New or improved hubs announced, Government EV Loans in Scotland and free & no longer free public charging places..

[Ootohere]

Charge Place Scotland newsletter winter 2022.  pdf

Winter_Newsletter_.pdf

[Ootohere]

Just experienced £15 pre charging by BP at public chargers.   So so if you are charging at a cost of £15 or more.  But these are in Edinburgh City and particularly at Edinburgh Airport Park and ride.   So 30 mins max charging.  Usually about £7 for my car.  Yesterday it was £8.19 and today £3.20.  but there is £30 taken from my card and Charge Place Scotland says that the extra will be back with me in 30 days.   P|SS.  It will be refunded quicker than that.  Taxi drivers are having £100,s out their bank account if using a card rather than staring charger on the App or CPS, which often does not start the chargers.   PS,. DPD vans according to a driver i spoke to are exempt from 30 minute max charge time.   They need 1 hour or more.  True, as do many others.  Edinburgh City council, CPS or BP need to sort this nonsense.

 

..............

Tesla locked in not charging and the car can sit for hours where only 5 rapids. No idea if it was set to cut out at 30 minutes and not pay penalty or if left to charge to full and will be charged a £30 penalty.

Council Van at Stirling left charging on 43 kW AC getting 10 kW only while there are only 3 working 43 kW AC chargers but 10 x 22 kW.

Edited 12 January, 2023 by toot

[wyx087]

Yeah, authorisation charges on contactless payments are a joke with EV charging.

 

At pay at pump petrol stations, at least ~2 years ago, 99p pre-auth was put on before allowing you to take £99 worth of fuel. But somehow EV drivers are seen as scummy and require payment of £30 to dispense a few pounds of energy. The difference is then refunded to you. If you have a failed charge or if charger lost comms, you may have to manually chase the charger operator for the money!

 

BP is particularly bad with this. I try to avoid them as much as possible.

[Ootohere]

I contacted Angus Council about the newest charger in Forfar and the temp barriers and contractors that were looking at it the other day to see about some reel for the charger cables.   Seemingly this charger is here designed to be user friendly for the disabled.  That is why there is a dropped kerb.     So today someone called me from the council roads department.  What a breath of fresh air.   A EV driver.  I told him I am disabled but not a wheel chair user and really the Planner/ techs and council boss need to get a wheel chair or a wheel chair user and come try using this charger..   I think there might be some discussions taking part. Including proper signage. 

 

Months on from being turned on and the longest cables fitted.

Pics going off to the Council Leader and to the various local councillors.  Maybe the next time they are in the area they can look at how the spend public money badly, and then have to correct their mistakes at more expense.

 

Bottom pic from my post on the 3rd September, 

So  6 months since the charger was powered up and the Line Painters failed to put Electric Vehicle Charging Only on the bays.

 

Edited 27 January, 2023 by toot

[Ootohere]

So Highland Council are proposing doubling or more than doubling actually the price of EV charging. 

Not as ridiculous an increase as a council suggested last year.

http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-64424890

 

 

Electricity is expensive, but then the Highland Council Region should have more of the employees Pension Money and what ever they have invested in Community Wind Farms and taxing properly the on land wind farms.

Not just for EV drivers but for the Regions economic good. 

   They have Tax Payer money invested with plenty others things and financial institutions.

 

 

 

Edited 29 January, 2023 by toot

[Ootohere]

Stirling Castle view park and ride.  Probably other Stirling council chargers.   On the 3 x 50 and 22kw chargers.  40 minutes max charge time.   £1 a minute overstay to a maximum £60.  No return within 90 minutes. 

 

Personally this is a problem and issue for me.

In 40 minutes i am lucky on these chargers if i get 80 miles worth of range with the 25 kWh or so i get in.

That means to do the rest of my journey to get to a charger i need to do another charge and come off my route to do so.

Same if heading home, i get just enough to get home if the weather is not that cold or there are diversions, otherwise again i need to do a stop someplace.

 

60 minutes would have been fine, 40 minutes OK if the chargers charged at the speed that good ones can. Even an e-Volt charger identical to these at different locations.

Edited 1 February, 2023 by toot

[Ootohere]

Tariffs started today 1st February 2023 awith Stirling Council EV chargers & max charge time with penalties at Stirling Castle View Park and ride. 

 

 

Edited 9 February, 2023 by toot

[Ootohere]

There are 2 EV chargers installed at the Lecht Ski centre.

Nothing showing on Zapmap or PlugShare about them and not on the Charge Place Scotland App so i have no idea who's they are other than reading about them being there and the bays can be seen on the Webcam.  http://lecht.co.uk/webcams

 

http://outlas.cc/resorts/the-lecht

http://northern-scot.co.uk/news/funding-to-help-transform-th-lecht-into-year-round-adventur-260249

 

[Luckypants]

According to the Electroverse app, they are Project-EV chargers and free to use. I find Electroverse more up to date than Zap-map. 

 

 

[Ootohere]

@LuckypantsThank you. 

Up to date for the chargers shown but not any anyplace i use chargers as these are mostly Charge Place Scotland ones.

I had an account with Octopus show i have the App now and if stuck someplace for a charger i will check what shows on the map.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 12 March, 2023 by toot

[Ootohere]

September til March and Angus Council manage to have installed a couple of hooks for the charger cables to go on to reduce the trip hazard to those on foot.

Temp barriers still in place at this new charger in Forfar, so much for the accessible charger next to a dropped kerb. 

So much for the use of the pavement behind the charger. 

