[uk] Public charging - the media may have a point

[Erewegoagain]

So I typically ignore the tabloids and their vitriol about EVs but had an interesting trip this week, and I wonder if there isn’t a grain of truth in the scaremongering

Drove up to Chester on Wednesday, pulled into Keele and the queue was c. 15 cars so drove straight through and had to struggle to find charge that evening at the hotel for my return topped up just enough knowing I could stop at keele south, same again about 8-9 cars queued so carried onto Rugby were there were only 3 in front of me an had to stop as only 15 miles of range left. When I got charging it wouldn’t go higher than 35kwh as all the chargers were full and so the charge was reduced down,. taking quite a bit longer than expected

Thankfully I don’t do long journeys a huge amount but is my experience unusual now there are so many Tesla’s on the road?

 

[Rooster6655]

When I got charging it wouldn’t go higher than 35kwh as all the chargers were full and so the charge was reduced down,. taking quite a bit longer than expected

Thankfully I don’t do long journeys a huge amount but is my experience unusual now there are so many Tesla’s on the road?

I don't expect 35kWh to be the normal charge rate but I expect queues during peak times at the superchargers to be more likely in the future unless they ramp the supercharger network more.

If I was doing a long trip then I would be looking for non Tesla chargers at a hotel where possible or travel outside the peak times where I can.

 

[candida]

This is the new normal. Unfortunately the in nav time indicator is screwed too. I got to Membury lastFriday showing two slots. As I drove in it showed 15m wait; drove past (it’s the quickest way out when you’re in) and six stalls unused (one fracked).plugged in for 20m and when I came back out all stalls full
Not helpful…

 

[Jason71]

So I typically ignore the tabloids and their vitriol about EVs but had an interesting trip this week, and I wonder if there isn’t a grain of truth in the scaremongering

Drove up to Chester on Wednesday, pulled into Keele and the queue was c. 15 cars so drove straight through and had to struggle to find charge that evening at the hotel for my return topped up just enough knowing I could stop at keele south, same again about 8-9 cars queued so carried onto Rugby were there were only 3 in front of me an had to stop as only 15 miles of range left. When I got charging it wouldn’t go higher than 35kwh as all the chargers were full and so the charge was reduced down,. taking quite a bit longer than expected

Thankfully I don’t do long journeys a huge amount but is my experience unusual now there are so many Tesla’s on the road?

You dont provide much data on your outbound but If on the return the Satnav routed you to the notoriouly busy 4 charger Keele Southbound even though you had enough juice to go at least another 100 miles. Then having sensibly abandoned that idea took you to the, also very popular though larger 12 charger Rugby without recommending stopping at Hilton which is between the two and has 24 chargers, 12 in each direction, and is rarely full then i think you need to switch it off and on again because i have never heard of it providing such bad charging recommendations.

Or was it you doing the planning?

 

[FastLaneJB]

You've got to agree this needs to improve though. When in an ICE if I want fuel I can pick any station I want, at any point on my route and get fuel. Generally probably 99.9% of my life without queuing and probably 99.999% of the time they always have the fuel I need available. I mean the stats I make up but you get the point.

Early adopters might be prepared to plan their journeys carefully around where they can charge but the masses I suspect won't. Also to be honest even if you can workout a sensible route, you shouldn't need to as it's a massive step backwards.

Personally it needs to get to the point that I can turn up to a charger, it's almost never broken and there's one I can plug into available straight away unless on absolute peak days. Until that point is reached we don't have enough chargers in my book and it's a step backwards in terms of experience vs an ICE

 

[gangzoom]

Early adopters might be prepared to plan their journeys carefully around where they can charge but the masses I suspect won't.

Acutally us early adopters don't expect or rarely experienced queues, and most of us don't even expect to pay for charging!!!

Right now for a long trips we are taking the Lexus hybrid, life is too short to waste queuing for fuel (even when it's free!)

 

[Erewegoagain]

You dont provide much data on your outbound but If on the return the Satnav routed you to the notoriouly busy 4 charger Keele Southbound even though you had enough juice to go at least another 100 miles. Then having sensibly abandoned that idea took you to the, also very popular though larger 12 charger Rugby without recommending stopping at Hilton which is between the two and has 24 chargers, 12 in each direction, and is rarely full then i think you need to switch it off and on again because i have never heard of it providing such bad charging recommendations.

Or was it you doing the planning?

Hi it did try and route me to Hilton Park but I wanted to stay on the toll so reset it, I just assumed that as it was 4pm and not peak both keele and Rugby would be relatively empty, lesson learned!

 

[Drew57]

I'm just glad I'm retired with time on my hands. Pity those with busy lives & work deadlines, if I was in that situation I would not rely on an EV either.

 

[Mr H]

There is also Trentham Lakes just south of Keele. You also don't have to use SuC exclusively, there are Gridserve at the MSA's too, although probably busy too

 

[Fursty Ferret]

Were the GRIDSERVE chargers at Rugby full too? I’ve had some dirty looks in the past for jumping onto one of those when the Superchargers were all occupied, but the price is about the same and the charge rate is still north of 200kW.

 

[aq42]

If going between the South/Midlands and Chester, I find it's generally better to avoid as much of the M6 hell as possible, and rather than take the M6 to the M56, leave the M6 at either J10A for the M54 or J12 for the A5. In each case you're going on to the A41 north to Chester. Both ways are shorter than the motorways and usually less busy. That gives you the option of charging at Hilton Park (A5 route) or Telford Services M54 (west of the A41 but you can go west of the junction and take the A442 then A518 to join the A41 at Newport). There are also quite a lot of non-Tesla chargers in Telford. Reverse for the return journey - A5 takes you on to the M6 before the Toll Road, M54 after.

