EV supply i the UK

[nowtleft]

As a newcomer I am shocked as to how complex the supply of electricity is to ev owners. In 4 weeks I have not come across the same supplier at an EV charge point and so far have £80 spread across apps and plastic cards. On top of this I have to fill my boot with copious numbers of leads, adapters etc - is this a scam or actually just a marketing tool to get money out of us ev fans?

How can this system be such a shambles and why isnt the Government doing something to pull the supply of electricity to EV owners together?

To be honest it is a mess and very confusing - my Tesla S should come with a huge pocket to keep RFID cards in as the whole system is a joke in the UK.

 

[Brunel]

Sounds like you have gone belt and braces! Most charging schemes are moving to app based provisioning and for most of your charging needs you should not need to have deposits held in schemes, but I guess it depends where you are and how frequent you will use the public charging, especially if you do not have home charging.

Top nationwide providers:
Tesla - previously free now 20p/kWh for newer customers all debited automatically
Ecotricity Electric Highway - 52 free annual charges for domestic utility users or £6 for 30 mins (may be dropping to £3 for 30mins after June 22nd) & completely app based with no deposit held
Polar - monthly subscription scheme with discounted per use charges or Polar Instant where you use app to pay ad hoc. [ChargeYourCar have been bought by Chargemaster who run Polar and whilst CYC have a £20 charge there is now a per use admin fee of £1.20 per charge on "free" chargers so may as well use Polar Instant.
EVdriver (Suffolk centric) - web-based activation & debit card payment at 25p/kWh (can buy a fob for £5 if you do not wish to use web)
Podpoint - pretty sure mainly app-based with no deposit, but their units give 15 mins free giving you time to register the charge (and find signal for app), also tend to be free at Sainsburys supermarket with no time-limit (and other sites).

My view on cables and adapters is that they are for life (give or take running them over and mean time between failures), so may as well buy now as an insurance cover.

Anyway, that is my positive sunny Friday take on it - not sure it makes you feel any better. Interested in what schemes you are tied to with deposit charges. I have never bothered with Source London as I just Supercharge at Westfield when I arrive, move to another parking spot after 20-30 mins & a loo break) and then carry on into London on foot/Tube for random meetings.

 

[nowtleft]

To name but a few....why not simply show your debit card to the machines reader and pay for what you use like at a pre-pay petrol pump? That would be easier and consitstant with normal practice rather than pre-paying with Polar, loading RFID cards (what the hell are they!)
The whole system has been made to be as awkward as possible and all these companies are profiteering rather than providing a streamline solution to what will be a growing need.
It is time that the Government started to get one single system that we can all use which is simple to use and easy to pay for.

 

[culverwood]

The 10 minutes for 4 hours is a great deal for parking in Westminster.

I have the 3 phase Type 2 cable and the CHAdeMO adaptor. I have not yet used the Tesla cable that comes with the car as both my home and work chargers are Type 2 so I may start leaving it at home. As Brunel points out with the Ecotricity and Polar apps in addition to the Tesla superchargers you are pretty well covered so no cards needed.