Luckypants

Well as Osprey have put their prices up from 25th July (66p) I think more people will take advantage of the 'off-peak' discount. So maybe a peak time tariff will come, but I think that will be driven by the price charged to Osprey by their power supplier. However, the cheapest way to use Osprey after the price rise will be via the Bonnet app which is 50p PAYG. (you can PM me for my referral code, which gets me and you £15 towards a 'refill')

Osprey have announced a hefty price increase to 66p/kWh from 25th July for PAYG and 2nd August for account customers. However, at present it will still be 50p/kWh through the Bonnet app.

Isn't the Wallyford hub at the park and ride intended for visitors? Or is that always full of commuters by 8:30? When we visited the Falkirk stadium hub it was practically deserted.

A small piece of good news on the cost of public charging. Electric Juice (Octopus Energy's charging card) and Osprey announced cheaper charging at off peak times, 20% discount when charging between 19:00 and 23:00.

So a number of new charging hubs have opened recently. I'm bound to have missed some while on holiday, but hope this is of interest. E.G. Severn View Services Gridserve Heston Services Gridserve Instavolt Rhug Estate A5 York Monks Cross park and ride York Poppleton Road park and ride Fastned in Hamilton near Glasgow Fastned at Redbridge Park and Ride, Oxford

I want to say how great the ID.4 is as a touring car. We have just spent 10 days in the Highlands of Scotland which totalled 1900 miles in the car. The car munched the motorway miles to get up there and back, sitting on the ACC at 70 effortlessly - it made the journey easy. Once we were at our rented cottage, travelling around was a breeze on the single tracks and smaller two lane roads up there. The large boot on the car was taken up by our two dogs so the spacious rear seat was utilised to carry our stuff. Everything fitted in without much effort even though we don't pack light. The range has been exemplary and we have needed a break long before the car most days. We had a planned long leg on the journey up and journey back that tested the range a little but got to the planned charge stop with over 40 miles remaining each time, so really no drama. The first long leg up was over 3.5 hours of driving and I was well ready to stop, so car beats human need for a break. Charging has not been an issue at all, even though prior to this trip we had done almost no public rapid charging. The coverage of chargers from Chargeplace Scotland in the areas we visited was very comprehensive. Every charger we used worked well. The only hiccup was with the charger at Uig needing a reset before charging started, which I could do by following the easy instructions on the screen. (press and hold the silver button for 20 seconds ) The cost of charging has been very low, 1900 miles has cost me £95.22 which is 4.66p/mile. A remarkably low figure by any standard, albeit helped by some free charging at CPS chargers and a Bonnet free charge on the way home. We had no free charging at our accommodations. Overall efficiency was 3.48 mi/kWh for the trip. Running around the Highlands with two adults and two dogs plus coats + buggy (arthritic dog) etc regularly saw 3.7 / 3.8 daily averages. Fully loaded on the motorway saw 3.2 / 3.3. I'm happy with this.

Used the Falkirk Stadium charge hub the other day, great facility with plenty of free chargers. EDIT: To be clear, the 'free' chargers I refer to above means available - not no cost.

We've just come back from a touring holiday of the Scottish highlands and want to say the cost to charge has been amazingly low. I didn't seek out free chargers or anything but happened to get quite a few. Those I did pay for were very reasonable from Chargeplace Scotland. We got a free charge on a Geniepoint in Kendal on the way home courtesy of Bonnet. £95 for 1900 miles. I'm well content with that.

🤢🤮

A new MfG charging hub at the end of the M180 at Barnetby opened last week. 8x150kW chargers. Not on Zap Map yet, but can be seen through the MfG Connect app or on Plugshare. Handy for trips to South Yorkshire.

The chargers in the video went live last week. MfG are currently subject to a takeover offer.... https://news.sky.com/story/abu-dhabi-state-oil-giant-weighs-5bn-bid-for-motor-fuel-group-12626882 That'll make that tory doner much richer....

