Wiki UK and Ireland Supercharger Site News

[kelvin 660]

Now if we could just have a 16+ bays of Tesla SuC's at every motorway service area, in the UK, then I would be a very happy Tesla owner! Oh and a few in the middle of Wales wouldn't go a miss either...

 

[kcrane]

The difference is VAG owners didn’t pay for Shell’s roll out, Tesla owners did pay for Tesla’s roll out.

If VAG spun up their own network that only worked with VAG cars, paid for by VAG owners, I wouldn’t have an issue with that.

And no, Ionity was not paid for by VAG owners, they were compelled to dump a load of money into it because of the diesel gate scandal settlement. A load of public money also got dumped into it so that network can’t be exclusive because I also paid for it as well from my taxes.

It’s pretty obvious to anyone that the super charger network is only being sustained out of money being made from the car sales. All of the other network operators are haemorrhaging cash at the moment and they all charge more than Tesla, a lot more in some cases. The Tesla network is bigger, better maintained and cheaper than everyone else, it’s clear what is enabling that.

Like you say though, Tesla are about to get legislated out of their business model shortly in a lot of countries so they are just getting ahead of it in their own terms. However it’s going to suck in the U.K. because the network is creaking at the seems during peak times already, it’s just not good enough in some places and the stalls are not designed for other vehicles.

It also baffles me that new installs going in are not designed for other vehicles still given the impending opening up. All that need to do is spread them out so one tombstone covers two spaces and they can be used from both sides without blocking a stall, it’s really not a difficult problem to solve.

I don’t think rapid charging is something the government needs to be putting money into (slow charging in hard to reach areas, yes!). What they should be concentrating on is getting the DNOs to sort their networks out. They are pretty much the bottle neck for getting chargers in the right places everywhere. There is no shortage of people willing to build charging hubs at the moment. The other area of focus should be rules against squatting on sites, locking out DNO capacity that isn’t being used.

Just jumping back to the topic at hand, is there any progress at Ferrybridge? I could really do with that being online in the next couple of weeks.

I’m driving from East Anglia to East Yorkshire and back again and frankly your in no man’s land up there once you get past Markhem More (Shell/Instavolt) or Grantham (Tesla) on the A1 which makes the charging really sub optimal.

East Midlands Outlet Centre with 8xV3 is my choice rather than Markham Vale Instavolts

 

[Washout]

At least you’ve acknowledged they had subsidies. Well done.

Customer tax incentives would be a more accurate description, so FTFY.

Subsidies implies a government hand out never repaid, whereas a tax incentive, which would only be due on an ICE vehicle purchase, is not.

Resorting to semantics is a pretty weak argument, but keep going with the sophistry if you like, whilst you find the answers to the questions I posed.

 

[Wattsisname]

Customer tax incentives would be a more accurate description, so FTFY.

Subsidies implies a government hand out never repaid, whereas a tax incentive, which would only be due on an ICE vehicle purchase, is not.

Resorting to semantics is a pretty weak argument, but keep going with the sophistry if you like, whilst you find the answers to the questions I posed.

Semantics and sophistry! (sorry just popped in; I have not read the thread). Even Boris is content with just sophistry; he speaks no other language.
Anyway, as I said, just popped in to learn the latest news of the Supercharger rollout because I have my first Tesla on order. I'll let you guys get back to it.

 

[gangzoom]

Now if we could just have a 16+ bays of Tesla SuC's at every motorway service area, in the UK, then I would be a very happy Tesla owner! Oh and a few in the middle of Wales wouldn't go a miss either...

Surely that is 'solution' to EV rapid charging. The reason there are currently ques is because there are only a few options in any direction, so people have no choice but conguate at available site.

IF and WHEN, we get x16-32 DC rapid chargers at each service station all of these worries/concerns would be redundant.

 

[SpareHeadOne]

Plug in car grant (or whatever the name is/was) £2500 then £1500.

Let’s say 65,000 Teslas at £1500 = £100m+ in UK gov money.

