Forum menu
Has anybody installed a fast charger where their driveway is away from the house?
Yep. The drive is behind the back garden. Our meter is near the front of the house, so the cable is clipped along the side of the house, then buried under the lawn, and though the rear wall to the driveway. Probably about 10m.
Time for another rant...
Car was charged to 100% last night. We had a trip today which meant we only had 30% charge left but my wife is travelling again tomorrow so, as we only have a slow charger, I went to fast charge it tonight so she can use it without having to charge during the day (being nice as I am).
Charge point one – the same charge point as I have tried and commented on here about before that was newly installed but wasn't working – despite now claiming to and appearing to work (it accepted my card), it could not connect and charge despite several attempts.
Charge point two (the Tesla charge point I also have commented on). Apparently it does take debit cards, yet it wouldn't accept my card (again, I tried three or four times then gave up). As per Zapmap has said previously, it's in a 5G deadspot, so I couldn't install the Tesla app to try via that.
So, as per the last time I ranted on here, I ended up at the Sainsbury fast charger. First attempt failed (by this point I was close to screaming and starting to get concerned that a recent software update by Lexus Leeds had actually buggered something up with the car), but fortunately it did work on the second attempt, and it actually charged at the fast charge rate (unlike last time I used it).
So, yet again, what would have been five minutes filling up an ICE took me over an hour of driving around town and sitting in the car (although I did get some cheap Creme Eggs in Sainsbury's as I waited for it to charge).
I am so sick of this – what was meant to be a step forward has turned out to be anything but that.
I also had to emergency charge today. I was nearly home and got a call from my daughter, all trains out of Waterloo cancelled. So she got on the tube to Morden, I did an about turn and went to pick her up. But it put me low on juice as I was expecting to charge tonight.
As I was driving I opened the electroverse app that directed me to a fast charger on my route. I got there, plugged in, tapped the electroverse card, and added 8kWh in 10 mins or so while I grabbed a drink from the petrol station.
Then continued on to Morden where her train got in 5 mins or so later.
Piece of piss.
I cant help thinking it's something you're doing.
it's in a 5G deadspot, so I couldn't install the Tesla app to try via that.
Switch to 4G, pretty much as quick
Switch to 4G, pretty much as quick
My phone auto-swaps to any available network. It didn't auto-swap. There was no available network. Do you see what is happening here?
I guess that I am just an average person expecting an average supplier to deliver an average product, but I have somehow subscribed to a bleeding-edge service where I am expected to pre-plan and anticipate problems to somehow justify the service that they aren't actually providing.
At the end of the day, apart from a couple of war/COVID-induced supply issues, I have never had a problem pulling into a fuel station and putting fuel in a car in over 40 years of driving, however, in the last 18 months we (my wife and I), have had multiple issues with range issues, charging issues, connectivity issues etc. in a fully-electric car.
You certainly seem to be having some problems. Not really sure why. In nearly 20k mikes of EV driving I’ve never had an issue charging. I did have to visit three petrol stations to find one with fuel when I borrowed my wife’s ICE car on Monday though.
My phone auto-swaps to any available network. It didn't auto-swap. There was no available network. Do you see what is happening here?
I do now, but you did specifically say it was a 5G deadspot, hence why deliberately switching to 4G in your settings might have worked.
As I have said, yes you do seem to be 'unlucky' but for me and so many others it is so near faultless that really makes me wonder why you have almost exclusively bad experiences without there being something wrong at your end.
Anyway, ICIMI I think this is the first time I've heard / twigged you had a Lexus, and I recall hearing about a Lexus issue with faulty factory charging sockets, being replaced by dealers. Worth a look? Some of the results I've seen on a quick search include users who previously had other cars with no issues, now taking their Lexus to the same charger stations and using the same cards or methods and not being able to charge, which kind of removes the human element and points firmly at the car.
I think your particular set of circumstances puts you waaaaaaaaaay below the nominal expected usage.I guess that I am just an average person expecting an average supplier to deliver an average product,
I've got colleagues who drive the length and breadth of Europe, China and North America using foreign bank cards, international roaming phones and cars that are sometimes quite literally having their software rewritten while being driven (obviously not updated until they stop...) and that are held together with duct tape and hope who don't have any of your issues around charging.
electroverse make a handy dandy card so you dont have to rely on your phone signal in the slightest.
i keep mine in the car and tbh its considerably easier than the phone to use.
FWIW people round here are reporting trying 5 or 6 petrol stations for their ICE fuel also due to shortages so dont feel victimised.
however, in the last 18 months we (my wife and I), have had multiple issues with range issues, charging issues, connectivity issues etc. in a fully-electric car.
I’m not the biggest fan of the charging process and infrastructure but it does seem like there’s an issue with your car that would be worth raising with the dealer.
Likewise no issues with charging with my KIA EV6, did a 500 mile trip to Cardiff at the weekend, charged 3 times, all faultless. Only issues I've had previously were not reading the instructions and doing things in the wrong order. Only problems I've had with charging away from the house has been cable thefts around Birmingham.
