BP pulse……

[Drakon]

I live in Milton Keynes where the council decided that granting BP Pulse a virtual monopoly on charging was a great idea. For months the majority of their chargers have been broken, and when BP finally decided to start upgrading their hardware, they started with the few working chargers they still had...

At this point I’ve told ABRP to never use a BP Pulse charger, chances are it won’t work anyway.

The replacement chargers for the few working ones have now failed after a few months. I really can’t see how BP are making money out of this when it’s impossible to use the service.

The cynic in me would think that an oil company wouldn’t want an EV charging network to be successful…

 

[Rolfe]

I tried to use a BP Pulse charger at an M&S filling station in Hove on Thursday. It was broken. They were waiting for the engineer.

The good news is that if it had been working, I'd have qualified for a half-price coffee or something like that.

 

[Drakon]

Depending on the coffee, that may not have been good news

 

[Captain]

I tried to use a BP Pulse charger at an M&S filling station in Hove on Thursday. It was broken. They were waiting for the engineer.

The good news is that if it had been working, I'd have qualified for a half-price coffee or something like that.

useless.......!

 

[AndyL61]

Several and more in the pipeline:
View attachment 19515

These do not show on the Tesla app as open to non Tesla. The Tesla app is the best app where you will find the non Tesla Tesla chargers .

 

[tsedge]

These do not show on the Tesla app as open to non Tesla. The Tesla app is the best app where you will find the non Tesla Tesla chargers .

Indeed - I wasn't claiming they were, my response was to a question about whether there were any Tesla chargers West of Bristol.

It is possible they will open one or more up (or one of the planned ones).

 

[Rolfe]

Given the new legislation, they're going to have to open them up eventually.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Given the new legislation, they're going to have to open them up eventually.

This is why Tesla have already started installing V4 chargers in the UK, which have longer cables & room for a screen/card reader on the casing.
The first site is their Tottenham service centre (unlikely to be openly available):-

First Tesla v4 Superchargers in UK

Look like little old Tottenham (service centre) will beat the various other V4 based sites variously announced / in planning to become the first V4 site (with payment terminals) in the UK. https://x.com/teslaownersuk/status/1692113292368519205?s=46

www.speakev.com

 

[Drakon]

Now it seems that BP Pulse’s response to their new chargers consistently failing to work is… blame the user! Amazing!

 

[PeteC]

I had to use a BP pulse charger on the way to the Suffolk coast as where I was heading was very sparse of chargers of any speed (virtually all were 7kW) so I needed to top up to have plenty of charge to run around while I was there. The BP one was the last rapid charger I could find on the way. Although it had contactless payment, the instructions asked me to use the app to start and stop the charge. It would only start if I had at least £5 credit in my account. Anyway, I followed the instructions and it charged just fine, which was a relief after all I've read about BP pulse chargers, especially as the comments on zapmap for the charger I used were mostly negative.

I used the exact same charger on the way home and this time it worked straight away with a contactless payment. I've no idea why it was different as I'd followed the same procedure each time, shutting down the car, plugging in and pressing start on the charger.

Despite it working fine each time, I'd still avoid BP chargers unless really pushed as they are just so expensive. Also, I didn't notice the charge rate going above 81kW even though it was supposed to be a 150kW charger. I've seen my car taking a much higher rate than that at similar states of charge.

 

[Lovemyev]

BP is quickly becoming the new Electric Highway !.
Well, we all know how badly that ended .
Here today, gone tomorrow.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

BTW - I was mistaken above.
Tesla Tottenham's v4 Superchargers are open to all EVs.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

BP is quickly becoming the new Electric Highway !.
Well, we all know how badly that ended .
Here today, gone tomorrow.

I think GeniePoint is beating BP to the punch by installing pre-broken rapids at new locations.

 

[Drakon]

BP is quickly becoming the new Electric Highway !.
Well, we all know how badly that ended .
Here today, gone tomorrow.

Gridserve? I’ve only ever heard awful things about them but more often than not they’ve been fine for me.

 

[tsedge]

Gridserve? I’ve only ever heard awful things about them but more often than not they’ve been fine for me.

And I've had good experiences with BP - it just shows that the experience varies an awful lot with almost all of them except Tesla chargers that seem to be reliably working well.

 

[Rolfe]

Gridserve? I’ve only ever heard awful things about them but more often than not they’ve been fine for me.

Seconded on the "Gridserve are fine" position. I've not had a problem with them at all. Rock up, follow instructions on screen, go away and find coffee. On one occasion when I couldn't get an Applegreen charger to talk to my car at all, I moved it to a nearby Gridserve and got connected immediately.

They're rolling out banks of six ultra-rapids in a lot of motorway service stations, and I've had only good experiences with them.

 

[KH11]

Gridserve? I’ve only ever heard awful things about them but more often than not they’ve been fine for me.

I have recently used a Gridserve at Woolley Edge Services and didn’t have any issues starting the charge just wasn’t sure of the proper procedure for stopping the charge. Granted they weren’t the ultra Rapid chargers only spotted them on the way out. Noticed yesterday on X formally Twitter that they have now installed and are operating 12 new Gridserve rapid chargers at Scotch Corner.

 

[Drakon]

And I've had good experiences with BP - it just shows that the experience varies an awful lot with almost all of them except Tesla chargers that seem to be reliably working well.

Granted, I’ve also used far less Gridserve chargers than BP ones, so there isn’t a reasonable comparison in my case

 

[Lovemyev]

Gridserve? I’ve only ever heard awful things about them but more often than not they’ve been fine for me.

Arh - Sorry .... In my comment, I was insinuating that the very common poor service provided by The Electric Highway BEFORE Gridserve then bought them out in two stages.
COULD be the same path that BP is heading down if they don't raise their game ?.
Or are THEY looking for a buy out - SURELY not ????.

 

[MGCamb]

The replacement chargers for the few working ones have now failed after a few months. I really can’t see how BP are making money out of this when it’s impossible to use the service.

The cynic in me would think that an oil company wouldn’t want an EV charging network to be successful…

Nottingham is exactly the same. I had to take a fully charged car 60 miles to a customer and had to arrive with 70% (180 mile Audi so down to 50%). Arrived there at 0700hr Saturday morning having perused the BP stations the night before (company contracted to BP for fuel) and pleasantly surprised to see a number of fast chargers. First charger at County Buildings did not exist or was behind a staff only barrier, never mind another one in the centre which transpired was for taxis only unused- no taxis at all at that time; next one was at the Holiday Inn, Jag sitting with cable attached. Phoned BP for help, they could find me a 7Kw charger. Had to go to M1 to find a charger, where company card did not work and a few frustrating calls. Had originally planned to be back in Cambs by 10 o'clock and manged to get there for 2.