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Scottish chargers

18K views 257 replies 24 participants last post by  farmergiles 
#1 ·
Oh dear, booked to tour Scotland from Friday coming and was intending to use CYC app to access CPS chargers. Seen bad comments about the app and too late to order a CPS card. Am I doomed?
 
#3 ·
... 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.
 
#9 ·
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)
 
#10 ·
Are the new Abington chargers live yet...? That will become a very useful stop once there isn't more than one unit available.
 
#15 ·
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.
 
#34 ·
Due to a family issue I suddenly needed to get to the Perth area from Cornwall. The journey was epic at over 600 miles in a C-Zero, taking from 9am last Friday morning to 4am the next day with the only rest breaks being when charging (so high frequency but short duration, approx 20 minutes rest after every 1 hour of driving) but due to some kind of good fortune every one of the many Electric Highway chargers worked with 3-4 being free vends.

As this was an unplanned journey I had not yet ordered an RFID card from Chargeplace Scotland so I ordered it online on Sunday morning.

Yesterday an email came confirming that DD payment will be taken tomorrow. I phoned Chargeplace Scotland today and was told that the card will not be processed until the payment is received, that process will take 3-5 working days before it is actually posted out and also they are waiting for a new batch of cards to be delivered.

This means that a large chunk of Scotland is not going to be accessible to me for around a fortnight from my date of arrival here, this being all the best bits in the Highlands and my Aunt in Inverness. There are other network charger that just about make it possible to go northeast to the Aberdeen area but the crucial A9 northbound route ends for me 25 miles north of the Nae Limits Cafe Osprey charger, which is 90 miles south of Inverness.

As for going west the furthest chargers I can use are in Dunblane or Stirling, neither of which even get me close enough to go to Loch Lomond.

I sincerely hope that the new network will be easier and quicker for visitors to Scotland to join and use.
 
#35 ·
This means that a large chunk of Scotland is not going to be accessible to me for around a fortnight from my date of arrival here, this being all the best bits in the Highlands and my Aunt in Inverness. There are other network charger that just about make it possible to go northeast to the Aberdeen area but the crucial A9 northbound route ends for me 25 miles north of the Nae Limits Cafe Osprey charger, which is 90 miles south of Inverness.

As for going west the furthest chargers I can use are in Dunblane or Stirling, neither of which even get me close enough to go to Loch Lomond.

I sincerely hope that the new network will be easier and quicker for visitors to Scotland to join and use.
Your point is well taken, and I agree it should be easier however you don't need the card to charge - you can just log into the CYC app using the account you must have already created to order the card, and start charging via the app, which is no worse than ecotricity where you have to sign up and use an app to start a charge.

Granted, the app is a bit flaky (one reason why CYC has lost the contract for CPS I'm sure) but at a pinch you could call the helpline to start a charge.

Having said all that travelling around the remote parts of Scotland with only CPS coverage in a C-Zero takes some courage, when I first got my Ion I attempted a few further afield trips but after being bitten a couple of times by faulty chargers with no nearby alternatives and looking at the disappointing number of chargers out of order on proposed routes I gave it up. Even now with a Leaf with twice the range I plan carefully and still sometimes take the ICE.

Good luck on your journey, and fingers crossed that Swarco taking over has a positive effect on Chargeplace Scotland. It's only a couple of months away now.
 
#43 ·
Bizarrely the CPS app complains of signal issues when you are at a charger with a mobile mast nearby so full signal. The location was a railway station where I'd imagine all networks work perfectly.

As for SMARTY, ditched them some time ago as the signal is very patchy in the countryside around here whereas Lebara [vodafone] is infinitely better :)
 
#49 ·
£20 for an RFID card that will have cost them pennies is also annoying. GeniePoint are not exactly brilliant but the way they let you register any RFID card, and any number of RFID cards, is very handy, obviously I have registered my debit card as well as an RFID card for another network.
 
