I get the impression that the big motorway service groups like moto and welcome break should watch their backs. Give it a few years and there will be no need for traditional services if hubs take off.

OTOH Westmoreland Farm Shops, who are a planned stop for many Scots travelling to and from the Peak District, North Wales and points South, were also an early adopter of EV hubs.

The farm services near Gloucester are nice too. Similarly I seem to remember them picking up EV early too.

33 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

The farm services near Gloucester are nice too. Similarly I seem to remember them picking up EV early too.

 

Not far from there is a beautiful Coffee, Tea and cafe place called The Leaf and Ground at Dursley, Glos which EV drivers picking to cruise along the A38 at 50/55 rather than the M5 at 60/65 in ECO mode is sometime preferable.

 

Chargers are free to guests, much nicer than 50p a kWh on the Motorway and I think both posts are genuine 16 KWh post so and nice hour stop for some for gets a another 75/80 miles in the summer enough to get home to Worcester or down to Devon with plenty of margin.  Not cheap grub but very goods quality IMO.

Edited 18 April, 20224 yr by lol-lol

13 hours ago, KenONeill said:

OTOH Westmoreland Farm Shops, who are a planned stop for many Scots travelling to and from the Peak District, North Wales and points South, were also an early adopter of EV hubs.

They are Tebay services only? I don't think two Ecotricity (now Gridserve) chargers on the North bound side count as a hub. The 6 Tesla superchargers on the southbound side would count if open to all.

If diesel is very short next weekend I might need to make my first super long journey between Worcester and York but I cannot see any decent bank of CCS Chargers anywhere on the normal route so unless I go via Rugby, bit of a diversion as I would normally do the M42/A42 to Nottingham else it will be relying on the sad parings of GRIDSERVE or occasional INSTAVOLT charger which is somewhat scary.

 

Recommend any tools in addition to ZAP map to find out if there are any nice banks of CCS opening up in the last few days I have not heard about ?

 

8 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

Recommend any tools in addition to ZAP map to find out if there are any nice banks of CCS opening up in the last few days I have not heard about ?

 

WattsUp is a useful route planner as it shows chargers along your route.

 

A Better Route Planner (aka ABRP) is helpful and accurately predicts your car's range if you update the settings correctly.

2 hours ago, Luckypants said:

They are Tebay services only?

No. I've never been to Cairn Lodge or Gloucester services though.

33 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

WattsUp is a useful route planner as it shows chargers along your route.

 

A Better Route Planner (aka ABRP) is helpful and accurately predicts your car's range if you update the settings correctly.

 

Thanks.

 

Could not find WattsUP but found ABRP and uploaded it.

Seems to think I am want to drive at about 75/80 mph ie start at 90%, burn through 70% of my fuel in just over 100 miles, have a 20 minute charge up to 50% and arrive in York with 10%.  Needs a bit of personal tailoring I think but does look good so thanks for this.  With a newish Huawei that cannot use Google Play this is rare good news to use a popular App !

 

 

33 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

No. I've never been to Cairn Lodge or Gloucester services though.

 

Gloucester services, like Forest Green Rovers and the Stroud area of frowning on those humans that eat other animals.

 

Gloucester is a "Farm" service, the biulding half buried in soil to keep the heat in.

 

Spend £30 on the food and get 10p of a litre of fuel, not that they want you using fuel as it is un ecological of course.

Upgrade EV charge stations bit of an improvement.  Four lead to each EV charger. Really ?

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

---

There are two Gridserve machines at Northbound and Southbound, with four leads to each machine. Contactless payment accepted at all machines.  

  

Edited 18 April, 20224 yr by lol-lol

36 minutes ago, lol-lol said:

 

Thanks.

 

Could not find WattsUP but found ABRP and uploaded it.

Seems to think I am want to drive at about 75/80 mph ie start at 90%, burn through 70% of my fuel in just over 100 miles, have a 20 minute charge up to 50% and arrive in York with 10%.  Needs a bit of personal tailoring I think but does look good so thanks for this.  With a newish Huawei that cannot use Google Play this is rare good news to use a popular App !

 

 

 

The ABRP does work with some very high (verging on illegal ?) assumed cruising speed.  It reckons I can do my 121 miles from Worcester to Heathrow I do as my occasional trip to that one of my offices and reckons, without traffic, I could do it in 1 hour 57 minutes !

Wow, best I have done is about 2 and a quarter hours as although about 90% is motorway there is a mile before I can get on the M5 this end and about 5 miles of 40 mph at the Heathrow end with lights and roundabouts so averaging 25 mph for that last 5 miles is some achievement I would say ie it takes 12 minutes to do that bit so just trawling if I can set the software to do say 90% of the speed limit rather than the full speed limit.

 

17 hours ago, lol-lol said:

 

Thanks.

 

Could not find WattsUP but found ABRP and uploaded it.

