Thwarted by iSmart gosh dang it

[KH11]

That seems to be the case. Just remember that you can't unplug the charger cable from the car with the doors locked. That was my first (and so far only) call to my dealer, the morning after I got the car. "How do I get the charging cable to unplug from my car??!!" "Unlock your car," said in world-weary tones.

I had at least one experience where the car was unlocked and indeed a door was open, but it still wouldn't release the cable. I shut the doors, locked the car, then unlocked it again. Hey presto, the cable unplugged. Strange are the ways of EVs.

That might be what she was trying to say about the cable being locked in but she maybe didn’t make that clear that in order for someone not to be able to unplug the charger that you needed to lock the car.

I am sure once I have had a couple of goes I’ll get into the swing of things. It would be nice if all the chargers were all contactless but they are not. I have the Octerverse card and the charge Scotland card and it looks like Zapmap has some mechanism to link a card with. I will have to make sure I plan routes and see what I need to have to charge at particular chargers.

My local Lidl is a podpoint charger and you have to download there app for that.

 

[Rolfe]

You need to unlock the car to unplug the charger. On one occasion when I couldn't unplug it with the doors open, I locked it up and then unlocked it again, and that seemed to work. But it won't unplug at all if the car is locked.

 

[Grriff]

While we're talking about chargers, don't rely on Leicester Forest Services on the M1. The two Gridserve chargers on the Southbound carriageway can't be connected because National Grid don't have enough electricity!

 

[Rolfe]

There's a thread in General Chat trying to collate experiences of chargers we've visited - that observation would be good in that thread, it's not only about MG4s.

 

[timeades]

Oh dear! Kirkby Lonsdale only has 1,843 people according to Wikipedia, and I imagine it's a bit less over-run by visitors. (I tend to think most people using public chargers will be visitors, as in rural areas most people with EVs can probably charge at home.)

You'd think if chargers were getting that badly over-subscribed, sensible business people would think about installing more. You'd think.

Trouble is most councils are unaware that it won't cost them anything to get chargers installed apart from a little time and too many councillors are afraid of losing their seats because the anti EV lobby has a very loud voice and they don't understand just how much support for them there is

 

[timeades]

While we're talking about chargers, don't rely on Leicester Forest Services on the M1. The two Gridserve chargers on the Southbound carriageway can't be connected because National Grid don't have enough electricity!

Sounds like a job for a couple of container batteries to run them until they can get the network updated

 

[Rolfe]

Trouble is most councils are unaware that it won't cost them anything to get chargers installed apart from a little time and too many councillors are afraid of losing their seats because the anti EV lobby has a very loud voice and they don't understand just how much support for them there is

I thought Booth's themselves were responsible for putting in the chargers in their store car parks. Of course, if they don't have room for any more, that becomes an issue. (There's plenty space in Kirkby Lonsdale.)

 

[KH11]

Thank you all for your advice. I’m not quite there yet due to having to get a replacement for a cracked windscreen on my current car which I am part exchanging. I would have been getting the MG this Friday but I can’t get the screen done till next Wednesday. So it will be a week on Friday before I can drive away the MG. I have had to claim through my Car Insurance for the windscreen costing me a £50 excess. It’s a very long time since I have had to have a windscreen replaced. Bloody M62 lol

 

[timeades]

I thought Booth's themselves were responsible for putting in the chargers in their store car parks. Of course, if they don't have room for any more, that becomes an issue. (There's plenty space in Kirkby Lonsdale.)

All Booths had to do is give the charger company a x years licence to use the space for the 4 bays. The charger company normally pays for all of the install, planning, wiring upgrade costs etc. Booths probably get a small % cut of the income.

 

[Rolfe]

All Booths had to do is give the charger company a x years licence to use the space for the 4 bays. The charger company normally pays for all of the install, planning, wiring upgrade costs etc. Booths probably get a small % cut of the income.

I thought it was something like that. Bugger-all to do with the council As you say, Booth's will get a cut of the income, and they'll also get increased foot-fall in the shop from people who primarily came there to use the chargers.

When I stopped at Kirkby Lonsdale on the way to Halifax I was initially just scoping out the chargers for later use, possibly, as I had enough charge to get to my destination. But I wasn't entirely certain of the charging situation at my destination (in fact it was fine, type 2 chargers 50 yards from my friend's house) so I decided to charge there in order to have plenty range to play with in Halifax if necessary. Then once the car was charging I decided to go into the store and buy some gifts to take with me to my friend's. I ended up with wine, cheese and a craft-baked loaf. It's a good deal for Booth's if a lot of people do the same, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do.

