The all things EV chat thread

[Jimaroid]

The Eletre looks lovely with some really great details to it - doing things innovatively ground up rather than simply trying to change power plant like most others. Absolutely no doubt one of them will appear in the work carpark.

I'm keeping an eye on the VW ID. Buzz to replace my VW T25 eventually. First versions are looking really low on range though which is a shame.

 

[Bdill93]

Just popping back in

So my best mate now works for an electric truck company - the same guy who told me battery tech will change forever within the next couple of years - so I can only assume he knows something we all dont!

In relation to previous posts about infrastructure in your city - Worcester is doing pretty well from an untrained eye

Off the top of my head I have seen charging stations at:

Both Tesco superstores
ASDA Car park
Sainsburys Car Park
2 New LIDL superstores
Multistorey Car Park for the town centre has installed over 20 charging stations
Marstons pubs (I think, if not its another large pub chain) - have 3 pubs all with 2 charging stations in their car parks
Large retail park has had 8 points installed across 2 car parks

Those are all just places Ive noticed whilst driving around. So Id say Worcester is doing alright! Im not an EV driver though so not sure if capacity meets the demand!

Even down my road I notice about 6/7 charing points installed on peoples houses, its certainly growing in popularity and visibly improving infrastructure.

 

[PJ87]

Just popping back in

So my best mate now works for an electric truck company - the same guy who told me battery tech will change forever within the next couple of years - so I can only assume he knows something we all dont!

In relation to previous posts about infrastructure in your city - Worcester is doing pretty well from an untrained eye

Off the top of my head I have seen charging stations at:

Both Tesco superstores
ASDA Car park
Sainsburys Car Park
2 New LIDL superstores
Multistorey Car Park for the town centre has installed over 20 charging stations
Marstons pubs (I think, if not its another large pub chain) - have 3 pubs all with 2 charging stations in their car parks
Large retail park has had 8 points installed across 2 car parks

Those are all just places Ive noticed whilst driving around. So Id say Worcester is doing alright! Im not an EV driver though so not sure if capacity meets the demand!

Even down my road I notice about 6/7 charing points installed on peoples houses, its certainly growing in popularity and visibly improving infrastructure.

Towns do well but remotely isnt as great atm

noticing the upturn in home chargers aswell

few more down our road

myself and my neighbour have them (he is a cabbie)

 

[Bdill93]

Towns do well but remotely isnt as great atm

noticing the upturn in home chargers aswell

few more down our road

myself and my neighbour have them (he is a cabbie)

I appreciate it will take small towns and villages longer than larger cities to put infrastructure in place - just thought it worth noting is all.

There wouldnt be many villages around Worcester that are now more than 10 miles/15 minutes from a charging point though! Surely thats some progress! These points didnt exist 3 years ago

 

[PJ87]

I appreciate it will take small towns and villages longer than larger cities to put infrastructure in place - just thought it worth noting is all.

There wouldnt be many villages around Worcester that are now more than 10 miles/15 minutes from a charging point though! Surely thats some progress! These points didnt exist 3 years ago

with you here. the progress has been outstanding , not enough but its a step in the right direction

my parents put an outside plug in their house told me to plug in anytime (i havent as I dont want to add to their bills) but a lot of people could manage using just granny chargers and an outside plug

personally prefer the 7kw chargers

 

[spongebob59]

A new electric car owner has warned others about charging their vehicle at a supermarket after he was hit with a fine. Max Wilkinson, a Cheltenham councillor, drove his hybrid Mini Countryman to Lidl Supermarket in Swindon Road, Cheltenham to do his grocery shop.

He decided to charge his car at the supermarket, as he lives on a street with no EV charging facilities. After returning from a two-hour shop, Max was initially surprised to find his electric car was half-charged, Gloucestershire Live reports.


Then, a week later, the councillor received a £90 fine. Signs around the car park say customers can only park for 90 minutes including at the EV charging points. Max paid the fine off and has not disputed it - but is left confused over the time limit on charging cars, because his vehicle was not fully charged after the 90 minutes.




