[Simon Hewison]

After a few months of little growth of the Ecotricity network, there's a set of motorway services with rapid chargers, (CHAdeMO, Rapid AC, no CCS):

M61 Rivington Services (Bolton), Northbound and Southbound.

Why they are still buying chargers without CCS is a mystery (unless these are re-deployed units from elsewhere, and it's better to have some chargers than none at all)

 

[Desserper]

A more important question is why do Ecotricity continue to largely ignore every country that does not begin with the letter E when looking at new Rapid locations. The Electric Highway website says "The Electric Highway enables electric vehicle drivers to travel the length and breadth of Britain". What garbage.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

They installed rapids at lands end and john o'groats just to make that statement seem true

 

[eddiec]

After a few months of little growth of the Ecotricity network, there's a set of motorway services with rapid chargers, (CHAdeMO, Rapid AC, no CCS):

M61 Rivington Services (Bolton), Northbound and Southbound.

Why they are still buying chargers without CCS is a mystery (unless these are re-deployed units from elsewhere, and it's better to have some chargers than none at all)

Those chargers have been there for ages. I used them last summer on my way to the seaside.

 

[andrew*debbie]

A more important question is why do Ecotricity continue to largely ignore every country that does not begin with the letter E when looking at new Rapid locations.

There may not be a good business case for Scotland or NI. Scotland has pretty good coverage from a different network.

 

[Matt Beard]

After a few months of little growth of the Ecotricity network, there's a set of motorway services with rapid chargers, (CHAdeMO, Rapid AC, no CCS):

M61 Rivington Services (Bolton), Northbound and Southbound.

Why they are still buying chargers without CCS is a mystery (unless these are re-deployed units from elsewhere, and it's better to have some chargers than none at all)

Those chargers were operational in May 2015, and they may have been there before that date.

 

[richtrash]

They installed rapids at lands end and john o'groats just to make that statement seem true

Neither have CCS, like a lot of their locations in between completely pointless for a lot of the growing number EV owners

It's a bit like broadband providers advertising speeds of up to 8Mbps

 

[Desserper]

There may not be a good business case for Scotland or NI. Scotland has pretty good coverage from a different network.

But the statement on the Electric Highway website at For The Road - Ecotricity says this:

"The Electric Highway enables electric vehicle drivers to travel the length and breadth of Britain"

It does not say this:

"The Electric Highway and other charge point network operators enables electric vehicle drivers to travel the length and breadth of Britain"

 

[andrew*debbie]

"The Electric Highway and other charge point network operators enables electric vehicle drivers to travel the length and breadth of Britain"

Yeah. Well .... let me think ....


I gots it. Contrary to well held geographic whatevers, the island of Great Britain does not extend past a line running roughly through Oban, Fort William and Inverness. One must cross a bridge to enter the wild zone beyond the barrier.

Travel from Milton Keynes to Moto Kinross M90 Jct 6 is a simple exercise left to the reader. From there, a 30kWh LEAF driven slowly and with care will make to Inverness, at the true end of the Isle of Great Britain.

 

[richtrash]

Yeah. Well .... let me think ....


I gots it. Contrary to well held geographic whatevers, the island of Great Britain does not extend past a line running roughly through Oban, Fort William and Inverness. One must cross a bridge to enter the wild zone beyond the barrier.

Travel from Milton Keynes to Moto Kinross M90 Jct 6 is a simple exercise left to the reader. From there, a 30kWh LEAF driven slowly and with care will make to Inverness, at the true end of the Isle of Great Britain.

That probably works OK for Leafs or any other EV that uses CHADeMO but it's a completely different story for anything that uses CCS.

Charge Place Scotland spread their Rapid chargers around so everyone could travel around Scotland fairly easily unlike in England where we put them all in MK and Wales where we put them all in ??????

It's going to take a few years yet before people can turn up at a charger and be fairly sure they will be able to get a charge, hopefully EcoT will start to supplement the existing chargers with CCS equipped chargers otherwise the EH isn't going to provide reliable charging for everyone.

 

[ScotstounPele]

Yeah. Well .... let me think ....


I gots it. Contrary to well held geographic whatevers, the island of Great Britain does not extend past a line running roughly through Oban, Fort William and Inverness. One must cross a bridge to enter the wild zone beyond the barrier.

Off topic alert

The line you refer to (Oban-Fort William-Inverness, also known as the Great Glen) is not a sea barrier or even a constant river barrier therefore the land north of there is still the British mainland. The waterway between these places is the man-made Caledonian canal.

 

[andrew*debbie]

in England where we put them all in MK and Wales where we put them all in ??????

I can just about trace the England-Wales border by where the rapid chargers stop. Well not quite but it does look like it.


Giving the money to handful of local councils in England guaranteed a network with big gaps and little coverage of trunk roads.

Meanwhile in Wales, the WAG is studying a 3rd Menai crossing again. Last week they stopped every car coming off the bridges to hand out a mail in survey. Waste of money and everyone was hours late to work.

Every year the WAG spends £1.2million on subsidised air link between Anglesey and Cardiff. Last year 9,862 passengers used the air link. < sigh >

 

[Simon Hewison]

Those chargers have been there for ages. I used them last summer on my way to the seaside.

Well, they had disappeared from Ecotricity's map for some time.

 

[richtrash]

Well, they had disappeared from Ecotricity's map for some time.

Don't pay any attention to the map, according to their map Toddington is planned to be getting CCS, been like that for months and months

 

[Simon Hewison]

Don't pay any attention to the map, according to their map Toddington is planned to be getting CCS, been like that for months and months

I meant it disappeared from their app and had only recently reappeared.

 

[Aragorn]

The CPS chargers in scotland are free, and well distributed throughout the trunk road network, theres literally no point ecotricity installing any as they simply wouldnt get used.

 

[Desserper]

@Aragorn not entirely true. If they are £6 for 30 mins they would not get used much. The free charging is also about to end. CPS are undertaking the Scottish survey on charging. The survey was almost entirely focused on how much Scottish drivers should pay. Not entirely impartial for CPS to be undertaking this is it? Goodness knows what data they will choose to present and how they will present it. I am almost prepared to bet my house on there being fee charging soon.

 

[richtrash]

The CPS chargers in scotland are free, and well distributed throughout the trunk road network, theres literally no point ecotricity installing any as they simply wouldnt get used.

The same thing is starting to happen in the UK, eventually the price plans will have to be similar the same a fuel prices are otherwise people will just not use them.

 

[Aragorn]

I bought my EV on cost grounds. If charging cost the same as filling up my diesel 3 series did, i'd still be driving the diesel.

For the odd trip, paying a bit more is fair enough, but if they're ever to make any headway into mass adoption, it has to be cheaper than the far more convenient and familiar ICE process that everyone already uses.