 

[Jason71]

Hi it did try and route me to Hilton Park but I wanted to stay on the toll so reset it, I just assumed that as it was 4pm and not peak both keele and Rugby would be relatively empty, lesson learned!

superchager peak rate is 4pm-8pm so 4 is peak.
Not that i would recommend it but technically you can escape Hilton via the service road which is not barriered (travel lodge guests are allowed to use it) and get back to the toll road with only a very small detour

Edit
There is also a plan to add southbound M6-M54 / northbound M54-M6 access which would make Hilton sooo much more useful

 

[Lockey]

There are a lot more business travellers with Tesla's now so I'm not surprised the superchargers are busy later afternoon into early evening these days. I've got preferred superchargers for the routes I commonly travel and Keele isn't one of them (though Warrington is the one I've vowed never to use again)! Hilton Park would be my choice in that area (more chargers means you don't normally queue for too long) or Charnock Richard if I was going further North.

I do look for hotels with chargers (to give me options) but sadly I don't feel I can rely on them being free and working.

 

[Neilio]

I'm sure Norton Canes has chargers if you want to stay on the toll.

Sometimes I think we don't help ourselves by favouring superchargers. I used to when I first got the car but now just use whatever charger is best for my route

 

[Mrklaw]

of course there is a grain of truth in it. Woudln’t be a proper mongering of scare without a tiny % of reality in there just blown out of proportion

how are charger figures tracking though? Gridserve/MFG/instavolt seem to be installing hundreds of rapids but Tesla not so much recently (maybe I’ve just not been paying attention). Given the sales increases in recent years they surely need to be accelerating installs not standing still?

And as hubs get bigger they need better feeding systems for queuing etc, not just a big line of chargers and every car for themselves

 

[yessuz]

This is the new normal. Unfortunately the in nav time indicator is screwed too. I got to Membury lastFriday showing two slots. As I drove in it showed 15m wait; drove past (it’s the quickest way out when you’re in) and six stalls unused (one fracked).plugged in for 20m and when I came back out all stalls full
Not helpful…

There is like 5-10 min delay on SC stats anyway

 

[PaddyB]

There do seem to be quite a few Superchargers under construction on the map -

Find Us | Tesla

Use the interactive Find Us map to locate Tesla charging stations, service centers, galleries and stores on the go.

www.tesla.com

I've not been to any Superchargers where it hasn't been at least half empty, but clearly there are peak time issues.

I suspect this will be a short / medium term issue as the profit motivation will lead to an infrastructure build-out as quickly as is possible. The high prices and profits each Supercharger station must be making will be a real spur to getting more of them installed. It reminds me of the (relatively) early days of the mobile phone revolution in the late 1990s / early 2000s when there was a huge scramble to build out the network and get coverage nationwide to keep up with demand. They got there in the end. Tesla (and Tesla owners) will be the big winners, given their massive head start.

 

[UrbanSplash]

I don’t mind queuing, that’s part of British life. But I can’t stand disorganised, random free for alls when waiting to charge. If I ever see a particular Model X driver again, I’m absolutely going to regret what I’m going to do to you, despicable man.

I appreciate it’s difficult to manage in a busy car park, so it would be preferable if Tesla had actually thought about how cars wait for stalls logically. But it’s left to sense and decency, which has been lacking in my limited experience of using superchargers.

 

[Mrklaw]

I don’t mind queuing, that’s part of British life. But I can’t stand disorganised, random free for alls when waiting to charge. If I ever see a particular Model X driver again, I’m absolutely going to regret what I’m going to do to you, despicable man.

I appreciate it’s difficult to manage in a busy car park, so it would be preferable if Tesla had actually thought about how cars wait for stalls logically. But it’s left to sense and decency, which has been lacking in my limited experience of using superchargers.

..especially as hubs grow. ‘barbershop rules’ might be ok with a handful waiting for 2-4 stalls. But a 16 charger hub? Now you’re getting into ‘circling the car park looking for a gap’ shenanigans.

If we’re about to hopefully see growth in numbers of chargers they absolutely need to stop thinking of them as ‘car parks with some of the bays converted’ and start thinking of them as fuelling stops or drive throughs or similar and have land allocated for queuing

 

[Rooster6655]

There do seem to be quite a few Superchargers under construction on the map -

Find Us | Tesla

Use the interactive Find Us map to locate Tesla charging stations, service centers, galleries and stores on the go.

www.tesla.com

I've not been to any Superchargers where it hasn't been at least half empty, but clearly there are peak time issues.

I suspect this will be a short / medium term issue as the profit motivation will lead to an infrastructure build-out as quickly as is possible. The high prices and profits each Supercharger station must be making will be a real spur to getting more of them installed. It reminds me of the (relatively) early days of the mobile phone revolution in the late 1990s / early 2000s when there was a huge scramble to build out the network and get coverage nationwide to keep up with demand. They got there in the end. Tesla (and Tesla owners) will be the big winners, given their massive head start.

I think its more that certain sites are getting the majority of the cars visiting as well as peak time, some for instance are always busy. I suspect they make some money but I don't think the current pricing is going to be a huge % especially when 20% is VAT.

I expect in the future that there will be a premium offering for chargers where people who are willing to pay more will be able to get use select chargers. I am sure many people especially during peak times would happily pay more money to skip the queues, it also makes more sense for people who only need a small charge to get where they need to go