Poor charging infrastructure

[Shippo]

Just got to Scotch Corner services 2 chargers occupied, 3 waiting to charge. I can see the point of view of the ev naysayers, its just not good enough, 2 chargers were fine 10 years ago, but now ev ownership is in the 100s of thousands they need to adopt the Tesla ideology and have a bank of chargers. I have 46 miles to go 68 miles of range, normally wouldn't worry but car loaded with 4 adults and luggage.

 

[Henrystclair]

Couldn't agree more. I drove 146 miles from London to Herefordshire a few weeks ago and I'm going again this Saturday. I stopped at three different service stations and found occupied chargers with queues and broken chargers at each services. I find it best to plan ahead and stop at chargers that are not in service stations. My favourite by far is an Instavolt bank of 8 super fast chargers beside a premier inn and costa coffee outside Banbury off the A40. Its expensive (£0.40 p/kw) but reliable and fast (50kw).

I started a thread to house people's favourite charge places so that we can eventually plan more effectively: Best public chargers?

 

[Gomev]

... My favourite by far is an Instavolt bank of 8 super fast chargers beside a premier inn and costa coffee outside Banbury off the A40. Its expensive (£0.40 p/kw) but reliable and fast (50kw).

I started a thread to house people's favourite charge places so that we can eventually plan more effectively: Best public chargers?

That's not expensive anymore compared to most everyone else.

 

[jared]

Just got to Scotch Corner services 2 chargers occupied, 3 waiting to charge. I can see the point of view of the ev naysayers, its just not good enough, 2 chargers were fine 10 years ago, but now ev ownership is in the 100s of thousands they need to adopt the Tesla ideology and have a bank of chargers. I have 46 miles to go 68 miles of range, normally wouldn't worry but car loaded with 4 adults and luggage.

I had a similar experience on the way to Heathrow a few weeks ago. The full return journey is longer than my range so planned on one quick charge out and one longer charge on the way back. Stopped at a services on the M4 - two chargers. One was out of service. The guy who tried to use that one literally ran to grab the charger we were pulling in front of. Said he needed "10 minutes" after 20 minutes I had to ask him to finish up. Ended up spending 40+ minutes to get 20 minutes of charging done. Arrived late to the airport for our corona testing but luckily they let us do it.

On the way back two chargers again - one in use when we arrived and in use with someone else when we left.

I expected better now there are more than just Nissan Leafs out there.

Somewhere along the way the motorway signs warned the EV chargers at the next services were out of order. I thought that was helpful at least.

 

[JoOLS]

Correct, it's very poor. At work we have 2 Geniepoint chargers- both have been 'faulted' for over 8 weeks now. Plus, a local Geniepoint 'carpark' point has a set of 3 (including 50kw) but, that is also faulted.

 

[Shrink Proof]

Anecdotes about particular chargers or locations are all very well, but these are merely symptoms of a much wider disease. If you want to know how wretched the national picture is, read this report from September 2021. It was compiled from Freedom of Information requests to 374 councils across the UK.


Key findings in this report (which I've copied from the summary) include:

• 52% of councils spent nothing on EV chargepoints in the last 12 months

• UK councils received 15% less money from the Government for EV charging infrastructure in the last 12 months compared to the same period in 2020

• London councils spent more than double the national average on EV charging in 2021 (£204k )

• The average cost of a council-bought chargepoint in the UK is £6,000, although figures range between £350 and £100,000

• Nearly two thirds of UK councils (60%) received complaints about the availability, reliability or number of charging points over the last 12 months

• Councils spend, on average, more than £2,000 per year just on EV device maintenance

• The total cost of EV maintenance across the UK is estimated at £5.6million

• On average, councils are planning to install 52 charging points each by the end of 2022 (up from 28 in 2021)

• 46% of councils are either planning to install zero chargers, or still don’t know how many they will be adding next year


Other interesting snippets include that the number of new chargers planned per 100,000 people for 2022 ranges from 38 in London to just 3 in N E England, and that there is an EV charger for
every 500,000 vehicle miles driven in Westminster, while the UK average is one EV charging
point per 14.8 million miles driven, and in Greater Manchester, the figure is 30 million (for further details, see "Levelling Up" by Johnson et al...).

