Charging in Scotland

Author
Discussion

DSLiverpool

Original Poster:

15,149 posts

209 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
Guys I have a Mercedes Me card and debit / credit cards.

We’re going to Scotland and I know it’s a bit weird with a Scottish solution chargeplace - anyone know what works with it? I have a bad experience recently with it and just made a friendly charger.

TheRainMaker

6,628 posts

249 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
The best thing you can do is get the Charge Place Card.

You then don't need to use the app, which is rubbish when combined with a poor phone signal.

None of the 7kW chargers take contactless.


cptsideways

13,649 posts

259 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
You certainly will need the card, the
App is pretty hilarious at how bad it is & good luck getting anywhere near 50kw out of any fast charger.

Maracus

4,476 posts

175 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
cptsideways said:
You certainly will need the card, the
App is pretty hilarious at how bad it is & good luck getting anywhere near 50kw out of any fast charger.
This was my experience with the App, it was hopeless. The card is a necessity.

I topped out at 47kW from the Chocolates of Glenshiel point.

mabosh

310 posts

193 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
The app was refreshed a few weeks ago and is only marginally better than before but searching by location name is now hopeless.

Absolutely get a RFID card. Ours arrived within in a couple of days. It costs £10 but avoids most of the hassle of shonky phone signal and chargers with hard to read screens.

Very few chargers faster than 50kW. Some are still cheap though, each site sets the tariff so everything in Fife Council run sites is only 15p per kWh for example. Still a few free ones too at some National Trust sites.

Charger reliability is better than it used to be but still not great. There are a couple of large charging hubs, one in Stirling and one in Falkirk.

abzmike

9,301 posts

113 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
I've only used chargers on trips to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Chargeplace Scotland app has worked for me, Debit card a couple of times and also GeniePoint and YourParkingSpace. Usually 22Kw at 30p or so. Used a 75Kw charger at Kinross services for 75p for a quick top up too.
All a bit of a mixed bag, but we do have mobile signal to download apps. Still havn't used a MercedesME point - there are very few around. Worst experience I have had was in a Shell station in Edinburgh where after faffing about to install apps, the chargers refused to work. Quickest and most expensive

the cueball

1,276 posts

62 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
Does everyone else's app locate them in Leeds every time they open it up?

It's bloody useless..


mabosh

310 posts

193 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
the cueball said:
Does everyone else's app locate them in Leeds every time they open it up?

It's bloody useless..
Glad it's not just me!

What I've just noticed is that CPS users could use their RFID card at Be.EV chargers but they no longer show on the CPS map. We used our card at the Be.EV site in Carlisle over the Easter weekend.

DSLiverpool

Original Poster:

15,149 posts

209 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
Worked out we can charge at Starbucks Carlisle on way up and down / that’s it. Instavolt is covered on Mercedes ME card

blank

3,579 posts

195 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
Get an Octopus Electroverse card if you haven't already.

Toaster Pilot

14,661 posts

165 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
Seems all of the CPS units are now on Electroverse so you might not need to worry about getting a dedicated CPS card.

Tomo1971

1,157 posts

164 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
Where are you going, there are 8 or 9 tesla open to all sites in Scotland and unless your going North if inverness in the east, or North of Fort William on the west, you may find your covered by them. There are also still a lot of charges not run by CPS that are 50kw plus

TheRainMaker

6,628 posts

249 months

Friday 5th July
quotequote all
You have to be careful with Electroverse. It is showing 40p per Kw on chargers that are free on the Chargeplace app.


DSLiverpool

Original Poster:

15,149 posts

209 months

Saturday 6th July
quotequote all
blank said:
Get an Octopus Electroverse card if you haven't already.
Will do that cheers

smallpaul

1,928 posts

143 months

Sunday 7th July
quotequote all
DSLiverpool said:
Worked out we can charge at Starbucks Carlisle on way up and down / that’s it. Instavolt is covered on Mercedes ME card
If you've got a business or sole trader you can get the Allstar chargepass. Instavolt, gridserve etc covered. Bit pricey though avoids faff.


