Discussion
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/30/ev...
Motorway service stations hiring staff to police surging levels of EV ‘charge rage’
Motorway service stations hiring staff to police surging levels of EV ‘charge rage’
article said:
Britain’s biggest motorway service station provider has brought in marshals to police “charge rage” among electric vehicle drivers battling for access to plug-in points.
Moto chief executive Ken McMeikan warned the UK’s motorway service stations are facing growing “public disorder” due to a lack of grid connections preventing him from installing enough car chargers to meet the surge in demand.
.....
Mr McMeikan, 58, who drives an EV himself, said he had told the government of the problem and warned ministers that public disorder incidents would grow.
He told The Telegraph: “I’ve been saying to them that the grid does not have sufficient capacity right now to deliver the power we need at the time we need it.
“If we don’t get that amount of power guaranteed, then in coming years every Christmas, every Easter, every summer holiday and peak bank holiday will be the equivalent of when we have a fuel crisis on petrol and diesel.”
Has anyone on here been involved in a charge rage incident? Moto chief executive Ken McMeikan warned the UK’s motorway service stations are facing growing “public disorder” due to a lack of grid connections preventing him from installing enough car chargers to meet the surge in demand.
.....
Mr McMeikan, 58, who drives an EV himself, said he had told the government of the problem and warned ministers that public disorder incidents would grow.
He told The Telegraph: “I’ve been saying to them that the grid does not have sufficient capacity right now to deliver the power we need at the time we need it.
“If we don’t get that amount of power guaranteed, then in coming years every Christmas, every Easter, every summer holiday and peak bank holiday will be the equivalent of when we have a fuel crisis on petrol and diesel.”
My wife took her first long drive in her new EV yesterday and had someone cut in front of her whilst waiting for a charger at a service station on the M6. No charge rage ensued as my wife is quite level headed, but it pissed her off.
Surely the solution is to actually create some sort of queuing system around the charging bays.
Surely the solution is to actually create some sort of queuing system around the charging bays.
dvs_dave said:
Is it beyond the owners to have figured out an entry lane queue system should be part of the implementation? Then it’s first come first served, no problems.
Gridserve Exeter is terrible for this, the chargers are sited off the main exit lane and if you’re waiting (or trying to reposition after a failed charge) you have to loop round, or sit in the lane blocking everyone
Hugo Stiglitz said:
What's a failed charge?
I.e. you charge for say an hour go to leave but it actually didn't boot up the charge fully?
Sometimes the charge doesn’t start and you need to move to a different charger. Had that about 30% of times. Once started, I’ve never had an issue with it completing, thankfullyI.e. you charge for say an hour go to leave but it actually didn't boot up the charge fully?
Hugo Stiglitz said:
JQ talks common sense whilst the head of a service station group whose land these few chargers are on says its not my making, blame someone else .. and can you pay for it for us government..
Wow.
To be fair to the head of the service stations, if you read what he said he was more so pointing out to the government the fact that the grid doesn’t produce enough electricity for what is needed. I would say he would happily pay for 100’s of more chargers (at his own cost because he’s making money from them some way or other) but whats the point if there isnt enough electricity to run them.Wow.
NIgt3 said:
To be fair to the head of the service stations, if you read what he said he was more so pointing out to the government the fact that the grid doesn’t produce enough electricity for what is needed. I would say he would happily pay for 100’s of more chargers (at his own cost because he’s making money from them some way or other) but whats the point if there isnt enough electricity to run them.
But there are not enough charging points anyway. That's the fundamental issue? On the streets yes = government issue. Power cables coming onto site is the utility company and site owner not the government.
essayer said:
Gridserve Exeter is terrible for this, the chargers are sited off the main exit lane and if you’re waiting (or trying to reposition after a failed charge) you have to loop round, or sit in the lane blocking everyone
I was there in May and it was bad. Some people were queuing barber shop style (everyone knew who was next) by sitting in the bays under the Arnold Clark text in your image. Then others started arriving and either didn’t realise or pretended not to notice, and started waiting in the aisles.The whole thing was just chaos.
They’ve opened up a load of chargers since then so it should relieve things a bit.
A previous time I was there they had marshalls managing the queues.
Surely it would be quite simple to introduce an app queueing system - you geo-log-in as you arrive and are given a virtual space in the queue. Then as a charger becomes available you're given a unique code to your phone to be used with a specific charger to unlock it to access the home screen. Then you carry on as normal to initiate the charge.
plfrench said:
Surely it would be quite simple to introduce an app queueing system - you geo-log-in as you arrive and are given a virtual space in the queue. Then as a charger becomes available you're given a unique code to your phone to be used with a specific charger to unlock it to access the home screen. Then you carry on as normal to initiate the charge.
Another app, just what we need 
plfrench said:
Surely it would be quite simple to introduce an app queueing system - you geo-log-in as you arrive and are given a virtual space in the queue. Then as a charger becomes available you're given a unique code to your phone to be used with a specific charger to unlock it to access the home screen. Then you carry on as normal to initiate the charge.
An unwanted bit of hassle if there is no queue, which in my experience is the vast majority of times.
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