A difficult journey highlights issues with UK public charging infrastructure.

Gadget Geek

Gadget Geek

Prominent Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2022
Messages
2,600
Reaction score
3,315
Points
977
Location
Somerset
Driving
MG ZS EV
Firstly, sorry this is a bit of a long one.

I would like to start by saying I love driving EV’s (I’m on my third one now) and would not go back to fossils. This is my experience on Sunday of driving to London and back and the problems I encountered. (You can skip to my thoughts at the end if you don’t want to read through my waffle :))

I was taking my daughter to Heathrow, and I planned to park at Hounslow West Underground Station, because it was free and a 20 minute bus ride to Terminal 5. The BetterRoutePlanner plan worked perfectly and we arrived with 25% remaining after starting with 100%. When we were parking I noticed there were some Source London charging posts in the car park but wasn’t sure if they were contactless, membership app, RFID, etc, and didn’t have time to investigate. 5 minutes later, the night bus came and took us to Heathrow. Brilliant! If all journeys could be that easy.

At Heathrow, I waited for the bus to take me back to Hounslow West, and I could taste the diesel exhaust from all the coaches and buses idling at the stops. The sooner all public transport is electric, the better. So, I got back to the car park and set off to get my first charge. I’d chosen Pod-Point because I happen to have the app (the only one I’ve got) and I’m a tight git and Lidl have the cheapest 50kW CCS network.

So, I drove 4 miles to Lidl at Hayes and just got there as a woman plugged in her Kona. I could see on the charger display that the state of charge was low, so she was going to be there for quite a while, which she confirmed. Not to worry, I thought that might happen, although, at 08:00 on a Sunday morning, I thought I might have a better chance.:)

I drove 5 miles back to Lidl in Feltham and it was deserted, brilliant! By this time I had 15% charge left and didn’t really want to go any lower in case of any unexpected problems. I plugged in the CCS charger and the screen said the charger wasn’t working. I gave the charger a couple of expletives and decided to plug in the Type 2 AC to get a bit of charge back while I had a hot drink from my flask.

At 17% I drove 6 miles to Lidl at Uxbridge, where there was an e-tron already charging. Fortunately, the driver said he was only doing a splash and dash and would be 10 minutes. Result! (compared to my previous attempts anyway). Whilst I was charging, a taxi driver turned up in a Kia e-niro and we had a chat. He said that because of the clean air zone, they wanted to charge him £35 (not sure what time period that was for), so he sold his fossil car and bought an EV. The problem was that he didn’t have off street parking and the council hadn’t installed any more chargers.

I was going to charge to 75%, but stopped at 68% as there was someone waiting. I then drove 35 miles to Lidl at Reading for a final top up for the journey home. There was an electric Mini plugged into the 50kW and on the screen I could see it was at 99% with no one in the car. How selfish is that? 7KW, fair enough as they take hours to charge, but a 50kW which takes tens of minutes?

So, I drove 8 miles to MOTO Services on the M4 Westbound. They have 2 Gridserve Electric Highway units, one is CCS and Chademo, and the other 2 CCS, one of which was not being used. I plugged in and found out why it wasn’t being used . . . it wouldn’t initiate the charge. So once again, I had to wait for someone to finish so I could charge (about 15 minutes).

My thoughts on this are:

Although there were a number of locations within a five mile radius, they only had 1 charger at those locations. When Tesla install chargers, they install multiple stalls at one location.

The government want to promote the change to EV’s, but are not promoting the infrastructure to support those EV’s.

Although there is standardisation of connectors (sort of), CCS being the current leader, connection protocols, and electrical regulations for the installation of chargers, network providers have free rein to operate those chargers as they see fit. Their is no standardisation of their user interfaces, and rely on you having a phone with you if you have any issues. I have to admit that I was more concerned with finding a working charger than I was with talking to a support centre ( a simple “out-of-order” button to press would be an easier solution). Petrol and diesel pumps are the same all over the UK, regardless of which company is running them, and you don’t need, RFID’s or apps to use them.

