Public EV charging places

[8bit]

Our Polestar 2 has just arrived, we have ordered a home charging point but that's been delayed so for now at least we'll need to get our heads around the public charging network.

This seems to be run by a number of different companies, I take it they all require customers to set up accounts and payment methods on each one to use them? Is it the case that there are a couple that are more widespread (we're in Scotland - Chargeplace Scotland maybe?) that we should be able to stick to? What about reliability and availability of rapid chargers?

I note that Google maps can easily show known charging places on the map, is that the best way to find them (on a phone or from the car) or are we better off using something like Plugsurfing or ZapMap etc.?

[Big Nanas]

ZapMap is pretty invaluable, really. Setup an account and use the filters to give an idea of where your local charging points are. I believe CharegePlace Scotland are the biggest up there, so sign up with them for sure.

Most car manufactures offer a 'Charging plan' which gives you an RFID card to use with multiple changing companies. They often have discounted option if you sign up for a subscription - BMW for example offer a £10 a month plan which gives discounted IONOTY charging (26p), but you'd have to do your maths to see if that's worth it to you.

It seems Polestar offer a similar one:
"To make life easier, each Polestar comes with a Plugsurfing – Polestar edition card that allows you to use over 500,000 public charging points across Europe, regardless of the operator. Download the app, activate your account, and charge away."

https://www.polestar.com/uk/electric-driving/publi...

Sign up with the Polestar card which will make life a lot easier for you, it's all there in the link above.

[PetrolHeadInRecovery]

Big Nanas said:

ZapMap is pretty invaluable, really. Setup an account and use the filters to give an idea of where your local charging points are. I believe CharegePlace Scotland are the biggest up there, so sign up with them for sure.

Most car manufactures offer a 'Charging plan' which gives you an RFID card to use with multiple changing companies. They often have discounted option if you sign up for a subscription - BMW for example offer a £10 a month plan which gives discounted IONOTY charging (26p), but you'd have to do your maths to see if that's worth it to you.

It seems Polestar offer a similar one:
"To make life easier, each Polestar comes with a Plugsurfing – Polestar edition card that allows you to use over 500,000 public charging points across Europe, regardless of the operator. Download the app, activate your account, and charge away."

https://www.polestar.com/uk/electric-driving/publi...

Sign up with the Polestar card which will make life a lot easier for you, it's all there in the link above.

Chargemap (https://chargemap.com/) could also be useful - similar to Zapmap but with global coverage. If you're not in a rush, checking out the free chargers can be interesting, too.

The Polestar-Ionity deal sounds like a good one! RFID card worth ordering (if not included) - just a bit more fluid experience and works also if your phone is not connected to the network when travelling.

The Hyundai offer was similar to BMW's and has paid for itself many times over compared to the standard rate (0.79€/kWh).

[8bit]

Thanks. We did get the Plugsurfing card with the car, my wife installed the app but it showed almost no charging points near us at all, yet Google showed loads. We assumed that meant the card was only usable at those, few chargers but apparently not.

So then for example, at our local Aldi there are charging points in the car park, from Newmotion, which appears to be a division of Shell. It says on the chargers something about using your card but no mention of what card - it's possible then that we would use this Plugsurfing card with those, even though the Plugsurfing app doesn't show those chargers on the map?

[PetrolHeadInRecovery]

8bit said:

Thanks. We did get the Plugsurfing card with the car, my wife installed the app but it showed almost no charging points near us at all, yet Google showed loads. We assumed that meant the card was only usable at those, few chargers but apparently not.

So then for example, at our local Aldi there are charging points in the car park, from Newmotion, which appears to be a division of Shell. It says on the chargers something about using your card but no mention of what card - it's possible then that we would use this Plugsurfing card with those, even though the Plugsurfing app doesn't show those chargers on the map?

No first-hand experience, sorry! This page seems to imply that Plugsurfing would work with Shell Recharge, although it might be a bit more expensive.

Worth a try? Bigger chargers often support credit card payments, too.

