Public EV chargers- is there a knack?

Frijj said:
They are pointless. They’ve put slow chargers where rapid chargers need to be, and rapid chargers where slow chargers need to be.

Tesco ones always full mind.
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I agree. On the rare occasions I actually need public charging, anything less than a 50 is pointless. Yeah I’ll nick some free 7kw from Tesco while I shop, but if I actually need a charge to get somewhere I want a 1 hour or nothing.
David M said:
What's people's efficiency like? I was talking to a colleague with a 70-plate 40kWh Leaf and he was saying during the winter he's getting around 2.7m/kWh and that rises to low 3s for warmer weather driving. I can't help but think that's a bit naff as I know 4-4.5 is comfortably achievable during the warmer weather in a closely-related Renault Zoe.
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I’ve been getting 3.5 to 4m/kW since Feb, so about 230-250 miles on a tank (64 kW). I can get slightly more if I use the regen paddles properly, but I tend to just leave it on level 1 all the time.
 
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yamar1 said:
Iv said before the infrastructure is noware near ready for electric cars if you plan on doing decent journeys in them and are away from home. Shockingly bad tbf.

Hopefully you got sorted all the same.
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I've recently got back from a road trip around France in an EV. Went from Calais down to Cannes via Lyon and on the way back looped up over Millau viaduct up to Limoges and then onto Paris before heading back to Calais. Probably did in excess of 2500 miles in the fortnight using public chargers all the way and didn't have an ounce of bother anywhere.
There is this myth that it can't be done and EV's are only good for local commutes, it's nonsense.
My missus was a major sceptic before the trip but is a complete convert now. Way cheaper fuel wise than it would have been in a diesel too.
HellsBells said:
Decided to take the new electric car away. I knew public chargers were likely to be crap but dear god they are awful. Don’t connect, take ages, or they charge at much slower speeds than they say. Or there seems to be a process to follow - that isn’t documented anywhere - to get it to work - so plug it in first BEFORE you click the button.

Two chargers have failed for us, and another we had to do the Hokey Cokey to get it to work.

Is there a knack? What am I missing?
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Hell's, see my post above. This was all done using the Bonnet app which uses a variety of different charger networks but at discounted rates. Majority of the chargers I used were 350kw fast chargers from Ionity and cost about 37p KWh in France. It's 45p over here. Charging usually took 25-35 minutes for a big charge. Let me know if you want a referral code for Bonnet and it'll credit you £15 when registering.
 
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Dave Herbal said:
I know they are old tech and hopefully will be upgraded soon, but what is the point of slow public chargers? Parked in a car park today and spotted a charger so I plugged in, only to find it was a 3kw. Got about 7% in 2 hours. I know it’s free, but I’d rather pay something for a decent lump of charge than nothing for nowt.
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On a weekend trip to Oxford. Charged overnight (pay for parking free charge). Generally I agree though.
 
Dave Herbal said:
I know they are old tech and hopefully will be upgraded soon, but what is the point of slow public chargers? Parked in a car park today and spotted a charger so I plugged in, only to find it was a 3kw. Got about 7% in 2 hours. I know it’s free, but I’d rather pay something for a decent lump of charge than nothing for nowt.
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Availability of electrical power, or lack of it, usually.
 
Joe Public said:
For those that have made the switch to EV and got used to it, would you see yourself going back to an ICE vehicle? I couldn’t see me ever going back like, it would feel like a big step backwards.
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I couldn't go back, starting a new job in 6 weeks and the EV company car was a big thing for me.

It's not just the tax benefit, but I actually enjoy driving the Kona I have now. Gone for the Kia Nero with the new job as it's got a bit more space
 
southstander said:
On a weekend trip to Oxford. Charged overnight (pay for parking free charge). Generally I agree though.
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Yes but a 3kW charger overnight is still a waste of time. You need a 7 at least. On a side note, I was recently parked overnight in a car park with a load of chargers, but they were all in disabled bays, and there were no signs to indicate whether non-disabled people were permitted to use them or not. In the end I bottled it just in case I got a ticket.
 
