Best apps to find commercial chargers on a journey

[Rolfe]

Yes, that seems like the best thing. I'll get her to take a look. I can see it's an expensive charger, but I can literally see it from the bedroom window and hopefully I can just let the car charge there for as long as it takes. I can't find anything much cheaper nearby anyway.

The only snag is that she says the four charging points are usually filled by ICE cars parked there for the day and I'll have to be on the ball to get a space at a charger. I don't know what can be done about that. (I wonder if it's possible to park across one or two of these cars and block them in. No, I'm not really that nasty...)

 

[Tig170]

my go to is bonnet, with a filter of rapid & 4+ chargers, very reliable real-time availability (MFG is preferred, as they usually have 8 bays-& always work). But I always have a look a Tesla supercharger network, as quite a few are now for non teslas - always ample capacity

 

[Rolfe]

Do you know anything about the Tesla chargers at Tebay on the southbound carriageway of the M6? According to ZapMaps they are Tesla-only, but it seems strange that there would be no facility at all for non-Tesla cars at a big motorway service station.

 

[Ian Key]

Yes it does seem odd that they aren't open to non Teslas as there is a Gridserve on the northbound services.

 

[Tig170]

Yes it does seem odd that they aren't open to non Teslas as there is a Gridserve on the northbound services.

Is the tesla system 100% on the southbound then, as when I drove past this (27th dec), going north bound, the traffic was queuing in lane 1 on the M6 to the services.

Yes it does seem odd that they aren't open to non Teslas as there is a Gridserve on the northbound services.

Why would they? Their priority is supporting their tesla owners. The aren't going to allow others on to their supercharger system, given its location (of been approx 1/2 way between glasgow & manchester), and no decent alternatives, having said this you can get onto the Porsche Centre on J35, with a Shell RFID card (but only 2 bays), my goto is MFG on J27 (with 8 bays).

 

[Gomev]

I see I will have to use this chargepoint in a couple of weeks - it's literally 50 yards from the friend's house where I will be staying. Can anyone tell me what I will need in order to pay for it?

View attachment 17209

Click on the INFO button for more information.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Do you know anything about the Tesla chargers at Tebay on the southbound carriageway of the M6? According to ZapMaps they are Tesla-only, but it seems strange that there would be no facility at all for non-Tesla cars at a big motorway service station.

Yes it does seem odd that they aren't open to non Teslas as there is a Gridserve on the northbound services.

Is the tesla system 100% on the southbound then, as when I drove past this 27th dec), going north bound, the traffic was queuing in lane 1 on the M6 to the services.

IIRC, you are allowed to switch sides using the access roads to get to a compatible charger.

 

[Tig170]

IIRC, you are allowed to switch sides using the access roads to get to a compatible charger.

Ah that makes sense now

 

[Ian Key]

IIRC, you are allowed to switch sides using the access roads to get to a compatible charger.

I looked at that with Google street view. Leaving the southbound side the access road is 10mph with speed bumps. Good job the MG4 has good suspension

 

[Rolfe]

IIRC, you are allowed to switch sides using the access roads to get to a compatible charger.

That's useful to know. In fact the best stop for me on that journey is Southwaite, but if there's a problem at Southwaite, Plan B really ought to be Tebay. Killington Lake is not beyond my range, but if there was also a problem at Killington Late, Kirkby Lonsdale could be pushing it in winter (I do that trip nearly every Christmas).

So if there is a problem at Southwaite, I will come off at Tebay and enquire about accessing the northbound services. (There is also a charger in Tebay village itself, not far from the motorway, at "Adventure Leisure Vehicles", which could be worth investigating.)

Why would they? Their priority is supporting their tesla owners. The aren't going to allow others on to their supercharger system, given its location (of been approx 1/2 way between glasgow & manchester), and no decent alternatives, having said this you can get onto the Porsche Centre on J35, with a Shell RFID card (but only 2 bays), my goto is MFG on J27 (with 8 bays).

I'm not declaring that Tesla should let other people use their chargers, but I do find it strange that a motorway service station doesn't have other charge points to service other makes of vehicle.

Click on the INFO button for more information.

I did that, but I'm still not clear how it works. It doesn't say that it takes contactless, but these chargers are very new and I thought all new chargers were supposed to take contactless.

 

[Rolfe]

Update on Tebay southbound. My friend in Halifax just told me she stopped there a couple of days ago and there was a big sign saying that ultra-fast chargers (for non-Teslas) were currently being installed and expected to open "in the summer".

 

[Rolfe]

My friend took a photo of the chargers beside her house and they need a Blink Charging app. This was hell to get registered on. First I tried to register as a guest, but it wouldn't let me fill in a phone number. Literally any number I entered was met with a comment that this was invalid.

So I tried to sign up, and it wouldn't let me do it on my Google account, spewing up a load of gibberish about my email address. I emailed them and got a standard auto-reply, but well over an hour later no human contact. I remembered there was another email acount Google might recognise, but it seemed the one I had originally given it was locked into the system and couldn't be changed. Sigh.

So I deleted the app and after an aborted download it finally downloaded again, and I was able to try the other email address. This appeared to work, but when I tried to register my car this proved impossible as MG4 was not available as an option on their menu.

I am extremely glad that I was sitting at home on my own sofa while I was doing this, and not standing in the dark and the rain beside a car which was low on charge and parked beside a charger that wouldn't let me access it.

Is this a common experience? Is Blink Charging unusually difficult?

 

[siteguru]

I've never heard of it.

 

[Rolfe]

It has - EB Go! after that.

 

[Archev]

I've never heard of it.

Nope not I. Sounds like a blinking nuisance.

 

[timeades]

Looking at their tag line on the website what could possibly go wrong

Over 50 Councils
Can't Be Wrong​

Dozens trust us as their EV infrastructure partner​

Power Your Future with Our EV Charging Solutions | Blink Charging UK

Discover leading EV charging and sustainable energy solutions tailored to meet your organization's goals towards a zero-emission future in the UK.

blinkcharging.co.uk

 

[CarlMG4]

Looking at their tag line on the website what could possibly go wrong

Over 50 Councils​

Can't Be Wrong​

Dozens trust us as their EV infrastructure partner​

Power Your Future with Our EV Charging Solutions | Blink Charging UK

Discover leading EV charging and sustainable energy solutions tailored to meet your organization's goals towards a zero-emission future in the UK.

blinkcharging.co.uk

I love this sort of marketing

Just like when you see something like
'over 7 years experience in the trade'
or
'over 36% of people said so'

It's even better when their spurious claims contradict each other where do I sign up??

Edit: for all 'over 50 council's can't be wrong'.. they only managed to name 3 of them in their 20 case studies.. I wonder if the remainder were wrong.

 

[Rolfe]

Sigh. They still haven't answered my email. I really need to use one of these chargers next week. I don't even see an option to get a card.

 

[timeades]

Sigh. They still haven't answered my email. I really need to use one of these chargers next week. I don't even see an option to get a card.

I guess they are busy dealing with the dozens that trust them

 

[Rolfe]

Well, my friend said that when she walked over to the chargers this afternoon to get the info, two cars were charging. And a neighbour had used the chargers for a while before his wall box was installed despite the exorbitant price. So it must be possible.