North of carlisle:

Annandale water gridserve 350kw

Abingdon applegreen 100kw

There's a new tesla charger outside larkhall J8 m74 open to all cars. Quite a good stop for coming up the country. 42p/kwh outside peak hours.

Fastned 350kw J6 Hamilton m74

City centre there's an Ionity junction 1a on the M74. Quite busy peak times


Blockbuster

228 posts

68 months

Sunday 7th July
quotequote all
DSLiverpool said:
Worked out we can charge at Starbucks Carlisle on way up and down / that’s it. Instavolt is covered on Mercedes ME card
It’s all very well Instavolt working with the card, but it’s an Ionity site there so you might want to check that works too wink

DSLiverpool

Original Poster:

15,149 posts

209 months

Sunday 7th July
quotequote all
smallpaul said:
If you've got a business or sole trader you can get the Allstar chargepass. Instavolt, gridserve etc covered. Bit pricey though avoids faff.


North of carlisle:

Annandale water gridserve 350kw

Abingdon applegreen 100kw

There's a new tesla charger outside larkhall J8 m74 open to all cars. Quite a good stop for coming up the country. 42p/kwh outside peak hours.

Fastned 350kw J6 Hamilton m74

City centre there's an Ionity junction 1a on the M74. Quite busy peak times
Brilliant thank you

TheDeuce

25,227 posts

73 months

Monday 8th July
quotequote all
DSLiverpool said:
blank said:
Get an Octopus Electroverse card if you haven't already.
Will do that cheers
There's a few in Scotland these days...



These are all on electroverse so you just need the card to tap, or you can remote start them via the electroverse app on you phone.

As noted they agree special rates, normally around 15% discount I think - but some chargers may also be part of a another networks scheme with even bigger discounts. In general though, it's probably best not to worry about getting the cheapest possible price by signing up for endless different network schemes... For occasional use, just make life easy, which electroverse certainly does!


Blockbuster

228 posts

68 months

Tuesday 9th July
quotequote all
TheDeuce said:
There's a few in Scotland these days...



These are all on electroverse so you just need the card to tap, or you can remote start them via the electroverse app on you phone.

As noted they agree special rates, normally around 15% discount I think - but some chargers may also be part of a another networks scheme with even bigger discounts. In general though, it's probably best not to worry about getting the cheapest possible price by signing up for endless different network schemes... For occasional use, just make life easy, which electroverse certainly does!
They’ve recently added Chargeplace Scotland to Electroverse which is why there’s suddenly so many.

Buyer beware though, with CPS it often costs more to use the Electroverse card.

TheDeuce

25,227 posts

73 months

Tuesday 9th July
quotequote all
Blockbuster said:
TheDeuce said:
There's a few in Scotland these days...



These are all on electroverse so you just need the card to tap, or you can remote start them via the electroverse app on you phone.

As noted they agree special rates, normally around 15% discount I think - but some chargers may also be part of a another networks scheme with even bigger discounts. In general though, it's probably best not to worry about getting the cheapest possible price by signing up for endless different network schemes... For occasional use, just make life easy, which electroverse certainly does!
They’ve recently added Chargeplace Scotland to Electroverse which is why there’s suddenly so many.

Buyer beware though, with CPS it often costs more to use the Electroverse card.
I only use public chargers infrequently so for me, the electroverse solution makes sense - it discounts the unregistered 'cash' prices of the chargers. I'm aware that in some instances there are dedicated schemes that could save a few more quid but it's honestly not worth my time or effort to research the cheapest way of getting juice from each charger - for me the value is that with one card I can use any charger on that map, easily.

Obviously if I used public chargers in one area of the country frequently, I'd look into the optimal scheme to get the best rates. I didn't think that's what the OP was asking though.