Luckypants

I think maybe a fair number have closed since you stopped using LPG. We had an 'LPG Finder' app (remarkably similar to EV charging apps) and there was nothing on / near our route home from Grantown-on-Spey down the A9. There was an out of service one at Perth. We got filled with LPG at Hamilton Morrisons south of Glasgow which we had a short wait for as both nozzles were in use. The reduction in filling points is making the remaining ones a little busier. My driver was a little shocked at the lack of filling points as he is new to LPG. Using mainly petrol for running about made a pricey weekend fuel wise. (Whisky made it a pricey weekend anyway!) The parallels between scarce LPG filling stations and charge points were interesting.

Yes i can. I can also tell the nav to only use those with x chargers free. The 2024 model V4.0 software improves on this even more, allowing preferred operators etc and now includes Tesla chargers open to all (Tesla nav only uses Tesla chargers)

I went up to Speyside over the weekend in an MPV that had an LPG conversion (lift sharing). Those LPG filling points are proper rare and hard to find, often being in some old gadger's yard. As a comparison I was metally noting all the places I could have charged my car if we had taken that - they were very frequent and available and fast. BEV on the road is easy - truth. The only time charging might have been awkward was Sunday lunchtime at Tebay services as they were rammed but as alluded to above my car would have informed me of this and I could have planned to charge elsewhere. I've decided to avoid Tebay in future if travelling on a Sunday, not because of a possible queue for a charger but because of queues for every other amenity. As an aside, we were visiting distilleries and most had destination chargers - ideal as most visits were 2 hours or more (taking the tour) to give a really good boost while doing something fun. PS Cairn Lodge services are a better bet if on M6/M74, not as busy as Tebay but run by the same company to the same standard.

I've been thinking a Born might be a better replacement for the ID.4 than an ID.3. Same car but with a better interior from what I've read. I'm finding the versions and specs impenetrable though....

One of the main benefits of the app is being able to start the aircon remotely. Fire it up on cold days when returning to the car and by the time you get to the car its toasty. also works to cool the car on hot days.

@wyx087 I messaged you so as not to derail.

The answer to your dillema about needing 80% minimum would be to book an Airbnb with a charger and charge your car overnight. 100% in the morning. Destination charging like this makes trips away a doddle. PS I guessed the right car.

Oh and for reference, My peak charge speed ever was 164kW on a Tesla V3 charger in France. That soon dropped as the battery got hot (32C outside temp) and gave an average charge speed over the session of 95kW delivering 52kWh to the car. My best average was at the Tesla charger at Folkstone Eurotunnel of 110kw delivering 48kWh to the car (peak power was 145-ish but maintained it longer). I consistently get close to 50kW from 50kW chargers and 75kW from 75kW chargers if below 60% SoC. I don't rapid charge a lot compared to some, so I do think about it in order to optimise things.

As Ootohere states, to get a meaningful reply you should really tell us what your car will be. However, I'll relate my experiences with a VW ID.4 (closely related to Enyaq). I have had mainly very fast DC charges where conditions allow, up to 160kW and often over 100kW. It helps to understand what it takes to get a fast charging session and make sure you get as many of those factors lined up. Charger capable of your max charge rate or more - I think you know this but some folks still pull up to 50kW chargers and expect 100kW because their car can do it! Arrive with low State of Charge - The lower the better from a charging perspective. No need to worry about going below 20% SoC if you are going to immediately charge so go as low as you dare without running out. All my best charge sessions have been from below 10% SoC. Arrive with a warm battery - The chemical reaction in a battery to store electrons happens faster at higher temperatures. Unless your car has battery pre-conditioning (pre-heat) there is little you can do about this. Warm days definitely help but a long motorway cruise hardly affects the battery temp. You will get better speeds after a drive on a cold day than if you charged very first thing but the improvement is not great. On a long trip, you may find the second and subsequent rapid charges are faster due to the heating effect of rapid charging on the battery. Only charge enough for what you need - rapid charging slows as the battery fills up and on SOME cars it can tail off dramatically. Get to know where the 'drop off point' is for your car, over which it's hardly worth hanging on to the charger. For my car its about 87%. If speed of charging is the aim, move on when charging tails off and drive to your next charger. Some chargers share power - Related to point 1. Some chargers allow two cars to plug in simultaneously but their maximum power output is shared. Thus a 150kW charger might only give 75kW max to each car plugged in. Avoid these if you want max speed. No doubt others will refine / add to these points but I hope it gives an idea.

Why move it if its charging? This is my whole point about destination charging. If my hotel has a charger for overnight 7kW charging, plugging into that for many hours while I sleep is preferable to plugging into a rapid then having to get up / go out to move the car when charged. I'm not blocking the charger if I'm charging and I don't need to move it. I plan to arrive at such places at low SoC if on a road trip and charge up ready for the next leg - plug in last thing at night and leave it charging for the 10 or so hours it will need for the charge needed.

