I have had my M3 SR+ since August and have done numerous long journeys all with Superchargers along the route. Yesterday I headed 68 miles to Brighton, started with 93% finished with 53% in Brighton. It was cold etc. I had time after my meeting and before I left thought I would try a quick top up with the CYC charger in the car park I was in. Downloaded app, plugged in charger...eventually got it started for about 5 secs and then it stopped...and then no matter what I did on the app couldn’t get my cable out of the charger. Had to call them, was first in the queue (according to the message) for 17 mins and then a very nice guy, apologised sent a message to the charger and released me. (Well my cable). He said do try again, I decided not to. So I headed back on my return journey...still no absolutely necessity to charge but consulted Zap Map and thought I would try somewhere off the M23...so Tesco’s near Crawley at three bridges, a whole range of chargers advertised on Zap Map, all out of use due to unforeseen circumstances...so I tried three bridges railway station...pod point...I have pod point at home, so I already had the pod point app and had used one of their chargers before. Got there, there was a free charger or 2. Good news. 3kw. Bad news. And on top of that you need to buy a whole day parking ticket for £7 or so to use it for longer than 20 mins before you get ANPRd..so I of course gave up. I headed home, and got back with about 6% left...slightly less than I would have liked on a cold night. Since yesterday I have studied Zap Map again as to what I would have done if I knew I was going to run out before I got home, for example if it had been 75/80 miles each way. I concluded I would have spent a couple of hours at three bridges charging and suffered a slow and expensive charge. I wouldn’t have risked heading to another charger in another network where I may have needed an RFID card...and there was almost nothing else near my M23, M25, A3 Route - all main roads soon to be buzzing with electric cars. All I can say is thank god I have a Tesla as the many super chargers I have used have been 100% reliable and quick...I have no idea how any one in a different electric car will survive at the moment. Also bring on the Brighton supercharger for my next trip down there!
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Outside the Tesla charging nerwork
- Thread starter jammer1
- Start date
Public charging is a minefield. Those of you who have the ability to charge at home are very lucky.
Yesterday I had a VERY close call. Was driving around Nort West London for work. Couldn't find a charger that wasn't either in use by an e-taxi or broken. Ended up limping to the Canary Warf Supercharger with 3% battery reamining!
Yesterday I had a VERY close call. Was driving around Nort West London for work. Couldn't find a charger that wasn't either in use by an e-taxi or broken. Ended up limping to the Canary Warf Supercharger with 3% battery reamining!
speedyranger74
Member
For now I use Polar network with my Leaf 40kwh.
Not so much problebms. In 6 months only one time I find the charger not unavailable (barrier of hotel was close) ... maybe I'm lucky.
Of course I know Tesla NETWORK is the best!
Not so much problebms. In 6 months only one time I find the charger not unavailable (barrier of hotel was close) ... maybe I'm lucky.
Of course I know Tesla NETWORK is the best!
I’ll second that for anyone wanting to take an EV more than 100 miles from home.
Beyond that it’s planning and praying.
Gatsojon
Member
This is an interesting thread. I’ve not got mine yet and have a home charger install date that is certainly going to beat the car’s arrival. However, I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the Zap map at what options I would have locally and around work.
That suggests lots of possible sites but from your experience, these other options look like they may be unreliable.
What would folks recommend as the most reliable networks I should sign up to ahead of my eventual delivery?
That suggests lots of possible sites but from your experience, these other options look like they may be unreliable.
What would folks recommend as the most reliable networks I should sign up to ahead of my eventual delivery?
The real takeaway from this is to plan before your journey.
ZapMap or PlugShare, I usually look at both, as they often give you different details.
I know it’s easy for me to say this, but if I’d have been the OP once I’d got the CYC chappie on the phone, I’d have kept him there while I plugged in and started my charge. I know it happens that the plug won’t release, but it is rare.
I’ve used lots of CYC chargers with both the Kona and the M3. We did a 500 miles each way trip to Skye last year in the Kona, all relying on third-party chargers.
By far the least reliable is Ecotricity, so I always plan to avoid those now.
ZapMap or PlugShare, I usually look at both, as they often give you different details.
I know it’s easy for me to say this, but if I’d have been the OP once I’d got the CYC chappie on the phone, I’d have kept him there while I plugged in and started my charge. I know it happens that the plug won’t release, but it is rare.
I’ve used lots of CYC chargers with both the Kona and the M3. We did a 500 miles each way trip to Skye last year in the Kona, all relying on third-party chargers.
