Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

[mickthemaverick]

Bit of charge point etiquette also required. Many do operate "If a charger is vacant I'm going to use it whether I need a charge or not". Northumberlandia is a case in point, you can park up plug in at the single charger and go for a half hour stroll around the site. I have seen E-trons, Jaguar I-paces plugged in with states of charge over 90% having only plugged in 10 minutes beforehand.

Regards Neil

Perhaps that situation could be aided by EV manufacturers configuring the on board charger to only accept charge from a public charger if the current charge state was below say 40%? You would be able to top up from a home charger at any point but only if below that limit at a public charger!

[Gibbo2286]

Personally I don't think the guy had planned the journey well, depending on Zap map and only one potential charge point with only one charger was taking a chance.

If I were to do a run like that I'd look for ALL the charge points near my needed place of charge, there are usually many within fairly close range, I'd also be looking at the supermarket sites rather than just the old petrol forecourts where they only have one charger, my not very big Tesco has four.

Also a stop for a charge (and a snack) on a long trip like that makes good sense for making the journey more relaxed for the driver.

I thought he was a bit of a whinger really.

[NewcastleFalcon]

On occasions you get a charge point being ICE'd. It happens not everyone bothers to read notices, or notices the usually clearly marked out bays.

But for those who should know better, drivers of EV's a bit more courtesy and common sense is needed. Yes like the chap in the video Steve posted up, if I happen to see a Tesla or an E-tron or an I-pace in one of the charging bays, my natural reaction is what on earth is that thing doing on a public charger. On Sunday, at the charger in the picture a White Tesla was in the left hand bay. No matter, its one of the few chargers that can do 2 at once so we may have still had a chance to charge-up, but no, in the bay marked to the right of the charger was a Mazda MX-30 RV.

In an appalling act of either arrogance, or ignorance neither the White Tesla nor the Mazda Mx-30 EV were plugged in and charging, they were just parked in each of the bays blocking anyone else from using them.

Fortunately you can see from the picture that the hatched area in front of the charger is actually a parking bay marked with white lines to the side and the red hatching. Fortunately for us a Nissan Leaf can slot nicely into the gap and charge up. Neither the White Tesla driver nor the Mazda driver returned before we left about 30 minutes later.

My suspicion, the carpark was full of Christening goers, and spaces were at a premium and the two EV's had just ignorantly occupied the spaces because the rest of the car park was full.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

The more of these videos and reports that get published the more of a turn off the BEV is to me. I would not be surprised to see a revival of the fuel cell systems in the wake of this poor charging publicity. Having said that maybe the 'battery swap' stations are the way to go as trialled by Nissan and others I believe. The main issue with that technology is the heavyweight power availability at the sites to enable rapid re charging of many swapped out batteries at the same time!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Personally I don't think the guy had planned the journey well, depending on Zap map and only one potential charge point with only one charger was taking a chance.

If I were to do a run like that I'd look for ALL the charge points near my needed place of charge, there are usually many within fairly close range, I'd also be looking at the supermarket sites rather than just the old petrol forecourts where they only have one chanrger, my not very big Tesco has four.

From the video he went from West Sussex (somewhere in the vid he mentions Goodwood) to ElectricClassics in Mochdre, Newtown Powys.

He could even have made a little detour to your Tesco's Gibbo

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

Or even Tesco in Gloucester Neil.

[myglaren]

On occasions you get a charge point being ICE'd. It happens not everyone bothers to read notices, or notices the usually clearly marked out bays.

But for those who should know better, drivers of EV's a bit more courtesy and common sense is needed. Yes like the chap in the video Steve posted up, if I happen to see a Tesla or an E-tron or an I-pace in one of the charging bays, my natural reaction is what on earth is that thing doing on a public charger. On Sunday, at the charger in the picture a White Tesla was in the left hand bay. No matter, its one of the few chargers that can do 2 at once so we may have still had a chance to charge-up, but no, in the bay marked to the right of the charger was a Mazda MX-30 RV.

In an appalling act of either arrogance, or ignorance neither the White Tesla nor the Mazda Mx-30 EV were plugged in and charging, they were just parked in each of the bays blocking anyone else from using them.

The Aldi in Wrekenton is always like that. Four EV spaces at the two charging points. Never seen an EV there but always at least two ICE cars.

[NewcastleFalcon]

One of the RFID cards I carry around with me is for "Mer" the Norwegian Government's company Statkraft's European Charging Wing.

