Polar 150kw Rapid Chargers

[Cowpring]

BP/Polar/Chargemaster are rolling out some new rapid chargers - 150kw/h.

They have installed some very close to me, next to Hammersmith Flyover at the BP station there. It just opened 5 days ago, and is their first in London:

BP Chargemaster installs London’s first 150kW ultra-fast charging hub on a public network – BP Chargemaster

It's actually on my usual route into/out of town which is super convenient and more so than the nearest Tesla Supercharger. My guess they put them there so black cab drivers can charge on their way to Heathrow. I saw 4 cabs charging, using all the bays, the other night.

Has anyone used these yet? If so, what is the pricing? Do they work well with Tesla Model 3? Price wise it's a little confusing - the Polar Plus website said they cost 20p/kWh if you have their subscription. But when you click on the point on the map it says they are free...?

I think there are one or two more of the Polar 150kw installed around the UK, but they are installing a lot more this year.

Don't have my car yet but still weighing up charging options as I can't charge at home.

 

[Cowpring]

Clearly i'm an idiot and didn't even read the article I posted:

"All four units are currently available on Free Vend for a limited time."

So if you're in West London - go make use of free rapid electricity from these points at Hammersmith flyover and let me know how they work with Telsa...lol

 

[arg]

However, their published prices after the free-vend period have a hefty premium for the faster units:

Price per kWh: 40p (contactless) 35p (polar instant app) 20p (if paying monthly subscription)

(compares to 30p/25p/15p at their 50kW-capable units)

This seems a bit excessive - sure the equipment costs them more, but it will give them higher turnover on fast-charging cars.

 

[ACarneiro]

It’s just like EE when 4G (and now 5G) came along. You pay extra for the “Wow, it’s faster!” factor but as this becomes more ubiquitous they’ll align with the others.

Then again, I charge at home so I don’t really care

 

[Cowpring]

However, their published prices after the free-vend period have a hefty premium for the faster units:

Price per kWh: 40p (contactless) 35p (polar instant app) 20p (if paying monthly subscription)

(compares to 30p/25p/15p at their 50kW-capable units)

This seems a bit excessive - sure the equipment costs them more, but it will give them higher turnover on fast-charging cars.

Their website doesn't seem to be accurate on prices though. It says that it's 30p per kWh for contactless on the website, but on the physical charge stations near me they say 22p per kWh when using contactless...weird. Haven't tested them but will when I get my car.

 

[MaDProFF]

I am glad there are a bit excessive there will not be full all of the time, and people will only use them if they are desperate of a quick charge to get to another destination.

 

[Cowpring]

What's the cost of Tesla Superchargers? I was under the impression it was 24p/kWh? Is that correct?

If you use Polar points as the primary source of charging, it actually might make sense to pay their subscription charge - a lot of their points are completely free. It depends on how much you charge your M3 though. Less than 2 charges per month and it's cheaper on contactless.

 

[ACarneiro]

They claim lots of free points, but quite frankly I don’t think I’ve ever seen any.
Certainly no Rapid Charger ones.

 

[arg]

Their website doesn't seem to be accurate on prices though. It says that it's 30p per kWh for contactless on the website, but on the physical charge stations near me they say 22p per kWh when using contactless...weird. Haven't tested them but will when I get my car.

I think the 22p is the old price, before the price rise in August: Polar network pricing and access changes from 5th August 2019 - Polar Plus though I'm not completely certain.

 

[Cowpring]

They claim lots of free points, but quite frankly I don’t think I’ve ever seen any.
Certainly no Rapid Charger ones.

No none of the rapid ones are free. But there are a lot of lower speed free ones in car parks etc.

Conveniently for me some of the car parks in London I use for work have free points in them.

 

[WannabeOwner]

If you use Polar points as the primary source of charging, it actually might make sense to pay their subscription charge

BP 150kW price is 40p / kWh, 20p / kWh if you take out the subscription. Subscription costs nearly £100 p.a., so you would have to buy 500 kWh @ BP Rapid Charger to break even ... that's 2,000 Model-3 miles, even if I exclusive charged at BP (and they had a sufficiently extensive network) that is pretty much all the Trip-charging that I do in a year, and I'm a high mileage driver.

