No I wouldn’t get another EV until the public charging infrastructure is better (maybe having a Tesla would improve things?) . 3000 miles in 6 (or maybe it’s 7) weeks has shown that public charging is a PITA.
Just back from a challenging 2 day (450 mile) trip, using M11, A1, A15. Had similar experiences twice on the same route.
- Left home on 100% charge thanks to 7.5p Octopus home charging
- 90 miles in, stopped at Peterborough A1 services. Down to 50%, so 180 miles (estimated) in a car that in ideal conditions is meant to do 270 miles (Trophy)
- Bank of 6 fast chargers. 1 broken, 4 free and a chap in a Polestar at another. 3 of us in our car had no data service, nor did Mr Polestar. The chargers only work with an app (no credit card) so we were screwed. A random mobile issue, which isn't really an EV fault, but all part of the "experience"
- Over to the 2 slow chargers, swipe credit card and all good. 40 mins of life wasted waiting to charge. Seems the chargers are dog slow with both cables in use
- Continue to destination, stopping briefly (15 mins) at a BP charger (excellent) to ensure we had some miles left when at destination
Next day
- Attend funeral and wake. Depart wake for 8 mins drive to nearest charger. 20 mins sat in car before family call to say "rescue us" from the wake. 8 mins drive back so that's 36 mins of my day wasted, plus it was 89p per unit at this charger !
- Head to lunch at fish & chip place on the coast. Car park has a charger (Pod Point). Have to download yet another app, register and top up £10 credit. Plug own lead into charger socket A and doesnt work. Socket B starts charging so go and sit down to eat. Look at app on phone and charging has stopped. Out i go again in the rain and unplug, replug and charging starts. Back in café, check app on phone and charging stopped again. Gave up, and got a bill for 6p !. They now have £9.94 of my money and i may never use Pod Point again.
- Head homeward and stop again at Peterborough A1 services. 6 fast chargers all available (well 1 looked broken as light on top was different colour). Turns out none of them are working. Another car and I tried 4 chargers between us and they just said "connecting" but never did. Called the support number which didnt answer for 5 mins so i hung up.
- Back to the slow chargers. Added 33% in 40 mins, another 40 mins of my life wasted, eating £1.80 grab bag sized crisps from WHSmith
- Wife paranoid we wont get home so stop at Stansted. Loads of fast chargers (Apple). None will accept credit card so call support who say try the app. Download (yet another) app and it shows every charger as "unavailable". Bloke in a Merc struggling too who says he also tried Peterborough and Cambridge without joy and was now down to 7 miles remaining.
- Decided to brave it home with what we had. Turned off heating, drove at 50mph and made it home with 2% to spare. Journey would have been over 1 hr quicker in our ICE car
And don’t mention LKA and collision detection (which seems to come back on even when I turn it off)…Both are a pain. Radio forgets my favourite preset channels, and auto lights come on even when bright and sunny. Do like driving it though, but never again on long trips. The diesel car will do those from now on