Luckypants

On the subject of hubs, Gridserve opened their new 350kW charging hub at Exeter services today. 12 (twelve) new chargers in addition to the 4 60kW chargers there already. Gridserve recently opened a hub at Swansea services too. The Wetherby hub and Burton-in-Kendal hub almost ready by all accounts. And although not in England, worth mentioning the Cross Hands hub that opened last weekend.

Good. MfG seem to be one of the better providers of EV charging. They get that a single charger don't cut it and some weather protection would be nice. The one in Stretford, Manchester looks great. They also listen to customers, when users complained the charging cables were too short, they fitted longer cables and adopted that as their standard. I look forward to trying out the one at Crow Orchard if needed on a trip North.

Yes I mean the armoured cable. I'm not qualified to suggest anything electrical, so I won't. My Wallbox has a very short run of normal cable from it's connection run in trunking into the bottom of the box. done by a Wallbox installer so should be fine. I would suggest rear entry would be best, no cable on show to tempt the light fingered brigade.

Avoid chargers with fancy LED lights or illuminated screens, as these advertise its presence to thieves. As mentioned above keep it out of sight if possible. I don't think any kind of lock will work on a cable, they will cut it and slide it out of the lock. You might also consider the amount of cable feeding your charger. If a long run is on display they will try to take that too.

Similar at my local Tesco in January. We have a "Parking Like a T@*t" page on Facebook for the area, so got put on there....

I don't have either, so no comment on choices so far. You might want to add Hypervolt to your list as they seem popular on the ID.4 FB group for solar integration.

Interesting that the guy clearly doesn't like EVs nor VW's haptic buttons, but gets to go the product launch of something that has all of those. I really like the Buzz, they've done a good job of styling and packaging. The ID ride and handling are excellent IMO, so this will be a great family bus. I can also see them becoming beloved of Taxi drivers....

Some background on hybrid car users experience. https://octopusev.com/ev-hub/disadvantages-of-hybrid-cars

Same here. If the boot works for the dogs, I could see us downsizing to one. Range is not quite what I'd like (250), but close.

I'm fairly new to EV and so far found this to not be the case in the 12 months / 11K miles we've had the car. We charge mostly at home and always have the range to go where we want. We plug in at the local free chargers when we visit the supermarket and un-plugged when done shopping, no 'finding things to do' - occasionally we go for lunch during the shopping trip just like when we had an ICE car and the car gets extra charge while we do. This free charging will cover the trip to the supermarket and a leg of my wife's commute. Never have I needed to 'find stuff to do'. Doing a long trip over the Storm Eunice weekend we found that stopping at our usual stop (Tebay) and plugging the car in to a 50kW rapid the 50 minute charge while we ate dinner gave ample charge to complete our journey. Same on the return trip, a planned coffee / comfort stop covered any additional charge needed. The bug bear on that trip was the screw in the tyre......

Many new EV drivers think that speed of charge is related to speed of charger only. They have no idea of the difference in AC and DC or the limits of charging speeds on their vehicle. The face on the guy at Aldi charging his older (new to him) Leaf when I explained he wouldn't get 22kW or 7kW at Tesco as his car charges at 3.6kW max on AC. I explained he needed a Chademo rapid to speed things up, but he didn't have the range to get to the nearest rapid. He genuinely thought it just had two charge ports so he could drive it abroad.

Hmmm never considered voltage drop with a long type 2 cable. (I'm not electrically well educated) I bought the 10m Screwfix granny charger and it works very well, but I'm guessing the losses might be higher? For the amount I use it, I'm not overly worried TBH. I went for the longer cable for the convenience of being able to reach plugs further from the car. Used it in anger for the first time over the weekend and was happy with the boost an overnight 16 hour charge gave. Sorry wandering off topic....

My first Gridserve experience last night as we made an unscheduled trip to the Borders. Two 50kW Gridserve chargers at Tebay, one in use when we arrived. Plug in, flashed the credit card and off we went. Excellent. 48kW for the full 50 minutes while we ate. Fingers crossed all public charging is like this.

Gridserve are good at talking the talk, will reserve judgement on how they walk the walk. Wetherby likely next hub to go live, currently 6 hubs in build. Instavolt claim to have 200 new chargers this year including hubs (just opened Banbury). Osprey ditto (using the excellent Kempower chargers). All making big claims, lets see if reality backs that up. My money is Instavolt will deliver, but will remain the most expensive.

Yes of course Tesla will only open up the quieter sites to begin with, this is new territory for them. The way I look at it, the more chargers available the better. Although I've been surprised how little I've even needed to consider public charging in my 10 months of EV ownership so far. 2022 is being dubbed 'Year of the hub' by many EV commentators and this announcement from Gridserve proves that somewhat "GRIDSERVE is delivering the biggest upgrade to motorway EV charging infrastructure in UK history. Over 20 Electric Hubs – each consisting of 6-12 x 350kW ultra high-power chargers – are due to open at motorway services across the UK by the end of Q2 2022, with large numbers of additional Electric Hub sites being lined up to follow. Since GRIDSERVE’s acquisition of Ecotricity’s Electric Highway in June of last year, the company has already invested tens of millions of pounds in upgrading the network. In addition to opening the first Electric Hub at Moto Rugby, the company has replaced more than 300 historical Ecotricity DC rapid chargers and has installed 130 additional AC chargers, ensuring that the charging needs for all types of electric vehicles are catered for." Taken from this press release https://www.gridserve.com/2022/02/17/gridserve-and-moto-open-first-high-powered-electric-vehicle-charging-hub-in-wales-tackling-charging-disparities-across-the-uk/?fbclid=IwAR0VBWc112etVPVpt7XqZCZDVGLE8TWIvz3aWOE6_NnpqxDNGa0PS1E23HI

On a note of costs to charge, Instavolt have announced yet another price rise. They'll be 50p / kWh after 22nd Feb. This follows on from their rise in November and their correction of the VAT in May. https://instavolt.co.uk/instavolt-responds-to-continued-rise-in-wholesale-energy-costs-16-february-2022/ We can expect Gridserve and Osprey to follow suit. The smaller networks will also follow.