Seems to think I am want to drive at about 75/80 mph ie start at 90%, burn through 70% of my fuel in just over 100 miles, have a 20 minute charge up to 50% and arrive in York with 10%.  Needs a bit of personal tailoring I think but does look good so thanks for this.  With a newish Huawei that cannot use Google Play this is rare good news to use a popular App !

 

 

OT but you have installed the Huawei App Store?

8 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

OT but you have installed the Huawei App Store?

 

Thanks but just cannot find it.  There is a Huawei App gallery that looks like an App centre but not sure that that is it.

 

I have put ABRP on my Huawei P40 5G and my work Huawei which is the older 20 model but that one is still allowed to access Google Apps store so all good but I will be going back to Samsung in a few months, S21 or S22 I reckon depending on the deal.  Fabia has Android Auto and Zoe is real time Google maps displayed, the old Clio is an old 2014 NAV S edition so will stick with phone in cradle with either ABRP or Google Maps running hoping to catch that developing traffic block we all fear (extra hour on the M40 a few days ago). 

 

Ta

Yes, it is App Gallery

It was released shortly before the US fell out with China and had enough to make the phones remain useful.

There was a reasonable mapping software in there too.

 

Be interesting to see how alternatives to ZapMap come along and how people get on with them, as I will need them in a few months.

Gridserve have opened their second Electric Forecourt charging station today in Norwich. 22 HPC chargers, 8 Tesla SC and a dozen A/C charge posts.

https://www.gridserve.com/2022/04/21/gridserve-opens-new-electric-forecourt-in-norwich-transforming-ev-charging-in-the-area/?LeadSourceCode=crm1017

Edited 21 April, 20224 yr by Luckypants
location

 

 

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.

Edited 5 May, 20224 yr by Luckypants
Correct number of chargers

1 hour ago, Luckypants said:

Applegreen (new to market) have a 6 x 150kW charger hub at South Mimms which opened this week.

I can't find anything on this, mainly interested in Applegreen pricing and payment method.

 

 

Also MFG putting in eight 150kW chargers on A10 at "Buntingford, Herts just off Ermine Street (A10). "

https://www.speakev.com/threads/mfg-new-chargers-at-buntingford.169104/

 

Makes possible to drive my Leaf to Royston or Cambridge

Here are South Mimms chargers on Plugshare https://www.plugshare.com/location/350611

 

Their website https://www.applegreenelectric.com/

Plugshare entry suggests 49p/kWh

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

Edited 18 May, 20224 yr by Luckypants

Thanks for that.

 

Here's a list in case anyone needs it:

https://www.speakev.com/threads/tesla-opening-uk-super-chargers-to-all-from-today.169485/

• Adderstone NE70 7JU
• Aviemore PH22 1PN
• Dundee DD2 5JT
• Manchester Trafford Centre M17 8AA
• Flint Mountain CH6 5QG
• Aberystwyth SY23 3TL
• Banbury OX16 1LX
• Wyboston MK44 3AL
• Trumpington CB2 9FT
• Thetford IP24 3TP
• Wokingham RG41 5DG
• Uxbridge UB8 1QJ
• Thurrock RM20 2ZP
• Folkstone Eurotunnel Terminal CT18 8XX

 

Would be interesting to see if there are going to be problems with cars blocking Tesla cars from charging when busy.

 

I'm glad I've only spent £100 for a reservation rather than just bought a Tesla now. I'm going to wait and see feedback before deciding whether to splash out on a MY. I've asked them to delay until I can get a German built one anyway, I'm aiming for 4680 battery car. Otherwise other brands are looking pretty good now.

@Aviemore where public charging is limited then people might be prepared to pay 60 pence a kWh to get on the chargers.

(1 Rapid CPS @ 30 pence, and then a commercial charger @ 42/49 pence.)

In Dundee maybe those staying at the Hotel or near might want to use the chargers at that price but there are cheaper options about and easy to get too.

 

It is a shame that the not busy Broxden Park and Ride Superchargers are not part of the pilot scheme where the CPS chargers are crap, but then there is an extension being built there are even pre book chargers which should be up and running before the year is out.

Edited 18 May, 20224 yr by roottoot

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. 

26 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

 

• Adderstone NE70 7JU
• Aviemore PH22 1PN
• Dundee DD2 5JT
• Manchester Trafford Centre M17 8AA
• Flint Mountain CH6 5QG
• Aberystwyth SY23 3TL
• Banbury OX16 1LX
• Wyboston MK44 3AL
• Trumpington CB2 9FT
• Thetford IP24 3TP
• Wokingham RG41 5DG
• Uxbridge UB8 1QJ
• Thurrock RM20 2ZP
• Folkstone Eurotunnel Terminal CT18 8XX

 

Missing the Cardiff SC, 15 sites opened.

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.