 

[ARealHuman]

Interesting details @Shrink Proof, thanks. I guess due to all the covid costs and the financial pressures councils find themselves under, it's not too surprising. Still disappointing though.

 

[Alan5]

This is why I hope the opening of the tesla super charger network goes well with the Netherlands trial , as tesla super and destination chargers seem to be very reliable and the ability to see if there are chargers available out of multiple units before you arrive on site would be great . I know some of the other charging networks can give you similar information but I have found it's not always accurate , but as other forum user's have said in the past it's not range anxiety , it's the anxiety of charger availability and will it work . At this moment of time the longer journeys I have done have been ok , I have not had to wait for a charger and they have all worked but I know the time will come when things maybe won't go so well as the take up of EV's increases.

 

[mj224]

Just like to mention a failed Ecotricity charger at the M4 Sarn services on Tuesday evening. Looking at Zapmap, its either still out of service, or has broken down again this Friday evening. The Sarn services must have a dozen Tesla chargers , and one rapid charger for CCS and one for Chademo. As an aside, I had enough to get home with 16 miles to spare, but my 2nd charger choice was a Shell garage on the way into Swansea. As if there was a conspiracy, the motorway junction exit was coned of for road repairs. Bloody tricky ain't it...........:-()

 

[MickH]

Two Ecotricity chargers at the Cornwall A30 services, firstly a totally inadequate number of chargers for the main trunk road to such a popular holiday county even if they did work, which they don’t and I recently saw that in IKEA Exeter, there are are two brand new Gridserve chargers that had been installed that have been out of order for over a month - someone commented that they have now not been working longer than they actually were working- it’s pitiful so much for the Gridserve commitment.

 

[midician]

This is why I opted for the PHEV - in Australia the charging infrastructure is even worse - so much so that the commonest charging points along the major highways is caravan parks, motels and some petrol stations. I could just imagine trying to drive to Melbourne for Christmas (800km+), and having to extend the 9 hour drive another hour or more just to find and queue up for a charger!

A recent review by an actuarist reported that NONE of the major highway projects in Australia in 2020 had even budgeted for EV charting stations.

The lack of a spare tyre is another bugbear for us when the distance between towns can be over 100km , but that is for another post !

 

[Shippo]

An update on my charging issue on Fri at Scotch Corner services. I stopped today on the way back home to be greeted by 2 occupied chargers again, waited 30 mins then decided to risk the journey home minus the heating, thankfully made it home. The other side of the road were 8 vacant Tesla chargers, for the record I dont think Tesla should open these to other ev drivers, Tesla drivers pay a premium to have a reliable network of chargers. It's up to other charge suppliers to up there game. I am lucky in the respect that I don't need to rapid charge normally, but this is the 3rd time in a year and 16000 miles in and the situation is horrendous, if I had to rapid charge on a regular basis, I would never have bought an ev, and at this moment in time would not recommend an ev to anyone, the doom mongers have a point.

 

[marcopolomt]

Anecdotes about particular chargers or locations are all very well, but these are merely symptoms of a much wider disease. If you want to know how wretched the national picture is, read this report from September 2021. It was compiled from Freedom of Information requests to 374 councils across the UK.


Key findings in this report (which I've copied from the summary) include:

• 52% of councils spent nothing on EV chargepoints in the last 12 months

• UK councils received 15% less money from the Government for EV charging infrastructure in the last 12 months compared to the same period in 2020

• London councils spent more than double the national average on EV charging in 2021 (£204k )

• The average cost of a council-bought chargepoint in the UK is £6,000, although figures range between £350 and £100,000

• Nearly two thirds of UK councils (60%) received complaints about the availability, reliability or number of charging points over the last 12 months

• Councils spend, on average, more than £2,000 per year just on EV device maintenance

• The total cost of EV maintenance across the UK is estimated at £5.6million

• On average, councils are planning to install 52 charging points each by the end of 2022 (up from 28 in 2021)

• 46% of councils are either planning to install zero chargers, or still don’t know how many they will be adding next year


Other interesting snippets include that the number of new chargers planned per 100,000 people for 2022 ranges from 38 in London to just 3 in N E England, and that there is an EV charger for
every 500,000 vehicle miles driven in Westminster, while the UK average is one EV charging
point per 14.8 million miles driven, and in Greater Manchester, the figure is 30 million (for further details, see "Levelling Up" by Johnson et al...).