[8bit]

Very useful - thanks. We'll set up the Plugsurfing account and give that a try.

[mabosh]

The ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network is quite extensive but there are hardly any chargers faster than 50kW.

Tariffs are generally reasonable but are set by the host site (local councils, ScotRail, museums etc) so can vary greatly A few are still free to use though.

We ordered a RFID card from them and it arrived within a couple of days. You can use their App to start a charge and newer chargers take debit cards of course.

Reliability is patchy though. It seems better than it was but it's not unusual for chargers to be U/S for months at a time.

[TheDrownedApe]

Are you with Octopus? They have a electric universe card and you get a discount on a lot of chargers PLUS additional d8scounts if you charge in certain hours at public places. Think it was 20% at some places plus 5% for being an Octopus customer

[8bit]

Thanks. Yes we switched to Octopus a few months ago in anticipation of the arrival of our EV. They assured us we'd have a smart meter installed in about a month from switching. We're still waiting, their website just says all appointments are booked. I suspect they simply don't have any installers in our area. I digress, but that does mean we aren't on any of their clever tariffs - I'll check to see if that's a requirement for their RFID card.

[AKjr]

Do you need a wall mounted charging doofer to benefit from their over night tariffs? I suspect so, alongside the smart meter? IE, slow poke granny cable charging via the 13pin for a few hours overnight isn't going to be available at the lower tariffs? Is that the case?

I've a driveway and garage so it's not a problem for me, but I did always wonder...

[PetrolHeadInRecovery]

mabosh said:

Reliability is patchy though. It seems better than it was but it's not unusual for chargers to be U/S for months at a time.

This reminds me of an interesting(?) experience on Monday:

Stopped at an Ionity station fairly late in the evening. Several free chargers, so picked one at random and plugged in. The RFID card didn't work, same thing with the adjecent one that could be plugged in without moving the car. Moved the car to the next one and all was OK.

Spotted the hotline number on the charger and thought I'd do a good deed and called. Told what the issue was, spelled out the IDs of the chargers and reassured her that my car was charging (the last bit took the longest).

Zero questions, just a very grateful person on the other end who said she'd reboot the charger. This started already before I hung up (she just asked what brand of car I was driving).

Made realise that chargers and essentially just remotely managed computers that have CCS/HPC/Chademo plugs (instead of USB). Also that 35+ years of driving with fossil fuels creates a certain kind of learned helplessness - you assume mechanical failure (need to replace parts, possibly drain the tank etc) rather than an SW-feature with a simple workaround.

[8bit]

AKjr said:

Do you need a wall mounted charging doofer to benefit from their over night tariffs? I suspect so, alongside the smart meter? IE, slow poke granny cable charging via the 13pin for a few hours overnight isn't going to be available at the lower tariffs? Is that the case?

I've a driveway and garage so it's not a problem for me, but I did always wonder...

I don't think so, because the overnight cheap tariffs aren't only for an EV on a proper home charger, anything that draws electricity from your mains supply will be cheaper to run. Plenty of folk have these and set their dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers etc. to run during the off-peak times. Charging an EV from the 13 amp supply would be just the same.

If you do have a home charger and it's one of a number of certain brands and models then they can integrate even further with Octopus I gather. For any of these things to be possible, even the basic on/off-peak tariff, I understand you have to have a smart meter and that's the bit they seem unable to do for us at the moment.

[mabosh]

PetrolHeadInRecovery said:

mabosh said:

Reliability is patchy though. It seems better than it was but it's not unusual for chargers to be U/S for months at a time.

This reminds me of an interesting(?) experience on Monday:

Stopped at an Ionity station fairly late in the evening. Several free chargers, so picked one at random and plugged in. The RFID card didn't work, same thing with the adjecent one that could be plugged in without moving the car. Moved the car to the next one and all was OK.

Spotted the hotline number on the charger and thought I'd do a good deed and called. Told what the issue was, spelled out the IDs of the chargers and reassured her that my car was charging (the last bit took the longest).