There is some enforcement to prevent charger hogging. Some charge point operators charge 'overstay' fees to prevent cars blocking the charger, which is usually implemented by a connection time limit or a time limit after your car stops charging. There is also the parking time limit way of preventing charger hogging by letting firms such as 'Parking Eye' enforce a time limit - this method is common at supermarket chargers. Overstay fees / time limits are not ubiquitous by any means, which means charger hogging is still a problem. It also leads to legitimately charging vehicles being issued a PCN if the driver does not check the T's&C's, so in general is a bit of a mess. Being aware of what the state of play is helps EV drivers, but a universal protocol needs to be adopted to help prevent confusion amongst drivers. IMHO Rapid chargers should implement overstay fees when charging completes like the Tesla model (including limiting charge to 80% at busy sites) and 'fast' chargers limited by time via parking restrictions.

Useful to know all that/ The Porsche chargers are a very handy option that is little known, although I guess as EVs become more common they might go Porsche only. I'm very jealous of the Powerpass card, it seems to give a much better deal than the VW version. Do you have to pay a monthly subscription to get the 25p rate?

Sorry, was unaware but understand.

On the subject of cost to charge, I have recently been using the Bonnet app. to access rapid chargers. The most expensive PAYG tariff is 35p. If you opt to pre-buy charges via their 'refills' that can go as low as 25p (per kWh). All offer a significant saving over current rapid charge prices. They are not partnered with many big CPOs, the most notable being Osprey, Ionity and Geniepoint in terms of numbers but there are plenty of places to charge. They are quite generous with free charging codes too, try FIRSTCHARGE2 to get your first charge for free. more details - https://www.joinbonnet.com/ If you decide to give it a try, please ask me for my referral code to get £15 off. Note I also get £15.

One of the benefits of the new version of ID software will be faster charging on DC. For my car thats going from 38 minutes 10-80% to 30 minutes, so a useful improvement if I ever do that. More likely to benefit from higher charging speeds at higher SoC due to the new charging curve. That's if the update ever appears......

Missing the Cardiff SC, 15 sites opened.

I've installed the Tesla app. for a look see. The app is neat and works just fine. The map shows me just the chargers I can use as a non-Tesla driver. The price is pretty steep, but it is a safety net after all. Making them expensive will deter the casual user and get those who want to charge then go lining up. I expect that more sites will be added after a month or two like they have in Norway and France. On a personal level, they have opened almost all the Welsh sites so that is a win.

Quite a major, but much anticipated announcement today, covering many charging hubs. Tesla is opening up the UK SuperCharging network to non-Tesla vehicles. https://www.electrifying.com/blog/article/it-s-official-tesla-opens-up-uk-supercharger-network-to-non-tesla-drivers EDIT: Link to TESLA map showing SCs open to all (15 Sites) https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/findus?v=2&bounds=60.60630786089475%2C18.903900211843165%2C48.26553927505605%2C-23.283599788156835&zoom=6&filters=party&search=Wakefield%2C UK

Officially open it seems. https://transportandenergy.com/2022/05/17/scotlands-largest-ultra-rapid-charging-station-opens-in-hamilton/

As @roottoot would like road tests with vehicle loaded, Bjorn Nyland has obliged.

Here are South Mimms chargers on Plugshare https://www.plugshare.com/location/350611 Their website https://www.applegreenelectric.com/ Plugshare entry suggests 49p/kWh

So some more rapid charging hubs I heard have opened this week. 12 x 350kW Gridserve chargers at Thurrock services opened today, both older 60kW units remain. Applegreen (new to market) have a 6 x 150kW charger hub at South Mimms which opened this week.

Gridserve has also just announced a price increase.... Standalone Low Power AC Chargers : 39p/kWh Electric Forecourts® : 45p/kWh Medium Power Chargers : 48p/kWh High Power Chargers : 50p/kWh https://www.gridserve.com/2022/05/02/gridserve-electric-highway-pricing-update/?LeadSourceCode=crm1017 I guess everyone else won't be far behind now