I use Google maps to find chargers and pay using contactless, no special apps.
Surprising to me that some people are having no issues at all with it though. Last year on one trip we had three bad chargers in a row along the A127, squeaked it back to the office with about 2%. Each time the map (ZapMap IIRC) said the charger was available and working and it wasn't.
I use mainly Tesla at the moment through a non tesla subscription. Miles cheaper than the majority of public rapid charger networks. In addition a combination of Ovo and electroverse charge cards/apps. Small subscription to the former gives some useful discounts but limited choices of rapid chargers where as Electroverse covers a ot of chargers albeit with imited discounts. This combination serves me well.
I've also gone v geeky and bought an OBD dongle linked to A Better Route Planner App - was to give reassurance and planning stops on a big road trip with a huge new to me roof box. Works really well calculating live data and tweeking where to charge based around charger network preferences - just like tesla cars do. It's also much more accurate than the onboard car range guessometer and has saved me from unesscerily charging to get home a couple of times already.
You probably know this already @pedlad but you don't always need an OBD dongle to get live battery status information in ABRP. It will connect directly to the app for some cars. I tried this on a 500 mile drive in my EV3 a few months back and the battery percentage in ABRP was always within 1% of the value showing in the car. Easily good enough for route planning although, in the end, I decided that I preferred to use the in-built navigation in my Kia as it was easier to show a list of charge locations coming up along the route with occupancy data for each and then navigate to any one of those (with automatic battery preconditioning). That's how I tend to drive. Just set off with no charging stops planned and then look for an available charger when I feel like stopping. I found the in-car system was better for this than ABRP. But if you want to plan a journey (with charging stops) in advance I thought ABRP was better for that and I liked the way it displayed the occupancy data for the charger you are heading to. Horses for courses really.
Although I've never failed to charge at a public charger I wouldn't say the system is without its faults. I've had cases where it has taken two or three attempts to get a charge. Sometimes this is user-error; usually doing the payment/plug-in in the wrong order (as it varies from charger to charger), But other times I'm not really sure why it didn't work first time. I suspect issues with authenticating payment as I tend to just default to using a bank card.
I expect the situation to improve naturally over the next few years though as we see a bit of consolidation (more successful CPOs buying up the less successful). Also, while I think the government forcing all CPOs to accept a bank card was probably a good thing it is typical of a government-driven solution that relies on older technology rather than finding the best solution. I expect, in time, we'll end up with "one app to rule them all" i.e. a single app that you can use to start (and pay for) pretty much any charge session, which should improve the experience quite a bit.
Sorry, I really don’t want to struggle going back through 15 pages due to this site…. Anyone using a subscription charging service? Are they worth it (what’s the break even point for you)? Are Tesla sadly the best option out there (non Tesla EV)? Oh and finally, for now… best place to buy extra/longer charging cables from or is it best just to pay what the home charger people quote?
ta
Not really unless you consider electroverse, which is free but gives you small discounts on some chargers and also occasionally has deals (Osprey is offering 20% off in evenings, etc.) - but paying for a cheaper amount, I don't use charging away from home often enough to make it worthwhile. I just looked via electroverse app though and eg: if I wanted to I could pay £10.50 a month and get 40% off Ionity, 25% off Shell for a tenner, etc.
Quick calc:
- assuming I would be paying say 80p / kWh for the electricity,
- getting 30% off (as an average)
- and paying a tenner for the sub
to save the tenner in costs, I'd need to charge about 40kWh per month (40 x 0.8 x 30% = £9.60) which is only really one major journey on chargers or a couple of smaller ones. The issue for me is a/ I don't do that many but even seeing that makes me wonder for my holiday later this year, as long as you can sub monthly and it's not a yearly commitment and b/ being tied to one supplier, unless you have multiple £10/mo subs.
On cables. I got a 10m cable from my local electrical wholesaler but there's loads on the web. I wouldn't buy from ebay / Amazon unless a genuine front end for one of these. Not something I'd scrimp on, and even in comparison to the Hyundai one it is thinner cable, but only ever gets used for domestic 7kW, not even for 22kW stuff away from home (where I don't need the longer one)
Thanks.
Sorry typed a longer reply, but site dropped out and lost it. Short version of next question…. Ohme charging set up comes free with car. Is the surge protection needed or just an unnecessary upsell?
Any thoughts on subscriptions for a European road trip? I'll be driving through France and Spain, probably slow charging at overnight stops but will likely need some top ups en route. Still working on a detailed itinerary so not sure on daily distances yet.
I've had ionity sub due the past month as I've been driving away from home loads and the ionity locations work well for me. It's paid for itself many times over. I'll be cancelling today though once back home. Ionity are good that you are not tied in but you need to check if their locations suit you.
Although I've never failed to charge at a public charger I wouldn't say the system is without its faults. I've had cases where it has taken two or three attempts to get a charge.
Just back from.a 1600 mile return trip to the Alps, and that's my experience too: never failed to charge, never had to wait more than 5 minutes, needed a couple of attempts to connect in some cases. I used a mix of Tesla and Electroverse chargers. I made a plan for stops which worked quite well except for the channel tunnel: horrendous queues for immigration in both directions meant I didn't have time to charge at the terminal.
