[Paul_Moxhay]

As you can see from the announcement... Next Green Car is now running the National Charge Point Registry.

Next Green Car also run Zap-Map so I think this is probably a good move.

At least someone is doing something with it... but what I'd like to know is this: Is it compulsory for all publicly funded charge stations to be registered on the NCR and if not... why not?

http://www.nextgreencar.com/national-charge-point-registry/

 

[toms]

The NCR would be well advised, I feel, to look at places like Openchargemap and Plugshare to add the points on (including a number of publicly funded ones) that don't appear on it.

 

[Paul]

So it's run for profit? What makes it different to other charge maps/databases now?

 

[jontracey]

Sounds like a good move, Zap Map is my goto map for charge point info,

 

[Edd Beesley]

Sounds like a good move, Zap Map is my goto map for charge point info,

Same. It actually works on mobile, which I think is kind of the point....!

 

[Paul]

I've pretty much given up with charging that isn't where I'm going or on the electric highway. Life's too short.

 

[Edd Beesley]

I've pretty much given up with charging that isn't where I'm going or on the electric highway. Life's too short.

Sure, but if I'm going somewhere, it's good to see if there is charging there! Good example being Birmingham, I know there's charging at the Imax, but I wanted to go to the Bullring at the weekend. quick check of the map and there is indeed charging in the bullring car park, by the exit. Score.

 

[Paul]

I sometimes do that, but with dodgy apps and dodgy mobile I'll do it from home and never trust one source.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

The NCR would be well advised, I feel, to look at places like Openchargemap and Plugshare to add the points on (including a number of publicly funded ones) that don't appear on it.

That is quite amusing because OCM has taken some of its data from the NCR. Yours is a good idea except that much of the NCR data that was imported into OCM has now been changed by community members. This means that the import from OCM must be done with great caution as some of the data on OCM will be totally non-NCR data, some will be NCR data that has been updated by the community and some with be the original ONCR data that may have been updated on NCR itself so must not be overwritten.

Taking data from other databases in this way that may have itself imported data from the NCR and changed it is fraught with dangers of overwriting good data with bad. It cannot be done in bulk without some detailed duplicate identification to determine which is the most up to date data.

Also, there will be licensing issues. Much of the OCM data is not open source and is subject to a licence that may make importing into the NCR difficult without breaching copyright.

It is complex and I hope that NGC is up to the task or the NCR could become even worse than it is already.

So it's run for profit? What makes it different to other charge maps/databases now?

It has always been run for profit! When I last reviewed it it was run by Pod Point.

It just depends on who OLEV pay to look after it so I suspect that it will always be run for someone's profit In this case it is Next Green Car... for now

 

[Paul]

It has always been run for profit! When I last reviewed it it was run by Pod Point.

It just depends on who OLEV pay to look after it so I suspect that it will always be run for someone's profit In this case it is Next Green Car... for now

That I did not know, assumed it was some sort of centralised effort that made it independent somehow.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

I believe it was intended to be so... at least that is what I understood it to be when I spoke to the head of OLEV at a conference in 2011. It never got off the ground as a OLEV run project until it was outsourced. Pod Point had it for a couple of years and did nothing with it but now it looks like OLEV want to resurrect it and NGR has the ball.

 

[Paul]

I at least get the impression that ZapMap is taken seriously, so it could help all concerned.

 

[Ben Lane]

I'm pleased to see that SpeakEV members are aware of NGC managing the NCR - our brief from DfT/OLEV is to improve its quality as well as its coverage. NGC is committed to improving the NCR as we see it as a crucial part of the information jigsaw for EV owners and prospective EV buyers alike.

I agree with many of the above points - in thinking about how to improve the NCR we have had similar discussions - in particular to what extent can we import new/value add data into the system without it over-writing existing official data - some of which we may want to keep. Also, if we do import additional data, how can we prevent this being over-written when the official data provider next updates the database. We are still working on a new protocol that will deal with this.

While the development is only just under way, the plan is to develop a consultation document which we will then use to consult with data providers and users. I will make sure that we come back to this forum with the proposal so you can give your collective views on planned changes. Will certainly welcome and need your input on this.

If we get this right (and hopefully we are up to the task), then the NCR will become the de facto data hub for all UK charge point info - which can then be used by third parties to create better mapping and other tools. That's certainly our objective.

In the meantime, I'll watch this space for further comments.

Ben Lane (Director, Next Green Car)

 

[andrew*debbie]

I sometimes do that, but with dodgy apps and dodgy mobile I'll do it from home and never trust one source.

+1

The maps are great to a point but they way things are now, I need to double check everything from home before setting out.


For example, one of the CHAdeMO chargers at Ikea Warrington is down but both Zap Map and the Ecotricity map show it as working.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/529940729477332994

 

[andrew*debbie]

Welcome @Ben Lane!

 

[flipper]

+1

The maps are great to a point but they way things are now, I need to double check everything from home before setting out.


For example, one of the CHAdeMO chargers at Ikea Warrington is down but both Zap Map and the Ecotricity map show it as working.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/529940729477332994

Ecotricity stated a while ago that, where there are dual CHAdeMOs, if one is offline but the other is OK, the site will be marked as OK.

 

[planetf1]

Ecotricity stated a while ago that, where there are dual CHAdeMOs, if one is offline but the other is OK, the site will be marked as OK.

Partly true but my experience with the up to date-edness of the data suggests I'd want to know, as a backup charger would be within my route plan. I'll take the risk of 2 on one site (despite electrical failure being a possibility) but wouldn't on a single charger

 

[CYC]

It is a funding requirement that all new CPs go on the NCR and we're always pointing this out to Charge Point owners.

We get quite a lot of calls from drivers asking about Charge Points we don't manage and obviously we can't answer them so we've been referring them over to ZapMap for some time already. So it's great that the NCR's been taken over by someone and will be of use to driver's again.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

It's critical that the underlying data is 'open' so that we dont go around an endless loop of third party ownership.

It was clear from the meetings that led to the formation of UK EVSE that OEMs regarded charge point data as proprietary and were unwilling to share... I don't hold out much hope that anything has changed

 

[Julian Thomas]

I've pretty much given up with charging that isn't where I'm going or on the electric highway. Life's too short.

Same here - except I can't use the electric highway as they're almost all rapids - although I don't bother charging anywhere except home now.

I tried really hard to use the variety of apps/swipe cards to hunt out destination charging wherever I was going, to minimise my petrol usage and maximise EV miles, but charge points that were "online" on apps/maps often turned out to be dead. If you can find a free Polar post, the "Instant" app usually takes 2-3 minutes to set up a session - and of the 10 times I've tried to use it, I've only successfully charged twice (faulty posts).

I've tried Source London at Stanmore and some NCP car parks, but every space I've tried has been ICEd.

Public charging in MK is now more expensive per-mile than petrol, so I haven't used it since April 1st.

... all in all, public charging has become an irrelevance for me. As an EV-advocate, this is disappointing - I'd hoped that a PHEV would be my first step towards a BEV, but having had experience of public charging, there's no way I'd want to be reliant on it!