Cobham M25 services for EV charging

DevonMG4 said:
There's a surprising amount of them out there from half a dozen Pod Points at the end of the high street, to some kind soul who's made their driveway available for his or her fellow EV driver.
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When I've seen home chargers on ZapMap I didn't realise that was people making their own home charger available. That's amazing, such a great community. I thought if I turned up at someone's home I would be driven off with pitchforks!
 
dsimpkins said:
When I've seen home chargers on ZapMap I didn't realise that was people making their own home charger available. That's amazing, such a great community. I thought if I turned up at someone's home I would be driven off with pitchforks!
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Oh absolutely, prior arrangement and respect essential. Initially it was personal contact by listed phone number or email in the ZapMap details recently they've added services like Just park for pre arranged booking but I prefer the personal contact. Different hosts have different motives for making their chargers available and you can see that to some degree from the prices changed.

I've recently added our own to ZapMap as I've enjoyed the convenience others have given me.
 
Good morning...
We have lift off.....
Been charging for 8½ mins.... gone from 27% to 62%.
Probably stop at 70% cos I will have more than enough to get back.
Haven't finished coffee yet....!!
 

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Loveclose said:
Good morning...
We have lift off.....
Been charging for 8½ mins.... gone from 27% to 62%.
Probably stop at 70% cos I will have more than enough to get back.
Haven't finished coffee yet....!!
Click to expand...
My experience with IONITY chargers have been good always found them to be very fast at charging.
 
Stats for charge and journey:
27% to 80% in 24 mins. Got it working 2nd time probably because I plugged it in before transaction approval.

Ionity App worked fine - all worked well through the app direct.

Journey average : 221m @ 3.5m/kwhr.
I did get this morning's average up to 3.8 driving at 65, but post recharge, I had a bucketful of range, so reverted to 70 for second 50 miles.

Nice to have a chat with fellow MG4 folk who happened to be charging in the bay next to mine!!

For this journey, if I had to do a charge on the way back again, I definitely wouldn't need to go to 80%..... and hopefully in the warmer climate, I may get away without doing a charge at all.

Thank you to all for your encouragement and patience over the last 24hrs or so!
 
I think we've all been through this range anxiety at some point. My first long journey was driving home from the dealers, about 60 miles. I knew the car should do it easily, but I was still apprehensive.
 
Agreed - for me in this instance, my 100% charge gave me almost exactly the same amount of miles as my round trip, so I most certainly wasn't going to risk that!!!!
Got to know the car's charging port works fine with the fast chargers having read of a few that haven't and have required replacement.
 
I may have mentioned this before so apologies if so..

The government has introduced new legislation regarding public EV charge points covering pricing and payment methods, availability and customer support as well as open data.

Key points include clearly displayed/available pricing per kWh, contactless payment down to 8kW, moves to rationalise apps and RFID cards so one app/card covers many operators’ charge points and some stringent availability criteria.

If you want the full picture please see:
Regulations: The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023)
Guidance: Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 guidance
 
Loveclose said:
A very good afternoon to everyone.
Just after a bit of general advice - but if anyone has specific experience of the Cobham M25 services just past the A3 intersection towards Gatwick, do let me know!!!

Having had my MG4 (first EV) for over a month now, I'm flexing the muscles and doing a longer journey of 215 odd miles to Basildon from Andover. I have not doubt that I will get there in one go without a charge (108 miles), but given my winter range, I might just need a top up on the way back. I've not yet had anything greater than a 215 miles range at around 90% , so am bumping the charge up overnight, and we'll see how it goes.
Now, Zapmap is my friend, and it tells me that there are two sets of EV chargers. One set of three that provides 50kw charging. There is a second set of 18 chargers by Ionity that provide 350kw fast charging.
Now the 50kw chargers (it says) have contactless capability - by that I'm hoping that it means payment by credit card.
The Ionity ones state that payment is by Allstar RFID.
Now I've checked out the Allstar card - I won't get one by tomorrow if I want one, but it does seem to suit regular driving businesses as a payment card rather than one for Joe Public.
So my questions are:
1) Am I correct in assuming the 50kw chargers can be paid for by credit card?
2) Is there any way of paying for the fast 350 chargers without an Allstar card?
3) I read in the comments that there is a paystation for the Ionity Chargers - is this the case?

Any help greatly appreciated.....
Especially as my next long trip is to Harrogate.......where there may be some non-Telsar charging stations by Tesla......
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Hi, your journeys from Andover to Basildon [112mls] why use Expensive motorway chargers??. just charge up at Basildon! :unsure:
 
And next time you are better off going clockwise on the m25 on the way to Basildon. You’ll get better mileage. At least that’s always been my experience. And counterclockwise on the way back obv.
 
fnegroni said:
And next time you are better off going clockwise on the m25 on the way to Basildon. You’ll get better mileage. At least that’s always been my experience. And counterclockwise on the way back obv.
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Plus you`ll avoid Dartford crossing charges. ;)
 
Loveclose said:
Stats for charge and journey:
27% to 80% in 24 mins. Got it working 2nd time probably because I plugged it in before transaction approval.

Ionity App worked fine - all worked well through the app direct.

Journey average : 221m @ 3.5m/kwhr.
I did get this morning's average up to 3.8 driving at 65, but post recharge, I had a bucketful of range, so reverted to 70 for second 50 miles.

Nice to have a chat with fellow MG4 folk who happened to be charging in the bay next to mine!!

For this journey, if I had to do a charge on the way back again, I definitely wouldn't need to go to 80%..... and hopefully in the warmer climate, I may get away without doing a charge at all.

Thank you to all for your encouragement and patience over the last 24hrs or so!
Click to expand...
A bit late to this thread; but useful alternatives to Cobham on this stretch of M25 are the Tesla chargers either at Spectrum Guildford or Denbies Dorking. Both easily accessible off M25, and from Andover coming off M3 at Jn 4 via Hogs Back to Guildford then back to M25 via A3 is sensible route. Both these Tesla sites allow non Tesla charging (just download Tesla App)
 
Sorry I've not been on the forum for a few days.....been enjoying my MG4.....
Really appreciate the contributions - many thanks!!

Mitch AC DC said:
Hi, your journeys from Andover to Basildon [112mls] why use Expensive motorway chargers??. just charge up at Basildon! :unsure:
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There are chargers in Basildon I can use for sure. I'm hoping in the fullness of time to be able to do the round trip without the need for charging.
However, the family I'm visiting in Basildon don't have a home charger (or an EV for that matter) so I'd have to specifically make a journey to charge if I didn't do any further mileage whilst at Basildon.

Something for me to investigate further for sure. Part of this first 'longer' trip was to ensure that fast charging on my vehicle actually worked!!
 
So far, everyone I have visited or intend to visit has proved to have an AC charger within walking distance. This is probably wildly improbable, but it's true.
 

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