I know we don't like to believe this in the modern UK but if you want a completely worthless charging infrastructure then continue relying on governments for the solution. They cocked things up in the first place by dishing out millions in grants for chargers without any availability requirement that would force them to be maintained. Contrast this with Tesla and close to zero downtime and multiple charge points per location.

A quick fix and common-sense solution would be to require any sort of car park to require x amount of 7kw chargers, and a rapid or two. instead, since I have owned an ev I have seen 3 new supermarkets with huge car parks built, none of which have charging facilities. Thank god for Tesco. a very simple solution to many frustrations as every town has car parks.

Why don't government strategically target specific locations for grants such as key petrol stations that are large enough to add a few charging bays? there is a huge one a mile from me with space to fill HGVs. it has a small car park to the side that's rarely used, would be ideal to target them with an extra grant to fit a couple of rapids. look at Norway's infrastructure.

 

[Scriv]

I had an interesting message from son-in-law today. He called at Membury (M4) today and there was a queue of Teslas waiting at the Tesla chargers!

 

[marcopolomt]

I had an interesting message from son-in-law today. He called at Membury (M4) today and there was a queue of Teslas waiting at the Tesla chargers!

But they are still reliable, plentiful, and growing quickly in numbers. had a charging station open near me. not 1 or 2 stalls but around 8. the location only has 2 7kw chargers besides the superchargers.

longer range driving isn't a big deal for me. if it were I wouldn't bother with anything else but a Tesla.

if I do venture a little further than my local area I have memorised the instavolt locations along the major routes a little further from home.

 

[Dr Dave]

The charging infrastructure is totally inadequate given the increase in pure EV and hybrid ownership. I only take my electric car on a journey that I can complete and return home on a single charge, as I could not depend on chargers being available. Luckily I have other ICE vehicles to use for long journeys. I don't see this situation changing any time soon.

 

[BruceT]

It is absolutely dire, I went to Wales to see mum, I had to take the diesel car because from Norwich to Caernarfon isn't doable in the ZS yet. I stopped at Hilton services on the M6, bear in mind this is the M6!! there are a pair of Gridserve charges, one was broken, I don't think they have ever both been working. there was a car charging, a big Audi, who's going to be on it for about an hour and a half, and 3 guys waiting, all 3 down to "desperate". Tesla...... there's a row of them 10-12? 2 cars charging.

 

[marcopolomt]

It is absolutely dire, I went to Wales to see mum, I had to take the diesel car because from Norwich to Caernarfon isn't doable in the ZS yet. I stopped at Hilton services on the M6, bear in mind this is the M6!! there are a pair of Gridserve charges, one was broken, I don't think they have ever both been working. there was a car charging, a big Audi, who's going to be on it for about an hour and a half, and 3 guys waiting, all 3 down to "desperate". Tesla...... there's a row of them 10-12? 2 cars charging.

This situation is typical. government wasted millions on grants for public chargers to be fitted with seemingly no guarantee of service quality. hence we have the reliability issues as seen mainly with ecotricity and BP pulse. Why anyone would spend over £40k on a 'luxury' EV is beyond me. Hopefully things will get better.

 

[BruceT]

This situation is typical. government wasted millions on grants for public chargers to be fitted with seemingly no guarantee of service quality. hence we have the reliability issues as seen mainly with ecotricity and BP pulse. Why anyone would spend over £40k on a 'luxury' EV is beyond me. Hopefully things will get better.

When I came back from Wales, on the same trip, I stopped in at the Rugby services M6.

THAT is how EVERY motorway services should be, along as most trunk road services

 

[marcopolomt]

but there still seems to be as many tesla chargers as general ev chargers. are these new units?