I enjoy driving EV’s and found it all a bit of an adventure. If I were a “petrol head” or an ordinary commuter, my journey would not have encouraged me to buy an EV.
 
Gadget Geek said:
Firstly, sorry this is a bit of a long one.

I would like to start by saying I love driving EV’s (I’m on my third one now) and would not go back to fossils. This is my experience on Sunday of driving to London and back and the problems I encountered. (You can skip to my thoughts at the end if you don’t want to read through my waffle :))

I was taking my daughter to Heathrow, and I planned to park at Hounslow West Underground Station, because it was free and a 20 minute bus ride to Terminal 5. The BetterRoutePlanner plan worked perfectly and we arrived with 25% remaining after starting with 100%. When we were parking I noticed there were some Source London charging posts in the car park but wasn’t sure if they were contactless, membership app, RFID, etc, and didn’t have time to investigate. 5 minutes later, the night bus came and took us to Heathrow. Brilliant! If all journeys could be that easy.

At Heathrow, I waited for the bus to take me back to Hounslow West, and I could taste the diesel exhaust from all the coaches and buses idling at the stops. The sooner all public transport is electric, the better. So, I got back to the car park and set off to get my first charge. I’d chosen Pod-Point because I happen to have the app (the only one I’ve got) and I’m a tight git and Lidl have the cheapest 50kW CCS network.

So, I drove 4 miles to Lidl at Hayes and just got there as a woman plugged in her Kona. I could see on the charger display that the state of charge was low, so she was going to be there for quite a while, which she confirmed. Not to worry, I thought that might happen, although, at 08:00 on a Sunday morning, I thought I might have a better chance.:)

I drove 5 miles back to Lidl in Feltham and it was deserted, brilliant! By this time I had 15% charge left and didn’t really want to go any lower in case of any unexpected problems. I plugged in the CCS charger and the screen said the charger wasn’t working. I gave the charger a couple of expletives and decided to plug in the Type 2 AC to get a bit of charge back while I had a hot drink from my flask.

At 17% I drove 6 miles to Lidl at Uxbridge, where there was an e-tron already charging. Fortunately, the driver said he was only doing a splash and dash and would be 10 minutes. Result! (compared to my previous attempts anyway). Whilst I was charging, a taxi driver turned up in a Kia e-niro and we had a chat. He said that because of the clean air zone, they wanted to charge him £35 (not sure what time period that was for), so he sold his fossil car and bought an EV. The problem was that he didn’t have off street parking and the council hadn’t installed any more chargers.

I was going to charge to 75%, but stopped at 68% as there was someone waiting. I then drove 35 miles to Lidl at Reading for a final top up for the journey home. There was an electric Mini plugged into the 50kW and on the screen I could see it was at 99% with no one in the car. How selfish is that? 7KW, fair enough as they take hours to charge, but a 50kW which takes tens of minutes?

So, I drove 8 miles to MOTO Services on the M4 Westbound. They have 2 Gridserve Electric Highway units, one is CCS and Chademo, and the other 2 CCS, one of which was not being used. I plugged in and found out why it wasn’t being used . . . it wouldn’t initiate the charge. So once again, I had to wait for someone to finish so I could charge (about 15 minutes).

My thoughts on this are:

Although there were a number of locations within a five mile radius, they only had 1 charger at those locations. When Tesla install chargers, they install multiple stalls at one location.

The government want to promote the change to EV’s, but are not promoting the infrastructure to support those EV’s.

Although there is standardisation of connectors (sort of), CCS being the current leader, connection protocols, and electrical regulations for the installation of chargers, network providers have free rein to operate those chargers as they see fit. Their is no standardisation of their user interfaces, and rely on you having a phone with you if you have any issues. I have to admit that I was more concerned with finding a working charger than I was with talking to a support centre ( a simple “out-of-order” button to press would be an easier solution). Petrol and diesel pumps are the same all over the UK, regardless of which company is running them, and you don’t need, RFID’s or apps to use them.