By far the least reliable is Ecotricity, so I always plan to avoid those now.
As long as they’re free, the more the merrier! I’ve got a folder on my iPhone with about a dozen different charger apps.
The only one I pay for is ChargeYourCar - £20 a year for the RFID card. This is because I found several chargers where the mobile signal was iffy, rendering the app fairly useless.
I’ve had need to ring both CYC and Pod-Point at chargers that initially weren’t playing ball. Both companies provided excellent telephone support, and there was only one CYC in Scotland where we came to the conclusion that the charger was broken. The nice man on the phone then told me to drive up the road to the next one!
So, as for recommendations, CYC and Pod-Point definitely. I’ve used Shell Recharge and Ionity exactly once each, and that was fine if a bit pricy. All recent attempts at using Ecotricity have ended in failure, and back when we had the Leaf I lost count of how many times I’d roll up to an Ecotricity charger and find it was out of order...
You seldom have the chance to pick and choose - the network you want is the one that has the chargepoint near where you are. Due to the influence of government grants, there tend to be clusters of the same network - if you don't like the network of the point nearest to you, you will probably find that the next closest one is on that network too!
If you do get the chance to choose, Instavolt are probably the top of the league on reliability as they are all fairly new and also Instavolt are in it for the money: they've invested a lot of money and hope to make it back by providing a service that drivers want to buy: you are their customer. Surprisingly, this does not apply to many of the other networks - often their "customer" is the site owner or some other source of grant funding, and the motorist is just incidental to the transaction.
Many of the networks are therefore of variable quality, because the site owner rather than the network is responsible for maintenance. This applies particularly to CYC, where most of their sites are council-owned and were installed with central government grants which only covered the initial capital cost, leaving the council holding the bag for maintenance. Some councils have stepped up and CYC in those areas can be OK; other councils have let their estate rot. PodPoint is similar in their relationship with sites, but more of their site owners are commercial and so less likely to abandon an investment, and PodPoint at least have some focus on service. Geniepoint is another in this category. And there's a huge range of small operators that have popped up in the last year or so usually around one grant opportunity with a naive plan to build a national network on the back of it; time will tell if any of these turn into real networks, but at present its highly inconvenient.
TheNewMotion is potentially useful (dutch operator owned by Shell) - they have relatively few points of their own in the UK, but roaming agreements with many of the tiny operators (and Shell Recharge), and their RFID card is issued at no cost. So worth getting that rather than trying to keep up with all the other ones.
Ecotricity as mentioned has a poor reputation for reliability, but has all the best sites at motorway service areas; unfortunately it seems to be run as a hobby project rather than a serious business. We keep waiting for them to make their move now that EV charging has become an investable business: surely they will either get in a wave of new investment, or alternatively sell out to one of the wealthier players to reap the reward of their first-mover advantage, yet it never comes.
Contactless bank card looks like becoming the standard way to pay for random fast charging away from home (with network membership only for frequent users), however this is not yet universal and government haven't yet committed to enforcing it. Slow charging looks to remain a muddle of apps and RFID cards for some time to come, but best thought of as a bonus to save time and money if you happen to manage to use one, rather than something to rely on for charging away from home.
So the realistic conclusion is to download every app you ever hear of to a small corner of your phone, just in case you find yourself at one of those points - it only takes a few moments doing it at home you really don't want to be downloading an app over a flaky internet connection before you can start charging. And likewise apply for a few RFIDs of networks that offer them for free if they look interesting enough to be worth the bother. When planning a trip that's going to need public charging, the comments section of PlugShare and/or zap-map can give you an idea of the reliability of the particular locations you need, and which of those apps you have lying around on your phone you should now actually take the trouble to set up an account.
The good news is there's vastly more places to charge than there were 5 years ago; the bad news is they are mostly still rubbish and you do need to plan ahead.
Alset2go
Member
Heading from Oxfordshire up to Gretna,Strontian,Isle of Skye,Harris,Lewis and may finish up with the NC500 in April.
Been planning all the options and luckily on Lewis there is a 22kw close to accomodation.
I do a 160 mile round trip to London each day, with no charging necessary but this will be my first road trip.
I have not bothered with Chademo but have the CCS adapter for my MS as well as all the usual.
downloaded all apps ,have my Chargeplace Scotland Card and various route planners.The one thing is no O2 signal at where I am in Lewis so getting an EE payg data sim as full strength signal up there.
Any tips most welcome.
Been planning all the options and luckily on Lewis there is a 22kw close to accomodation.