 

[evcog]

There is a thing called the Rapid Charger Fund which the government announced in 2020. It's £950m but as yet not one penny has been spent. Part of this scheme was to enable charge operators to upgrade rapid chargers or more specifically the National Grid to get the correct power where it is needed. Operators are NOT allowed to do this work themselves. The specified time to get at least 6, 150kw chargers at all Service Areas of English motorways by the end of 2023.

You can read about it here:-

Government vision for the rapid chargepoint network in England

Funding for the whole project was given in the March 2020 budget.

Budget 2020

Progress has been slow, indeed the minister admited as much in January 2023.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commo...67025A2/ElectricVehicleChargingInfrastructure

A summary of the main promises are:-

The following ambitions will be supported by the Rapid Charging Fund to assist where the electrical connection costs of upgrading sites to meet future charging demand is not commercially viable.

• By 2023, we aim to have at least 6 high powered, open access chargepoints (150 - 350 kilowatt capable) at motorway service areas in England, with some larger sites having as many as 10-12. We are confident this will be more than enough to meet demand from electric vehicles by this date. These high powered chargepoints are able to charge up to 3 times faster than most of the chargepoints currently in place, and can deliver around 120-145 miles of range in just 15 minutes for a typical electric vehicle.
• By 2030, we expect the network to be extensive and ready for more people to benefit from the switch to electric cars. We are planning for there to be around 2,500 high powered chargepoints across England’s motorways and major A roads.
• By 2035 we expect around 6,000 high powered chargepoints across England’s motorways and major A roads.

Government will be working with the operators of major service areas to ensure that this charging provision is in place ahead of customer demand. The aim is to help support early adoption of electric vehicles and remove range anxiety concerns for drivers on long journeys.

The industry have come together to try and convince the government to get a move on. This was reported at one of the talks at the Fully Charged Live Show in Harrogate this month.

Appently pilots are underway announced at the beginning of May this year with submissions by the middle of June. I suspect there will now be some delay as I suspect this work will take longer than 6 months to complete.

In another thread I have explained that I am writing to my MP to raise the issue and hopefully prompt a bit of reality to the promises given.

 

[timeades]

There is a thing called the Rapid Charger Fund which the government announced in 2020. It's £950m but as yet not one penny has been spent. Part of this scheme was to enable charge operators to upgrade rapid chargers or more specifically the National Grid to get the correct power where it is needed. Operators are NOT allowed to do this work themselves. The specified time to get at least 6, 150kw chargers at all Service Areas of English motorways by the end of 2023.

You can read about it here:-

Government vision for the rapid chargepoint network in England

Funding for the whole project was given in the March 2020 budget.

Budget 2020

Progress has been slow, indeed the minister admited as much in January 2023.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commo...67025A2/ElectricVehicleChargingInfrastructure

A summary of the main promises are:-

The following ambitions will be supported by the Rapid Charging Fund to assist where the electrical connection costs of upgrading sites to meet future charging demand is not commercially viable.

• By 2023, we aim to have at least 6 high powered, open access chargepoints (150 - 350 kilowatt capable) at motorway service areas in England, with some larger sites having as many as 10-12. We are confident this will be more than enough to meet demand from electric vehicles by this date. These high powered chargepoints are able to charge up to 3 times faster than most of the chargepoints currently in place, and can deliver around 120-145 miles of range in just 15 minutes for a typical electric vehicle.
• By 2030, we expect the network to be extensive and ready for more people to benefit from the switch to electric cars. We are planning for there to be around 2,500 high powered chargepoints across England’s motorways and major A roads.
• By 2035 we expect around 6,000 high powered chargepoints across England’s motorways and major A roads.

Government will be working with the operators of major service areas to ensure that this charging provision is in place ahead of customer demand. The aim is to help support early adoption of electric vehicles and remove range anxiety concerns for drivers on long journeys.

The industry have come together to try and convince the government to get a move on. This was reported at one of the talks at the Fully Charged Live Show in Harrogate this month.

Appently pilots are underway announced at the beginning of May this year with submissions by the middle of June. I suspect there will now be some delay as I suspect this work will take longer than 6 months to complete.

In another thread I have explained that I am writing to my MP to raise the issue and hopefully prompt a bit of reality to the promises given.

It's funny that Hammersmith & Fulham are so ahead of the game with public chargers, nearly 3000 now, but I guess it's because they went out and did it on their own and did the deals with the suppliers.

If anyone is interested in the process, on a high level, here's a link to one of the decision documents https://democracy.lbhf.gov.uk/docum...c Vehicle Charging Contract - OPEN REPORT.pdf

 

[Rolfe]

We have a nice new EV service station in Fulham that's like a traditional service station, I want to go and try it out in the next week or so

I'm interested in that station. It's obviously the cat's pyjamas if you want a rapid charge, but can it cope with type 2 charging for people who want to balance charge? And if it can, I wonder how many people would use that facility given that you'd have to wait around or leave the car for quite a while.

