Newbie Guide??!

[GE90]

Hi all

We hope to collect out Q4 in a few weeks, so started to think about preparing. We have the free PodPoint home charger, but is there a good guide available in terms of how to approach charging away from home?

Just don’t know where to start! Do we just rely on ZapMap? Should we sign up for a few of the main charging companies so we can just rock up and connect?

I don’t anticipate need to charge away from home much at all, but I do want to be prepared!

How is best to plan stops on a journey? The garage we are collecting from involves a ling journey back, so might need to stop.

Any assistance appreciated.

[TheDrownedApe]

I read a plethora of "guides" before jumping in and although helpful, most repeated the same info.

We use zap map and find it the most informative as you can get prices, means of payment and up to date comments from fellow users.

As far as pre-downloading apps we have podpoint (was mainly for free tesco charging which has now gone), Instavolt and BP Pulse. why did we choose them? These brands were the most populous/reliable/available public charging where we travel. However more and more i've used recently have a contactless method - which pre-authorises a certain amount on your card enabling you to charge up.

I suppose in the 20k of miles we've done only used public payed ones about 15 times and prob half of them were a PITA and half very simple. You can do all the planning in advance but be ready for 27 back up plans.

[TheDeuce]

TheDrownedApe said:

I read a plethora of "guides" before jumping in and although helpful, most repeated the same info.

We use zap map and find it the most informative as you can get prices, means of payment and up to date comments from fellow users.

As far as pre-downloading apps we have podpoint (was mainly for free tesco charging which has now gone), Instavolt and BP Pulse. why did we choose them? These brands were the most populous/reliable/available public charging where we travel. However more and more i've used recently have a contactless method - which pre-authorises a certain amount on your card enabling you to charge up.

I suppose in the 20k of miles we've done only used public payed ones about 15 times and prob half of them were a PITA and half very simple. You can do all the planning in advance but be ready for 27 back up plans.

For a while now it's been the case that all new public chargers MUST accept contactless payment requiring no app or account etc, so much simpler!

It should only be a matter of time until virtually all accept contactless payment.

I never really did any research as I nearly always home charge. But I can say that using zap map alone avoids most issues - it's very unlikely it'll direct you to a broken charger and dead easy to see how many are available.

[GE90]

Great, thanks very much.

[oop north]

I prefer WattsUp to zap map, though they both have their place. WattsUp is better in that it shows the network logo on the map, whereas you have to drill down with zap map to find out who operates a particular charger in a particular location. That drilling down gets a bit tedious - but with WattsUp seeing the logo doesn’t help as an absolute beginner

Always have a backup to your backup plan. I got to plan D on one painful, very cold day - a road closure meant I needed more charge to do the journey, then plan B 50kW charger totally broken, plan C 50kW charger also broken and then onto plan D which was 7kW and slooooow. I have gone back to phev as I have 20-30 300-400 miles in a day trips a year, a chunk of which are to Edinburgh from home in Preston - and there are very few 50kW (and no over 50kW) chargers between Gretna and Edinburgh. Means two hours of charging which I just got sick of after three years.

But it depends where you go - so if you can find sites with multiple rapid ccs chargers then go there - singles are risky

Also, I have had contactless payments fail on multiple occasions - eg, Rugby services Gridserve my card was refused by three chargers, and someone else at the same time had a similar problem, so having an app (eg, Instavolt and chargeplace Scotland) that facilitates payments can be v helpful. Gridserve only allow contactless, and are no help in that situation if you phone up, so they have their limitations

[Ardennes92]

oop north said:

I prefer WattsUp to zap map, though they both have their place. WattsUp is better in that it shows the network logo on the map, whereas you have to drill down with zap map to find out who operates a particular charger in a particular location. That drilling down gets a bit tedious - but with WattsUp seeing the logo doesn’t help as an absolute beginner

Always have a backup to your backup plan. I got to plan D on one painful, very cold day - a road closure meant I needed more charge to do the journey, then plan B 50kW charger totally broken, plan C 50kW charger also broken and then onto plan D which was 7kW and slooooow. I have gone back to phev as I have 20-30 300-400 miles in a day trips a year, a chunk of which are to Edinburgh from home in Preston - and there are very few 50kW (and no over 50kW) chargers between Gretna and Edinburgh. Means two hours of charging which I just got sick of after three years.

But it depends where you go - so if you can find sites with multiple rapid ccs chargers then go there - singles are risky

Also, I have had contactless payments fail on multiple occasions - eg, Rugby services Gridserve my card was refused by three chargers, and someone else at the same time had a similar problem, so having an app (eg, Instavolt and chargeplace Scotland) that facilitates payments can be v helpful. Gridserve only allow contactless, and are no help in that situation if you phone up, so they have their limitations

Last time I looked, wattsupp only shows 50kw + chargers, so not suitable for all vehicles.

[Blue62]

I’ve not had to use public chargers very often but find A Better Route Planner (ABRP) useful in conjunction with Zap Map. I will set up accounts with Shell and BP (already have Instavolt and Porsche) for peace of mind, I think/hope that should cover me.