[Neilto]

Living in Highland Scotland it was a carefully considered step in getting a full EV to compliment the PHEV in our household. However I went ahead on the basis that I have a home charger and there was an extensive infrastructure of public charging points as shown on the Charge Place Scotland live map link shown here. It was all fine for a while but it seems that Charge Place Scotland have adopted a zero maintenance policy on their chargers so the number of available working ones is diminishing fast. A rough headcount of the number of faulty CCS points is about 50% and raising all the time. Unfortunately many of them are in the more remote places. Perhaps this is Covid related - lets hope so and the will get round to fixing them when we are allowed to travel again. But its not looking for longer journeys. Maybe this is policy to keep us at home?? If you were planning to do the North 500 inn EV anytime soon - think again.

 

[Neilto]

Oops a further point .... With the increase in EV sales and no ICE cars beyond 2030 the future looks very bleak. You can be sure that what remaining working chargers will have another EV charging when you turn up and that ferry you were hoping to catch, well......

 

[farmergiles]

Traffic Scotland have appointed a different operator so things should improve - maybe because the existing operator was not repairing the chargers. However, I have noticed that when checking out 50kw chademo chargers for my Leaf's trip to Argyll in the spring, that the CCS chargers are often 'status unknown'. They may well be working, just the network cannot determine the status.

 

[Mo1]

As above Swarco/evolt are taking over the running of the network, CPS have likely sat back not bothering to repair charge points.Hopefully things will improve before long.

@farmergiles There are quite a few spots in Scotland where comms are poor, I suggest using plugshare and zap map near your visit time to see if there has been recent use of points you are likely to use. Then again maybe the new network owner will improve the situation with signal strength boosters.

 

[farmergiles]

Yes I will use Zapmap and CPS live map to check the rapid chargers just off the M8 at Whitburn and Newhouse as these are about half way to Oban. I doubt I will make it to Balloch (or take the risk the charger will not be working)

 

[Ralkbirdy]

A rough headcount of the number of faulty CCS points is about 50% and raising all the time.

Are you saying that the website reports that CCS is not known, or that you have visited one and CCS does not work. The Brodick one on Arran is unknown, but worked fine today. This is a know and frustrating issue, but it does not mean that CCS is not working, in general if Chademo is OK, CCS will be also.

 

[80698]

CCS chargers are often 'status unknown'. They may well be working, just the network cannot determine the status.

In case you are curious as to this, the reasoning is that the Circontrol Trio units that Chargeplace Scotland have a lot of, only see AC and DC. The same on the charger itself where there is a start and stop button for AC and DC, rather than each specific connector. For whatever reason this often gets tied to the availability data feed for Chademo, and then CCS is unknown.

There is also an ongoing issue with a lot of ABB Chargers which often lose comms altogether and have spent over a year now with unknown status for well over a year on all connectors, and mostly just on free vend.

 

[farmergiles]

Are you saying that the website reports that CCS is not known, or that you have visited one and CCS does not work. The Brodick one on Arran is unknown, but worked fine today. This is a know and frustrating issue, but it does not mean that CCS is not working, in general if Chademo is OK, CCS will be also.

The CPS or Zapmap websites often just says unknown, not out of service, so I am not surprised to hear that some are actually working. I must admit that if chademo is working then I couldn't see why the CCS would not also be working.

 

[farmergiles]

In case you are curious as to this, the reasoning is that the Circontrol Trio units that Chargeplace Scotland have a lot of, only see AC and DC. The same on the charger itself where there is a start and stop button for AC and DC, rather than each specific connector. For whatever reason this often gets tied to the availability data feed for Chademo, and then CCS is unknown.

There is also an ongoing issue with a lot of ABB Chargers which often lose comms altogether and have spent over a year now with unknown status for well over a year on all connectors, and mostly just on free vend.

On the two bay ABB charger I tried briefly yesterday, you can choose which of the 3 cables you want to use and then press start. So my question is, does the stop/start button not just apply to the cable currently selected, without affecting an existing charging. As there were two bays, I assumed any two cables can be used simultaneously, but presumably, only 1 DC and the AC can be used at the same time. Which means when you select the AC cable, you can then start the charging without affecting the DC cable in use?

