Which charging cards to sign up for?

[dobbers]

Will be picking up a Model 3 LR on December 31. Used to own a Leaf around 3 years ago so still have a Charge your car card but for emergency purposes which other cards should I sign up for in case I need to charge out and about? Based in Yorkshire so more likely next year to venture north to Scotland rather than south.

dobbers

 

[Alan J]

Will be picking up a Model 3 LR on December 31. Used to own a Leaf around 3 years ago so still have a Charge your car card but for emergency purposes which other cards should I sign up for in case I need to charge out and about? Based in Yorkshire so more likely next year to venture north to Scotland rather than south.

dobbers

I think your CYC Card will work with the Charge Place Scotland Network which is managed by CYC and is currently free to use but that is starting to change in some Local Authority Areas but I'd suggest that you validate this compatibility.

 

[Medved_77]

Will be picking up a Model 3 LR on December 31. Used to own a Leaf around 3 years ago so still have a Charge your car card but for emergency purposes which other cards should I sign up for in case I need to charge out and about? Based in Yorkshire so more likely next year to venture north to Scotland rather than south.

dobbers

The Charge Your Car card will work with the Charge Place Scotland chargers so you're sorted there.

Otherwise, just check Zapmap for the types of chargers and charge companies you're likely to use and register as appropriate.

Octopus Electric Juice is one to watch out for though. They're slowly adding different companies to their scheme which will result in a single card that will work with multiple companies. Charges will be added to your home electrity bill.

Believe you do need to be an Octopus customer to use it, amusingly on a recent webinar neither their MD, CTO or Marketing manager was sure.

Octopus Energy

 

[15Peter20]

Bit of a noob to this, but have been looking into it the last day or so.

Ionity, BP, CYC , GeniePoint all look to be available on a pay as you go basis using a phone app. You need to create an account and sometimes set up a direct debit mandate but having done that for those three I think I’m reasonably covered for emergencies.

BP, CYC don’t exactly go out of their way to make their websites and apps user friendly. Ionity looks decent but at 69p/kWh they can afford to!

 

[dobbers]

Thanks for the feedback. I just checked my CYC card and found it expired back in 2018 so just went on the site to renew it and downloaded the app to my phone as well.

Already an Octopus customer so will check the Octopus Electric Juice.

Will download the Ionity and BP apps as a backup - does Shell have one as well I wonder?

dobbers

 

[Adopado]

Thanks for the feedback. I just checked my CYC card and found it expired back in 2018 so just went on the site to renew it and downloaded the app to my phone as well.

Yes, the dedicated ChargePlaceScotland card that also operates as CYC costs £20 a year.

 

[CMc1]

ChargePoint app covers quite a few too and don’t forget any of the newer rapid etc will accept contactless card.

Get the ChargePoint app | ChargePoint

 

[nxsynjs]

I used this as a guide

 

[ParHunter]

The Charge Your Car card will work with the Charge Place Scotland chargers so you're sorted there.

Otherwise, just check Zapmap for the types of chargers and charge companies you're likely to use and register as appropriate.

Octopus Electric Juice is one to watch out for though. They're slowly adding different companies to their scheme which will result in a single card that will work with multiple companies. Charges will be added to your home electrity bill.

Believe you do need to be an Octopus customer to use it, amusingly on a recent webinar neither their MD, CTO or Marketing manager was sure.

Octopus Energy

The Octopus one sounded good given that I am an Octopus customer. But then I checked which networks are included and I didn’t recognise any of them.

 

[HenryT]

Be.EV might be worth adding to your collection. Be.EV | You're in charge particularly if you ever get this side of the Pennines.

Be.Ev have taken over the running of the chargers in the NW and have emailed me to tell me the CYC card will no longer work on their chargers from mid Jan. They also mention their card (which is free) will also work with a number of other areas, presumably the CYC network?

