Experienced this myself at Adderstone SuC, guy pulls into it in an MGZS and tries to connect it up, comes over to my car as i'm just leaving to have a look that the connector is the same and asks how to get it working. I politely say it's just Tesla's for now anyway but he was absolutely convinced as he read it in an article that they are all open to everyone. I tried to explain that it's just a test of some inEurope but he didn't believe me and went back to his to keep pulling the plug in and out then downloading the Tesla app on his phone i presume. I just left him too it...
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Tesla open up the SuC network [in UK]
- Thread starter kelvin 660
- Start date
A lot of people just don't think this one through when first contemplating a switch to an EV. They still have the mentality of using filling stations rather than their home.
Yes, the data includes every registered car in the country. Have you looked at the data?
You can have your say about the opening up of the supercharger network with this Tesla survey: https://feedback.tesla.com/jfe/form/SV_8JvyED8TWNjtY8u . Apologies if it has been posted before.
Yes.
I can see from VEH0133 that there are the following
From which I get a total of 64, 383 Tesla and excluding Leaf (Chademo) and Zoe (large AC charging) I get 98,892 so 1 in 2.5 EV are Tesla.
I also observe that the total for BEV is 314,966, however the 'top 20' accounts for about half that, so there are another 50% of cars that each have less than 7.3K on the road. I find that long tail surprising.
Having DC rapid chargers EVERYWHERE is the key. How many petrol stations do you drive past on a road trip between different SC sites? Must be dozens+, imagine if every single petrol station had x8-12 DC rapid chargers! Thats where we need to get to and ASAP. I also see most SC sites in the Netherlands have x12-20 chargers at each site, the difference here in the UK is staggering. Surely this is down to government policy? The people that need to get their act together is the UK government.
I guess it's a demand driven chicken and egg scenario. Still relatively few EVs on the road, so probably not commercially viable just yet. In theory there should always be less demand for EV chargers vs fuel pumps as most EV users will be charging from home most of the time. My own Supercharger use is minimal, probably just a few percent of my total charging. I sometimes go for months without charging out on the road.
I would describe it as resulting from the lack of government policy ...
It’s more down to local infrastructure being run close to capacity I believe nothing to do with any policy. Don’t forget the National Grid and all DNO are privately run companies. They won’t just have spare capacity for the hell of it, it’s a bit like saying a supermarket should have enough of everything to supply every person in their catchment area, never going to happen, it’s not commercially viable.
A brand new (ground up) petrol station just opened in Shipley, I asked the owner whilst it was early stages if he was putting chargers in, he said he planned to have 4. When the pumps etc started arriving no sign of chargers so I asked what had happened. The local substation doesn’t have the capacity was what he was told so no chargers installed
.So whats the difference between the Nerthlands or even Norway?
Yes indeed it's down to local infrastructure and private companies, but governments can establish policies that promote the expansion of the infrastructure... provide financial incentives, alter restrictive regulations where appropriate etc.
No idea other than they’re both “greener” countries than UK by a country mile. One has masses of hydro power, the other filled with proper cycle paths & wind turbines so probably plenty more surplus energy than our overcrowded patch. Maybe less NIMBY types objecting to new substations
(Look at the objections to East Anglia Array substation for connecting to the grid).And increase taxes to pay for all those incentives….. there’s no magic money tree
Ensuring adequate infrastructure is a primary function of government in my book. Who said there was a magic money tree?
Money has to come from somewhere, we chuck ours away on *sugar* IT systems for the NHS that don’t work or badly designed cycle lanes etc etc. We’d be better off paying tax to Musk than any UK government in history, he’d put it to much better use lol
And increase taxes to pay for all those incentives….. there’s no magic money tree
I think this is a rare case where it can work - government needs to invest in grid expansion to bring more power closer to key locations (which they’re doing), but after that - tesla will be in there in a shot with their own chargers as will gridserve and others.
For governments there is in many cases a magic money tree, in that investment promotes growth which raises GDP and increases tax revenues. Equally a government 'saving' money can end up losing more in the long run. Getting that balance right seems to be beyond most governments though.
the population of Netherlands is ~17.3 million people (48.5 million more people live in United Kingdom) and yet the number of EV was 292000 in 2020 in Netherlands vs 395000 in UK now. Percentage wise the take up is much greater in The Netherlands than here which may also account for the better SuC network too.
Yes it will have to change drastically in UK as more people change over whether that be by government funding (taxation on EV anyone?) or Nat Grid, DNO increasing capacity so businesses can invest. All I’m pointing out is the money has to come from somewhere.
Yes it will have to change drastically in UK as more people change over whether that be by government funding (taxation on EV anyone?) or Nat Grid, DNO increasing capacity so businesses can invest. All I’m pointing out is the money has to come from somewhere.
Yesterday I drove from Lancashire to Glasgow and returned this afternoon. At 8.15am yesterday I stopped off at the Gretna SuC to find all bays occupied and three cars waiting. On a hunch I had had a look at the Ionity 350KW chargers. Three were in use but I nabbed the fourth one. I managed a peak rate of 236KW, which is faster than I’ve ever had from a Tesla V3.
On the way home this afternoon I stopped off at Tebay. All SuC bays were occupied and four cars were waiting. I queued for 15 mins before I could charge.
It surprised me that as a Tesla driver I topped up more quickly using a third party charge point, at least on the outward journey. On the way back it’s the second time that I’ve had to queue at Tebay. Unless Tesla significantly expand the SuC network then queuing is going to become a fact of life, irrespective of whether they open the network to other makes.
On the way home this afternoon I stopped off at Tebay. All SuC bays were occupied and four cars were waiting. I queued for 15 mins before I could charge.
It surprised me that as a Tesla driver I topped up more quickly using a third party charge point, at least on the outward journey. On the way back it’s the second time that I’ve had to queue at Tebay. Unless Tesla significantly expand the SuC network then queuing is going to become a fact of life, irrespective of whether they open the network to other makes.
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