First experience of public charging...

[Rolfe]

Ours is a single charger with CCS, CHAdeMO and type 2 connectors, only one of which can be used at once. I find the CCS can put 65% of my battery capacity into the car in the time allowed, if I start around 20%. People have questioned what good the type 2 connector is, but I suspect people are using it to balance their batteries - fill up on the DC charger, then wait at least 90 min before connecting to the type 2 will give you almost 55 min to balance charge. Also, if the DC connector(s) are out of order, at least you can get something from the type 2 even if it's only 20 miles worth. That could at least get you to another charger.

I hope you only need the beach option in good weather!

 

[MadaboutDana]

Remembering that I'm in France, we had some excitingly diverse experiences when we first acquired the car – we didn't know much about charging (my fault), and tried to do everything on credit card. This kinda worked, on the whole-ish. But it often didn't.

So we subscribed to Chargemap, which offers both a contactless card and a very nice, user-boosted app that plots routes for you which can then be transferred to Google Maps (it doesn't yet support Apple Maps or other mapping apps, unfortunately; or didn't last time I looked). CarPlay makes this a pretty seamless process. Chargemap covers the widest range of charging networks of any of these aggregator apps, and I believe it's available in the UK as well. Or maybe not. In any case, I can thoroughly recommend; you can choose which networks you want to focus on, which means you can avoid the really expensive ones (Ionity, I'm looking at you) and work with the cheaper ones (Fastned, I love you – but I don't think you exist in the UK). Local council-maintained chargers appear to be the cheapest, at least over here.

Whether or not Chargemap exists in the UK, I can recommend some kind of aggregator app, and I can certainly recommend the contactless cards, which take away the problem of rolling up to a charger only to find that it doesn't accept credit cards or, perhaps worse, that it pretends to accept credit cards but then fails to recognise them no matter how many you shove into its idiot maw... sorry, credit card slot.

 

[Eber]

So we subscribed to Chargemap, which offers both a contactless card and a very nice, user-boosted app [...]

From personal experience (and annoyance) I can only urge everyone to carry a physical charge card. Apps can be glitchy and mobile data coverage can be patchy - especially when roaming abroad.

Last summer we pulled into an underground parking at the seaside of Trieste, Italy. No mobile reception, no chance to activate the charging station via app. We didn't have to charge, luckily, but if we had to it would have been 'game over' without a physical card.

 

[MadaboutDana]

From personal experience (and annoyance) I can only urge everyone to carry a physical charge card. Apps can be glitchy and mobile data coverage can be patchy - especially when roaming abroad.

Last summer we pulled into an underground parking at the seaside of Trieste, Italy. No mobile reception, no chance to activate the charging station via app. We didn't have to charge, luckily, but if we had to it would have been 'game over' without a physical card.

Yes, I totally, totally agree! Increasingly, I feel (based on admittedly limited experience), chargers are optimised for contactless cards, and don't work well with credit cards. Even the ones in our local Carrefour, which are there for shoppers' convenience, don't work well with credit cards (well, one does, the other two don't). Whereas they're perfectly happy with my Chargemap card.

 

[Tweed98]

My son sent me a video of the exact opposite yesterday, a Tesla driver parked at a petrol pump while he went in to shop

Are Tesla drivers the new Audi drivers?

 

[Nibloprice]

Question for those of you who have used public chargers.
Do you pay by bank card or do you have to use an app.
And if you can use your bank card, can you pay by Debit Card?
I will admit to being in my 70, so getting my excuses in early.
But I have downloaded zapmap and then chargepoint but it was not obvious (to me) how I would go about paying for charging.
I was hoping that public chargers would be as simple as paying for petrol.

Having had a MS ZS EV since 2020, I generally use Zap Map to find chargers but then go through my selection of RFID cards to see whcih is compatible. Electroverse (Octopus Energy) is often cheaper than using a credit card, Charge Map is excellent in Europe and Shell Recharge is good in London. After that, PodPoint (For LiDLs), Instvolt (Mcdonalds), GeniePoint are generally all credits cards, but often a touch mroe expensive. But definitely check your journey and and download the apps beforehand. Nothing worse that gettign somewhere and having no reception.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Having had a MS ZS EV since 2020, I generally use Zap Map to find chargers but then go through my selection of RFID cards to see whcih is compatible. Electroverse (Octopus Energy) is often cheaper than using a credit card, Charge Map is excellent in Europe and Shell Recharge is good in London. After that, PodPoint (For LiDLs), Instvolt (Mcdonalds), GeniePoint are generally all credits cards, but often a touch mroe expensive. But definitely check your journey and and download the apps beforehand. Nothing worse that gettign somewhere and having no reception.

