Road trip experience with chargeplacescotland

[xdcthedoc]

Did a big road trip last week going from Skye to Dundee and back.

What a pain.

Was really relying on a rapid charge in Pitlochry... both CCS chargers broken. Speaking to folk on the helpline they seemed totally clueless. One of the units didn't have a unit number on it so they had a lot of trouble locating it. Once they did it was "oh yes we know that one is broken" but no idea when it might be fixed.

She tried to helpfully tell me where I might be able to charge nearby... she came up with "there is a charger in Perth and Kinross". Where in Perth and Kinross??? She had no idea.

On the way back up the road I used the charger in Roy bridge. Went OK - but when I went to disconnect it started showing error messages so I called them to give them a heads up to try and help others after me.

She said "oh yes we know that unit is broken... someone is coming to fix it". I explained that it wasn't broken when i got to it - it was working fine until I went to disconnect. She seemed utterly confused and uninterested.

Pretty stressful really... ended up at one stage getting down to 4 miles charge left on the dash.... not a pleasant feeling.

So yeah... chargeplacescotland need to get their self together.

...and why the hell is the entire West coast of Scotland devoid of Tesla superchargers?

Thank goodness for a better route planner mind... was a lifesaver.

 

[booyaka76]

CPS (charge place scotland) is wonderful and plentiful in most cases - great free charging, etc.

However were is appears to then fall down badly is reporting stuff and getting things fixed is a joke.

I reported the only Rapid charger in the local area 6 weeks ago, nothing has changed since then- I tweeted CPS (as they request for broken chargers) - they said thanks they would look into it, - I tweeted 3 weeks later to say nothing has changed - they tell me the maintenance is scheduled to be done that week. Still 3 weeks after that - still nothing - no updates, still dead.

There is not another free rapid charger within 30 miles of here (yes there's pay for Instavolt which is fast and excellent if required) - however - there seems to be a massive disconnect with reporting stuff and things getting sorted/fixed

Overall "most" CPS 7/22kw chargers are great, they work, they are free etc.

Agreed about West Coast - Nothing in/or near, Glasgow for Tesla is shocking. Only 2 in Edinburgh for god sake..... Glasgow site hasn't changed /move forward in months - still just sitting waiting on god knows what.

 

[elecTED]

You get a brand new car on interest free, you get free rapid charging.

Spare a thought for your brothers down south.

[OK, you need to google ‘sun’ to find out what it means, that’s even-steven.]

 

[MacPaul]

Manchester Annual Average Sunshine: 1416 hours
Aberdeen Annual Average Sunshine: 1433 hours

I used to live in Manchester, I now live in Aberdeen. It’s also a lot drier up here.

 

[Alan J]

Did a big road trip last week going from Skye to Dundee and back.

What a pain.

Was really relying on a rapid charge in Pitlochry... both CCS chargers broken. Speaking to folk on the helpline they seemed totally clueless. One of the units didn't have a unit number on it so they had a lot of trouble locating it. Once they did it was "oh yes we know that one is broken" but no idea when it might be fixed.

She tried to helpfully tell me where I might be able to charge nearby... she came up with "there is a charger in Perth and Kinross". Where in Perth and Kinross??? She had no idea.

On the way back up the road I used the charger in Roy bridge. Went OK - but when I went to disconnect it started showing error messages so I called them to give them a heads up to try and help others after me.

She said "oh yes we know that unit is broken... someone is coming to fix it". I explained that it wasn't broken when i got to it - it was working fine until I went to disconnect. She seemed utterly confused and uninterested.

Pretty stressful really... ended up at one stage getting down to 4 miles charge left on the dash.... not a pleasant feeling.

So yeah... chargeplacescotland need to get their self together.

...and why the hell is the entire West coast of Scotland devoid of Tesla superchargers?

Thank goodness for a better route planner mind... was a lifesaver.

I did a Road Trip Glasgow to Skye and back a couple of weeks ago using the Fast CCS Charger in Fort William getting 186 M/H at one point and all fine. I aslo use the Local Chargeplace Scotland Chargers twice a week I've owned my M3 for 3 Months and it's literally cost me nothing for fuel, we are very fortunate in Scotland, maybe you were just unlucky.

 

[cezdoc]

In defence of Chargeplace Scotland: at present there is no other public network in the UK that comes close in terms of geographic spread of rapid chargers that can be accessed with a single card/app (and in addition many are still free of charge).

However, I've seen a lot of anecdotal evidence that CCS is less reliable that CHAdeMO (maybe even more so with the Model 3 due to the curved shape of the socket surround on the car), and this coupled with some ageing hardware seems to be making the network more patchy in terms of reliability.