 

[Cloggie]

The Octopus one seems quite London centric, not much in covered in the Midlands. Maybe I just don't recognise the networks yet. Hopefully it will change and they will partner with more networks. I am with them for my home energy, so it would be handy to have it all on one bill.

 

[PrGrPa]

I haven’t found a need to use a non-Tesla charger away from home yet in nearly 3 years of driving a Tesla.

Kind of weird that there are different apps and schemes. Any background on why companies went this way rather than the machines just accepting contactless pre-authorisation and billing?

 

[Cloggie]

One more thought... Why can't we use just the NFC in our phones, rather than using fobs or cards? Not efficient, easy to forget and just more plastic stuff.

 

[Neilio]

I kind of used a “best guess” to work out which cards I needed. I basically looked at my regular journeys and worked out chargers along the route and get cards for each one because you never know when you’re going to run out of juice. I’ve gone for the more is more approach too. Have cards for pretty much everyone I may need, BP, Shell, source, ecotricity and pod point. Thought the latter are apps which I prefer

 

[Chippylad]

I think your CYC Card will work with the Charge Place Scotland Network which is managed by CYC and is currently free to use but that is starting to change in some Local Authority Areas but I'd suggest that you validate this compatibility.

Although CYC have an arrangement with Charge Place Scotland I have zero out of about ten successful use of the CYC card at charging stations in Scotland. It was always necessary to phone the CPS Helpline (promptly answered by them, to be fair) and get them to remote start the charge. A bit of a pain for me ... and for the helpline staff ... but it did work.

 

[tomorrowman]

Have pod point 'app', buts that's only because it comes with the podpoint charger on the side of my house (plus it means I can charge for free at tesco's - which I have done once).

after 27K have only really used Tesla Superchargers, route planning sorts it for my infrequent longer journeys.

But as an octopus customer I'll take a look at their consolidated offering

 

[Mr Miserable]

I recommend you download the Pod Point app so that you can get some free charging when you pop into a Tesco - every little helps, or if you want to rapid charge at a Lidl.
You don't have to be an Octopus customer to sign up to Electric Juice.
If you are going somewhere off your normal beat, Zap Map is your friend and a little research and a rough plan will make the trip much more pleasurable.
I encourage all Tesla owners to try a variety of public charging networks on rainy nights because it just makes you appreciate the reliability and speed of Tesla superchargers and their ease of use that much more.

 

[CMc1]

One more thought... Why can't we use just the NFC in our phones, rather than using fobs or cards? Not efficient, easy to forget and just more plastic stuff.

ChargePoint app does this via Apple Wallet. Great with Apple Watch. Just present Watch and it authorises. No faff.

 

[26ct2143]

I encourage all Tesla owners to try a variety of public charging networks on rainy nights because it just makes you appreciate the reliability and speed of Tesla superchargers and their ease of use that much more.

As a new tesla owner, (but leaf owner for 2.5 years) not used tesla supercharge network yet, so will be interesting for me.
But the 'other' networks are frequently problematic.
ecotricity - might work, might not, good luck
Polar (aka BP chargemaster) screens are often broken meaning you press them nothing happens, so no charging possible.
instavolt - normally work well, thank god.
France corri-dor charge network, on a good day maybe 30-50% of their chargers work, rest are all broken, normally for many months at a time.
Just my take on the 'others'

 

[mpandrew]

Morrisons Rapid Chargers Network:
You may want to link your Tesla key card (model 3 only) to the Genie Point network which you always carry when driving in case your phone goes wonky .

It's a bit of a faff to set up but a good thing to do on a quiet day when you're not in a rush or needing the charge. Once done, you can in future just tap your regular Tesla key card on the charger to initiate, no need to faff with the webapp or the phone app (meant to be pretty bad). I don't think these chargers support contactless payment as yet but presumably will do in time. GeniePoint EV Charging for info, I ended up having to ring someone for help associating the card but they were very quick to answer and sorted it without fuss.