[mad_rich]

Off to visit my parents in North London tomorrow. As luck would have it, they are having their driveway dig up, so no chance of a granny cable.

Zap-Map shows a charger from Source London two minutes' walk away:

It’s 7p a minute, including parking charge. Plus 1.4p/ minute extra in Camden, because who knows why? But overnight charges are capped at 4 hours. Assume that’s charges as in ‘cost’ capped, not charges as in ‘electrons’! And assume that it’s the 7p element that’s capped, not the 1.4p, but that's a guess.

That’s for a 7kW charger. 22kW chargers are three times the power but only twice the price, so better value? Except you don’t get the 4 hour cap overnight. And parking would be free overnight anyway.

Thought you’d worked it out? That’s the PAYG price. It’s slightly cheaper with a £10 RFID card (can I use my own?), and cheaper again with a £4/ month subscription.

Really simple then. It’s either 18, 26, 30, 32, 36, 39, 48 or 57p per kWh. Roughly.

 

[teepee]

Excellent summary- it really is that confusing..... We live in London and avoid Source London like the plague! Can your parents get you a resident permit for overnight and charge on the (slow) Ubritricity (24p per kwh) lamppost chargers? Otherwise a trip to sainsbury at Camden for a free Pod Point (7kw) or Morrisons at Camden for Geniepoint rapid charge (pricey). Good luck..

 

[80698]

You'll learn pretty quickly to just ignore and avoid Source London. Even the local residents tend to go with Polar and Ubitricity from what I have seen.

On my London trips I tend to just top up at a rapid on my way in and then find my car doesn't get much use while I am there. Just before I head back I'll stick it on charge at the nearest Pod Point to get up to a full charge for my return journey.

 

[PetrolEd]

And I thought in Portugal things were weird. Here depending on the charger we might have to pay an activation fee, then we pay X per minute or per kWh depending on the charger operator and we pay the used kWh to our selected energy provider.

Can you imagine the same with a petrol car? You lift the nozzle up, you pay 0.10 cents, now you fill your car at BP you have to pay 0.50 cents per liter to BP but since your petrol provider is Shell you have to also pay 0.70 cents per liter to Shell.

 

[mad_rich]

Thanks both. There look to be plenty of Ubitricity posts fairly nearby, with relatively lenient parking restrictions.

 

[teepee]

Thanks both. There look to be plenty of Ubitricity posts fairly nearby, with relatively lenient parking restrictions.

Let us know how you get on. Good luck.

 

[ohit1]

Off to visit my parents in North London tomorrow. As luck would have it, they are having their driveway dig up, so no chance of a granny cable.

Zap-Map shows a charger from Source London two minutes' walk away:

It’s 7p a minute, including parking charge. Plus 1.4p/ minute extra in Camden, because who knows why? But overnight charges are capped at 4 hours. Assume that’s charges as in ‘cost’ capped, not charges as in ‘electrons’! And assume that it’s the 7p element that’s capped, not the 1.4p, but that's a guess.

That’s for a 7kW charger. 22kW chargers are three times the power but only twice the price, so better value? Except you don’t get the 4 hour cap overnight. And parking would be free overnight anyway.

Thought you’d worked it out? That’s the PAYG price. It’s slightly cheaper with a £10 RFID card (can I use my own?), and cheaper again with a £4/ month subscription.

Really simple then. It’s either 18, 26, 30, 32, 36, 39, 48 or 57p per kWh. Roughly.

Being London, I often target using Source London just for the parking with charging as a bonus.

 

[AndyK]

Don't Ubitricity posts require an Ubitricity cable in order to manage the session and billing? I don't think they're available for just anyone to plug into.

 

[80698]

Don't Ubitricity posts require an Ubitricity cable in order to manage the session and billing? I don't think they're available for just anyone to plug into.

Many of them now have direct access with your own basic type 2 cable. Scan a QR code to pay and you're charging.

 

[AndyK]

Many of them now have direct access with your own basic type 2 cable. Scan a QR code to pay and you're charging.

Interesting. What a shame they're exclusively in resident only bays

 

[mad_rich]

Don't Ubitricity posts require an Ubitricity cable in order to manage the session and billing? I don't think they're available for just anyone to plug into.

The ones local to my parents have a PAYG option, according to the website. Scan a QR code to make payment, and plug in with your own type 2. Parking is unrestricted except for 2 hrs in the middle of the day.

Kindly neighbour has allowed me to park on her drive for a few hours this evening and plug the granny in, but in hindsight it was hardly worth it!