If you compare the situation in Scotland with, say, the one in Wales it's night-and-day better but everything's relative. A couple of failed charges and a long trip can get seriously challenging. But this is still the reality for EV driving outside the Supercharger network. Imagine trying to get around the place in a Leaf or a Zoe! It does demonstrate how good the Supercharger network is - thank goodness Tesla really understand how important it is!

 

[Mr Miserable]

Manchester Annual Average Sunshine: 1416 hours
Aberdeen Annual Average Sunshine: 1433 hours

I used to live in Manchester, I now live in Aberdeen. It’s also a lot drier up here.

I used to live in Aberdeen.
It may be sunnier (rain shadow of the Grampians) but with a northerly wind it can be cold, damn cold.
I am now in southern England and introducing Aberdonian economics to Hampshire.

Ifyakenfitahmsayinlik.

 

[xdcthedoc]

It does demonstrate how good the Supercharger network is - thank goodness Tesla really understand how important it is!

Do they?

I really do think it is bad that the Fort William and Glasgow chargers have been left to wither for so long. Surely they can't look at the map of the UK and think this is acceptable?

I would love to know a bit more about what is holding things back / what the plan is.

As for charge place Scotland - I have only had the car for a month or so and in that limited time had about a 40% success rate getting a working CCS charger. You might say you get what you pay for... but free is no good if it is always broken.

Makes journey planning very difficult.

 

[Adopado]

As for charge place Scotland - I have only had the car for a month or so and in that limited time had about a 40% success rate getting a working CCS charger. You might say you get what you pay for... but free is no good if it is always broken.

Do you report faulty chargers and successful charges on ZapMap? It's reassuring if you see an up-to-date report.

 

[xdcthedoc]

Do you report faulty chargers and successful charges on ZapMap? It's reassuring if you see an up-to-date report.

I haven't used zapmap to be honest - stuck with the chargeplace helpline and "a better route planner"

Will add it to my list for the next road trip!

 

[Jason71]

Do they?

I really do think it is bad that the Fort William and Glasgow chargers have been left to wither for so long. Surely they can't look at the map of the UK and think this is acceptable?

I would love to know a bit more about what is holding things back / what the plan is.

As for charge place Scotland - I have only had the car for a month or so and in that limited time had about a 40% success rate getting a working CCS charger. You might say you get what you pay for... but free is no good if it is always broken.

Makes journey planning very difficult.

The idea of free chargers is appealing to my wallet but it does cause some issues. With so many free chargers, won't it discourage anyone from building paid for ones since they will not be able to compete. So as long as you have the free CPS ones it will constrain the market so there will ultimately be less chargers overall. So if the CCS ones are not maintained or not where you want them you are kind of stuck.
The other issue with free chargers is that people will abuse them i.e, use them instead of charging at home so they will not be available to people road tripping who actually need them.

 

[xdcthedoc]

The idea of free chargers is appealing to my wallet but it does cause some issues. With so many free chargers, won't it discourage anyone from building paid for ones since they will not be able to compete. So as long as you have the free CPS ones it will constrain the market so there will ultimately be less chargers overall. So if the CCS ones are not maintained or not where you want them you are kind of stuck.
The other issue with free chargers is that people will abuse them i.e, use them instead of charging at home so they will not be available to people road tripping who actually need them.

Get away with your crazy libertarian ideas!

Vote Labour and we will be getting free broadband as well as chargers!

 

[Strategium]

Come and visit Dundee - regular sunshine, Tesla superchargers and lots of other charge points throughout the city and surrounding area. Some are even free!
Does any UK city have a higher ratio of car chargers per head of population than Dundee?
My problem however is not the lack of chargers in the area, but rather the ongoing lack of a Tesla to charge. Ordered Red/white LR AWD FSD August 23rd. Told by Tesla to expect delivery September/October. Still no VIN and no car matched to order. Called them last week and was told they have no idea when i will get a car. Strange that such an innovative technology company that can build state of the art robotic factories to make cars apparently can't provide realistic delivery information or keep customers updated.
I am left staring aimlessly at the recently installed car charger in my garage and at a room full of miscellaneous model 3 accessories purchased ready for fitting to the car I was expecting to get last month....

