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

[Carts850]

I’ve moaned about this before. Fully agree. Gretna - in the rainy darkness and a full carpark, I had no idea how to queue. Carnage. The next car that could have driven around the corner as a car pulled away from a charger might have thought “perfect timing”, why should he / she then have to check with every parked Tesla if they are parked or waiting.
Needs some polish!!

 

[Rooster6655]

I’ve moaned about this before. Fully agree. Gretna - in the rainy darkness and a full carpark, I had no idea how to queue. Carnage. The next car that could have driven around the corner as a car pulled away from a charger might have thought “perfect timing”, why should he / she then have to check with every parked Tesla if they are parked or waiting.
Needs some polish!!

Well I can assume that there is ongoing frustration every day at that location, 3 years ago it was busy but now it is one to avoid if at all possible especially with it being the older type chargers too!

 

[UrbanSplash]

Gretna is absolutely to be avoided. Disgraceful.

 

[WannabeOwner]

it would be preferable if Tesla had actually thought about how cars wait for stalls logically.

Doesn't need a physical queuing system, Tesla knows you are there and parked up ... might need you to CLICK something to say you are waiting to charge, rather than assuming ... but then it could say "You are number X in the queue" and tell you which stall to go to once it is your turn ...

Even I could program that, so nothing like as hard as Intermitted Wipers ...

P.S. It would refuse to allow a charge to start for anyone that jumped the queue ...

 

[page3]

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.

10am Saturday and around 11am Sunday they were all full - both Tesla and Gridserve. A couple of Teslas using Gridserve, and a really good selection of EVs.

 

[Casss]

P.S. It would refuse to allow a charge to start for anyone that jumped the queue ...

No no no no no. Not in England. This is no trivial crime.

It would:

• Deny you charge
• Lock the doors
• Set the radio to max volume, (Chris Evans)
• Set seat heaters to max
• Reset all of your drive profiles
• Log you out of every app
• Report your credit card as being stolen to your bank

I’m still not sure this is enough… what else

 

[DaveNN]

Gretna and Tesla


Hardly a marriage made in heaven.

I'm lucky enough to have not "suffered" with any queuing yet.
However, what with plenty more Teslas on the road and the SC network released to the more inferior EVs, I doubt that my luck will prevail..

 

[imstitch]

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

What's "under construction" (You'll find most of the planned sites for Q4 22/Q1 23 aren't under construction by any definition) pales in comparison to what Tesla delivers every 3 months. More Tesla's on the road every 3 months with superchargers being built a much slower rate means things will only get worse for at least the next 2 years.

Maybe Tesla will build out the supercharger network enough, maybe they won't. Knowing the UK, I suspect this will be a terminal issue for EVs. The UK govt/public HATE infrastructure development and looking 5-10 years to the future isn't a pretty picture for EV owners.

 

[doats1]

Hot take: Queuing will be commonplace as more EV's hit the road. I don't see charging infrastructure and technology being able to address this.

 

[pdk42]

I did a trip to Northumberland last October in my wife's ID3 and suffered the stress of the public charging network - too few chargers, too many out of service, overly complex payment processing, disorganised queuing, punitive pricing, and a multitude of providers each with their own quirks. I was an early adopter, but I'll swear it's worse now that back in the good old days!

 

[Mrklaw]

It needs to be less hodge podge. Gov should define how many charge hubs and how big each one should be - so how many X miles apart or in each county. Open to all chargepoint manufacturers but based on minimum standards - including queuing, billing, reliability/uptime guarantees with penalties if not met

And government backed upgrades to power to guarantee supply

 

[FastLaneJB]

Hot take: Queuing will be commonplace as more EV's hit the road. I don't see charging infrastructure and technology being able to address this.

Also why I'm pretty sure UK government will move the ban back 5 years which brings it in line with EU. They won't sort this by 2030 and to be honest not even sure 2035 but at least a better chance.

Won't be any going back, car makers will have converted all their assembly lines pretty much and designs to EV's so if they aren't ready then we are screwed. Might have to start importing V8 F-150 trucks from America to save us, god help us

 

[PaddyB]

What's "under construction" (You'll find most of the planned sites for Q4 22/Q1 23 aren't under construction by any definition) pales in comparison to what Tesla delivers every 3 months. More Tesla's on the road every 3 months with superchargers being built a much slower rate means things will only get worse for at least the next 2 years.

