Hah! My first public charge

[dzwilkins]

I have only had my MG4 since November, I have used Gridserve, Instavolt and Fastned, I have to say the best one is Fastned, once you have setup the app and registered your car, with the auto charge feature it is just plug car in and off it goes, I set this up as I have to travel to Newcastle once every month or so from Oxfordshire, they have quite a few Fastned chargers there.

wished the M1 and M1A had more chargers at the service stations than the normal 2 Gridserve ones, a few times popped into Sheffield to use the Instavolt ones.

So far so good.

 

[ging353]

I have had an Electric Juice card for a while but as yet have never needed to use it. However I have a couple of long journeys coming up which will need me to use public chargers. My question is.....do you have to put money on your Octopus account first to use the EJ card or do you just use it at the charger and then pay on your Octopus account when you get home?.

 

[Jomarkh]

I have had an Electric Juice card for a while but as yet have never needed to use it. However I have a couple of long journeys coming up which will need me to use public chargers. My question is.....do you have to put money on your Octopus account first to use the EJ card or do you just use it at the charger and then pay on your Octopus account when you get home?.

It just comes off your Octopus account.
If you look at your app it will show EJ usage.

 

[slmorgan42]

I have had an Electric Juice card for a while but as yet have never needed to use it. However I have a couple of long journeys coming up which will need me to use public chargers. My question is.....do you have to put money on your Octopus account first to use the EJ card or do you just use it at the charger and then pay on your Octopus account when you get home?.

You can do it two ways. Have it linked to your household energy bill or link it to a credit card. I have mine linked to my credit card as I want to keep the house bill separate and also if I loose the card and someone starts using it I can claim the money back through the credit card company

 

[ging353]

It just comes off your Octopus account.
If you look at your app it will show EJ usage.

Cheers and thanks for your help.

You can do it two ways. Have it linked to your household energy bill or link it to a credit card. I have mine linked to my credit card as I want to keep the house bill separate and also if I loose the card and someone starts using it I can claim the money back through the credit card company

Thanks for you help Si.

 

[Deleted member 10041]

Used an osprey fast charger, one didn't, after trying my card, used another one fine. Checked later 2 £40 holds on my car and also the correct bill, took a couple of days for the holds to clear

 

[Bodgerx]

I am fortunate that I can charge at home but decided to do a test public charge. I’m glad I did!

Tried Zap-Map on Apple CarPlay but it does not work unless you have a subscription.

Rocked up at a shopping centre with PodPoints. Had to download the app and create an account. Then had to deposit funds in my account. First charger did not work. Second charger wouldn’t allow me to charge as it thought I had an existing charging session. Then I realised they were free because they were 7kwh chargers - too slow for what I needed

Fired up the Trophy satnav and searched for charge points. Must say I was impressed with the satnav. Set off but overshot the charge point as it was hidden in a pub carpark and I was on a fast dual carriageway.

Satnav suggested another location - also out of view from the main road but I found this one. Had to wait 20 mins as the only working cable was in use. Had to download the BP Pulse app. Successfully charged at about 50 whatnots.

Moral of the story:
If new to EVs, do a test charge so that you have confidence in how to use public chargers
Download a few of main EV charging apps
Charge before you need to and have a plan B charger up your sleeve
Buy a Type 2 cable if you plan to use slow public chargers.

i hope this does not come over as being negative about charging. I thought it all a bit of a laugh. At least I will be better prepared when I really need to charge.

I would add to you list: avoid anything that needs apps/cards/magic to work. Filter anything out that doesn't use a debit card.