Yes, not ring fenced for charging, but Tesla still benefiting from public money. Is Tesla benefiting or are owners, good point.

The grant started at £5,000 and is available to all manufacturers. On top of that it could also be used against PHEVs with an electric-only range of over 10 miles.

So, Mitsubishi sold 47,000 Outlander PHEVs for example and I have no idea how many Leafs (Leaves?) that Nissan sold but I'm also not sure where you got the 65k figure for Tesla from, their sales only really took off towards the end of 2020 and they stopped qualifying shortly after that for being over £35k.

2021 was their biggest year for the M3 in the UK and they sold just under 35,000 cars - most of which didn't qualify for the grant - and for 2020 the SMMT lumps them in with the 26,086 "other imports", all we know is that they delivered about 6,000 cars in December 2020.

I'd say the grant might have covered 15-20,000 cars maximum meaning they didn't get £100m of UK government money, but they did build out the SC network while other manufacturers sold lots of qualifying cars and provided some chargers at some of their dealers for use by their own customers and nothing else.

You might not agree with the grant, but I can point at which manufacturer has provided the best charging network for the money and if it eventually opens to all EVs then it will also have been by far the best investment.

 

[Godsense]

Thetford also showing "temporary closure" this afternoon. Unfortunately I'm not close enough to find out why.

Been down all weekend again. Showing the same.

The once a year I need to go that way too. Thar area is sparce of faster chargers still currently.

 

[Wattsisname]

The grant started at £5,000 and is available to all manufacturers. On top of that it could also be used against PHEVs with an electric-only range of over 10 miles.

So, Mitsubishi sold 47,000 Outlander PHEVs for example and I have no idea how many Leafs (Leaves?) that Nissan sold but I'm also not sure where you got the 65k figure for Tesla from, their sales only really took off towards the end of 2020 and they stopped qualifying shortly after that for being over £35k.

2021 was their biggest year for the M3 in the UK and they sold just under 35,000 cars - most of which didn't qualify for the grant - and for 2020 the SMMT lumps them in with the 26,086 "other imports", all we know is that they delivered about 6,000 cars in December 2020.

I'd say the grant might have covered 15-20,000 cars maximum meaning they didn't get £100m of UK government money, but they did build out the SC network while other manufacturers sold lots of qualifying cars and provided some chargers at some of their dealers for use by their own customers and nothing else.

You might not agree with the grant, but I can point at which manufacturer has provided the best charging network for the money and if it eventually opens to all EVs then it will also have been by far the best investment.

Hear! Hear! Here.

 

[cezdoc]

Been down all weekend again. Showing the same.

The once a year I need to go that way too. Thar area is sparce of faster chargers still currently.

I just noticed a post on TOUK about this (Thetford Supercharger, Elveden Inn). Apparently the site is being expanded (4 x V3 chargers being added) but it requires a power supply upgrade. Estimated to be out of action for about a week.

 

[Godsense]

I just noticed a post on TOUK about this (Thetford Supercharger, Elveden Inn). Apparently the site is being expanded (4 x V3 chargers being added) but it requires a power supply upgrade. Estimated to be out of action for about a week.

Nice addition, surprised it's near the top of the list for an upgrade. But can't complain about future proofing.

 

[Adopado]

This is about competition for the business of Tesla and other drivers and about competition for the best sites. Gridserve Exeter is a case in point. I’ll be stopping there on my way to Cornwall rather than at Darts Farm. It’s a taste of the future unless Tesla opens up and expands.

I'll be delighted when there are lots of Gridserve style offerings ... great idea ... but supposing Tesla never adds a single new site it will be *years* before Gridserve can offer anything close to the same level of coverage. The first Electric Forecourt in Braintree opened a year ago and we now have how many?

 

[Overworked]

.... The first Electric Forecourt in Braintree opened a year ago and we now have how many?

Either that is a trick question or I am running out of fingers ... on the one finger

 

[Rirawin]

I just noticed a post on TOUK about this (Thetford Supercharger, Elveden Inn). Apparently the site is being expanded (4 x V3 chargers being added) but it requires a power supply upgrade. Estimated to be out of action for about a week.