Elmtronics also part of the StatKraft empire, have their HQ on an industrial estate in Consett (well Villa Real for the Consett connoisseur) and have been in the Fleet News announcing a partnership with Octopus Energy. How long before Statkraft take over Octopus Energy....

https://www.elmtronics.co.uk/octopus-en ... lmtronics/

There is a chain, and in the world of electric vehicle charging it usually ends up with a large energy company. So our Consett Elmtronics office has these links.

1 HUbsta are part of the Elmtronics Group
2 Mer have recently acquired Elmtronics
3 Mer are owned by StatKraft
4 StatKraft is owned by the Norwegian Government

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statkraft

Statkraft AS is a hydropower company, fully owned by the Norwegian state. The Statkraft Group is a generator of renewable energy, as well as Norway’s largest and the Nordic region’s third largest energy producer. Statkraft develops and generates hydropower, wind power, gas power, district heating and solar power, and is also a player in the international energy markets. The company has over 4000 employees and their headquarters is located in Oslo, Norway.

[Gibbo2286]

Have you ever watched the 'Walter presents' films about the shenanigans in Norway politics Neil, makes our lot look like angels..

[NewcastleFalcon]

Have you ever watched the 'Walter presents' films about the shenanigans in Norway politics Neil, makes our lot look like angels..

I haven't but it wouldn't surprise me. I'll see if I can dig them up.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Here's a article about the Skoda Enyaq which illustrates a point about electric vehicle charging.

While reports of ever more powerful charging points are commonplace, the rapid charger at 50kW has gone to 100kW to 150kW to 300 kW and even some proposals for 1000kW, your car determines how fast it can charge at these ever faster troughs.

The article hails a faster charging version of the Enyaq which can now offer charging at up to 135 kW. If it rocks up at Northumberlandia it will still just be able to charge up at 50 kW. If it rocks up at a 150 kW charger it will only be able to charge up at 135 kW max.

I was interested to read this phrase in the article, a new feature which Nissan had in the earlier Classic 24kWh Leafs, and dropped for later versions'

The new Battery Care Mode, which is controlled via the infotainment screen, has been designed to set the optimal charging settings for extending the life of the battery. When activated the next charging process will charge to a maximum of 80%.

My Nissan Leaf was the last incarnation of the Leaf to offer a "long life mode" which does exactly the same thing if selected, stops charging when 80% state of charge is reached.

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/manufa ... 11/02/2022

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

A rapidly disappearing relic of the pioneer period of electric cars....a free charger although with some pod point installations at TESCO the incentive may well still be there for some of the 7kW charging posts, and some of the 50kW rapids in the chargeplacescotland scheme remained free on our last excursion north of the border.

Old days throwback

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

They have withdrawn the grant now for home charger installations so its the free market from now on. (Officially all qualifying grant eligible installations have to be completed by 31st March 2022).

viewtopic.php?p=708577#p708577

I have no plans myself to go for one, do a bit of "granny charging" and it works so far.

The next simplest step up is...the commando socket. Still the electricians with all the regs they have to follow, and end up signing the responsibility for, and providing you with the certificates which will be asked for in any conveyance of a property, maybe understandably will not price probably the simplest install cheap. Also part of the regs specific to circuits which may be used to charge EV's is the phenomenon of DC leakage "blinding" RCD's so an electrician may insist on fitting a "Type "B" RCD", which in itself is over £100, to the circuit. Some of the dedicated chargepoints will have this built into the "Box" on the wall.

The Ohme EV Charger, in association with a Commando Socket is still £460 ish, (too much for me to spend if I don't have to)

https://www.electricpoint.com/ohme-ev-c ... 20Chargers


The Ohme charging cable brings smart charging to any socket, including commando sockets. You can also make a commando socket ‘smart’ by installing the Ohme EV charging cable. The Ohme has clever electronics built into the cable itself. It can, for example, automatically charge your car only when electricity is at its cheapest.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

My surrogate son (Bob's son ) in Elstree is a fully qualified Electrician and he will be attending the institute's training course for the installation of home chargers in the near future as it will obviously become a useful source of business in the next few years. At the moment a significant proportion of his time is spent commercial PAT testing and that is reducing due to tech upgrades at a lot of premises resulting in more widespread use of low voltage systems not requiring tests. The course is 5 days and results in his accreditation to the approved installers register which hopefully will enhance his business opportunities. Just saying!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Quite a good guide to ev charging home charging at its "dumbest". The commando socket/cable

https://topcharger.co.uk/commando-socke ... ete-guide/

Regards Neil