I enjoy driving EV’s and found it all a bit of an adventure. If I were a “petrol head” or an ordinary commuter, my journey would not have encouraged me to buy an EV.
Click to expand...
Source London will take contactless.
 
Gadget Geek said:
Firstly, sorry this is a bit of a long one.

I would like to start by saying I love driving EV’s (I’m on my third one now) and would not go back to fossils. This is my experience on Sunday of driving to London and back and the problems I encountered. (You can skip to my thoughts at the end if you don’t want to read through my waffle :))

I was taking my daughter to Heathrow, and I planned to park at Hounslow West Underground Station, because it was free and a 20 minute bus ride to Terminal 5. The BetterRoutePlanner plan worked perfectly and we arrived with 25% remaining after starting with 100%. When we were parking I noticed there were some Source London charging posts in the car park but wasn’t sure if they were contactless, membership app, RFID, etc, and didn’t have time to investigate. 5 minutes later, the night bus came and took us to Heathrow. Brilliant! If all journeys could be that easy.

At Heathrow, I waited for the bus to take me back to Hounslow West, and I could taste the diesel exhaust from all the coaches and buses idling at the stops. The sooner all public transport is electric, the better. So, I got back to the car park and set off to get my first charge. I’d chosen Pod-Point because I happen to have the app (the only one I’ve got) and I’m a tight git and Lidl have the cheapest 50kW CCS network.

So, I drove 4 miles to Lidl at Hayes and just got there as a woman plugged in her Kona. I could see on the charger display that the state of charge was low, so she was going to be there for quite a while, which she confirmed. Not to worry, I thought that might happen, although, at 08:00 on a Sunday morning, I thought I might have a better chance.:)

I drove 5 miles back to Lidl in Feltham and it was deserted, brilliant! By this time I had 15% charge left and didn’t really want to go any lower in case of any unexpected problems. I plugged in the CCS charger and the screen said the charger wasn’t working. I gave the charger a couple of expletives and decided to plug in the Type 2 AC to get a bit of charge back while I had a hot drink from my flask.

At 17% I drove 6 miles to Lidl at Uxbridge, where there was an e-tron already charging. Fortunately, the driver said he was only doing a splash and dash and would be 10 minutes. Result! (compared to my previous attempts anyway). Whilst I was charging, a taxi driver turned up in a Kia e-niro and we had a chat. He said that because of the clean air zone, they wanted to charge him £35 (not sure what time period that was for), so he sold his fossil car and bought an EV. The problem was that he didn’t have off street parking and the council hadn’t installed any more chargers.

I was going to charge to 75%, but stopped at 68% as there was someone waiting. I then drove 35 miles to Lidl at Reading for a final top up for the journey home. There was an electric Mini plugged into the 50kW and on the screen I could see it was at 99% with no one in the car. How selfish is that? 7KW, fair enough as they take hours to charge, but a 50kW which takes tens of minutes?

So, I drove 8 miles to MOTO Services on the M4 Westbound. They have 2 Gridserve Electric Highway units, one is CCS and Chademo, and the other 2 CCS, one of which was not being used. I plugged in and found out why it wasn’t being used . . . it wouldn’t initiate the charge. So once again, I had to wait for someone to finish so I could charge (about 15 minutes).

My thoughts on this are:

Although there were a number of locations within a five mile radius, they only had 1 charger at those locations. When Tesla install chargers, they install multiple stalls at one location.

The government want to promote the change to EV’s, but are not promoting the infrastructure to support those EV’s.

Although there is standardisation of connectors (sort of), CCS being the current leader, connection protocols, and electrical regulations for the installation of chargers, network providers have free rein to operate those chargers as they see fit. Their is no standardisation of their user interfaces, and rely on you having a phone with you if you have any issues. I have to admit that I was more concerned with finding a working charger than I was with talking to a support centre ( a simple “out-of-order” button to press would be an easier solution). Petrol and diesel pumps are the same all over the UK, regardless of which company is running them, and you don’t need, RFID’s or apps to use them.