I've had ionity sub due the past month as I've been driving away from home loads and the ionity locations work well for me. It's paid for itself many times over. I'll be cancelling today though once back home. Ionity are good that you are not tied in but you need to check if their locations suit you.
I thought I posted something along these lines, but the site lost it somewhere. I did a trip from Northumberland to Ullapool (and back) and the Ionity sub paid for itself easily, and the chargers were convenient and worked fine.
I'm just back from a two day trip, Scottish Borders to Wigan to Aintree to Scottish Borders.
Got to Wigan with 30% left. All you can eat overnight charging at hotel for £20 or a deal for £40 with a £25 meal voucher and 25% drinks discount included. New chargers and system though with staff who were a bit confused so I did wait up till midnight to make sure charging started.
Topped up at Ionity in Carlisle at 110kwh on the way back but only as I wanted a coffee anyway, would have got home without it, just. First time I've seen all chargers in use (x12) but only waited 3-4 mins for one to become available. Last day of my one month ionity sub as well so pleased I maxed that out, i worked out that the sub had saved me around £60 this month.
Everything worked well, infrastructure seems spot on for my recent journeys.
Any thoughts on subscriptions for a European road trip? I'll be driving through France and Spain, probably slow charging at overnight stops but will likely need some top ups en route. Still working on a detailed itinerary so not sure on daily distances yet.
I looked at one of the Tag providers (for the tolls) recently, it offered a bit of a discount on the tolls, and 50% off chargers on the toll road services which seems a great deal.
Was that Bib and Go? It's not 50% off charging its 50% off buying their charging card and reduced per transaction fee, there is no mention of reduced unit cost.
A few weeks ago I moaned that we’d both had a bit of a faff charging.
Today I tried again and… perfection. This is how it should be.
Jumped in the car at Dunkeld, hit “Home” on the sat nav (built in Google) and it took me straight to a plug & charge Ionity charger.
Plugged it in and it started charging straight away, no faffing with apps or cards 🙂
20minutes later I was on the way and my Mobilize account has been charged.
I was going to use the Tesla chargers as they were apparently cheaper but decided to have a try with the plug & go thing instead.
Not strictly about charging, but allied to it. I've been very complimentary about Octopus cust svc, but I'm now taking it back.
I switched suppliers at end Feb, 7 weeks or so ago, to a price fix. Yes, I feel smug now. I took meter readings on the final day, sent them by email to new supplier and took photos of the gas and leccy meter.
As an Oct Go customer, it works by taking readings every half hour to see what was used at what time so I can get my cheap overnight charging electrons. So they know what I use and how I use it. And they issued me a bill to the switchover date that tallies completely with my usage, which I can get from my standalone monitor and also from my charger's app.
And they owe me some money. Not a huge amount, but not inconsiderable either. Which i asked for back. Something I've never had a problem with before.
But not this time. Because I was then sent a bill 'based on my closing meter reading' that consumes all my credit and leaves them owing me £2-ish. Which they've refunded.
But - the meter reading bears no relevance to the actual reading I took at the time. And when I ask them where they got it from, they say it was supplied by my new supplier.
So, I've sent them the email I sent the new supplier, I've sent them a timestamped photo of the meter on changeover day, I've sent them the screenshots of the day's usage data and I've sent them a screenshot from the new supplier app showing start reading. They can't explain why they have a different reading but they can't refund me because 'a billing specialist needs to review the information'
For weeks now, and when I complain it's because they're all tied up because of the Middle East situation.
So **** Octopus, and **** Trump too. Give me my money back, you ****ers
Is the meter reading still lower than what they claim? Take a pic of that with a newspaper in the shot and tell them to sort it out or you will sue them for it plus interest.
No, it's about 4000kWh less than it actually is. But then they compare it to what they say is a previous reading that I have no knowledge or evidence of, compare that to the half hourly readings, and say I owe the difference.
Like I say, no sense at all. I took a reading of ca 12,000 on the day, they say it's 8000. I had a new meter 2 and a bit years ago, and counting back to that and looking at usage on the app it tallies well.
My alternative could be to accept the 8000 reading and then ask them to refund the 4000kWh they charged me for on half hourly billing - because how can I have a new meter in 12/23, and be billed for 12,000 units but then have a reading of 8000. That would mean they owe me about £1000
I think I might be done with IOG and might drop back to OG.
Last night was a good example - I needed topping up 44% to get back to 80% full. I set the Octopus app to deliver 50% of my cars capacity (33kw) which it dully did (charger is compatible, car is not). But sadly it was a cold night (-2 deg) and IOG decided to deliver my charge in 7 separate loads from 2130 to 0700, so the cumulative charge that the car topped up with was only 35%. I 'think' multiple small charges into a cold car works out wasteful. On a warmer night and a single charge period the KW outputted by the charger and the KW increase in the battery capacity as pretty inline.
So, OG where the charge is in a single period might, for me at least, work out cheaper.