Hello, am about to take delivery of MG ZS EV. Cannot charge at home so will have to charge from public chargers. Who the hell shall I go with? there are so many !!! thought about Polar but ALL I seem to read about them is all the chargers seem to be either broken or out of service !! Polar charging seems to be the most numerous in my area, in fact, 1 literally 3 minutes away at a train station. ADVICE PLEASE. THANKS. ps ARE THEY REALLY AS BAD AS I READ?
What company to go with?
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Oh dear.
Unless you can leave your car at a public charger for a long while (most non rapids are max 7kW which will take 5-6 hours to fully charge), you'll really need to be using rapids to be charging your car surely? Have a look at zap map to see what is about. Quite a few Lidls have rapid chargers, and Instavolts are supposed to be pretty reliable. You don't have to only use Polar, Lidls are podpoint for example and run via an app, you just need to top up minimum £5, Instavolts take contactless.
A polar plus subscription for around £8 a month though may be worthwhile as many of the 7kW points are free with that, but again using slower chargers will probably mean you'll probably want to set it charging and go home (or go to work if it's near work) rather than sit in the car for many hours.
Hi thanks for the post reply, I understand I will have to rapid charge, don't the supermarkets have rapid chargers? I was under the impression that I could charge to 80% in about 40 minutes ? I am retired so thought I could charge to 80% when my charge started to go low? I only use the car to do pickups from nursery for my granddaughter and small journeys to supermarket for shopping and a cuppa. I need a car because I'm disabled and I wouldnt be able to go anywhere without my car lol. So EV sounded ideal lol. It will come fully charged and intended to just top up as I needed to. I intended going to join Chargemaster plus and the electric highway for any motorway driving I may do very seldom. Do you reckon that should do?
In general the big supermarkets like Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys are mostly "fast" chargers at 7kW max. This may be sufficient if you do a very low mileage and are happy to just charge for an hour or two whilst you have a cuppa. That should comfortably give you 20-30 miles of range per hour of charging.
If the ones you are likely to use are Polar, then you're kind of stuck with them, I've never used them. But Podpoint do a lot of the Sainsburys and Tesco charge points, have you looked on Zapmap.com for your area? you can filter by charge speed, a rapid charger will be something that charger at 50kW or more, that's the only type that will get you to 80% in 30-40 minutes.
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Most do not. Morrison's have started rolling out rapids. All three in my area have Rapids.
Many new Lidl stores have a single rapid.
You should have researched this before buying the car.
They've been 23p/kWh for quite some time now. Maybe even more than a year at this point.
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Thanks for the correction.I didn't know that. No Lidl charging in my area although one is on the way.
I edited my post to avoid confusion.
I edited my post to avoid confusion.
I too have to rely on public charging - in fact just off to Sainsbury shoppng and a free charge.
If you check out Zap Map you will find chargers that are convenient for you - your usage sounds as though topping up at supermarkets while you shop should be sufficient. (7kwh speed so about 20 -30 miles per hour)
Tesco/Sainsbury tend to have Pod Point (free) and Waitrose/Asda have Polar (most free for Polar Plus Subscribers). I have a Polar Plus subcscription and use the Polar RFID card - I have yet to have any problems at all. I think a lot of the issues you read about Polar are from people using the app instead of the Polar card.
Enjoy the experiance.
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As a new owner (1 month and counting) I too was a bit baffled. I'm fortunate to be able to charge at home for the majority of the time though. However, I do make the occasional longer journey. I ruled out most off the app/keycard suppliers, bar Podpoint, as there's one at my local Lidl, and it's a Rapidcharger, and it's cheaper than my other local Engenie Rapidcharger (23p vs 36p).
You can set Zapmap to only show the charging firms that accept 'contactless' payment, though bear in mind that any newly installed chargers must now be contactless, so it's qetting better by the month.
Mcdonald are rolling out Rapidchargers, which will prove to be a game changer and should make the likes of Engenie, and expensive motorway chargers lower their cost.
My favourite charging away from home option is to pop into Doncaster town centre on a Saturday and use the free 7kW fast charger. 3 hours of free parking, and around 80 miles worth of free miles on my cat. Win-win!