Maybe Tesla will build out the supercharger network enough, maybe they won't. Knowing the UK, I suspect this will be a terminal issue for EVs. The UK govt/public HATE infrastructure development and looking 5-10 years to the future isn't a pretty picture for EV owners.

I'm not sure I'd be so pessimistic.
Things may be getting tricky now, but when you think how quickly the charging network has grown over the past decade, it is quite impressive.
Tesla just needs to work really, really hard now to add sites and upgrade existing sites.

 

[FastLaneJB]

I'm not sure I'd be so pessimistic.
Things may be getting tricky now, but when you think how quickly the charging network has grown over the past decade, it is quite impressive.
Tesla just needs to work really, really hard now to add sites and upgrade existing sites.

Yeah I hope your right but it's not growing fast enough and lots of broken chargers when you consider all networks. Many slower chargers when we need faster also bumping up the overall numbers across the country.

Still I hope it'll improve as we get closer to 2030 and sites will appear much quicker but think it'll get worse before it gets better.

 

[imstitch]

I'm not sure I'd be so pessimistic.
Things may be getting tricky now, but when you think how quickly the charging network has grown over the past decade, it is quite impressive.
Tesla just needs to work really, really hard now to add sites and upgrade existing sites.

Until the data and established long-term trend of sales vastly outpacing chargers changes, it's not being pessimistic, it's being realistic.

Tesla knows damn well how many cars they intend to make and sell years in advance, failing to plan for the infrastructure to support their own sales is on them. Moreover, it's even worse for regular EV buyers, 270K sales in 2022 and only 1000 (including Tesla supercharger) 100+ KW chargers installed.

 

[gangzoom]

I don’t mind queuing, that’s part of British life.

But why would you que when you don't need to in a combustion car, and petrol is essentially the same price.

EVs are going backwards for me, which is sad because an EV has been our main family car since 2015. But going back or staying with petrol seems like the most sensible thing to do at present.

 

[Mrklaw]

I know the answer is ‘both’ but if you had to choose - DNO getting their finger out to upgrade locations with weak connecdtions to allow larger hubs, or charge operators ‘doing a banbuy’ and significantly expanding locations that *do* have power

 

[gangzoom]

Hot take: Queuing will be commonplace as more EV's hit the road. I don't see charging infrastructure and technology being able to address this.

Maybe time to sell up before everyone wants to get rid of their EVs. If we didn't have 'free for life' charging on our X I honestly not sure I want to keep the EV.

I'm all for Innovation but sometimes Innovations don't work.

If we didn't have cheap EV fuel costs, honestly the build quality of the RX450 I had for day is still etched in my memory. Makes our X feel like a high-school DR project. If running costs were equal, why wouldn't we keep our Tesla??

Not quite yet for us to dump EVs, as our overall fuel costs are 3p/mile versus 15p/mile in a RX450, but its certainly on my mind now. Shame really

 

[qwickshot]

This is ultimately a U.K. problem and not an EV problem.

There was a time when there was massive queues in California but they dealt with it.

The whole network is open in the Netherlands and that has had a limited impact because their network is built out.

I think the only reason it is not open more in the U.K. is because both Tesla’s network and the wider network is inadequate . They know that hence of only the sites which are quiet are open.

The problem is the wider infrastructure and how that is upgraded/who is required to upgrade it.

 

[Mrklaw]

This is ultimately a U.K. problem and not an EV problem.

There was a time when there was massive queues in California but they dealt with it.

The whole network is open in the Netherlands and that has had a limited impact because their network is built out.

I think the only reason it is not open more in the U.K. is because both Tesla’s network and the wider network is inadequate . They know that hence of only the sites which are quiet are open.

The problem is the wider infrastructure and how that is upgraded/who is required to upgrade it.

we have had rapid expansion in some locations, less in others. Increasingly feeling its either lack of HV feeds to gaps in the country where its needed, and/or lag from the faster than anticipated growth in EV sales?

Neither are insurmountable but action is needed