There's a gridserve hub planned for Annadale Water Services, I'm hoping that Tesla are going to be there too as Gretna is really too small to be reliable now, and Abington is starting to get that way too. Stick 8 v3's at Annadale and the M74 will be sorted for a good few years.
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Wiki UK and Ireland Supercharger Site News
- Thread starter WannabeOwner
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Agreed.
This and I really can’t figure out how to queue.
Park and wait but if the next car rolls in as one is leaving it’s nigh on impossible to tell what’s what.
I’m new to all this. Maybe there is a system. But I can’t suss it.
You would almost think that Tesla could implement a queuing system in the UI software - it knows where the cars are, it knows what stalls are available or being used.
When you rock up at a supercharger - are you requiring a charge sir/madam?
Stall X will be available to you in Y minutes.
If any car jumps the queue - move your ass sir/madam there is a car waiting before you!
Apologies for the digression
That’s like admitting the network isn’t good enough though despite being the best.
With such a high rate of new cars coming in I can foresee increasing discussion on site upgrades alongside the new sites. Probably need for a measure or heat map based on the number of tombstones, or cumulative max charge rate to account for v2/3 difference. Would be good to supply Vs demand that somehow... Show where you're most likely to be waiting.
I’d love to know when I arrive at a >= 50% busy v2 which stall would cause least aggregate annoyance to paired users given where they are in charging.
Found a half-full can of drink in the middle of the nearest Woodall bay at the weekend. Nice try at dissuasion whoever that was in the adjacent bay.
Found a half-full can of drink in the middle of the nearest Woodall bay at the weekend. Nice try at dissuasion whoever that was in the adjacent bay.
You have to be careful with the non-Tesla chargers. A lot of them are speed rated against 800v cars and at the moment most cars are 400v cars, like Teslas, which don’t benefit from the highest advertised rates. Tesla Superchargers are rated against 400v Teslas so unless you are power sharing on an old V2, the charging rates are more in line with people’s expectations.
Ecotricity tend to be old chargers and a lot have been replaced by Gridserve chargers. It would appear though that a number of them at motorway services still have power limitations so they may say 100+ kW, but in reality you’ve no chance of getting that speed.
At the moment, apart from the exceptions such as Rugby, if you want a decent non-Tesla charger you need to seek them out usually just off the motorway and not in the actual services such as the MFG chargers just off the M6 at J27. There is hope though. A lot of service areas need a power upgrade and plans were drawn up and funding dished out last year to get this improved. Moto have ambitious plans to get decent chargers into a lot of service areas this year and next. I think some chargers have just been put into Swansea and Wetherby is also getting a few.
I travel with a friend who has an ID.4 and so I’m familiar with non-Tesla chargers. The ID.4 driver is handing his company car back this year when he retires at 50 and is going back to ICE this time due to frustrations with long distance charging.
The point of this thread is only about news of Supercharger sites.
Any other rapid charge points have their own place. I also think about other charging points when on long journeys - but only how to avoid them!
That's primarily a concern with 300kW units (which can't be achieved with standards-based CCS without 800V). 150kW can be delivered at 400V with standards-based CCS, and I haven't identified any 150kW units that need 800V - have you?
Anyhow that's certainly not applicable to the old Ecotricity units, which were simply false advertising at 50kW - they could never under any circumstances deliver 50kW even to the vehicle they were designed for (Nissan Leaf). Even the manufacturer claims only 44kW, and that requires favourable assumptions.
cezdoc
Member
If you ever stop at Gretna again, and are in a hurry, bear in mind there are an additional 4 Ionity rapids at the petrol station.
Or you could queue by the main building, keep warm by burning a few £5 notes while you wait, and still end up with an overall saving for the sake of a few extra minutes (Ionity is a distressed purchase for most drivers).
Tesla have put a marker at Todhills Southbound near Carlisle (target opening "Q3 2022") which would help to ease pressure at Gretna, in addition to the Gridserve hub mentioned by GRiLLA.
I regularly travel in this area and started avoiding Gretna a couple of years ago. Even back then the chances of queueing/sharing with a slow charge rate were high and the position of the stalls next to the main building means there's often nowhere obvious to park while waiting. I've been accidentally gazumped there before although most drivers know to look around to spot other waiting Teslas if it's full. A shame really as it's a good stop-off location when heading in/out of Scotland, or over to Northern Ireland on the ferry.
cezdoc
Member
I think this is a good point at this moment in time - Gridserve's acquisition & investment in Electric Highway seems to be a game changer and finally a third party is starting to be more than a footnote in the UK rapid charger network (Ionity remain woefully sparse and slow to roll out). A couple of years ago many Model S & X didn't have CCS and the Nav didn't show third party rapid charger locations so non-Superchargers were often a bit of an irrelevance.
However this thread is already pretty busy so I think a separate discussion or listing for third party rapid hubs would be the way to go.
I'd appreciate a separate 'hub' thread. Perhaps we have the luxury of limiting the scope to eg 4+ chargers, rapid (50kw or higher), contactless payment (no rfid or app requirement - website payment like ionity maybe ok)
Back in autumn 2020, when Alpha was the fashionable COVID variant, there was some suggestion of a couple of the old Aviemore V2 chargers going to Thurso or elsewhere in Caithness (the rest went to Inverness) . I asked Highland council who suggested Tesla had been looking but nothing had been finalised. I asked Highland Council again recently and was told "There have been no developments for new supercharger locations within the Highlands". Which is a shame but a clear answer at least. spoke to a Tesla Mobile tech yesterday who suggested some might be coming to Glasgow but not definitive.
Just as a warning to anyone planning to charge at Newport Pagnell over the next few days - don't.
It's being used as a temporary car park by the construction crews working on the M1 smart motorway upgrade.
There are 10 chargers but they're blocking at least 6, so everyone is squashed onto four V2 chargers.
It's being used as a temporary car park by the construction crews working on the M1 smart motorway upgrade.
There are 10 chargers but they're blocking at least 6, so everyone is squashed onto four V2 chargers.
The point I was making though is that we will increasingly be looking at charging hubs as a single issue. As others build out rapid charging hubs, it will be important to have a single picture of where they are, where they need to be and where they are planned, rather than being in a supercharger silo. I suspect Tesla understands this and it’s why they are moving towards opening up the network.
I agree personally - if a hub is simple and transparent to use then I'd prefer a single place to discuss that as they're all relevant to any trips I'm taking. But the other poster mentioned they wanted it separated so main thing for me is agreeing it would be good to capture this extra info
Unconfirmed.: 8x Superchargers spotted as built at the ex-Intu shopping centre in Milton Keynes. Waiting for photos to confirm they are superchargers Rather than the store destination chargers.
Jason71
Well-Known Member
Gridserve Charger Sites in UK [megathread]
Moderation comment - initial posts merged from "UK's first custom charging forecourt" Just been announced ( or just hit the mainstream press anyway). Sounds like a step in the right direction. GRIDSERVE | GRIDSERVE submits planning application for Braintree Electric Forecourt® First of a...
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