 

[Ralkbirdy]

Which means when you select the AC cable, you can then start the charging without affecting the DC cable in use?

Yes, a LEAF was charging and I parked to see what was happening, it was on AC, leaving the DC available, only problem was getting my Ioniq so that the lead would reach to the passenger rear, just had to park across some empty bays to get the lead to connect. 2 x DC does not work.

 

[farmergiles]

Charge Point Information 50924

Charge Your Car Mobile Website

chargeplacescotland.org

This is what is commonly reported - chademo working, CCs unknown. So it should be?

Whereas at Newhouse only the chademo is working, other out of service:

Charge Point Information 51512

Charge Your Car Mobile Website

chargeplacescotland.org

 

[freddym]

Traffic Scotland have appointed a different operator so things should improve - maybe because the existing operator was not repairing the chargers. However, I have noticed that when checking out 50kw chademo chargers for my Leaf's trip to Argyll in the spring, that the CCS chargers are often 'status unknown'. They may well be working, just the network cannot determine the status.

Transport Scotland . Whom is Traffic Scotland?😁

 

[farmergiles]

Transport Scotland . Whom is Traffic Scotland?😁

My typo!

 

[CorsaeGaz]

Yes I will use Zapmap and CPS live map to check the rapid chargers just off the M8 at Whitburn and Newhouse as these are about half way to Oban. I doubt I will make it to Balloch (or take the risk the charger will not be working)

The rapid charger at Newhouse is horrendously unreliable since a software "update" about 6 months ago and FYI is maxing out about 20kw most of the time.

There are other CPS rapids next to the Tesla hub at Eurocentral which are pretty reliable however these ones aren't free.

Motherwell has 4 new rapids which are reliable, 1 in the the Aquatec carpark and 3 at the hub in Strathclyde Park. Those 4 are all pretty new and reliable but the hub at Strathy Park can be busy.

 

[80698]

On the two bay ABB charger I tried briefly yesterday, you can choose which of the 3 cables you want to use and then press start. So my question is, does the stop/start button not just apply to the cable currently selected, without affecting an existing charging. As there were two bays, I assumed any two cables can be used simultaneously, but presumably, only 1 DC and the AC can be used at the same time. Which means when you select the AC cable, you can then start the charging without affecting the DC cable in use?

That's right. Most chargers (but not all networks that operate these chargers) can support AC and DC Together. As an added bonus with the ABB Ones you can even plug in Chademo while there is an active CCS Session and it will queue your charge to start as soon as the other DC Charge finishes.

Whereas at Newhouse only the chademo is working, other out of service:

No. That is because that's a Chargemaster Ultracharge unit. It can only charge one at a time. When there is an active charge session on one connector it puts the others out of service. It SHOULD show all available again when the current charge session completes.

 

[freddym]

As above Swarco/evolt are taking over the running of the network, CPS have likely sat back not bothering to repair charge points.Hopefully things will improve before long.

@farmergiles There are quite a few spots in Scotland where comms are poor, I suggest using plugshare and zap map near your visit time to see if there has been recent use of points you are likely to use. Then again maybe the new network owner will improve the situation with signal strength boosters.

SwarcoEvolt will not be the CPS Network Owner.

 

[freddym]

My typo!

It's normally my autocorrect that pulls out random substitutes.

Maybe there should be a sticky explaining how the COS network operators, especially with the SWARCO operators hip coming soon?

 

[farmergiles]

The rapid charger at Newhouse is horrendously unreliable since a software "update" about 6 months ago and FYI is maxing out about 20kw most of the time.

There are other CPS rapids next to the Tesla hub at Eurocentral which are pretty reliable however these ones aren't free.

Motherwell has 4 new rapids which are reliable, 1 in the the Aquatec carpark and 3 at the hub in Strathclyde Park. Those 4 are all pretty new and reliable but the hub at Strathy Park can be busy.

They are too far off my route but there is a rapid at the North Lanarkshire transport depot, although could be in use by employees and you have to ask permission.

 

[farmergiles]

It's normally my autocorrect that pulls out random substitutes.

Maybe there should be a sticky explaining how the COS network operators, especially with the SWARCO operators hip coming soon?

Yeah, your autocorrect works really well.

 

[80698]