Scottish chargers
1 - 20 of 240 Posts
Joined
·
751 Posts
... if there's any signal at the charger. Without wishing to be too gloomy, the chargers that don't work with the app are the ones where there is poor mobile communication. Not surprising really as that's how they "talk", too.
What part of Scotland, what is your route?
Hopefully you have plan Bs in hand.
Do CPS CYC offer an emergency RFID card service?
They do not.
Recently they have been especially bad at shipping out cards in general. I have heard a few people saying the wait time has been measured in months rather than days or weeks.
Best that can be done at this point is to hope you have a friend who also has an EV and holds a CPS or CYC Card that you could borrow, or taking extra care, planning very carefully to not arrive at a charger without enough range to get to alternatives. Make sure you have plenty of patience to struggle with the app too. Expect to have to force close and retry several times, and if in places with bad cell coverage maybe a bit of running around with your arm up in the air trying to find signal.
There's a high bell tower at Inverary, would that help?
Likely to be a few squeaky b#& moments on that trip sans RFID
hopefully all goes well.
OP could try contacting PlugShare users of the critical posts and find out if the App worked. Also have dual SIM cards in your phone.
On an off topic note, I was impressed with South Lanarkshire council's commitment to EV chargers.
Two new DC chargers, join the existing old one, and 3, twin socket AC chargers now at Abington and several two each of rapid and fasts have appeared a few miles south at Crawford.
Larkhall park & ride also have a similar selection. They are all free, though possibly not for long.
I do wish E-Volt would do something about the almost unreadable screens on their older chargers.
The CPS rfid card worked fine at all 4 chargers I used but max charge rate was 45kw on all of them, dropping to around 30 as 80% approached. (no fault of the chargers)
Two new DC chargers, join the existing old one, and 3, twin socket AC chargers now at Abington and several two each of rapid and fasts have appeared a few miles south at Crawford.
Larkhall park & ride also have a similar selection. They are all free, though possibly not for long.
I do wish E-Volt would do something about the almost unreadable screens on their older chargers.
The CPS rfid card worked fine at all 4 chargers I used but max charge rate was 45kw on all of them, dropping to around 30 as 80% approached. (no fault of the chargers)
Joined
·
751 Posts
Are the new Abington chargers live yet...? That will become a very useful stop once there isn't more than one unit available.
Not yet but looks like they just have to connect them all up - a week or so I expect. Then just needs public loos as well!
Joined
·
751 Posts
Agree on the loos...! I hope you're right on the activation, but they didn't look far off three months ago and I had heard July previously.
Maybe they are held up by Scottish Power providing a new supply from the adjacent overhead cables. Doesn't look like they have run cables fom the existing one.
Thanks all for your comments. I've just been made aware that since BP Pulse have taken over CYC I can use their app as an alternative, although being still being at the mercy of signal strength. Fingers crossed. I'll record my experiences on Zap-map as I tour.
Joined
·
1,381 Posts
Just for interest, looked at those chargers. Some free, some paid. None of the paid chargers take contactless payment. You are likely to find the app hit and miss. Sometimes I find with the app you have to try multiple times to start/end a charge. Recently I had to find a spot away from the car that must have had a better signal to activate the charge.
Joined
·
1,381 Posts
It's not uncommon to see new rapids installed with freshly laid tarmac in front. Then sometime later Scottish Power comes along and digs a trench right through the new tarmac for the supply cables 😆 Joined up thinking...
I don't know who told you that but it isn't true.
Chargeplace Scotland is currently operated by BP Chargemaster. This is the parent company of both CYC and BP Pulse (formerly Polar) networks. The two apps are not interchangeable.
There is an oddity at the moment with a few of Chargemaster's Ultracharge units being installed in Scotland on the CPS Network. They are accessed by the BP Pulse app instead but there are very few of them around, and frankly their app is significantly worse than the CYC one... which is also terrible.
Chargeplace Scotland will be transferred in July to Swarco. They will become the operator of the network from that point forward. Neither CYC Cards nor app will work after this point.
So how will we pay for a charge when visiting Scotland after the Swarco takeover? If the units have no contactless option and there is no signal what is the payment method?
Chargeplace Scotland RFID Card or Swarco's new app. The newer rapid chargers are all equipped with contactless too.
If you live in England and want a RFID Card you will have to register separately with Chargeplace Scotland if you currently hold a CYC card instead. They will no longer be interchangeable.
If you sign up today you will pay the first £20 Annual fee which will be scrapped from July onwards.
If you sign up in July you will not be subject to the annual fee, but Swarco will be applying a joining fee - The price hasn't yet been announced. So it would be your choice on what you think is best.
It's important to remember that the phone signal is definitely there because the charger itself is relying on it too. If your phone doesn't pick anything up, generally raising it in the air, going up a nearby hill, or getting out the way of a nearby building will generally give you signal to get a charge session started. Also if you have a dual SIM phone (Especially if on the Three network) I recommend making use of it if travelling into moore rural parts of Scotland. Get a prepaid SIM on a different network and put a small amount of credit on. That way you have the chance of connecting to two different networks.
Surely the CPS rfid card will still work?
CPS are still supplying it according to their website and have not replied to my email about what will change and when (which is not impressive to say the least)
I can't see the newer E-volt chargers being replaced as many have just or are being installed, eg Lochgilphead, Inveraray, Larkhall, Abington, Crawford.
1 - 20 of 240 Posts
Join the discussion
Join now to ask and comment!