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UK Long Range Charging Network

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The sign said "Hybrid Vehicle Charging Point"!

I have suggested a better sign would say: Parking space reserved for Plug-In Vehicles only while charging."

That might have stopped the space being ICEd when I badly needed it arriving under 10% charge at after 3am!
 
I did. I squeezed in between two SUVs - with a degree of trepidation at the prospect of potentially coming back to paint or bodywork damage.

The other options would have involved pulling the cable across a footpath which I was reluctant to do (trip hazard).
 
Here is the 3rd public HPC in the UK, at the Marriott Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club just outside of Edinburgh on the A71.


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Big thanks to Matt Shaw (in the top picture), the Sales and Marketing Director at the hotel, for turning this one around in under 3 weeks and Andrew B for driving over to test it.


HOWEVER, on the second time of charging it was discovered that there is a problem with the switch on the plug which will be swapped next week, so don't all rush up there yet.
 

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I am pleased to announce that since my last post on this thread, no fewer that 4 more HPCs have come on line and we are now almost at the point of having full coverage of Great Britain.

The map now looks like:


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Operational HPCs

Castle, Taunton
Marriott, Heathrow/Windsor
Nottingham Belfry
Tebay Services
Radisson Blu, Durham
Marriott Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club, Edinburgh
MacDonald Highland Resort, Aviemore


Coming Soon

Ashford International Hotel, Kent
The Moat House, Stafford
TBA location in South Wales


As you can see, we have coverage from North to South down the entire length of the country. We also have pretty good coverage of 32 Amp medium speed charging. All installed locations are tested (thanks to all owners who have helped with this) and ready for visitors. I would love to see some Roadsters with non-UK plates here for a holiday - that will surprise some people :biggrin:


And by the way, the total cost for this exercise is under £20k. That's a national high power charging network for less than the cost of a government paper study.
 

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I am pleased to announce that since my last post on this thread, no fewer that 4 more HPCs have come on line and we are now almost at the point of having full coverage of Great Britain. And by the way, the total cost for this exercise is under £20k. That's a national high power charging network for less than the cost of a government paper study.

This is amazing, and congratulations to everyone involved.

London->Nottingham looks like one of the longest stretches (at around 130miles)

Looks like it is time to revisit that Roadster London -> Scotland trip, but this time using public HPCs. Or, perhaps Landsend to Caithness?
 
David - congratulations on achieving this. I, perhaps more than most, know how many thousands of hours you have poured into this over the last two years: planning, cajoling, surveying sites, testing parts of the network, raising sponsor efforts, and more.

The hard work has paid off. In a few more weeks Britain will be fully accessible for Roadster travel - from anywhere to anywhere. Well done!

And with Kevin's efforts at Zero Carbon World, along with independent efforts, hopefully soon we'll have dozens or hundreds of cities, towns, hotels and attractions where we can "destination charge" at 32A.

I've already charged at the Nottingham HPC when taking my car to and from the London Store for service. And I've tested both Dalmahoy and Aviemore. Aviemore was a 300 mile roundtrip done in just over 8 hours. HPCs in strategic on-the-road locations make a huge difference.

So again: well done David. And many thanks to Tesla for their support, the hotels and businesses that "got it" and invested their time and money, to Kevin, and to all the other Roadster owners (you know who you are) who went out to test HPCs as they went live.
 
Wow.

In comparison, we're in a complete HPC vacuum here in Ontario. AFAIK the only place, other than my own garage, that has an available HPC is the Tesla shop in Toronto. Tesla is working to get an HPC installed at a hotel in Kingston, though, which means I might soon be able to reach the HPC in Toronto.
 
Congratulations David. An amazing achievement in the time and for the money.

If there is to be some "event" to launch EV/GB or whatever it gets called, it should be as a riposte to the upcoming screening of Top Gear messing about with EVs in lincolnshire (or wherever it was). I'm sure Tesla would be up for it.

Really needs to be a step up from last year, though - is Lands End to John O'Groats possible??? Is Robert Llewyllen available to drive???
 
David - congratulations on achieving this. I, perhaps more than most, know how many thousands of hours you have poured into this over the last two years: planning, cajoling, surveying sites, testing parts of the network, raising sponsor efforts, and more.

The hard work has paid off. In a few more weeks Britain will be fully accessible for Roadster travel - from anywhere to anywhere. Well done!

And with Kevin's efforts at Zero Carbon World, along with independent efforts, hopefully soon we'll have dozens or hundreds of cities, towns, hotels and attractions where we can "destination charge" at 32A.

I've already charged at the Nottingham HPC when taking my car to and from the London Store for service. And I've tested both Dalmahoy and Aviemore. Aviemore was a 300 mile roundtrip done in just over 8 hours. HPCs in strategic on-the-road locations make a huge difference.

So again: well done David. And many thanks to Tesla for their support, the hotels and businesses that "got it" and invested their time and money, to Kevin, and to all the other Roadster owners (you know who you are) who went out to test HPCs as they went live.

Add my congrats too; what a great achievement.
 
I'm off from Edinburgh to Aberdeen today for the All-Energy Conference which relates to my business at http://www.Sunamp.co.uk (high energy density and power density heat batteries combined with heat pumping).

While there I'm going to display my Roadster alongside Kevin Sharpe's and both a LEAF and iMiev whose owners live around Aberdeen (oil capital of the UK).

It's 140 miles for me each way so 280 miles round trip. On Monday I did a very similar distance when I went Edinburgh-Aviemore-Edinburgh to test the HPC just installed at the Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort as part of the roll-out of the UK HPC Network and in preparation for David and Kevin's landmark drive. I was very glad that the HPC worked, making the charge time just 2 hrs 30 mins, and the roundtrip just eight and a half hours.

Today I haven't got 70A fast charge in Aberdeen, but 13A courtesy of the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, so on my way from home (east of Edinburgh) I decided to stop for coffee and a charge at the Marriot Dalmahoy (west of Edinburgh). I'm there now, but have to run because my 15 minute charge is already done!

I live east of Edinburgh
 
There's 2 in Grimsby (Ontario, Canada not the U.K.)...a 70 amp HPC at my residence & a 50 amp NEMA 14-50 at my office. (I dislike being inconvenienced :wink::biggrin: )

But you're right Doug, both the Provincial & Federal Guv's need to get their collective a**** in gear...

A big congrats to you Brits for this accomplishment...many will benefit from your efforts!
 
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