I enjoy driving EV’s and found it all a bit of an adventure. If I were a “petrol head” or an ordinary commuter, my journey would not have encouraged me to buy an EV.
Click to expand...
Over several years of having an EV I would say, for long trips:

Don't include any facility that has only 1 charger

Avoid supermarket dedicated chargers (e.g. Lidl)

Avoid the most unreliable networks (Used to be electric highway but now seems to be increasingly Polar). Mark them to avoid in ABRP.

Try to use Nav that includes real-time occupancy/functional status.

Favour facilities that have more than one charger company in the same place. A few do and watch for the Tesla opened chargers.

Favour chargers that take debit cards.
 
Bodgerx said:
Over several years of having an EV I would say, for long trips:

Don't include any facility that has only 1 charger

Avoid supermarket dedicated chargers (e.g. Lidl)

Avoid the most unreliable networks (Used to be electric highway but now seems to be increasingly Polar). Mark them to avoid in ABRP.

Try to use Nav that includes real-time occupancy/functional status.

Favour facilities that have more than one charger company in the same place. A few do and watch for the Tesla opened chargers.

Favour chargers that take debit cards.
Click to expand...
All good points, although I did say that I wanted to use the cheapest network, so expected some of the issues I encounterd. Broken chargers though are totally unacceptable. Imagine if petrol pumps were left not working, there would be questions asked in parliament. :)

Real time navigation requires an internet connection, which I don't always have.

It's the old adage, "you get what you pay for" I suppose. The cheaper networks have less funding for maintenance.

And apart from Pod-Point, I always use contactless payment as I refuse to have all those apps, cards and RFID's. If ICE car drivers don't have to use them, why should EV drivers have to?
 
I think more needs to be done with the chargers themselves to increase their resilience.

I think there are a few charger types that have integration week points. Quite a few of them are using Linux based OSes that have a system integration with the payment card module. Quite a few times, particularly with Gridserve's and Shell's AAB chargers I've seen the system unable to take a payment as it seemingly can't communicate with the card device. On the phone to the provider results in them remotely rebooting it where you can often see in the logging the process of goes through to connect to the reader.

I think some of these systems need rebuilding from the ground up with some redundancy and self healing principles applied. Whatever they are doing at the moment just isn't cutting it. Yes there will always be hardware failures, but it's just too common at the moment to say it's all that.
 
A few points spring to mind:
1. It is beyond bizarre that you could not drive straight to Heathrow, plug your car in whilst seeing your daughter off, and then drive home. Did you check that possibility?
2. If you think about provision of ice filling stations, it is obvious that we already need a tenfold increase in rapid chargers, and that needs to be now, not in a years time.
3. Has anyone investigated whether one could have a short adaptor lead so that one could use say Chsdemo chargers on a CCS? Eg Chademo plug to CCS socket.
4. Newer chargers tend to be better at just accepting contactless. Roll them out quick!
 
The existing network would have likely got you there and back with little difficulty had you made some different choices and been prepared to pay for more expensive chargers.

I'm reminded of my mother who complained about the standard of public transport having taken over 4 hours and used 4 buses to complete her journey. She could have done it in a little over an hour with one bus and a train, but she has a bus pass and the train was more expensive.

You pays your money (or not) and take your choice.
 
Last edited:
When on longer trips, I favour the Genie Chargers which often live in Morrison's Supermarket car parks. But alas, many are out of order and have been for many months. Genie says that they cannot get spare parts for the chargers. I know there is a shortage of electronic chips, but something is awry, either the original chargers were below standard, or a decision to install these chargers without spares back-up was a bad one. Our Gridserve chargers seem to be reliable, but they only install them in ones and two's here in Wales. (Some exceptions)
 
Beggars belief that you think you can drive around for free and complain when the free chargers are not available ? Internet connection would have been available everywhere given the locations you described so there are literally hundreds of charging options albeit paid for options.
 
