from the various charging brands and manufacturers, and that horse has well and truly bolted from a standardised design.

I think visibility is they key. More larger scale EV charging hubs in strategic road network locations, shouting loudly what they are just as the familiar comforting beacon of a well lit and logoed up petrol forecourt at night, not hidden away in back streets or a couple of chargers at an existing petrol station, or a couple of token stalls at a supermarket.

At the minute you "get round" the charging infrastructure through learned behaviour as an EV driver. Just as the person in the article mentioned on that trip to Devon "We planned to stop where there were “clusters” of chargers", on longer trips you need to arrive at a charger with alternatives in mind, and with range in hand to get to another one.

Can you tell in advance with modern tech whether a charger will be working/available ... maybe but not for us not having joined the world of the smart phone, or any of the connect services with the car. We can phone up before we leave, or check ZAP-Map but that relies on users being bothered to post "successful charge" following a visit. Yes, you would never dream of posting "successful petrol fill up" to a faffy app.

Of course the proliferation of network operators could demonstrate that the charger had been successfully used or that problems had been reported and it was unavailable but they are often out of date on the likes of Zap-Map.

For us after 2 years EV experience, the on road infrastructure is useable in a "know how to get round its failings" fashion.


This was the UK Govt's update before Christmas

Tagged onto the press release from the Department for Transport, Office for zero emission vehicles about the cut in subsidies for new EV's, was this on mandating contactless payment for all new chargepoints 7.1 kW and above. This has needed to be done for years, and I thought it had been, but its still "next year" so it not quite there even now.

"Meanwhile the government is also setting out that it will introduce new rules next year that will increase confidence in our EV charging infrastructure. These rules will mandate a minimum payment method – such as contactless payment – for new 7.1 kW and above chargepoints, including rapids. Motorists will soon be able to compare costs across networks which will be in a recognisable format similar to pence per litre for fuel and there will be new standards to ensure reliable charging for electric vehicle drivers."

Regards Neil