Ionity Charger Sites in UK [megathread]

[Maranaz]

As the expansion of Supercharger sites in the UK seems to be slowing down, it is good news to see Ionity is gettting into its stride in UK.
Looking at their website they are currently building six new rapid charger sites to complement the three already operational at Maidstone, Milton Keynes and Gretna Green.
The new sites are:
Cullompton on M5 in Devon
Beaconsfield Services on M40
Baldock North Herfordshire on A1M
Peterborough on A1
Leeds on M1
Blackburn on M26
Each site usually consist of 4 rapid chargers and Ionity charge a flat rate of £8 per charge.
These new chargers will provide a useful alternative to Superchargers for any Tesla with a CCS plug, especially in those areas where Superchargers are thin on the ground.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

I’ve visited the Baldock and Peterborough ones, added photos to Plugshare.


A1(M) - Peterborough Extra Services (Coming Soon)
PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You

Baldock Services (Ionity) (Coming Soon)
PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You

Baldock seems to be further on, they both seem to be 6 stalls. Both have signs saying complete by Feb 2020

 

[Adopado]

Each site usually consist of 4 rapid chargers and Ionity charge a flat rate of £8 per charge.

Given the number of CCS charging EVs that are already here or are coming on stream that seems a slightly underwhelming (though still useful) addition in terms of numbers of chargers. When going to the trouble of establishing a site you would think they would go for a higher number of chargers. I would have thought 8 as a more realistic minimum.

 

[Rob R]

A good option for a Tesla owner who is intending to put 32 kWh or more in his battery (unless you are on free supercharging).

 

[curmudgeon]

There are now more ionity sites in Ireland (4) than there are supercharger sites (3).
I used Ionity twice recently on a long trip, first time it took half an hour across two chargers to initiate the charge through the app and required a phone call and reboot to get started. The second visit however it was quick and faultless. And its only 8€ here. Wich is pretty good value.
I think four chargers per site will satisfy demand, at least for the time being. Unlike SuC there is no free option and charge times are quick, perhaps that's why I only saw one other car charging across both visits. It will be interesting to see how long that remains to be the case.

 

[Adopado]

I think four chargers per site will satisfy demand, at least for the time being. Unlike SuC there is no free option and charge times are quick, perhaps that's why I only saw one other car charging across both visits. It will be interesting to see how long that remains to be the case.

The big pressure on rapid chargers really comes on the motorway network in England ... there's no comparison with Scotland or Northern Ireland in that respect... at least at the moment! Enjoy it whilst you can! It's just a numbers game with the levels of population and the number of people who can actually afford these expensive EVs.

 

[Mark_T]

Each site usually consist of 4 rapid chargers and Ionity charge a flat rate of £8 per charge.

It will be interesting to see how behaviour is influenced by a flat rate charge...

You'd expect people to want to stay charging as long as possible if there is no financial benefit in leaving as soon as you have what you need... It just becomes a matter of how long you want to stay waiting at the charger really.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Indeed. It could be quite cheap for high capacity battery owners - 10p/kWh for a model S/X 100D adding 80 kWh

 

[ProfessorK]

I used one in Barry, South Wales. Was alright, the battery doesn't pre-condition, so was slower than your average Supercharger session (albeit, my last half a dozen SC sessions have been awful - max 65kW)

 

[Mr Miserable]

The £8 flat rate is not long term and there is a plan to charge per kWh in the near future.
I was told this by Ionity just before Xmas.

 

[CMc1]

Not sure on its authenticity, but theres a screenshot doing the rounds stating Tesla will start invoicing for auxiliary usuals (heating etc) while charging and not just battery top ups. So your usual top up, might cost a little more on a SuC in the near future.

can’t believe they don’t already tbh...

see below...

Enjoy...

Changes to Supercharger Billing

 

[Jason71]

Not sure on its authenticity, but theres a screenshot doing the rounds stating Tesla will start invoicing for auxiliary usuals (heating etc) while charging and not just battery top ups. So your usual top up, might cost a little more on a SuC in the near future.

can’t believe they don’t already tbh...

see below...


Changes to Supercharger Billing

So I have been wondering about this. When you pay at a supercharger you are paying only for the KW/h added to the actual battery are you?
This is quite a bit difference to any other network then I assume. If you use a third party charger you are I assume charged for the amount of AC that you consume. So end up paying for
1) AC/DC transformer losses
2) Cabling losses
3) Losses in the car ( heat) adding to the battery
4) HVAC + anything anything else the car is using.

3 and 4 are actually fair enough since they are down to your car but the first 2 worry me. If companies are allowed to bill you for the AC consumed in DC charging then there is no incentive to make it efficient in fact the cheaper and more inefficient the transformer the more money they make. Surely there is going to have to be some legal minimum efficiency or DC metering eventually or its a licence to print money!
I have been reading about the new laws in California and one of the issues with billing on DC apparently is measuring the amount of DC is an issue? not sure why, I have a multimeter that measures DC current but apparently its not that easy in car charging.
Does anyone know how much 1 and 2 equate to? I am guessing at least 10%

 

[LukeT]

The £8 flat rate is not long term and there is a plan to charge per kWh in the near future.
I was told this by Ionity just before Xmas.

I think this is good news for all sides. Flat rate per session charging seems to be sold on grounds of simplicity. Yet surely every EV owner will already be happy enough with the principle of paying for the units they use, and will soon learn what per unit price is expensive or cheap, as they've always done with litres/gallons. A flat rate makes what they want to know less immediately obvious, plus the idea of doubling it because you've restarted for a fault is off-putting. Far simpler would be knowing that any charge point is suppling power at a per kwh rate published on the machine.

And that's before the obvious point that flat rate charging drives unhelpful behaviour. If the limiting factor is number of charge points in any given location, then for the charging network to be used efficiently it needs to be charged at a rate consistently more expensive than home electricity. Simplicity, fairness and flexibility are then added by sticking to per kwh charging.

That's not to say they shouldn't apply some adjustments for speed. Faster chargers at a higher rate is sensible. As is charging more when the battery gets really full of that slows down the charging speed and hogs the plug.

Is the real reason for flat rate charging a hardware limitation? Are they concerned with metering it accurately at the machine?

Anyway, one of the sites in development is half an hour short of my home, so would be a nice safety net, especially since I'll shortly be paying for superchargers anyway.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

4 new 350kW chargers getting lots of attention this afternoon, may be being commissioned.

with assistance from the Germans

 

[DaveW]

Interesting, only around 10 minutes from me, I'll have to give them a whirl (hopefully on free vend )

 

[94jdh]

Interesting, only around 10 minutes from me, I'll have to give them a whirl (hopefully on free vend )

I'm that way tomorrow, I might take a quick look.

 

[DaveW]

I'm that way tomorrow, I might take a quick look.

I'm at 88% at the moment, so not sure I'd be a good test of it right now

 

[mrobins64495]

Fantastic. It’s down the road

 

[NorfolkMustard]

ha, someone back at the Ionity office saw the photo I added to Plugshare and sent it to the guys at Baldock. We had a chat

 

[NorfolkMustard]