Gridserve Forecourt Gatwick Airport

[Ian Key]

Robert Llewellyn has a look around the new Gridserve facility at Garwick Airport.

 

[Bricktop X PWR]

Very interesting!
Very posh and exactly how it should be done.
I still baulk at the 79p/kWh, but I realise these places must cost millions to set up and sadly Gridserve aren't a Charity.

Impressed with the 'Walk off with a sandwich' facility.

Just my sort of place.

When I'm buying anything (and I mean anything)

I just want to go in, get it, pay for it and naff off.

 

[tsedge]

It is fantastic and I love it and as an example of what can be done it is great.

But it is also a distraction.

Building many places like this will take decades and no doubt they will mostly be in the South East for the next few years.

More relevant right now is to put basic rapid charging in place across the country, so the cheaper the installation, the faster that rollout and then we can upgrade facilities later (keep space reserved).

People forget it took decades in the 20th century before petrol stations were everywhere. That was fine where there were so few cars, but today we need a way for people to quickly switch.

 

[Rolfe]

Also, while Gridserve build two or three showcase places like that, in the south of England, they're busy rolling out dozens of motorway service station sites without even basic shelter from the elements.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Also, while Gridserve build two or three showcase places like that, in the south of England, they're busy rolling out dozens of motorway service station sites without even basic shelter from the elements.

Unfortunately, I don't think we can have our cake and eat it just yet. We either have more rapid chargers everywhere as quickly as possible, or fewer luxurious charging hubs to lure in the Ludites.

 

[siteguru]

@Rolfe is merely talking about the middle ground ... rapid chargers with a shelter. No need for huge forecourts with facilities like that Gridserve site; just give the chargers some shelter from the elements, and a kiosk/shop with toilets would be an added bonus. Even if they're being installed on a site which already has facilities, just add the shelters over the chargers.

 

[Bradford Chap]

@Rolfe is merely talking about the middle ground ... rapid chargers with a shelter. No need for huge forecourts with facilities like that Gridserve site; just give the chargers some shelter from the elements, and a kiosk/shop with toilets would be an added bonus. Even if they're being installed on a site which already has facilities, just add the shelters over the chargers.

A canopy with solar panels would be a good idea.

 

[siteguru]

It would - but solar panels aren't a sticking point; just the canopies will do.

 

[Rolfe]

@Rolfe is merely talking about the middle ground ... rapid chargers with a shelter. No need for huge forecourts with facilities like that Gridserve site; just give the chargers some shelter from the elements, and a kiosk/shop with toilets would be an added bonus. Even if they're being installed on a site which already has facilities, just add the shelters over the chargers.

Exactly. This outfit can do it. All their new installations seem to be like this.

There's a petrol forecourt about 50 yards away, so it's all that's needed. Same with the motorway service stations. The facilities are already there, all that's needed is shelter to allow drivers to plug in and get a charge started without getting soaked and blown away. There's also the question of snow. If you've got a foot of snow lying, it's not good for the chargers themselves to be iced up (literally as opposed to figuratively) and for the drivers to have to get the car to the charger and get out and get plugged in.

You wouldn't catch someone nowadays putting in a new petrol station without any shelter, saying that ICE car drivers shouldn't expect to have their cake and eat it.

 

[Gomev]

Exactly. This outfit can do it. All their new installations seem to be like this.

View attachment 24259

There's a petrol forecourt about 50 yards away, so it's all that's needed. Same with the motorway service stations. The facilities are already there, all that's needed is shelter to allow drivers to plug in and get a charge started without getting soaked and blown away. There's also the question of snow. If you've got a foot of snow lying, it's not good for the chargers themselves to be iced up (literally as opposed to figuratively) and for the drivers to have to get the car to the charger and get out and get plugged in.

You wouldn't catch someone nowadays putting in a new petrol station without any shelter, saying that ICE car drivers shouldn't expect to have their cake and eat it.

Do canopies like this and the Fastned ones actually work, they are the only 2 charger providers I know of that have canopies. They cover the charger nicely but don't seem to extend far out to cover anyone in the wind and rain.

 

[5teep]

Do canopies like this and the Fastned ones actually work, they are the only 2 charger providers I know of that have canopies. They cover the charger nicely but don't seem to extend far out to cover anyone in the wind and rain.

That's the problem of course rain seldom falls straight down.

 

[Rolfe]

I think they're as good as the canopies at petrol stations, which are also open at the sides. They're also likely to keep snow off.

 

[siteguru]

Fuel pumps nearer the shop tend to have better protection, but the ones at the outer edges would be no better than the canopies shown above.