Zero questions, just a very grateful person on the other end who said she'd reboot the charger. This started already before I hung up (she just asked what brand of car I was driving).

Made realise that chargers and essentially just remotely managed computers that have CCS/HPC/Chademo plugs (instead of USB). Also that 35+ years of driving with fossil fuels creates a certain kind of learned helplessness - you assume mechanical failure (need to replace parts, possibly drain the tank etc) rather than an SW-feature with a simple workaround.

Your experience is better than mine then! We've only had our EV car for less than a month (a Born) but I've been driving EV cars and vans for work for nearly four years.

We're issued with CPS RFID cards and I've had quite a few issues in the past, the worst being when a 7kW charger wouldn't release the cable. A 35 minute wait to speak to someone on the CPS helpline followed by multiple attempts to reboot the charger until I finally got the van's cable back.

Half of the chargers at the second biggest P&R site in Edinburgh have been broken since 24 April. At least they've put a note on them!

[TheDeuce]

I'm confused. The 13a charger won't get the off peak EV tariff rates but is still surely cheaper than public charger rates..

Why not just use the 13a charger? It's enough so long as you're organised - unless you're a super high miler.. I mean 30k+ per year.

[AKjr]

8bit said:

I don't think so, because the overnight cheap tariffs aren't only for an EV on a proper home charger, anything that draws electricity from your mains supply will be cheaper to run. Plenty of folk have these and set their dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers etc. to run during the off-peak times. Charging an EV from the 13 amp supply would be just the same.

If you do have a home charger and it's one of a number of certain brands and models then they can integrate even further with Octopus I gather. For any of these things to be possible, even the basic on/off-peak tariff, I understand you have to have a smart meter and that's the bit they seem unable to do for us at the moment.

I've ten months until delivery, based on your experience I had best get the smart meter sorted well in advance, cheers for the heads up on that one!

[lost in espace]

I am on a granny charger with Octopus Agile, averaging 16p a unit. A lot cheaper than public chargers.

[TheDrownedApe]

PetrolHeadInRecovery said:

Spotted the hotline number on the charger and thought I'd do a good deed and called.

Thanks for calling but it isn't a good dead, it's essential for ALL EV owners to do this EVERYTIME they notice an issue otherwise the network will become less reliable. However the frustration of calling/logging can be off-putting.

[PetrolHeadInRecovery]

TheDrownedApe said:

PetrolHeadInRecovery said:

Spotted the hotline number on the charger and thought I'd do a good deed and called.

Thanks for calling but it isn't a good dead, it's essential for ALL EV owners to do this EVERYTIME they notice an issue otherwise the network will become less reliable. However the frustration of calling/logging can be off-putting.

Sure, call it common decency, then.

However, not so sure that ALL will do this EVERYTIME when travelling abroad. You might have unknown roaming charges, expect a long discussion in barely shared languages. So was happy to report that IONITY in France was zero trouble (short discussion in English, French and German were the other options).

So I'm encouraged to show common decency also in the future, although I have to admit that I'll probably draw a line somewhere around 1€/minute call on a rural community-run station - unless I speak the local language.

[8bit]

TheDeuce said:

I'm confused. The 13a charger won't get the off peak EV tariff rates but is still surely cheaper than public charger rates..

Why not just use the 13a charger? It's enough so long as you're organised - unless you're a super high miler.. I mean 30k+ per year.

It's not the type of charger you have at home that determines whether you get the off peak tariff, it's having a smart meter that's required for that. At least that's how I understood it - unless you know to the contrary?

We can use the 13A socket at the front of the garage, but that means parking the EV right in front of the garage which in turn means my car (which lives in the garage) is blocked in. Yes we could put a regular 13A socket on the front of the house so the EV can use that instead but if we're having to put something in I'd rather we got a faster charger.

[essayer]

it's cheaper to charge at home (40p/kWh or whatever) than at a rapid

but, a 10A home charger will only add about 8 miles range per hour so you may not have enough time to recharge each day's mileage