 

[ohit1]

The ones local to my parents have a PAYG option, according to the website. Scan a QR code to make payment, and plug in with your own type 2. Parking is unrestricted except for 2 hrs in the middle of the day.

Kindly neighbour has allowed me to park on her drive for a few hours this evening and plug the granny in, but in hindsight it was hardly worth it!

Is that zone 2 camden? Lucky you have driveways options! Imagine this whole thread for anyone with no off-street parking!

That's the challenge of EV ownership for most people in London.

 

[80698]

That's the challenge of EV ownership for most people in London.

I lived in London for just under a year with no off street parking and an old LEAF. I Found it surprisingly easy after the first couple of weeks of finding a charging routine that worked for me. I pretty much exclusively used Pod Point and the occasional Ecotricity.

I Can see why it may be something that puts people off, but once you get used to it there was no real problem for me at all. Had I not been a cheapskate and paid for Polar it would have been even easier!

 

[teepee]

Is that zone 2 camden? Lucky you have driveways options! Imagine this whole thread for anyone with no off-street parking!

That's the challenge of EV ownership for most people in London.

Agreed - I'm in London and jump around the public chargers in the vicinity - have taken to free Pod Point at Sainsbury and Polar + which is one of my nearest. Ubritricity lamposts are always ICED as they are resident bays and not cordoned off for EVs only so any car can legally park on them.

 

[mad_rich]

More like zone 3 really, but yes they're lucky.

Ubritricity lamposts are always ICED as they are resident bays and not cordoned off for EVs only so any car can legally park on them.

That's a deliberate design approach, according to the interview with Ubitricity I saw on Fully Charged.

They convert three lampposts per request, and hope that you'll be able to get near one, once in a while. It's kind of understandable - the councils don't want to be restricting another valuable parking space if they can help it

 

[teepee]

Agreed - when all cars are EVs it won't matter!

 

[Kingpleb1]

For me when i have to visit london i park in the office car park and plug the granny lead in overnight, does enough of a job on a 30kwh leaf thats for sure and the odd time ive been further out i've found a sainsburys or such with a podpoint and then just asked the security staff very nicely if there is a way of getting the parking time limit extended for me as im stuck and need more than 2hrs charge. Only once did i get told it wasn't possible
the rest were happy to do it as i was buying stuff from the store as well.

 

[Kingpleb1]

More like zone 3 really, but yes they're lucky.


That's a deliberate design approach, according to the interview with Ubitricity I saw on Fully Charged.

They convert three lampposts per request, and hope that you'll be able to get near one, once in a while. It's kind of understandable - the councils don't want to be restricting another valuable parking space if they can help it

They should make at least one of those 3/6 spaces EV only though. that would go along way to helping out and moving people into them.

 

[londonguy]

Recent convert to EV ownership here, and Source London nearly put me off entirely when I first started researching public charging around London (where I live).

It makes me furious that council tax was spent on installing so many charging points, only for it to be handed over to a company that operates such a confusing (and very expensive!) charging strategy.

Forgetting the overnight cap - which could be useful if you don't mind traipsing to the car at 6.45AM to move it - it would cost, what, £24.78 to fully charge my Corsa (presuming, because they charge by minute, that it delivers a continuous 7kw for the whole time that it likely won't), vs £14.50 at the rapid charger 3 minutes further down the road. I find it bonkers to be paying more for a 7kw AC charge, than a 50kw DC rapid, but hey-ho.

This, admittedly, is assuming you don't pay the monthly membership fee for either network to take advantage of slightly lower rates.

Thankfully I discovered my apartment building has had to install its own EV charging ports as part of the planning they were granted for the next phase of development, but many in London don't have this luxury.

 

[teepee]

Recent convert to EV ownership here, and Source London nearly put me off entirely when I first started researching public charging around London (where I live).

It makes me furious that council tax was spent on installing so many charging points, only for it to be handed over to a company that operates such a confusing (and very expensive!) charging strategy.

Forgetting the overnight cap - which could be useful if you don't mind traipsing to the car at 6.45AM to move it - it would cost, what, £24.78 to fully charge my Corsa (presuming, because they charge by minute, that it delivers a continuous 7kw for the whole time that it likely won't), vs £14.50 at the rapid charger 3 minutes further down the road. I find it bonkers to be paying more for a 7kw AC charge, than a 50kw DC rapid, but hey-ho.

This, admittedly, is assuming you don't pay the monthly membership fee for either network to take advantage of slightly lower rates.

Thankfully I discovered my apartment building has had to install its own EV charging ports as part of the planning they were granted for the next phase of development, but many in London don't have this luxury.

You're lucky with the aprtments installing EV charging - I'm still battling away on that one with the freeholders.