He said: “I’ve paid the fine and it’s a fair cop. However, it seems illogical that quite a lot of EV and hybrid owners won’t be allowed to spend enough time in the car park to get a full charge.


The Lidl supermarket has a parking limit of 90 minutes
“The company probably should make that clear on the app or the charger itself. For me, this further highlights the need for Gloucestershire County Council to finally deliver its on-street electric vehicle charging infrastructure.


"People want to do their bit by switching away from dirty petrol and diesel vehicles. At the moment that change isn’t being made easy enough.” Lidl said in a statement: "At Lidl GB we are proud to have invested over £25m in the rollout of electric vehicle charging points since 2017 and have committed to having rapid charging points in place at 300 stores by the end of 2022. We are also proud to offer our customers the best value pay-as-you go rapid charging of any supermarket currently at just 26p p/kWh.



“As is normal practice across the industry, car park usage is subject to terms and conditions for all those using the car park. We have signage displayed prominently to ensure that customers are fully informed, and an additional prompt is given within the Pod Point app.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

A new electric car owner has warned others about charging their vehicle at a supermarket after he was hit with a fine. Max Wilkinson, a Cheltenham councillor, drove his hybrid Mini Countryman to Lidl Supermarket in Swindon Road, Cheltenham to do his grocery shop.

He decided to charge his car at the supermarket, as he lives on a street with no EV charging facilities. After returning from a two-hour shop, Max was initially surprised to find his electric car was half-charged, Gloucestershire Live reports.


Then, a week later, the councillor received a £90 fine. Signs around the car park say customers can only park for 90 minutes including at the EV charging points. Max paid the fine off and has not disputed it - but is left confused over the time limit on charging cars, because his vehicle was not fully charged after the 90 minutes.




He said: “I’ve paid the fine and it’s a fair cop. However, it seems illogical that quite a lot of EV and hybrid owners won’t be allowed to spend enough time in the car park to get a full charge.


The Lidl supermarket has a parking limit of 90 minutes
“The company probably should make that clear on the app or the charger itself. For me, this further highlights the need for Gloucestershire County Council to finally deliver its on-street electric vehicle charging infrastructure.


"People want to do their bit by switching away from dirty petrol and diesel vehicles. At the moment that change isn’t being made easy enough.” Lidl said in a statement: "At Lidl GB we are proud to have invested over £25m in the rollout of electric vehicle charging points since 2017 and have committed to having rapid charging points in place at 300 stores by the end of 2022. We are also proud to offer our customers the best value pay-as-you go rapid charging of any supermarket currently at just 26p p/kWh.



“As is normal practice across the industry, car park usage is subject to terms and conditions for all those using the car park. We have signage displayed prominently to ensure that customers are fully informed, and an additional prompt is given within the Pod Point app.

Why should he be able to leave his car until it is fully charged? It is a supermarket, not a dedicated charging station. Not the brightest statement from the bloke.

 

[williamalex1]

Why have charging points at small local supermarkets and train stations, surely it's local people that use these carparks. Then park there all-day.

 

[road2ruin]

A new electric car owner has warned others about charging their vehicle at a supermarket after he was hit with a fine. Max Wilkinson, a Cheltenham councillor, drove his hybrid Mini Countryman to Lidl Supermarket in Swindon Road, Cheltenham to do his grocery shop.

He decided to charge his car at the supermarket, as he lives on a street with no EV charging facilities. After returning from a two-hour shop, Max was initially surprised to find his electric car was half-charged, Gloucestershire Live reports.


Then, a week later, the councillor received a £90 fine. Signs around the car park say customers can only park for 90 minutes including at the EV charging points. Max paid the fine off and has not disputed it - but is left confused over the time limit on charging cars, because his vehicle was not fully charged after the 90 minutes.




He said: “I’ve paid the fine and it’s a fair cop. However, it seems illogical that quite a lot of EV and hybrid owners won’t be allowed to spend enough time in the car park to get a full charge.