If you're on Octopus Go for your house electricity, you now get a blanket 5% discount using Electroverse. If you're on Octopus Intelligent, it's 8%. Also, there is no "pre-authorisation" charge.
This is on top of the "Osprey 7-11" deal where if you use Electroverse on an Osprey charger between 7pm-11pm, you get a 20% discount.

 

[Rolfe]

If you're driving in Scotland, get a ChargePlace Scotland card. There are a lot of these chargers about.

 

[AidanTM]

I'm back from the lands of the north and have an extra 600 miles on the clock from the last week.

My first experience of necessary public charging was totally seamless. Great Ionity chargers in north Stafford and some Instavolt ones in Preston. Didn't have to queue once and hardly enough time to down a coffee before the battery was back at 80%

A slight car grumble when ACC, TJA and LKA stopped working when heading up the M6. Worked again after powering the car off and back on but had to actually drive the car myself for a hundred miles or so.

On the positive side, driving up to the Lakes and around Beacon Fell was great fun. Used the invisible gear stick a few times but starting to get used to automatic and loving the hill starts!

All in all a pretty good experience and have zero range anxiety now I know how straightforward it can be.

 

[Rolfe]

I always drive the car myself. Aren't you worried you might doze off with all these aids on?

I've been known to leave the motorway and drive by an A-road route if I felt I was in danger of drowsiness, because actually driving the car will keep me alert.

 

[DBedford]

I always drive the car myself. Aren't you worried you might doze off with all these aids on?

I've been known to leave the motorway and drive by an A-road route if I felt I was in danger of drowsiness, because actually driving the car will keep me alert.

Better still, stop where it’s safe to do so and take a break. ️

 

[PeteC]

If you're driving in Scotland, get a ChargePlace Scotland card. There are a lot of these chargers about.

Definitely. My Chargeplace Scotland card didn't arrive before my first electric trip to Scotland and I had to use their app. It was awful! Lots of times I couldn't start their chargers. Luckily there were some Connected Kerb ones nearby that kept me mobile. On my next two trips to Scotland I had my Chargeplace Scotland card and it was heaven! It starts the chargers first time. Well worth getting.

 

[StuartMG]

I'm in Scotland and waited quite a while for my card too. First time around they hadn't registered the order when we chased them up and then it was a further 2 week wait after the first 2. By that time we near enough had our own home port put in and I was getting fed up going back and forth to the chargers anyway. So I've barely used the card (or would just use the app). We have 1 fast charger in the town here and 2 slower 22kw ones. The fast one has been broke for at least 7 weeks now and I've (and probably others no doubt) reported it.

 

[PeteC]

I'm in Scotland and waited quite a while for my card too. First time around they hadn't registered the order when we chased them up and then it was a further 2 week wait after the first 2. By that time we near enough had our own home port put in and I was getting fed up going back and forth to the chargers anyway. So I've barely used the card (or would just use the app). We have 1 fast charger in the town here and 2 slower 22kw ones. The fast one has been broke for at least 7 weeks now and I've (and probably others no doubt) reported it.

When we're up in Scotland we have no option but to use public chargers which was very frustrating when using the app. I'd pull in next to someone merrily waving their card to start a charge and utterly fail myself to get a charge started on the app! I had to contact Chargeplace Scotland twice about the problem before they managed to do something with my account that made the app work better. Both times took a while for a reply. So I'm delighted with my card that just works!

 

[Rolfe]

Better still, stop where it’s safe to do so and take a break. ️

Absolutely. My point is that I knew I'd have to do that if I stayed on the motorway, while I was pretty sure I wouldn't have to if I took the A roads.

Turned out very well. I discovered that the A-road route home is 10 miles shorter than the motorway, and takes almost exactly the same time. Some clever computer thought the 50-mile motorway journey was preferable because it thought it could be done something like two minutes faster than the 40-mile scenic route.

 

[Rolfe]

I got my ChargePlace Scotland card before I got my car, through chatting to someone who was using the single charger in the village here. It's never not worked for me. It even got me free electricity while I was having lunch and a walk round Dawyck botanic gardens.

I had to use the Blink Charging app in Halifax because I realised I needed their chargers too late to get a card posted and while downloading the app and registering an account was hell on earth (so I'm really glad I did it from the comfort of my living room before I left), to be fair it did work on the night. Their electricity is a complete rip-off though.

 

[GaryMG4]

Ive used free podPoints with ease, today was my first chargeable experience with them. I connected, topped up my account and confirmed the charge. I left the car charging at 5.9-6 kWh and went off for a couple of hours wandering around Sculthorpe nature reserve, when I returned the charge had aborted, it had supplied 4kwh so more than a 15 minutes free would supply. is there any way to find out why it aborted?