[MarkyM]

EV driver for 3 years but never really needed to use public chargers that much. (BMW i3 Rex) Not used Ecotricity for over 2 years as just too unreliable. Now tend to use Instavolt which is how it should be done! 95% of time I charge from home.
However, I checked out the new Polar Ultrachargers at M4 Junction 11/12 yesterday Westbound. They are not yet activated but to use them it asks you to sign up.
In addition there are some Free polar chargers near to me which require a RFID card.
On the Polar website it seems you have to sign up to a subscription at £7.85/ month to begin with?
Is that correct? I do not want any subscription based membership...
They are doing first 3 months free for now, so can I join up, get the RFIDcard, then cancel the subscription?
can I use other RFID cards which may be compatible? I do not have any at this stage.
I prefer contactless payments going forward which will be expensive, judging by how all the companies are pricing their public charger tariffs but as will not be using them that often, I don’t mind paying for the convenience if needed as contingency etc.
will hopefully be getting a second (full) EV soon, so I gather I am going to have sign up to various different company websites (Podpoint etc) for emergencies/contingency!

 

[DougM]

You don’t have to subscribe.

The latest Polar UltraChargers accept contactless payment cards, and most of their older chargers also support Polar Instant (Polar Instant) for adhoc payment using an app.

 

[MarkyM]

How do I get the RFID card? Will it give me an option to request one when I sign up (without subscribing)?

 

[MarkyM]

The RFID card is to potentially use with some free Polar/ChargeMaster ones that are situated in a car park in the centre of the city in a multi-storey. They don't see much use at present Found next to some Tesla ones in the same car park.

 

[DougM]

How do I get the RFID card? Will it give me an option to request one when I sign up (without subscribing)?

RFID cards are only provided to subscribers, and they get deactivated when the subscription ends. If you don't have a subscription, you have to use the Polar Instant app to start a change. Pricing is detailed in the Polar Instant app, but all posts have a minimum charge for £1.20 for non-subscribers: including those that don't charge for the electricity.

 

[Oldmk4golf]

If you are a member of the AA and thinking of joining Polar then you can get a £1 off per month.

AA Join - Polar Plus

 

[proddick]

I stil pay for the Plus subscription as it is quite a bit cheaper than contactless, but you do need to either use it quite a bit and/or value the convenience of the RFID card. Some older rapids and all destination chargers only use RFID or app and the latter can be flakey. A few charges at £1.20 that are free on Plus help offset cost.

 

[MarkyM]

Ok. Thanks for the info. Looks like a dreaded app (was reading reviews on the App Store and all these companies have truly terrible reviews) or contactless. Looks like RFID is out of the question will not use it often enough to justify the almost £100/year fee to get the odd “free charge”.
contactless the way forward for me.

 

[MarkyM]

Photo Came out sideways but picture of front of new Polar 150kw Ultra-charger (set of 4 with 1 x CCS & 1 x Chademo on each) at J11/12 M4 Westbound. Not active as yet.
The CCV contactless plate is now a single one. Different set up from other Polar Ultra-Chargers I have seen with Contactless as They had 2 separate plates. If contactless why are they asking you to “visit” their portal “in order to access this charger”?

 

[UKTechie]

It all really depends on how often and how many BP Polar units are on the routes you use, it only works out better for Polar Plus if you could not charge at home.

 

[Big277wave]

MarkyM, are the chargers at the Reading services between J11 and J12?

 

[Weebull]

MarkyM, are the chargers at the Reading services between J11 and J12?

bp

★★★★☆ · Gas station · M4, Motorway Westbound

goo.gl

 

[Weebull]

Looks like a dreaded app (was reading reviews on the App Store and all these companies have truly terrible reviews) or contactless.

The polar instant app is..... well.... just about bearable. It was obviously written a while ago and the UI is poor, but it does work. Most of the problems are down to losing data connection in car-parks, at which point it just spits out random errors.

...and it saves you 5p per kWh over contactless. I wonder if that's enough of an advantage to keep using it though once all the points are contactless enabled.

 

[Simon..Hewison]

The polar instant app is..... well.... just about bearable. It was obviously written a while ago and the UI is poor, but it does work. Most of the problems are down to losing data connection in car-parks, at which point it just spits out random errors.

...and it saves you 5p per kWh over contactless. I wonder if that's enough of an advantage to keep using it though once all the points are contactless enabled.

The Polar Instant app is better than it used to be.
(It used to fail entirely if you didn't have at least 3G network connectivity on your mobile phone, because the initial download of every chargepoint status in the country exceeded the network timeout).
Unfortunately, they've long since stopped issuing RFID cards to their Polar Instant customers. They were useful for using chargepoints in areas with poor mobile phone signal. For that benefit, now they want to sell you a monthly membership with RFID card.
BP Chargemaster aren't going to be updating their AC destination chargers to contactless payments. That's a huge number of useful chargers that you will still need either their pre-pay Polar Instant app, or their subscription service to access.

 

[Weebull]

BP Chargemaster aren't going to be updating their AC destination chargers to contactless payments. That's a huge number of useful chargers that you will still need either their pre-pay Polar Instant app, or their subscription service to access.

True.... and I think £1.20 for 7kW is pretty reasonable as long as you're there for a couple of hours or more.

 

[MarkyM]

MarkyM, are the chargers at the Reading services between J11 and J12?

Yes. Westbound. Part of BP petrol forecourt and not MSA carpark. Not active as yet though/not working.

 

[Big277wave]

Thanks MarkyM. Lets hope it's a part of a wider roll out at BP forecourts in MSA's. At the very least it shows it can be done to get around the Electric Highway monopoly.