Tesla are already opening up their network to non-Teslas in more mature EV markets. almost all SC open to all in Netherlands and trials going on in France and Norway. https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/support/non-tesla-supercharging#:~:text=Launched in November 2021%2C our,world's transition to sustainable energy. The rate is about 5 eurocents more than the Tesla rate. Good speeds seem to be got by other brands too, so definitely worth considering using when they open them up in the UK.

There is one at the bottom of our road to the village. I agree it looks a bit meh..... but I think it appeals to some. A bit marmite, especially in the non-descript grey. A very good EV though and the interior looks nice, so if you're sat inside maybe its a case of 'who cares'?

Who has the heating on max? Heating is expensive, I often see 7kW consumption when the car is cold and heating goes on max but I'd never run it flat out like that for 10 miles. When up to temp, the heating does not use very much to maintain temp. Battery heating on the MEB is expensive too, which tries to heat the battery to 13C from the get go, but driving at 70 should mean the battery doesn't need heating. So battery heating and passenger heating can result in 11kW of use before even moving the car and makes short journeys in the cold very inefficient. Even at that, we get around 2.2 mi/kwh on wifey's commute and this improves if we charge just before setting off and pre-heat from the mains. VW are promising to do something about the battery heating drain in winter with a software update in the spring. EDIT: I get better consumption figures than this at 60 and 70 with heating on and would get a lot more with heating off. I suspect there is other factors at play here affecting the range he is getting. (Remember Enyaq is more aerodynamic than ID.4, so he should do better)

Further to my post about charging hubs, the Swansea Gridserve charging hub went live over the weekend. Six 350kW CCS chargers and the 350kW Chademo plus the existing 3 60kW and 2 type 2 22kW chargers. Looks like Wetherby will be next to come online.

When I got my VW card, 46p at Ionity seemed expensive but as prices have risen due to the 'energy shock' it seems more reasonable for rapid charging. Gridserve 39p, Osprey 40p, Instavolt 45p, VW Ionity price 46p. Never needed to use any rapid charge in anger yet, but hope to do so in a couple of weeks with a trip to the Borders.

Agreed. Another example would be the VW e-Up! The original car came with an 18 kWh battery and was good for 80-100 miles, ideal for a city commuter. A few years later improved battery tech meant they could fit 34 kWh battery for the same space and weight. Suddenly you have a car good for 160 to 200 miles and up is a viable car for longer journeys. This is what improved battery tech should lead to in my opinion, good range in small packages. Less weight and materials leading to improved efficiency and thus improved range. Alongside improved charging speeds, this will make long distance travel viable in quite modestly priced EVs.

My view is that increased power density will lead to lighter and more efficient cars. If the batteries are physically smaller, smaller cars become practical. I think 300-400 miles of range is plenty and making the car's smaller, lighter and so more efficient will be the way things go. If they can get 5 miles/kWh efficiency then 50-80 kWh batteries are all that's needed.

Gridserve are now building out some charging hubs in addition to the upgraded chargers and the electric forecourts. They have Norwich coming online in March I believe and Gatwick will be online by the end of the year. They have 6 hubs in build right now, to be similar to the Rugby set up. These hubs are at Swansea (Moto), Heston West (Moto), Severn View (Moto), Wetherby (Moto), Burton in Kendall (Moto), Exeter (Moto), Woolley Edge North (Moto), Woolley Edge South (Moto), Thurrock (Moto), Leigh Delamere Westbound (Moto), Reading West (Moto). I know for sure that Swansea, Severn view and Wetherby are actually in build as I've seen them. For your trip to down the M5, there are two MFG hubs in Bristol and Gridserve will build / are building a hub at Cornwall Services. The list above comes from Gridserve's website https://www.gridserve.com/2021/12/09/biggest-motorway-ev-charging-upgrade-in-uk-history-underway-with-11-new-ultra-high-power-electric-hubs-in-construction-plus-world-first-electric-forecourt-at-gatwick-airport/ Osprey, MFG and Instavolt are building hubs also either at MSAs or adjacent to the motorway. For instance the MFG hub next to the M6 at Crow Orchard. Also some places are getting a lot of attention, Banbury now has two charging hubs, one from Instavolt and one from Osprey. Oxford are currently building Europe's most powerful charging hub with Fastned. York City council are building two hubs on its ring road park and ride schemes with fast chargers and a couple of rapids, similar to the Falkirk charging hub set up. There is a lot going on in the charging arena right now, so its not as bad as you think. I only found out today that there are 4 chargers installed on the A55 near me waiting for the grid connection to be upgraded - a mini-hub but no power. The more I learn about this, the less straightforward it seems.

@wyx087 London Gateway getting an upgrade too