I do a 160 mile round trip to London each day, with no charging necessary but this will be my first road trip.
I have not bothered with Chademo but have the CCS adapter for my MS as well as all the usual.
downloaded all apps ,have my Chargeplace Scotland Card and various route planners.The one thing is no O2 signal at where I am in Lewis so getting an EE payg data sim as full strength signal up there.
Any tips most welcome.
Hey buddy, i recently went to brighton and also didn't find easy access to chargers but on my return i found two bays outside the Texaco petrol station, behind the Kia dealership, Pod point chargers, worth keeping that in mind for your next trip.
thanks
WannabeOwner
Well-Known Member
Your post, sadly, reads like most of the ones in the iPace forums ...
I put Ecotricity APP on my phone when I got the car, hadn't used/needed it for 3 years. Stopped there for a charge - could I remember UserID or password? So i used the APP's "guest charge". Fill in name, address, email, credit card details ... takes a few minutes. Pressed the SAVE button to never have to do that again.
"Charge error" ... wasn't expecting that and it disappeared before I had read it properly
So Start the charge again, to more carefully read the message. What? All the "My Info" screens are blank? several minutes later ... got the error message.
Moved to adjacent stall (actually cable would reach without spending any time moving the car). Repeat the My Info all over again. Charge started.
Looked at TeslaFi when I got home. Time from changing from "D" to "P", and charge starting? 20 minutes ...
Checked a dozen Supercharge instances. Time from P-to-Charge? All under one minute
Like @arg said, I now review the Recent Comments on both Plugshare and Zap Map to see if people have recently reported problems. Can't remember if those APPs have a filter for kW ... would be handy to exclude the < 50kW ones ...
Stopped at RHS Wisley a while back. Didn't need a charge, but for the few hours we would be there even a small charge would change home journey to doable without Supercharge stop. Two chargers available, got there to find Leaf plugged into one. Plugged myself into the other and went to do the "get card from reception to start the free charge".
"Sorry Sir, that charger is not working at present". Oh well, at least Tesla is not range-critical.
Checked Plugshare when i got home. That charger had not worked for 2 years. Shame on RHS - you'd think of anybody they would have more than one eye on sustainability. ("We are doing building works so not incentivised to bother to fix it during that time" or something like that)
I used to have a hybrid so charging was a convenience rather than a necessity. Got one early on so most chargers were free of charge and largely unused. However, reliability was hit and miss. I came to the conclusion the only charger you could 100% rely on was your own at home.
Over my 3 year lease the chargers became less reliable due to lack of maintenance and more congested.
I'd advise anyone getting an EV to think carefully if it suits your mileage and driving patterns and also a BIG advantage of Tesla Vs other marks is the management of its own charger network.
Mine (when it arrives) will be within range of home 95% of its life and for the odd longer runs I'm hoping the Tesla network proves to be reliable. I'd look for and opportunistic charge at a non Tesla site but would try not rely on it and certainly try and stay in range of another charger.
Over my 3 year lease the chargers became less reliable due to lack of maintenance and more congested.
I'd advise anyone getting an EV to think carefully if it suits your mileage and driving patterns and also a BIG advantage of Tesla Vs other marks is the management of its own charger network.
Mine (when it arrives) will be within range of home 95% of its life and for the odd longer runs I'm hoping the Tesla network proves to be reliable. I'd look for and opportunistic charge at a non Tesla site but would try not rely on it and certainly try and stay in range of another charger.
CYC also manage the Scottish Charge Place network. It's been a few years since I was in the Highlands with my hybrid but the chargers were pretty good though you needed the RFID card (CYC card works in Scotland too). When my M3P arrives we'll be taking a summer trip to Glencoe and beyond so let us know what the Scottish Charge Place network is like and how busy the sites are. Though well placed there tended to be only one rapid charger per location and people used to hog them a bit. Hopefully the Fort William SC will be online by summer.
As a side note CYC used to be pretty good as a management company. Handed back my hybrid last year so no recent experience. Not all the chargers they manage worked but their app status was pretty accurate most of the time. Phone support was excellent. Even when I forgot to renew my card one year when I rang to say it wasn't working they gave me 7 days grace charging FOC.
Alset2go
Member
i had a little business to do in Scotland so had a drive up over a week ago for a few days..I have a Chargeplace Scotland card and had no problems whatsoever even although it was horrible weather..All Charging was effortless whether Superchargers or not..I hope you really enjoy your M3.
Best wishes,