Same in all walks of life unfortunately, there are always selfish bungholes who take the ****. I could do the same, but do not. The examples I gave above are actually just that - examples.

I feel largely the same about long distance travel. Destination charging can make trips easy to do, so I'm always looking for B&B / Hotels with overnight charging facilities. Rapids at hotels make little sense if staying overnight, I don't want to move my car once settled in. VW Travel Assist rocks.

Not necessarily tax payer funded in this case. Its the owner of the chargepoint who sets the tariff, CPS is just the umbrella organisation who manage the chargers on the owner's behalf. In the case above the subsidy is from Culzean Castle and the Robert Burns museum. A quick Google shows both locations are owned / managed by National Trust Scotland. This is consistent with many chargers at National Trust sites in the rest of the UK who provide free EV charging. (although they are now embarking on an upgrade scheme that will see charges levied for EV charging) Your statement on how useful these are is also erroneous. 7kW DESTINATION chargers are the ideal solution at somewhere where you will spend a significant amount of time. Both of these locations are places you are likely to spend at least a couple of hours, giving a decent charge. All the NT properties I visit regularly I will be there 2 hours and at Bodnant Gardens we often spend four hours there which would give me an extra 100 miles if I plugged in. Destination chargers are not intended to be part of a splash and dash charging strategy on a long trip.

Seems like a proper Rolls. I think a 250 mile range will be fine for a car like this as any further it will be private helicopter or jet for the rich folks that may buy it. Even so, charging is unlikely to bother the owner either, Parker will do that!

Not sure a heating element would help VAG fuel/charge flap locks from sticking. The problem seems to be caused by water ingress, which rusts the actuator to buggery. As said, charge flaps are open longer so exposed to the wet much more - so these seem to fail more frequently on EV than ICE VAG cars. There has been an interesting thread on SpeakEV about replacing the actuators, because now cars are coming out of warranty people are trying to fix for themselves as this can be an expensive failure at the dealer. I think the OP on that thread was charged £300 in total for the repair. https://www.speakev.com/threads/4-years-in-and-now-a-knocking.184672/

True and it seems worse on EVs. The theory goes that EV charge flaps are open longer while charging, getting wet and covered in snow so fail more frequently than on their ICE siblings. I keep my charge flap latch actuator regularly lubed to try to avoid this.

For maintenance it probably has a 'service position' just like most cars do for front wipers that are tucked under the bonnet. As for frost, heated screens....... EVs are capable of running electrical items without being switched on. My ID.4 automatically defrosts front and REAR screens below a certain temperature if pre-heating is activated (which can be automatic itself).

I saw the launch photos and got all huffy about no rear wiper and muddy Welsh roads.... but watched this video and Ginny showed it tucked up in the rear spoiler. I like this car.

Ideal for a lunch stop then. (or a supermarket shop! )

FWIW Sainsburys have their own charging arm that is rolling out rapid charging to it's stores. See https://smartcharge.co.uk/ They are aiming for 100 hubs this year IIRC. That might see something come to your town. As for other supermarkets, AC charging is the wrong model. People don't spend long enough at a supermarket to get a worthwhile charge. At short dwell locations, rapid chargers like Sainsbury are doing is the way forward. It does look like Perth will have an embarrassment of riches in the charging department. Shame that for me it does not fall as a natural stop if heading north of there.

The economics still only work if you can charge at home. For me, the cut-off point is a lot higher as a similar diesel car would do about 45mpg driving around here (this is what my previous Karoq 2.0TDi did), so my cutoff to be better than diesel is 50p/kWh at 3.5 mile/kWh or 15p per mile. I often do better than 3.5 in decent weather but its easy to forget my winter average was 3.4 for October through to end of March. It's very hard to find public charging below 40p/kWh unless you live next door to a Tesla charger so public charging is something I manage to avoid most of the time.

I've never got close to WLTP (or other methodology) MPG figures in my ICE vehicles, so why would I as a rational person, expect to achieve them in BEV? The nonsense is the people who overlook this when assessing BEVs and concluding they are rubbish as they don't meet WLTP 'in the real world' but conveniently forget their diesel does not do 70mpg 'in the real world'. Like Stonekeeper, I use them as a comparison tool.

I think the final count is now 69 sites open to all.

Having a lot of difficulty working out a 2.5p per mile petrol figure. You either get VERY cheap petrol or your car does over 200 mpg? Petrol is £1.50 a litre here.

Well mine is not. Long story mentioned many times before, my smart meter does not work (and DCC / Government stink.) I'm on the daily rate Tracker tariff as a courtesy from Octopus until smart meter coverage is fixed enabled in my area. Tracker has been averaging just below 20p/kWh If I ever get to the nirvana of a working smart meter the economics change in my favour. Until then the discussion is moot for me. I was giving my two penn'orth on the discussion as it stood.