I'm thinking about people who don't have any home charging facilities at all. How do you actually cope with balance charging in that situation? If you have a type 2 charger near enough to home to walk back, or if you can somehow get a lift (two-car family?) then I can see it working, but otherwise? Given that you'd have to leave the car long enough to top off from whatever SoC it was at when you drove up, then balance, how long would it take?

All these little complications that I had no idea at all about when I signed on the dotted line to buy an EV. I was trustingly confident that I could make it work because of my home situation, and I was right, but I really didn't know about that part. I thought a charger was a charger was a charger, and you just charged the car up and drove away.

I strongly believe that the place we really need these forecourt facilities at the moment is at motorway service stations and on trunk roads where people need to break a long journey, fill up to maybe 90%, then move on. But mostly we're just seeing new chargers going in open to the elements and without even the most basic security for lone drivers who might feel vulnerable using them.

Maybe it's inevitable right now that urban settings where there might be two ICE filling stations near each other, are the place where someone will see the opportunity to replace one of them with an EV charging station. But I hope the motorway service stations take a long hard look at themselves pretty soon. In urban settings most of your potential clientele are likely to have home charging available and might not use a rapid charger so often. But out on the open road, every EV passing is a potential customer.

 

[Rolfe]

Not quite sure how thread drift got us here, but this is from the front page of tomorrow's Times.

 

[timeades]

I'm interested in that station. It's obviously the cat's pyjamas if you want a rapid charge, but can it cope with type 2 charging for people who want to balance charge? And if it can, I wonder how many people would use that facility given that you'd have to wait around or leave the car for quite a while.

I'm thinking about people who don't have any home charging facilities at all. How do you actually cope with balance charging in that situation? If you have a type 2 charger near enough to home to walk back, or if you can somehow get a lift (two-car family?) then I can see it working, but otherwise? Given that you'd have to leave the car long enough to top off from whatever SoC it was at when you drove up, then balance, how long would it take?

All these little complications that I had no idea at all about when I signed on the dotted line to buy an EV. I was trustingly confident that I could make it work because of my home situation, and I was right, but I really didn't know about that part. I thought a charger was a charger was a charger, and you just charged the car up and drove away.

I strongly believe that the place we really need these forecourt facilities at the moment is at motorway service stations and on trunk roads where people need to break a long journey, fill up to maybe 90%, then move on. But mostly we're just seeing new chargers going in open to the elements and without even the most basic security for lone drivers who might feel vulnerable using them.

Maybe it's inevitable right now that urban settings where there might be two ICE filling stations near each other, are the place where someone will see the opportunity to replace one of them with an EV charging station. But I hope the motorway service stations take a long hard look at themselves pretty soon. In urban settings most of your potential clientele are likely to have home charging available and might not use a rapid charger so often. But out on the open road, every EV passing is a potential customer.

It's all about balance at the end of the day. Most of the EV owners in my area don't have access to home charging so LBHF have been very considerate in their approach to public charging to give a good spread of fast, medium and slow charging options and the providers have also been accommodating with over stay charge periods, discounts for residents etc.

The attached map represents the area that is 10-15 minutes walk from my front door.

Yellow markers are 3 kW Ubitricity Lamppost chargers
Light Blue are 7kW
Dark Blue are 22kw
Purple are 50kW & 150kW

As you can see we are well catered for any charging requirement. The light blue nearest me is a row of 5 Source London 7kW chargers as I have a zone D parking permit for a £4 a month fee I get a 18p p/kW reduction in their price and I can park between 12 - 7am with no overstay charge. So if I want to do a balance charge I will plug in at 6-7pm set it off and it will have 12 hrs to do a full charge then the extra time to do the balance

 

[Rolfe]

That is seriously brilliant. I was trying to explain some of this at the weekend to a friend who really wants an EV but who lives in a terrace house with no charging point close. She's in the middle of this area, and you can see what it's like. (I've used PlugShare because when I looked at ZapMap several points it had shown in her area were no longer shown - it was as if there was nothing!) This is much more than a 10-15 minutes walk radius.

The only one showing up that's even feasibly within walking distance isn't a nice walk (under a motorway interchange) and I see PlugShare is now saying it's private. There's a huge Asda nearby but nothing in the car park.

I tried to explain about lamp-post chargers but she was dubious that anyone would make the effort to install them. Kerb-side chargers again she thought would be vandalised and get clogged with road dirt. People will only believe this is possible when they see it in operation, and there's no sign of that around there.