You can set Zapmap to only show the charging firms that accept 'contactless' payment, though bear in mind that any newly installed chargers must now be contactless, so it's qetting better by the month.
Mcdonald are rolling out Rapidchargers, which will prove to be a game changer and should make the likes of Engenie, and expensive motorway chargers lower their cost.
My favourite charging away from home option is to pop into Doncaster town centre on a Saturday and use the free 7kW fast charger. 3 hours of free parking, and around 80 miles worth of free miles on my cat. Win-win!
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This is not the question to ask after you have already committed to taking an EV.
You'll have to figure this out.
How does this help answer the question of the OP?
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Gives him time to not accept the car, possibly.
If he continues to accept it, then it means he's now found his own solution.
You make it sound like regulations force you to choose 1 supplier and stick with them.
The answer is that you use whatever charger is convenient to you that is working at the time you try it. If Polar are aplenty in your area then it is likely they will often meet your needs, they are not always broken.
As mentioned, Instavolt are rolling out chargers into McDonalds which means that before long, there will be chargers close to everyone that are provided by probably the most reliable provider in the country.
Just always ensure that you have a backup plan. Dont roll up to a charger with a mile or 2 left in the battery. And if you are expecting to plan your day around the use of free chargers, bear in mind that they are often blocked by others that had the same plan and got there first.
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@Steve463 It's possibly the case that you've read that a subscription is necessary. This isn't true (although Polar chargers will cost less to use after paying a monthly fee). All chargepoints are ad hoc accessible (no account needed). Sometimes, this involves a phone call to the operator. However, you should always be able to start a charge regardless of the network the charger is on.
Be wary of reports of offline chargers. Online driver reports are often inaccurate and do not reflect actual charger status. It's far more likely that 'failed' charges will be reported, not successful ones! The maps shown by network operators are usually a more reliable of information.
You've made a good choice with the car. Use rapid chargers (the more powerful ones, 50kW+) if you can for quick top-ups. 'Fast' chargers, such as those as supermarkets, won't give you enough charge for your specific needs as they are slower - usually 3-7 kW.
If you could give an indication of whereabouts you live, I'm sure some of the contributors to this thread will be able to take you through your options.
<sigh>
Asked a similar question myself yesterday as I tried some public charging for the first time. The networks appear to be a mess with too many competing and apps that simply don’t work.
What I’ve concluded so far is the rapid chargers are to be used out of necessity, mainly because they’re expensive but also because they place greater wear on the battery. Polar plus seems to be worthwhile if you’ll use it. For occasional use payg/instant is more cost effective but the app sometimes can’t communicate with the charger and nobody answers the phone so Polar Instan can’t be relied upon.
Instavolt, though expensive, seems to work.
Freebie charging taking opportunities where available is definitely a win.
No, you don't need to top up. As long as the charging point is free.
I have done almost all my charging over the last 7 months with Polar/Chargemaster using the card I get via ONTO and I am yet to find an out of service charger. We have three sets of Polars at work all of which work all the time, there are two rapids that I have used on a regular basis and a few others on longer trips. In fact the only broken charger I have found was a single stall at a Tesla supercharger. I found one Chargemaster that was reported as not working but actually only needed a reset. I had to wait 10min on hold for them to answer the phone but it was then reset in a couple of minutes.
- Thanks ALL of you for your answers. The situation is that I'm having my car on the 'motability' scheme and the deposit was only 299 quid. I hardly do any long distance driving at all, only occasionally, its all mainly around the local area, which although its local, costs a fortune in petrol, at the moment ive got a Nissan X Trail ive had for a year which has the new engine in it (the new 1.3 engine) which was supposed to be really economical, hahaha anyway, I have managed to end my agreement with motabilities permission and are now allowed to look for another car. I saw the MG ZS EV was only 299 and, well, thought it was the answer. Being in Birmingham there are loads of chargers, all the main supermafkets are only 5 mins away Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons and im 2 minutes away from a railway station with chargers. I think im going with Polar plus and getti g a couple of other companies cards like def the motorway one and I think the Lidl one. The prob I have for home chargi g is we live on a scheme and our flat is not near the car park. Im going to ask permission but I dont think we will get it.
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