The Lidl supermarket has a parking limit of 90 minutes
“The company probably should make that clear on the app or the charger itself. For me, this further highlights the need for Gloucestershire County Council to finally deliver its on-street electric vehicle charging infrastructure.


"People want to do their bit by switching away from dirty petrol and diesel vehicles. At the moment that change isn’t being made easy enough.” Lidl said in a statement: "At Lidl GB we are proud to have invested over £25m in the rollout of electric vehicle charging points since 2017 and have committed to having rapid charging points in place at 300 stores by the end of 2022. We are also proud to offer our customers the best value pay-as-you go rapid charging of any supermarket currently at just 26p p/kWh.



“As is normal practice across the industry, car park usage is subject to terms and conditions for all those using the car park. We have signage displayed prominently to ensure that customers are fully informed, and an additional prompt is given within the Pod Point app.

Unfortunately for Max I think it's a lesson learnt as very few public chargers will allow you more than 90 minutes unless you pay through the nose for it as you're then blocking the charger for someone else. They're simply meant as a top up as, depending on how depleted the battery is, you could be there for hours as they're not rapid chargers in most cases.

 

[bobmac]

Who would spend 2 hours in Lidl?
He probably spent 15 minutes in the shop and then walked into town and did the rest of his shopping, went to the bank, had lunch etc.

 

[PJ87]

Who would spend 2 hours in Lidl?
He probably spent 15 minutes in the shop and then walked into town and did the rest of his shopping, went to the bank, had lunch etc.

Yeah you have to be careful. I could technically leave my car at Tesco all night charging for free it's 5 min walk. But this stops people


Reminds me of when the local shopping centre moved from pay and display to ticket issued when you got in and paid to leave

There is a hand car wash, everyone used to park their get their cars cleaned as you never needed to show a ticket .. so it was like say £5 to clean your car but £3 to park. Made sense

But then you had to pay both. Turns out you were always suppose to. Just closed the ability to get away with it

 

[Britishshooting]

Why should he be able to leave his car until it is fully charged? It is a supermarket, not a dedicated charging station. Not the brightest statement from the bloke.

Totally agree and this is what’s wrong with public charging currently.

People are greedy, supermarket chargers aren’t there for you to fully charge they’re there to keep you on your journey. There’s a level of etiquette needed.

It’s a complete non story in my opinion. A lot of chargers put a time limit on their use so individuals aren’t hogging them for long periods. It’s about keeping them free for people that need them so people have enough charge to reach their next destination.

We could charge for free when we do our shop but it’s 2 mins from home so literally never any reason to do so and it keeps them free for somebody that genuinely needs them.

Granted if we go and it’s dead as we shop late when we can to avoid queues, if the spaces are all empty then no harm in banging it on whilst shopping as a bit of a perk as you aren’t affecting provision for someone else.

This is the same for super fast charging, for me it’s not about charging to 90%+ it’s about charging so I get home with 20% + and then it’s on charge whilst I sleep.

I have charging provision at home and at work so there’s no reason for me to hog public chargers, when some others may not have that provision.

 

[PJ87]

Totally agree and this is what’s wrong with public charging currently.

People are greedy, supermarket chargers aren’t there for you to fully charge they’re there to keep you on your journey. There’s a level of etiquette needed.

It’s a complete non story in my opinion. A lot of chargers put a time limit on their use so individuals aren’t hogging them for long periods. It’s about keeping them free for people that need them so people have enough charge to reach their next destination.

We could charge for free when we do our shop but it’s 2 mins from home so literally never any reason to do so and it keeps them free for somebody that genuinely needs them.

Granted if it’s dead or genuinely quiet and we are going to be shopping for an hour and will be needing to charge the car soon we will stick it on.

This is the same for super fast charging, for me it’s not about charging to 90%+ it’s about charging so I get home with 20% + and then it’s on charge whilst I sleep.

