Charging Station Payment

[MGE]

I have been using my new ZS EV for around three weeks now and have covered more than 850 miles - most trouble free, some not. For the most part I have charged at home via the 7kw Pod-Point charger provided courtesy of MG Cars but due to distance travelling between two regular locations some 112 miles (via motorway) or 86 miles (via busy A roads) I have also required EV charger top ups and have been both amazed and frustrated by the myriad amount of alternative payment methods none of which appear simple and wondered if any users could shed light on the best method to 'top up' on the move.

To give a little background I have used a Chargepoint Insta-Volt without trouble with the exception that the touch screen is difficult to operate and doesn't always register especially in wet conditions but their contactless payment system is in line I believe with new government guidelines for all operators to offer this payment method.

I also used a Genie point where, in order to register they seem to want to know everything including your inside leg measurement, but here you use a web site (there is no app) and register a bank card which deducts a £10 credit charge then auto tops up £10 every time you go over. Having spoken to Genie they say they offer a RFID card at a cost of £9 which then links into the same account they already have details on but you have to call - signal permitting - to authorise payment and again they auto top up £10 a time.

Ecotricity works from an App and initially deduct £12 (the maximum you can take from the 'pump') before crediting to back with the difference to the actual amount used on each top up around 3-4 days later. So, by my reckoning I currently have two Ecotricity £12 charges and a £10 (credit) charge from Genie making £34 that has temporarily gone out of my bank account which, as my wife pointed out, combined with the actual amount of electricity used means we might have stayed with our diesel car as we are not seeing a real time saving on those two trips.

A call centre guy at Genie said they were aware contactless was coming but no idea when and that their machines are not compatible with it, whereas Ecotricity were a little more helpful saying new machines they installed would be contactless.

I searched the internet for info about the RFID cards and it seems there is no one universal card which links to a bank account that may be used at any machine as different charge companies have their own system charging for the cards. Also it appears the RFID card was very early days and with the introduction of Apps is rapidly becoming superseded.

The whole process makes a mockery of those of us who are trying to go down the EV route for the first time and, as I have run down to single figure mileage reserve on two occasions now due to the car not providing the range specified or machines being incompatible when looking to charge which, coupled with charge providers holding money in credit ,makes me wonder if any cost saving is worth the time over a good range diesel car.

Surely if, as the government has recently announced, they intend stopping the sale of fossil fuel cars in just 12 years time the infrastructure needs massive investment and already upgrading?

In the meantime if anyone can advise on a cross-charger card that simply links to a bank account by either contactless presentation or swiping I'd be grateful as the experience to date has not been great.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Yeah, compared to driving an ICE car, getting fuel is far from ideal.
My preference is Polar Plus. I pay a small amount every month for the RFID card and then I use Zap Map to only show me Polar and Charge Your Car chargers. I'll plan my charging journey round using those. If they aren't convenient, I'll go to an Ecotricity, though they are more often out of service than in.
Failing that I'll go an Instavolt somewhere next. Or anything that is PAYG.

 

[Dave]

At a typical MSA you will see around 16 fuel pump points. This caters for cars that take about 5 minutes to fill.

At a typical MSA you will currently see one unreliable Ecotricity CCS charger. This caters for cars that take around 45 mins to get to 80% full.

Some serious consideration has to be done if we want all new cars sold to be BEVs within 12 years.

 

[Stuart Wright]

At a typical MSA you will see around 16 fuel pump points. This caters for cars that take about 5 minutes to fill.

At a typical MSA you will currently see one unreliable Ecotricity CCS charger. This caters for cars that take around 45 mins to get to 80% full.

Some serious consideration has to be done if we want all new cars sold to be BEVs within 12 years.

Agree, but most BEV drivers don't exclusively use motorway services to charge. I, for example, rarely use them when public charging precisely because they are expensive and unreliable.

 

[Dave]

Agree, but most BEV drivers don't exclusively use motorway services to charge. I, for example, rarely use them when public charging precisely because they are expensive and unreliable.

I think that is true of ICE car owners as well. Fuel at an MSA is around 30p/ltr more expensive than at local filling stations - but still people use them.

It is not the now we have to think about, it is the future. The UK Government plans to ban the sale of all new ICE cars by 2032 (12 Years from now), whether hybrid or full ICE. This is going to create a major issue for “fueling” of a BEV if that is the only solution for replacing ICE.

More than 30% of the UK park on the street so will not be able to have a charger at home.

 

[MGE]

I read that the Scottish government are to upgrade the main A9 road linking Edinburgh to Inverness making it an electric highway so there are sufficient charge points for motorists on the move. A few years ago when I first considered an EV I was amazed that major service stations such as Leicester Forest East, effectively one of the busiest half way down the M1, only had around four charging points and wondered then how the infrastructure would cope with an influx of EV converts.

It strikes me that by the time HS2 is built at a cost of presumably more than £100 billion (can anyone imagine that amount of money) then it will be more or less redundant by the time it opens and the same spend on upgrading the country's major arterial routes with dedicated EV stations every 50 miles or so which offered a rest area, decent food outlet and facilities would be money much better spent and actually give EV drivers with a lower range more confidence to use their cars thus helping to achieve carbon neutral aims.

 

[Dave]

There are around 38m cars on UK roads. Around 2.3m new cars are purchased each year. That means about 17 years to replace the existing ICE cars IF we start today. As only around 2.5% of new cars purchased are BEV, there is a lot of work to do to create the required infrastructure. Car manufacturers have a massive job to do.

All new-build houses should have at least one car charging point and have solar power as a requirement of allowing construction.

Despite what other might say, their is an issue of the national grid not being able to cope at the local level. Most homes in the UK have a 100Amp incomer, providing a capability of roughly 23kVA. However, when building a new housing estate, the grid to the estate is not designed for this loading capacity. Typically the builder allows an average of around 5kVA / house for the site power requirement. We already know the problem when a few people turn on the kettle at the same time - an EV takes 2x more power to charge it, and will sit there for 7 to 8 hours (or longer) to achieve a full charge, not the five minutes it takes a kettle to boil.

Worldwide, 83m new cars are sold every year. 132m motor cycles. 100m commercial, industrial, marine and aero engines.

£100b+ for HS2: I would think it would be better for the government to spend the money on the BEV Infrastructure, but also to consider Hydrogen Fuel Cell stations as well. BEV will not work for 40 ton commercial vehicles.

If the Government is to ban ICE from 2032 it needs a plan to support that.