 

[Adopado]

Come and visit Dundee - regular sunshine, Tesla superchargers and lots of other charge points throughout the city and surrounding area. Some are even free!
Does any UK city have a higher ratio of car chargers per head of population than Dundee?
My problem however is not the lack of chargers in the area, but rather the ongoing lack of a Tesla to charge. Ordered Red/white LR AWD FSD August 23rd. Told by Tesla to expect delivery September/October. Still no VIN and no car matched to order. Called them last week and was told they have no idea when i will get a car. Strange that such an innovative technology company that can build state of the art robotic factories to make cars apparently can't provide realistic delivery information or keep customers updated.
I am left staring aimlessly at the recently installed car charger in my garage and at a room full of miscellaneous model 3 accessories purchased ready for fitting to the car I was expecting to get last month....

Robert Llewelyn's FullyCharged youtube video was extolling the virtues of Dundee and it's proactive approach to EVs the other day. Actually, if you check out the mess of charging "down south" most places in Scotland do pretty well, even if there are some of the (many) free CPC chargers that need fixing more quickly than sometimes happens. I must say that the one I've tried a couple of times in Selkirk has worked perfectly. It's better than having a selection of different suppliers that also have charges and are still unreliable!

BTW ... the car will come ... eventually!

 

[Tonybvi]

Never had a problem with the few ChargePlaceScotland chargers I have used - nearly all 22kw and never tried the higher rated ones. However today the local one refused to release my cable! The guys were very helpful on the phone but despite powering down the unit several times remotely the cable is still there (I hope). An engineer is meant to be attending tomorrow to release the cable and bring it to my house but that assumes nobody manages to free it or cut it before then. A bit worrying but fingers crossed I’ll get it back.

 

[MrBadger]

However today the local one refused to release my cable! The guys were very helpful on the phone but despite powering down the unit several times remotely the cable is still there (I hope).

I posted about a cable attached to a charge post down south near here a good few weeks back and noticed few days back that its still there. So hopefully should be good for you too.

 

[ivangr]

The idea of free chargers is appealing to my wallet but it does cause some issues. With so many free chargers, won't it discourage anyone from building paid for ones since they will not be able to compete. So as long as you have the free CPS ones it will constrain the market so there will ultimately be less chargers overall. So if the CCS ones are not maintained or not where you want them you are kind of stuck.
The other issue with free chargers is that people will abuse them i.e, use them instead of charging at home so they will not be available to people road tripping who actually need them.

eh no. CPS has limited their buildouts to 50kw chargers. the higher rates are being left for the commercial sector. there is plenty space there to compete.

>The other issue with free chargers is that people will abuse them i.e, use them instead of charging at home so they will not be available to people road tripping who actually need them

good. even more reason for private networks to supplement CPS. see you figured it out

 

[khizrs]

Why do so many public chargers end up faulty? Is it new tech that can be a bit unrealiable sometimes

 

[S3XYtesl4]

Thought this was great, 2 CPS rapid charge points in Dumfries one broken one occupied 4pm Saturday, came back next day 11am Sunday still occupied BY THE SAME CAR car obviously never moved. AND WAIT FOR IT... it was the bloody Dumfries and Galloway Council EV promotional car hogging the spot !!! What a great way to promote EVs locally, have 2 rapid chargers in an area with 30k+ people some points broken and occupy the ones that are working. THANKS DG EV!! GREAT PROMOTIONAL WORK THERE! Why not spend less on cars for advertising and occupying spaces and more on points around the local area.

I used the instavolt rapid charger instead 35p kW which seems a lot, guess not a lot in comparison to standard fuel however have to say very easy to use and good condition.

 

[xdcthedoc]

Thought this was great, 2 CPS rapid charge points in Dumfries one broken one occupied 4pm Saturday, came back next day 11am Sunday still occupied BY THE SAME CAR car obviously never moved. AND WAIT FOR IT... it was the bloody Dumfries and Galloway Council EV promotional car hogging the spot !!! What a great way to promote EVs locally, have 2 rapid chargers in an area with 30k+ people some points broken and occupy the ones that are working. THANKS DG EV!! GREAT PROMOTIONAL WORK THERE! Why not spend less on cars for advertising and occupying spaces and more on points around the local area.

So annoying - email them!

One thing I discovered on my road trip to do with charging logisitcs... I cam across one of the chargers in Skye with a Nissan leaf in the left parking bay as you look at it - unfortunately this also happened to be where the CCS charger tether came from (that they weren't using of course)

It was actually really hard to find a way to charge my car. Parking nose in it wouldn't quite reach over. If I reversed in my charge port was miles away. In the end I had to park sort of side on to the front of the charger and managed to get the cable to stretch with about 2cm leeway.

Beginning to see the wisdom of other cars having the charge port at the front of the vehicle!