New Charging network launching with Q Park UK

29572 Views 219 Replies 53 Participants Last post by Simon Wardle, Aug 24, 2016

Robert Byrne

Discussion Starter · Dec 7, 2015

I am pleased to announce that we have recently come to an agreement with Q Park to supply, install and operate fast (22KW) charging points across their 60 car parks. The new network will launch in February 2016, starting in Liverpool ONE and Manchester First st car parks. The network will be payable and users can access the network through our customer web portal, telephone and RFID cards (subscription only). The network will be the first in the UK to offer a one off payment at point service and this will be available through our web portal.

I look forward to receiving drivers comments and advice on the network. We anticipate initially installing 2 charging points per location.

Many thanks.

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Paul_Moxhay

· #9 · Dec 7, 2015

Price?

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Paul_Moxhay

· #18 · Dec 7, 2015

Still no price?

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Paul_Moxhay

· #21 · Dec 8, 2015

planetf1 said:
The "big" network I consider so far are ecotricity, polar, pod-point

True in the south but further north others start to shine line ChargeYourCar... particularly in Scotland which is almost exclusively CYC for rapids.

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Paul_Moxhay

· #33 · Dec 9, 2015

Robert Byrne said:
Anticipated charging tariffs are 25p kWh for AC and 30p kWh for DC with a £1.50 minimum charge.

Interested to hear your thoughts on this pricing strategy.

Not bad at all IMO but if it cost any more then it will start to be more expensive than using an ICE so it depends on your target customer base... emergency user only or regular user.

Like others that have mentioned it I am not keen on rapid chargers in car parks. Rapid chargers are best at rapid charging

but in a car park it invites people to park up, plug in and disappear for hours. Fine on a 7kW charger but on a rapid charger it blocks others from using it as it is likely that the car will be full within the hour.

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Paul_Moxhay

· #49 · Dec 10, 2015

For me a 3-pin socket is totally useless for anything other than overnight or emergency charging. Even overnight it can be too slow. Sometimes I go to bed late and get up early and the car is just not charged.

Public charging should IMO be 7kW minimum from now on. 3-pin is not fit for purpose and it has none of the built-in safety that dedicated charging has. Type 2 socket chargers are not expensive and are better in every way to 3-pin except convenience.

3-pin is fine for home or emergency charging but totally inadequate for public charging especially as batteries are getting bigger and so 3-pin will be less and less appropriate or useful.

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Paul_Moxhay

· #52 · Dec 10, 2015

I take your point about the Twizy but it is very much an exception even now and I suspect there won't be many more vehicles with just 13A charging in future. In any case... almost by definition, 13A is unmetered so how do you pay for the electricity? Of course, it could be metered but it generally isn't. 13A top ups are generally freebies and so they fall into the "perk" category of charging and that could more easily be catered for outside the normal public charging remit by the business offering the perk.

Also... how often do you go outside the range of a single charge in the Twizy? Probably not very often I would guess.

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