#54 ·
Yeah, not really bothered about apportioning blame for the fact that the CPS network (which is the only CCS option once you get north and west of the A9) is so unreliable. Just saying that the fact it’s the only option is not really ideal and it would have been interesting to see whether, if CPS had never been developed by the Scottish Government, we would by now have stated seeing chargers from other networks in further north & west which were more reliable and perhaps also installed in pairs more frequently.
 
#55 ·
Certainly in the region of Scotland where I reside the charging network is top-notch. Recently they are doubling up rapids and adding a fast charger posts. All rapids take contactless so no RFID/App required. The only old posts are in some stations, still free with no issues.

Sadly, the regions I usually go to are blxxdy awful :(

Cheers!
 
#57 · (Edited)
#58 ·
Doing Southampton - Isle of Skye trip this coming BH weekend. Managed to order CYC card so we'll see how it goes.

All just before Highland Council introduces tarriffs for their CPS chargers:
The only 'danger' zone is Fort William or Roybridge to Shielbridge. It's only 55miles but best to assume one or other is offline so top up around Fort William, or you can divert to Fort Augustus.
Zapmap shows all the chargers, not just the CPS ones, so worth checking this if necessary.
 
#60 ·
There are no other chargers up in the northwest (except Tesla Superchargers at Fort William and a couple of random ZapHome or dodgy looking Zeronet 7kW units sprinkled around).

It’s basically CPS, and then if they don’t work it’s the granny charger and good samaritan.

Take a long extension.



144862
 
#63 ·
Saying it’s working and it actually working aren’t always the same thing:

The screens on the E-volt chargers are often almost invisible, fooling me into thinking the charger was off line until I stuck my face 2" from it. Fortunately these are not touchscreens so you can start & stop a charge by presenting the rfid card, and pressing start, you'll then hear the cooling fans start whirring. Same procedure for stopping.
 
#64 ·
Each morning I was there, and then again during each charging stop, I would take time to check the CPS map, ZapMap and also PlugShare for reported status, recent comments and also past comments to get an idea of the general reliability of each unit that I would potentially need/want to stop at.

The ideal scenario is for your next planned charger to have both a positive live status but also a very recent reported 'last charge' or positive comment. Rarely happens though IME (partly because people often don’t bother to report success).

Anything else (eg the status is good, but no recent positive comments and lots of old negative ones) is more risky and you should be prepared to have to keep going to the next charger, or the one after that (at least).
 
#65 ·
Each morning I was there, and then again during each charging stop, I would take time to check the CPS map, ZapMap and also PlugShare for reported status, recent comments and also past comments to get an idea of the general reliability of each unit that I would potentially need/want to stop at.

The ideal scenario is for your next planned charger to have both a positive live status but also a very recent reported 'last charge' or positive comment. Rarely happens though IME (partly because people often don’t bother to report success).

Anything else (eg the status is good, but no recent positive comments and lots of old negative ones) is more risky and you should be prepared to have keep going to the next charger, or the one after that (at least).
Yes, that makes sense.
Regarding the terrain, for example, its 120miles from Tyndrum (relatively flat from Glasgow) to the Kyle, but add 25% as a safety margin should the charger turn out to be faulty.
From my trip to Argyll last weekend, I'd be tempted to stop more often for a top up, especially if it is wet and/or windy.
 
#66 ·
According to ABRP I should arrive at Tyndrum with some 37% SOC. There are apparently 2 separate CPS charger locations in this town. Then there are few more on the way to Fort William (including 7kW ones as a last resort) if these are dead. I guess I should be fine.
P.S. I have no granny charger
 
#67 ·
According to ABRP I should arrive at Tyndrum with some 37% SOC. There are apparently 2 separate CPS chargers locations in this town. Then there are few more on the way to Fort William if these are dead. I guess I should be fine.
P.S. I have no granny charger
Tyndrum is basically two railway stops, a cafe with a charger and filling station with one and not much else. There are chargers at Crianlarich if your range is getting worrying (and in case both Tyndrum charges are off line).
 
#68 ·
I have then upgraded Tyndrum :)
Thanks for your tips. Will be checking the status of the chargers on CPS Live Map as well as other apps when taking off.

