[Paj - Leaf.]

I would just like to stick up for Dale Vince and all the people at Ecotricity. The staff are very helpful, informative and polite. Dale Vince is an environmental visionary. He has put a tremendous amount of time, energy, money and creativity into green energy and the electric charging network. I get my home gas and electric from Ecotricity also. I get my mobile phone contract from Ecotalk. They all offer brilliant value and service. I use an Electric Highway charger 5-6 days a week. I have not had any problems. The chargers always work well. Very reliable. Simple to use. Accurate and clear information on the charger screen and on the phone app screen. I do not have a home charger. Actually once when it was -5, one charger would not work. But its neighbour did. Now they are all working fine again. As usual. Great result overall I feel. I find the app works well every time too. As long as I do things in the correct sequence. Very reliable also. They are actually an ethical and environmentally minded company. Not full of hog and green wash. Like some in my view. I get half price electric to charge up my Nissan Leaf also. As I get my home energy from them. So an average of around £1.20 - £1.50 to charge my EV to around 87%. Amazing value! The gas I get at home comes from grass meadows. All their electricity provided is from renewables. Vegan energy also. The first all vegan football club in the world. A new football stadium built from and powered by renewables and recycled products, is still being planned I believe. I do not think any others can claim all this. In my understanding Dale and Ecotricity have not made any profit from The Electric Highway. But have still persevered. Because they really believe in a better future. For us, the animals and the planet. Also in moving things forward correctly for the E.V charging network. I have heard Dale speaking at an event and met him personally. He really is one of the good guys. He has our benefit at heart. Lets work together with him and the rest of the Ecotricty team. For the greater and long term good results. I would not be able to do my job in the NHS, without the Electric Highway network. If it was not for Ecotricity, there would be no joined up charging motorway network around all the U.K. Which is a massive achievement. Especially considering that it was installed around 10 years ago in my understanding. I am just saddened by all the negative criticism that Ecotricity get. They are not perfect. Neither am I. Big up and long live Ecotricity!!! Nissan have moved things forward in a great way too. It makes me happy to see their 'e' logo on Ecotricity chargers. Nissan were by far the first to open up the EV market to the wider public. Though it would be great if EV prices came down soon for sure.

 

[electricdriver]

Sure, there are many satisfied customers, and it's clear that you're one of them. Glad it's working for you. Two counter-points.

Firstly, the network is ageing badly and there is little sign of future investment or maintenance, which many feel is now inhibiting capability at many key locations.

Secondly, try a vehicle with CCS charging. I can promise that your view on Ecotricity will change very quickly.

 

[Paj - Leaf.]

Sure, there are many satisfied customers, and it's clear that you're one of them. Glad it's working for you. Two counter-points.

Firstly, the network is ageing badly and there is little sign of future investment or maintenance, which many feel is now inhibiting capability at many key locations.

Secondly, try a vehicle with CCS charging. I can promise that your view on Ecotricity will change very quickly.

I admit the chargers are not the fastest. But i do not feel that they are aging badly. I have not used ccs. Only chademo. Very reliable in my experience. So i cannot comment on that ccs one. But i see people using the ecotricity ccs charge points on a regular basis. They do not seem to have problems. What issues are you having with them? I know that sometimes the chargers are out of action some places some times. Plus i dont actually get any holding charge taken out of my account by my bank when i use ecotricity electric highway chargers. Where as when i use some other companies. I get £30 taken out!

 

[cah197]

Just one question:

Why doesn't Dale use his own charging network?

 

[Paj - Leaf.]

Just one question:

Why doesn't Dale use his own charging network?

I have no idea if he does or not to be honest. Which network does he use then? I would also like to add that Ecotricity support many other great environmental organisations

 

[cah197]

I have no idea if he does or not to be honest. Which network does he use then? I would also like to add that Ecotricity support many other great environmental organisations

Diesel, last time I heard.

Says a lot about him, don’t you think?

 

[cdlb]

Dale Vince is an environmental visionary

Diesel, last time I heard.

Damnit, I didn't realise that selling my old car would cost me my environmental visionary status

 

[80698]

Plus i dont actually get any holding charge taken out of my account by my bank when i use ecotricity electric highway chargers. Where as when i use some other companies. I get £30 taken out!

Ecotricity pre-auth £6 for home energy customers, £12 for regular customers when using their app to start a charge session. This will then be corrected after a few working days to the amount dispensed from the charger when it clears on your bank statement.

Also wait until you upgrade to a new car that uses CCS and find yourself using Ionity chargers. You'll be in for a shock when £69 gets held from your bank account, if you think £30 is bad now.

 

[Belstar]

I admit the chargers are not the fastest. But i do not feel that they are aging badly. I have not used ccs. Only chademo. Very reliable in my experience. So i cannot comment on that ccs one. But i see people using the ecotricity ccs charge points on a regular basis. They do not seem to have problems.