For folk with no home charging it would be better for the battery to (routinely) charge at lower kW and leave Rapid Charging when Trip-charging

BP subscription, and lower kW charger, might make sense for folk with no home charging, but they are going to be stuck at a BP pump for hours, so unless the local BP is well placed for other activity I reckon it would be better to use a shopping mall car park charger and charge during the shopping

I can't really figure how BP think they are going to "corner the market" with this policy.

 

[ACarneiro]

Once all their points are contactless-enabled I will ditch my Polar subscription.

At the moment I am grudgingly paying for the added coverage should I need charging when out and about.

 

[SirRob]

BP Chargemaster is the public charging solution I believe in the least of all of them. The subscription model is completely against how this should all work.

 

[Jason71]

Instavolt looks good on paper. all contactless, 35p/KW (meh) and are starting to roll out 125kw chargers, though I think they only have one 125KW set at present, near Basingstoke. Locations look well chosen as well mainly near fast food restaurants just off major routes. they clearly have a deal with KFC.
Anyone have any actual experience with them?

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Yeah, I’ve used a local instavolt twice so far. 50kw jobbie

very easy. Plug in, present contactless/applepay, press start button.

when finished just unplug, drive away

 

[Jason71]

Yeah, I’ve used a local instavolt twice so far. 50kw jobbie

very easy. Plug in, present contactless/applepay, press start button.

when finished just unplug, drive away

i.e. the way they should all be. One day maybe......

 

[ACarneiro]

What it *should* be is plug and go like the Superchargers

 

[Cowpring]

BP 150kW price is 40p / kWh, 20p / kWh if you take out the subscription. Subscription costs nearly £100 p.a., so you would have to buy 500 kWh @ BP Rapid Charger to break even ... that's 2,000 Model-3 miles, even if I exclusive charged at BP (and they had a sufficiently extensive network) that is pretty much all the Trip-charging that I do in a year, and I'm a high mileage driver.

For folk with no home charging it would be better for the battery to (routinely) charge at lower kW and leave Rapid Charging when Trip-charging

BP subscription, and lower kW charger, might make sense for folk with no home charging, but they are going to be stuck at a BP pump for hours, so unless the local BP is well placed for other activity I reckon it would be better to use a shopping mall car park charger and charge during the shopping

I can't really figure how BP think they are going to "corner the market" with this policy.

So in my situation (no home charging at all, 100% needs to be done at public chargers), Polar works out quite well for me.

There's a 50kw Rapid point near my office, and the 150kw on my way into/out of town. So for the 50kw one, I can just park the car there for an hour or so while it charges, and go back to the office to continue work, picking it up when charged. It's a short walk away.

If i'm doing 100% of my charging on the Polar network, I could only use contactless on a Rapid 50kw charger and it would only cost about £8 per charge (based on using 40kw of electricity for the Model 3). Two charges per month is about £16 without subscription. With the subscription is actually £20!

Not sure the 150kw rapid makes sense at the moment, I reckon the cost would be too high compared to the 50kw, with no real benefit that I can see.

 

[jgwozdzicki]

Instavolt looks good on paper. all contactless, 35p/KW (meh) and are starting to roll out 125kw chargers, though I think they only have one 125KW set at present, near Basingstoke. Locations look well chosen as well mainly near fast food restaurants just off major routes. they clearly have a deal with KFC.
Anyone have any actual experience with them?

There’s 4 Instavolt chargers all ready to go at Fox Valley just down the road from the Tankersley superchargers. Still not online yet though.

 

[WannabeOwner]

There's a 50kw Rapid point near my office, and the 150kw on my way into/out of town.

Not sure, on Model-3, but my suspicion is that they will count as D/C charges, and when threshold reached that will throttle charging.

If that is correct then you may wish to try to use A/C charging for regular charging, if you can (i.e. if you will be parked up for hours then longer A/C charge would be better than shorter D/C charge)

Not sure the 150kw rapid makes sense at the moment, I reckon the cost would be too high compared to the 50kw, with no real benefit that I can see.

I agree, for me that is only beneficial when time is short - e.g. on a long trip.

Bjorn often stops at [I think] Ionity rather than Supercharger because he can get close to 200kW from Ionity, and only 150kW from Supercharger