 

[Fiver]

Exactly. This outfit can do it. All their new installations seem to be like this.

View attachment 24259

There's a petrol forecourt about 50 yards away, so it's all that's needed. Same with the motorway service stations. The facilities are already there, all that's needed is shelter to allow drivers to plug in and get a charge started without getting soaked and blown away. There's also the question of snow. If you've got a foot of snow lying, it's not good for the chargers themselves to be iced up (literally as opposed to figuratively) and for the drivers to have to get the car to the charger and get out and get plugged in.

You wouldn't catch someone nowadays putting in a new petrol station without any shelter, saying that ICE car drivers shouldn't expect to have their cake and eat it.

Don’t ICE drivers have to stand there for ages holding onto the pump to fill the car ?

 

[Rolfe]

And if you think every EV driver connects first time, just plug in and walk off, you're living in la-la land. Lashing rain, trying to see a phone screen and risking the phone dying from water ingress, trying to read a QR code, even trying to read the instructions on the charger screen through water droplets? No thanks.

"Charge will start in up to 2 minutes." (Tesla) And the Instavolt ones with the countdown and you're waiting and watching and hoping to see the charge start before it gets to zero...

The CPS ones that ALWAYS throw an error first time you try to connect, then put the plug back in the holster and wait for the charger to re-boot itself, and try again and it will work.

Applegreen. "The car did something unexpected."

The list is endless. Just because my last two DC charges started almost instantly (a Gridserve and an Ionity) doesn't give me any confidence at all that this situation will be permanent.

And even if it was, I do not appreciate opening the car door into a downpour, or indeed having to dig the charger out of a snowdrift.

 

[Fiver]

And if you think every EV driver connects first time, just plug in and walk off, you're living in la-la land. Lashing rain, trying to see a phone screen and risking the phone dying from water ingress, trying to read a QR code, even trying to read the instructions on the charger screen through water droplets? No thanks.

"Charge will start in up to 2 minutes." (Tesla) And the Instavolt ones with the countdown and you're waiting and watching and hoping to see the charge start before it gets to zero...

The CPS ones that ALWAYS throw an error first time you try to connect, then put the plug back in the holster and wait for the charger to re-boot itself, and try again and it will work.

Applegreen. "The car did something unexpected."

The list is endless. Just because my last two DC charges started almost instantly (a Gridserve and an Ionity) doesn't give me any confidence at all that this situation will be permanent.

And even if it was, I do not appreciate opening the car door into a downpour, or indeed having to dig the charger out of a snowdrift.

Never having needed to use a “Rapid” charger in my 6 weeks of owning an EV, this comes as a surprise to me

 

[Archev]

Never having needed to use a “Rapid” charger in my 6 weeks of owning an EV, this comes as a surprise to me

Pleasure awaits

 

[Rolfe]

I have actually been lucky enough not to have experienced anything worse than a light shower when I've been connecting to a DC charger. I'm a fair-weather road-tripper for the most part. Even two days before Christmas, when I was periodically driving through a monsoon, when I had to stop to charge mid-afternoon it happened to be a dry spell and the old Gridserve I ended up on was being extremely co-operative. I just showed it my credit card, plugged in and walked the 100 yards or so to the coffee shop.

But I have no serious confidence that this state of affairs is likely to be permanent. I have an imagination. I have also seen the state of those Tesla chargers where there was all the trouble last month, in Chicago.

OK, that's extreme, but why the hell do they do that? Iced-up plugs were a big part of the issue, people were having to knock the ice off to get them into the charging ports. We might not get waist-high snow here, but a foot or so does happen. And there's nothing to keep that off the chargers, or to keep the space around the chargers passable.

Nobody would build a petrol station without a basic canopy. Which might not be perfect, but which will mitigate the tempest to a fair extent. But Gridserve (and others) seem to be normalising a situation where EV drivers are expected to rough it in all weathers, then sitting back and getting plaudits for a couple of showcase buildings.

And even there, the Tesla chargers are open to the elements.

 

[jackois]

I've used the Gridserve at Gatwick, both during the day when the facilities are open and after they've shut. Very nice, attendants on hand during opening hours and so on. Costa and relaxing area is spot on.

After hours, so to speak... no availability for toilets.

Finally, there's a 'maximum 1 hour stay' with fines after that.

The nearby long stay does have 2 hours free parking if you need to wait for your passangers for any reason.

 

[Susanna]

The other thing that a canopy could provide (and I see in the photo) is lighting. Some EV charge points are stuck at the edges of car parks, and don’t offer any feeling of security in the dark.