Most Ecotricity chargers don't even have a CCS connector, despite all but two EVs on the market (the Nissan Leaf and the Lexus UX) being equipped with CCS. That means that a lot of Ecotricity chargers are factually useless to most new EVs - before you even get onto reliability. On that note, some CCS chargers on the Ecotricity network simply do not work, and even though they have been reported over and over, take months/years to get repaired, or simply don't get repaired at all.

Chademo, I agree, tends to work well on Ecotricity - I can't remember the last time I had a failed charge. The DBT chargers originally started life as a Nissan design, with CCS and/or 43kW AC being added at a later date, so that shouldn't come as a surprise.

If you rely on CCS or 43kW AC, Ecotricity is a bit of a joke. You can't and don't rely on them.

 

[80698]

If you rely on CCS or 43kW AC, Ecotricity is a bit of a joke. You can't and don't rely on them.

AC43 Is just as reliable as Chademo in my experience on these DBT Units. I've never had issues with either of them connectors.

CCS Is missing altogether from a fair few motorway service stations but they are (slowly) rolling out the 50kW Efacec units to replace these old DBT Ones (Triple head units being the priority to replace) and the new Tritium HPCs so things will improve in that sense over time. With that said, the CCS on these old chargers have had numerous software updates done over the years. All of the dual head chargers in my experience now give me perfect reliability on CCS in pretty much any non-Jaguar EV.

Some of their reputation is justified, but the CCS Reliability stories are now just old news spread around so widely that people don't bother trying anymore and is nowhere near as bad as some other networks anymore.

If you want to get your pitchforks and torches to go after charging networks may I suggest anything to do with BP Chargemaster instead? If you want to talk about poor reliability, abandoned chargers and total lack of timely servicing then look no further than CYC and Polar/Pulse.

 

[Paj - Leaf.]

Most Ecotricity chargers don't even have a CCS connector, despite all but two EVs on the market (the Nissan Leaf and the Lexus UX) being equipped with CCS. That means that a lot of Ecotricity chargers are factually useless to most new EVs - before you even get onto reliability. On that note, some CCS chargers on the Ecotricity network simply do not work, and even though they have been reported over and over, take months/years to get repaired, or simply don't get repaired at all.

Chademo, I agree, tends to work well on Ecotricity - I can't remember the last time I had a failed charge. The DBT chargers originally started life as a Nissan design, with CCS and/or 43kW AC being added at a later date, so that shouldn't come as a surprise.

If you rely on CCS or 43kW AC, Ecotricity is a bit of a joke. You can't and don't rely on them.

O.K. I am sorry to hear that. It must be because i am a Nissan Leaf owning chademo user that i am very happy with their chargers then. I had heard about some of the issues you raise. I did not realize the extent. Complicated. I am sorry to hear about your problems with them. Frustrating. I really think Ecoctricity are a great company overall though. Their staff in Stroud are very helpful. I thought Nissan were involved with charger design also. Great vehicles too

 

[Belstar]

AC43 Is just as reliable as Chademo in my experience on these DBT Units. I've never had issues with either of them connectors.

Not in mine. It was one of the reasons we got rid of the Zoe. Too many physically damaged plugs and plugs that don't even detect the car.

CCS Is missing altogether from a fair few motorway service stations but they are (slowly) rolling out the 50kW Efacec units to replace these old DBT Ones (Triple head units being the priority to replace)

They installed a handful two years ago and then stopped. Unless I'm mistaken, none have gone in since the initial burst.

and the new Tritium HPCs so things will improve in that sense over time. With that said, the CCS on these old chargers have had numerous software updates done over the years. All of the dual head chargers in my experience now give me perfect reliability on CCS in pretty much any non-Jaguar EV.

Some of their reputation is justified, but the CCS Reliability stories are now just old news spread around so widely that people don't bother trying anymore and is nowhere near as bad as some other networks anymore.

Not in my (very recent) experience. At the weekend I had two failed CCS charges at consecutive Ecotricity chargers, then headed off the motorway to successfully charge at Instavolt. Checking Zap Map, those chargers give most people the same experience - Jaguar or not.

If you want to get your pitchforks and torches to go after charging networks may I suggest anything to do with BP Chargemaster instead? If you want to talk about poor reliability, abandoned chargers and total lack of timely servicing then look no further than CYC and Polar/Pulse.

They are certainly not unworthy of criticism. But Chargemaster's crappy maintenance and Ecotricity being incredibly unreliable are not mutually exclusive. Neither situation is acceptable.

 

[terryya]

I read all the way to the end of the OP waiting for the punchline, so was a bit disappointed when I realised it wasn't a joke.

 

[JeffG]

I read all the way to the end of the OP waiting for the punchline, so was a bit disappointed when I realised it wasn't a joke.

I can't read posts without any white space.

Anyhow, now that Gridserve have joined up with Ecotricity to replace all the old chargers with triple-headers, I imagine a lot of the negativity will go away.