Barrie said:
Beggars belief that you think you can drive around for free and complain when the free chargers are not available ? Internet connection would have been available everywhere given the locations you described so there are literally hundreds of charging options albeit paid for options.
Click to expand...
Who said anything about free chargers? I think you'll find the honeymoon period is over now and you have to pay at all chargers. I was looking at the most economic way of doing it and stated that I accepted that I would have to compromise, which is why I had a number of back ups, so I'm not complaining about that.
The problems I encountered were with faulty chargers.
 
Last edited:
Tim Green said:
3. Has anyone investigated whether one could have a short adaptor lead so that one could use say Chsdemo chargers on a CCS? Eg Chademo plug to CCS socket.
4. Newer chargers tend to be better at just accepting contactless. Roll them out quick!
Click to expand...
Tim, I researched this when I bought my I-Pace in 2019 and took it on a trip to France.
France is king for ChadeMo by the way, Nissan being associated with Renault, and both have ChadeMo connectors, or did.
Tesla do/did a CCS to ChadeMo adapter, so why couldn't I buy one for my Jaguar?
The answer is that the association that runs CCS refuse to talk to ChadeMo! Thus it isn't possible to arrange the correct protocols and interfaces between the two!
Tesla did because they write their own software and are happy to add a bit of hardware to the car to accommodate CCS and ChadeMo!

On the subject of Contactless, I find that Instavolt are one of the most reliable and are almost 100% certainly when you use Apple Pay!
I was having issues with one Instavolt contactless reader when a guy came in and parked next to me, saw I was having problems and asked if I had Apple Pay set up, which I had, and to try that.
It worked! He said, and I believe him, that the signal out of the phone is much stronger than the inbuilt RFID sensor, and is much more reliable.
Since then I have always used Apple Pay on contactless readers and have had 100% success!
 
Tim Green said:
3. Has anyone investigated whether one could have a short adaptor lead so that one could use say Chsdemo chargers on a CCS? Eg Chademo plug to CCS socket.
Click to expand...
Needs more than a simple adapter. CHAdeMO and CCS use completely different communication protocols and locking mechanisms.
 
In general, when on a long trip, I go for convenience over cost, it may cost a few more pounds, but as I rarely need to use public chargers, I'll pay the extra now and again

I stopped a hotel near Heathrow in the summer, the one charging point at the hotel was always in use, with no kind of booking system. So I used a hub in Slough that had about 10 ultra rapid chargers, it went from 10 - 90% in the time it took me to get some fast food

I use Zap map, only use locations with multiple chargers, check the status and also have a quick look at any comments


I've got to pick up my brother from Newcastle Airport on Thursday night, I'll have just enough for the round trip. No chargers at the airport (except for hotel guests), it's crazy. I know that I can stop to charge elsewhere, but no public chargers at an airport is crazy
 
@IanMG
Many thanks for your very informative post about Apple Pay, it’s good to know. I use it exclusively now, for shopping/eating out etc., as it’s the safest option for contactless payments, and I always have my phone with me. I haven’t needed to charge away from home yet; I have the Octopus card, and a pod point app, but would really just prefer to use Apple Pay if possible.
 
I wonder if it is the same for Google Pay? I've got that set up on my Android. I'll try it in a couple of weeks when I pick my daughter up from the airport. :)
 
Tim Green said:
1. It is beyond bizarre that you could not drive straight to Heathrow, plug your car in whilst seeing your daughter off, and then drive home. Did you check that possibility?
Click to expand...
Free 7kW Pod-Point chargers on level 2 of Terminal 5 carpark. Only drawback is, on the Heathrow website it says it costs £60 for one hours parking!
 
This is the charger I used in Slough, you do need the chargepoint app to use it though

1671539054973.png
 
Support us by becoming a Premium Member

Latest MG EVs video

New EVs from MG: MG S9 & MG9 plus hot topics from the forums
Published
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom