Free chargers

[shikoku14]

Hi Folks,
It seems the site owners also are making money from this electric charging issue.
For example all the pod-point chargers at Tesco are free but the majority of the Lidl pod-point chargers are paid @25p per kWh.
I think this price difference has nothing to do with pod-point themselves and may be due to the site owner.

Most 7kWh PodPoints are free, just need activating in the app within 10 minutes, its the rapids that are 23p per kWh, which outside of a Polar membership are the cheapest paid for rapids in the country (unless you do a lot of charging in a month that Polar membership would be a false economy, certainly for anyone with home charging). As EV ownership is ramping up days of all the chargers being free are going the way of the Dodo.

As for the situation in Manchester, I think again a charge is necessary as some of the GMEV posts were being abused over the 4 hour limit, and for free parking, for example the one by my office (Exchange Quay in Salford) was constantly being used as free parking for United mid week games. The £20 annual fee for CYC in my opinion was set too low to disuaed that kind of behaviour, jump it to say £50 with the news scheme and it would still offer great value if you regularly charge in MCR and put off a lot of freeloaders. Pre-lockdown getting on that particular post needed you to arrive at the office before 7:30am, I must have counted a good 50-odd EVs and PHEVs in the carparks and local area who have used that particular charger (my desk overlooked the charger, so I was an EV twitcher, when bored of the office drone).

 

[Kpa]

Most 7kWh PodPoints are free, just need activating in the app within 10 minutes, its the rapids that are 23p per kWh, which outside of a Polar membership are the cheapest paid for rapids in the country (unless you do a lot of charging in a month that Polar membership would be a false economy, certainly for anyone with home charging). As EV ownership is ramping up days of all the chargers being free are going the way of the Dodo.

As for the situation in Manchester, I think again a charge is necessary as some of the GMEV posts were being abused over the 4 hour limit, and for free parking, for example the one by my office (Exchange Quay in Salford) was constantly being used as free parking for United mid week games. The £20 annual fee for CYC in my opinion was set too low to disuaed that kind of behaviour, jump it to say £50 with the news scheme and it would still offer great value if you regularly charge in MCR and put off a lot of freeloaders. Pre-lockdown getting on that particular post needed you to arrive at the office before 7:30am, I must have counted a good 50-odd EVs and PHEVs in the carparks and local area who have used that particular charger (my desk overlooked the charger, so I was an EV twitcher, when bored of the office drone).

I live not far from the Quays so please can you help so as to tell me where the free chargers are as I am new to EV driving .Thanks

 

[shikoku14]

Above is a screengrab from Zap Map. The one circled is Exchange Quay on the roundabout into the office complex (depending which charger is taken you may have to park against the taffic!) and the square one is merchents Quay,head off Mancunian Way if you are going to the Lowry Outlet but head straight rather than turning right with the Outlet traffic and its next to a car club slot. These are both new Be.EV units, former CYC GMEV and can be activated with any RFID card/Conatctless card till Be.EV goes live, so free till I think the end of August.

If you've not already I'd suggest signing up to be alerted when they will switch to being charged - Electric vehicles

 

[KasEV]

Hi Folks,
In Manchester there is rapid conversion of all the free chargers to paid ones under a new name Be.EV and a significant number those that are still on the Old CYC GMEV free system have been rendered temporarily unavailable till the switch can occur. My advice is for you to fully check them out before you go to use them. I won't be surprised if none of the chargers in the Quay area are free by now.

 

[shikoku14]

To access the GMEV system, you had to pay a flat annual fee of £20 which although seeming great value, you would have needed to run the numbers on it to see if you got value for money for anyone who pops into Manchester fleetingly.

Lets assume a vendor charges 30p a kWh and you can access a 7kW post that gives you the full charge, old GMEV posts would do 30Amp or 6kW (a lot would drop to 15Amp / 3kW when two cars were linked) in four hours you'd have paid for 24kWh (and recived a little over 21 allowing for charing losses) so for that session 24*0.30=£7.20, so you would have to have done 4, four hour sessions before free kicked in. But that assumes you need to charge the car at destination.

However, another thing to consider is the cost of home charging, if you can make it to Manchester and back and charge at home at say 15p, you'd need to consume 133kWh before you broke even in a year. On Octopus Go (which I had) that jumps to 400kWh

For me it paid off, according to CYC my stats pre lockdown (since July 2018) were 123 charging sessions and 1051kWh energy used, I used to work in Salford 2-3 days a week (or £40 versus the £52.55p that would have cost me on Go overnight, so a saving of £6 and change a year versus my home charging situation). When you look at it in that light, is it worth the hassle of trying to find a spot every day and run the risk of the car being parked in the open (versus in my case a snug office multi-storey).

 

[Lambo51]

There’s a free charger In Chorlton behind the Barbakhan if you wanted to pop out for your lunch. By far the Best deli in manchester ??

 

[KasEV]

Folks Be.EV Manchester went live in June 2020. There are a few free units on old CYC system still but these are now very few so be careful and don't be caught out. As you demonstrated the maths is clear home charging is cheapest at present if one is on a 15p fixed tarrif or less.
For free charging in Manchester .... Better to target Tesco pod-point for free top ups.

 

[Goofy]

Thanks for that GordieG?

 

[KasEV]

@Alambros
Hi,
Just to bring to your attention that the pod point@ Lidl near your gym is now on the pod point app but it is now also a pay to use.
The free charging was just for a short introductory period.

 

[Lambo51]

Thanks for letting me know. The good news is they're building a new gym closer to where I live and by law it has to include a car charger