Joe Public said:
For those that have made the switch to EV and got used to it, would you see yourself going back to an ICE vehicle? I couldn’t see me ever going back like, it would feel like a big step backwards.
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I would hate to go back but I'm retired now and on a fixed income .I'll probably take up the option to purchase mine though
 
Joe Public said:
For those that have made the switch to EV and got used to it, would you see yourself going back to an ICE vehicle? I couldn’t see me ever going back like, it would feel like a big step backwards.
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As far as the car is concerned and how happy I am then definitely not.
If I ended up closer to home or wfh full time with very little mileage I'd probably just buy a used big petrol engine.
In reality though I'd not want to go back, love the car, love the way it drives and have had no issues or real range anxiety.
 
Got the train to London this week and parked my car in Grainger Town car park opposite Newcastle Train station as they were advertising free charging. Charge points ran by Charge Your Car who’ve been taken over by bp pulse. It was free but you had a resister a card but on their app - daft thing was the card expiry date selector only went up to 2025 and my cards were all after 2025. Rang up and they said yeah we’ve stopped investing in the app so it doesn’t really work. So basically can’t use the chargers unless you have a card within the expiry limit. Waste of time no the wonder no cars were charging.
 
Joe Public said:
For those that have made the switch to EV and got used to it, would you see yourself going back to an ICE vehicle? I couldn’t see me ever going back like, it would feel like a big step backwards.
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We still have a ICE for long journeys. I prefer driving the EV, it we’ll be taking the ICE on holiday to the Cotswolds next week just because I can’t be fucked stressing looking for a charging point on holiday.
 
Joe Public said:
For those that have made the switch to EV and got used to it, would you see yourself going back to an ICE vehicle? I couldn’t see me ever going back like, it would feel like a big step backwards.
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It’ll all depend on the lease prices for me. The low BIK rates make them exceptional value rn. That could change.
 
Dave Herbal said:
Yes but a 3kW charger overnight is still a waste of time. You need a 7 at least. On a side note, I was recently parked overnight in a car park with a load of chargers, but they were all in disabled bays, and there were no signs to indicate whether non-disabled people were permitted to use them or not. In the end I bottled it just in case I got a ticket.
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Oh yes, Oxford Westgate is a mix of 7 and 22. One of the car parks in Portsmouth has 2*3kW and 2*7. The 3s are only really any use to the plug in hybrids trying to get a charge for the drive home after a shopping trip.

On the subject of disabled bays, I use the services at Leeds and Rugby and whilst it isn’t a problem for me the chargers are as far away from the services as you can get. They probably need to start installing charging in disabled bays as well.
 
GavFTM said:
Got the train to London this week and parked my car in Grainger Town car park opposite Newcastle Train station as they were advertising free charging. Charge points ran by Charge Your Car who’ve been taken over by bp pulse. It was free but you had a resister a card but on their app - daft thing was the card expiry date selector only went up to 2025 and my cards were all after 2025. Rang up and they said yeah we’ve stopped investing in the app so it doesn’t really work. So basically can’t use the chargers unless you have a card within the expiry limit. Waste of time no the wonder no cars were charging.
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Charging networks are diabolical mind. The govt should have set rigorous standards and forced contactless payment at all charge points…instead you have to sign up for app after app and pray the charge point works

I popped to Crook today to see some relatives. The charge point at Lidl has been smashed to fuck by the local twats for the second time this year. The irony is, it’s next door to a police station.

I expect Lidl will just refuse to fix it again and then the area will be left without a charge point.
 
Joe Public said:
For those that have made the switch to EV and got used to it, would you see yourself going back to an ICE vehicle? I couldn’t see me ever going back like, it would feel like a big step backwards.
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Absolutely. Company car is a no brainier with the low Bik. Our scheme is hybrid or BEV only since 2019 and Bev only in a few years.
 
HellsBells said:
We still have a ICE for long journeys. I prefer driving the EV, it we’ll be taking the ICE on holiday to the Cotswolds next week just because I can’t be fucked stressing looking for a charging point on holiday.
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There's a 300kw fastened charger you can use via the Bonnet app on the Oxford southern by-pass. Charge up there on your way up and again on your way down and should be enough for while you're there?
 
HellsBells said:
We still have a ICE for long journeys. I prefer driving the EV, it we’ll be taking the ICE on holiday to the Cotswolds next week just because I can’t be fucked stressing looking for a charging point on holiday.
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I would probs be similar if I didn’t have access to the SC network, I agree with you the public charging network is pretty poor. The wife still has an ICE but is wanting to switch when her deal ends. Then it will be a battle for the home charger.
 

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