I have charging provision at home and at work so there’s no reason for me to hog public chargers, when some others may not have that provision.

You need to have some kind of sharing built into the community

Unfortunately a lot of people are selfish and it's showing now

I like the free limits that after a set time it's £10 every 15 mins or something really encourages you to leave

We have 2 plugs we can use for charging at work

Not enough of us to worry about ATM but if 3 of us showed up together we would do half a shift each. Bear in mind it's 2kw an hour ..so dead slow .. just polite

 

[Britishshooting]

You need to have some kind of sharing built into the community

Unfortunately a lot of people are selfish and it's showing now

I like the free limits that after a set time it's £10 every 15 mins or something really encourages you to leave

We have 2 plugs we can use for charging at work

Not enough of us to worry about ATM but if 3 of us showed up together we would do half a shift each. Bear in mind it's 2kw an hour ..so dead slow .. just polite

Yes must admit I’m all for the £10 hike per 15mins, people should be penalised when taking the mick.

There seems to be some actual momentum now in Tesla superchargers being opened to all EV’s in the UK as other countries are trialling, if it happens that will ease the move for a lot of people and generate revenue to expand the infrastructure, BP also looking to invest a crazy amount in charging as they look to try and bolster their position.

We fortunately have a 22kw charger which can be shared. I’m usually in the office for 4/5am so I’ll bang it on when I arrive and usually move my car by 8am so it’s free for others to use. That’s when I actually need to charge it as I like to deplete the battery somewhat so sometimes will only use it once during the working week depending on site visits.

We don’t need to do a rota or anything as we have common sense and courtesy. And fortunately an office with only 10-12 people in of which only 4 will be EV within the next 5 years or so I’d imagine.

 

[PJ87]

Yes must admit I’m all for the £10 hike per 15mins, people should be penalised when taking the mick.

There seems to be some actual momentum now in Tesla superchargers being opened to all EV’s in the UK as other countries are trialling, if it happens that will ease the move for a lot of people and generate revenue to expand the infrastructure, BP also looking to invest a crazy amount in charging as they look to try and bolster their position.

We fortunately have a 22kw charger which can be shared. I’m usually in the office for 4/5am so I’ll bang it on when I arrive and usually move my car by 8am so it’s free for others to use. That’s when I actually need to charge it as I like to deplete the battery somewhat so sometimes will only use it once during the working week depending on site visits.

We don’t need to do a rota or anything as we have common sense and courtesy. And fortunately an office with only 10-12 people in of which only 4 will be EV within the next 5 years or so I’d imagine.

Think their are 4 of us ATM

1 is switching away for couple years as he can't afford car he wants so will switch then come back

1s leaf is still in the shop has been 2 months .. only a grill needs repairing after a prang but car part supply

2 more EVs arriving in summer

But 2 chargers even though small make it worth it for sure

I'll go in tonight with about 50% battery and leave with 100

 

[spongebob59]

https://www.iaindale.com/articles/should-you-buy-an-electric-car-heres-my-experience

 

[Lord Tyrion]

https://www.iaindale.com/articles/should-you-buy-an-electric-car-heres-my-experience

An interesting piece. No axes to grind, seemed pretty fair.

 

[bobmac]

https://www.iaindale.com/articles/should-you-buy-an-electric-car-heres-my-experience

He made so many mistakes there I don't know where to start.
So I won't

 

[Lord Tyrion]

He made so many mistakes there I don't know where to start.
So I won't

Apart from not reading the manual, what mistakes?

 

[Leftitshort]

He made so many mistakes there I don't know where to start.
So I won't

It sounds fairly typical of some of the other EV experiences I heard. Real world EV experiences from owner/drivers. The public charging network isn’t fit for purpose.
trusting the public network is just too risky

I had the use of an EV a couple of weeks ago but declined. When I went to pick it up it had limited charge. Both local fast charging points were out of action & I couldn’t wait the 8 hrs required to get some charge in via 240v. Unless you have a home charger & keep them somewhere around full charge they don’t really work