Strangely most CPS rapid chargers in the area have CCS in unknown status on the CPS map while AC and CHAdeMO seem to have status updated.
 
#72 ·
So you don't need me to tell you about the great scenery once you reach Loch Lomond and beyond!

The best strategy in an EV in remote areas, with dubious charger reliability, is never to drive past a charger, which is no hardship as you can admire the vistas whilst doing a 20-30min top up.
 
#76 ·
I’m away for a few days in SW Scotland and have to say the charging using the CYC network has been “challenging”.

Went to Stranraer yesterday, where there are chargers in two public car parks - Breastworks and Hannover Street.

4 posts in Hannover Street. 3 were ICE’d so tried the fourth, which was a 50 kw charger. Not working...

went to Breastworks car park, an I3 owned by the council on the “fast” side but the 7(11?) kw side was free so we plugged in and went about our shopping and lunch trip. 2.5 hours later the council car was still plugged into the rapid side.

Today we went to Whithorn, get some lunch and use the chargers there. There are 2 x 22 kw posts, not on free vend, but as where we are staying has no charging facilities it would be worth topping up while we ate.

CYC card activated the charger, plugged in but no communication with the car. Same on both posts and no number to call for help...just the Chargeplace Scotland website to fill a form in. Not really helpful.

Anyway we went up the coast to Port William where there is a 7kw charger, and a cafe, so we took the non ICE’d side of the charger, successfully plugged in and got from 50 to 59% while we had lunch.

it’s a bit of a rant but I’m really peed off that there are so many posts in the area ICE’d, and why does Chargeplace Scotland not give a helpline number on all the chargers so you can report and maybe even get the post reset remotely? 😕
 
#77 · (Edited)
The CPS E-Volt chargers I have used in Lanarkshire and Argyll all have had a contact number on them.
CPS are not themselves responsible for the charger maintenance, this is the owner's responsibility, which may be a Local Authority or not.
Action is desperately needed, including large penalty notices of a £60 fine for ICE vehicles occupying EV bays and overstay penalties. It's not rocket science but no one seem to want to take action.
Hopefully Swarco will do a better jobfrom July but it won't be an overnight job.
 
#79 ·
ICEd is a problem but so are some EV or PHEV owners who plug in to a rapid then bugger off for the day, met two of them today on an epic journey around Loch Lomond by C-Zero, a Leaf was sat plugged in at Crieff but not charging, but fortunately I was able to pull the cable out of that car and the charger then let me charge.

Not so later at Callander where a Landrover PHEV was charging on CSS, the charging stopped but no way to pull out that cable and the app kept saying the charger was “no longer available”

10 minutes later the owner turned up but could not understand when I politely pointed out that he had kept me waiting 10 minutes, saying that he had arrived 5 minutes before the car told him it would be finished. I pointed out that the car had obviously been wrong and asked if he could try using an app or something to tell him when it had actually finished but he was adamant that he was going to continue to go by what the car told him and kept calling me pal. I said he was being inconsiderate but he said I was (by talking to him I think?) After about three unsuccessful attempts to reason with him politely but assertively I am ashamed to say I used a very rude word to describe him (yes I am guilty of EV charging rage) then he left. However the app continued saying the charger was “no longer available” and the help line couldn’t help 🙄 saying that the charger was telling them the CCS was still in use even though the CCS cable was back in its holster and all the lights were green and had been for about half an hour by that point.

I had 9 miles range left and the nearest charger was 9 miles away at Aberfoyle over a large hill and in the wrong direction, but by ultrahypermiling (20mph up hill, coasting down hill) I made it with 5 miles remaining on the GOM, of which I am immensely proud.

The Aberfoyle charger worked after the traditional couple of false starts and I purchased and consumed a “fish supper” swimming in grease while I waited(of which I am less proud but it was getting late by this stage.

Last stop on way home was Auchterader where there was one working charger plus two more brand new ones still under wraps.

After a ten minute top up I had oodles of range to spare so allowed myself the luxury of a 70mph blast back to my temporary abode.
 
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