[tommydog1]

I have just come back from a holiday driving 2500 miles in my MG ZS EV. Nearly all of my charging has been on rapids. Before the holiday I took out the Polar free trial, as the price looked favourable, but found Polar very unreliable. Many of the polar machines were not working and the ones that were working were very buggy. Quite a few times the charge would fail after 20 minutes or so. I would then have to restart the charge. Also, the polar machines nearly always failed before 80% was reached.

Next I tried Ecotricity, which was poor beyond belief. Again very buggy, where even powering up the car when on charge would cause the charge to fail. One time the machine failed and did not come back online. Plus there is the messing with an app nonsense.

I also tried a few other providers such as genie point, but again found them to be unreliable, plus I hate having to mess with an app.

In the end, I did nearly all my charging on Instavolts. While they are more expensive than some of the other providers, I found the reliability second to none. Not once did I have an Instavolt fail on me. It was also so easy to pay with a contactless bank card and not have to mess with any of the app nonsense. It's really how a charging network should be. It's just a shame Ecotricity are at all the service stations and have recently renewed many contracts. It's enough to put many people off electric cars. If all networks were like Instavolt, I am sure it would help with the adoption of electric cars. From now on, I will plan all my journeys with Instavolt.

 

[andrew*debbie]

Yes -- I mostly use Instavolt and GeniePoint with EH as a "might was well try since we stopped here anyway".


One bit of postive news: An EH planning application for services updgrade shows the same type of chargers that Instavolt use. Of course planning application is a long way from having units up and runing.

 

[Dave m]

How much per charge did it cost with instavolt? I’ve had my MG for 6 months now and have only used 1 public charger. Most of my journeys are under 90 miles so I can recharge at home at our caravan site.

 

[Duncan23]

One bit of postive news: An EH planning application for services updgrade shows the same type of chargers that Instavolt use. Of course planning application is a long way from having units up and runing.

Does that mean they are abandoning AC rapid?

 

[mad_rich]

Instavolt is 35p/kWh everywhere.

 

[AndyK]

Does that mean they are abandoning AC rapid?

And CHAdeMo - although the old chargers will be retained. Since when has Ecotricity showed any interest in actually maintaining their network though? The current EH additional chargers are actually proposed by Moto so presumably Ecotricity will do as they've always done and stop caring ten minutes after they're installed!

 

[80698]

And CHAdeMo - although the old chargers will be retained. Since when has Ecotricity showed any interest in actually maintaining their network though? The current EH additional chargers are actually proposed by Moto so presumably Ecotricity will do as they've always done and stop caring ten minutes after they're installed!

They're replacing the triple head 50kW DBT units with 50kW DC Efacec models instead. If you're lucky they'll have a 22kW socket on the side. But some of the models they have tried out have no AC whatsoever.

Chademo is safe. But I'm not so sure about the future of AC43.

 

[JeffG]

also tried a few other providers such as genie point, but again found them to be unreliable, plus I hate having to mess with an app.

You can register any RFID card with GeniePoint, so no need to use the app. And since you probably pay all your other bills by Direct Debit, setting up an account with them shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Mr_G]

And CHAdeMo - although the old chargers will be retained. Since when has Ecotricity showed any interest in actually maintaining their network though? The current EH additional chargers are actually proposed by Moto so presumably Ecotricity will do as they've always done and stop caring ten minutes after they're installed!

CCS Ecotricity availability seems to have suddenly improved recently. Funny that just as Nissan are bringing out an EV with a CCS socket on it.

 

[AndyK]

CCS Ecotricity availability seems to have suddenly improved recently. Funny that just as Nissan are bringing out an EV with a CCS socket on it.

I doubt it's anything to do with Nissan. More likely just that the standard is finally evolving into something reliable and people are learning how to use it...