I don't suppose you know when this work is being carried out? I've done a quick Google but couldn't find anything.

 

[Derek25]

I'll be delighted when there are lots of Gridserve style offerings ... great idea ... but supposing Tesla never adds a single new site it will be *years* before Gridserve can offer anything close to the same level of coverage. The first Electric Forecourt in Braintree opened a year ago and we now have how many?

Gridserve, MFG, Instavolt, Osprey, Fastned. Lots of networks starting to ramp up. The point is, if it doesn't happen then the UK will not hit its 2030 and 2050 targets.

 

[Stuart1714]

I'll be delighted when there are lots of Gridserve style offerings ... great idea ... but supposing Tesla never adds a single new site it will be *years* before Gridserve can offer anything close to the same level of coverage. The first Electric Forecourt in Braintree opened a year ago and we now have how many?

The Gridserve forecourts take a while to build with the Norwich one due to be finished soon and a load more planned but no dates apart from one at a London airport. A lot of the electric highway replacements at motorway services are still pretty slow due to power supply constraints and don’t make the grade for the faster charging EVs on the market now.

However, they are planning to open 20 “hubs” at motorway services by the end of Q2 2022 which are a lot more useful and the hubs are 6-12 350kW ultra fast chargers similar to those next to the V3 Superchargers at Rugby. I think a lot of these are at Moto services as Moto announced they hope to have all the Moto services equipped with a hub in the next 12 months which was announced with the opening of the Swansea Services hub last month. I think a new hub has just opened at Exeter as well.

Time will tell if Moto/Gridserve accomplish this as I suspect that some of the DNOs need to get involved for a power supply upgrade and from my experience, some of them make snails look fast.

I do some travelling with a friend who has an ID.4 until June, and I’m not impressed with the number of ultra non-Tesla chargers round. You really do need to plan journeys a lot more carefully than I do with my M3 as on some journeys you really do need to seek out ultra fast chargers carefully. All the services need a hub style installation ASAP as not having one is dissuading people from having EVs. My friend returns his ID.4 when he retires and is getting an ICE, partly because of the lack of flexibility in filling up in a non-Tesla EV.

 

[cezdoc]

I don't suppose you know when this work is being carried out? I've done a quick Google but couldn't find anything.

I'm just repeating second hand but the poster on TOUK spoke to "an operative in a hi-viz jacket" and shared some photos indicating there's activity at Thetford right now. A new/higher-spec transformer is being installed and there are barriers enclosing an area opposite some of the existing stalls which is apparently where the new V3 stalls are going.

If anyone on here is local/passes by that way it should be possible to confirm the above - but looks like there won't be an opportunity to charge there for a few days.

 

[Godsense]

I'm just repeating second hand but the poster on TOUK spoke to "an operative in a hi-viz jacket" and shared some photos indicating there's activity at Thetford right now. A new/higher-spec transformer is being installed and there are barriers enclosing an area opposite some of the existing stalls which is apparently where the new V3 stalls are going.

If anyone on here is local/passes by that way it should be possible to confirm the above - but looks like there won't be an opportunity to charge there for a few days.

Live from the scene. Works only just started by the looks of it. Quite a few workers here.

 

[FEERSUMENDJIN]

You have too much faith. Government Ministers know absolutely nothing about EVs or EV charging. Some Conservative Party sponsor has mentioned to Boris that his wife should be able to use a supercharger to charge her Jag.....and then this is what happens?

Wrong. Grant Shapps (current transport minister) has a M3P and is a fanboy. The rest however...........

 

[GRiLLA]

Wrong. Grant Shapps (current transport minister) has a M3P and is a fanboy. The rest however...........

It was a LR, and according to a recent video he's sold it. I'm not entirely sure what he has now, I think it might be an ID4.

 

[CMc1]

Swung by Wetherby. No update except a lot of the HV cable has been used. No stalls on site (GRIDSERVE or Tesla) and no further confirmation of layout..