Edited 14 March, 2023 by toot

[lol-lol]

Cambridge services looks good with its both Gridserve and Instavolt banks of chargers and only less than half full but there have been reports of busy times when there has been queues.

 

Gridserve mention on their website about putting in secondary charging wires ie CCS-UK but warn this lowers the Amps so chargers typically go from 60 kw to 30 kw.

I can imagine the car/driver getting 60 kW that then suddenly gets 30 kW would not be happy.  I would not be too bothered in the Zoe when I can only get 45 kw max and it dropping to 30 kw, a rate I would only get anyways for the 0 to 10% or the 85 to 100% anyways.  I could charge off the AC at 22 kW if it had it but I wonder if there has been some harsh words for the second car going along and sharing the feed from the 60 kW GRIDSERVE charger ?   Could be intense.

 

[Luckypants]

11 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Gridserve mention on their website about putting in secondary charging wires ie CCS-UK but warn this lowers the Amps so chargers typically go from 60 kw to 30 kw.

Gridserve have implemented dual charging on almost all its chargers now. You can tell if a charger has it by the 'DUAL CHARGING AVAILABLE' sticker on the unit. Yes, some people have gotten irate about someone 'stealing' their charge but conversely it saves you waiting while some bozo charges to 100% but only drawing 10kW. This low rate of charge when dual charging is why Instavolt announced it was upgrading all it's older units (via software) to 250kW capable - which should be completed in April. 

 

However, its worth remembering when dual charging that the actual supply may be limited by legacy wiring and you may never get the headline speed.

[Luckypants]

The reason I popped onto this thread.... a new Osprey charging mini-hub for Inverness. This makes Inverness quite well served I believe.
 

 

[wyx087]

17 minutes ago, Luckypants said:

Instavolt announced it was upgrading all it's older units (via software) to 250kW capable - which should be completed in April. 

Instavolt are 400v units right? That means they would be sending the same amps down the cable as Tesla's. Are their cable rated/watercooled for that?

 

I wonder if I can get 250 kw on a non-Tesla charger. But to avoid the death stare, I would never run that low.

[Luckypants]

I think they can up to 125kW but I'm not very sure about voltage. Here is the press release about the upgrades, which is about all I know.

https://instavolt.co.uk/instavolt-announces-significant-upgrade-to-its-existing-charging-network/

 

Edited 15 March, 2023 by Luckypants

[Ootohere]

Inverness needs to be well served for EV charging.  & choices of commercial charging as Highland Region Council have made it damn expensive to use the Council Charger network.

 

No way will i be taking an EV around the North Coast 500 again.

Rather enjoy a spirited trip with Super Unleaded or even 102 ron race fuel if doing a splash and dash.

 

https://www.highland.gov.uk/news/article/15101/committee_approves_ev_charging_tariff_increase

 

 

 

Edited 15 March, 2023 by toot

[lol-lol]

15 hours ago, Luckypants said:

Gridserve have implemented dual charging on almost all its chargers now. You can tell if a charger has it by the 'DUAL CHARGING AVAILABLE' sticker on the unit. Yes, some people have gotten irate about someone 'stealing' their charge but conversely it saves you waiting while some bozo charges to 100% but only drawing 10kW. This low rate of charge when dual charging is why Instavolt announced it was upgrading all it's older units (via software) to 250kW capable - which should be completed in April. 

 

However, its worth remembering when dual charging that the actual supply may be limited by legacy wiring and you may never get the headline speed.

 

Absolutely we must not forget that even little EVs like my Zoe can suck up more power ie two, three or four times, than the average house can ie Zoe at 125 amps and 370 volts at peak where as an average house would max at 60A and 220-240v before blowing the main fuse.

 

I would be quite happy with 30 kW as that is two thirds of the max I can get, even 22 kw AC is half of my maximum but those with 60, 75, 100 kw potential downloading speed may be unchuffed to suddenly get choked from 60 to 30 kW, just waiting for the first report of public charger fistiechuffs over such a scenario.

 

I still think there is a market for roving vans decked out with charging which hovers round over busy public charging hubs or rescues EV driver who have run out or a in tortoise mode.

 

EV drivers just need to get to the point, and I think it is only a year or two away.  Where every other garage decides to rip out its fossil fuel pumps and convert to EV power supplying. Potentially a much more massive profit margin as GRIDSERVE Braintree, Norwich, Gatwick next in a few months, roll on Plymouth hopefully next year. 

 

[Ootohere]

Not approved yet but i expect that Angus Council will increase the EV charging tariff and if it goes to this it will be higher than the neighbouring councils 35 pence a kWh and even Dundee that is 40 pence a kWh for 100-150 kW chargers. 

[Ootohere]

East Lothian Council off peak pricing trial.

http://www.chargeplacescotland.org/east-lothian-council-peak-off-peak-pricing-trial

 

 

Dundee resident's discount tariff will end.

& there are Dundee tariff increases.

http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/news/article?article_ref=4425

 

 

 

[wyx087]

4 minutes ago, toot said:

off peak pricing

The way it should be!

[Ootohere]

& Peak prices. 

 

No idea why Dundee has not done the same. 

 

.................

I can not see yet that Angus Council has voted to increase the tariff from 23 pence to 42 pence, but i wish they would introduce max charge times like neighbouring Dundee & Perth & Kinross. 

60 Minutes and £1 a minute overstays. 

 

If Angus council puts its tariff up then my home tariff of just below 33 pence a kWh will have me using the 3 pin charger occasionally.

Edited 24 March, 2023 by toot

[Ootohere]

Aberdeenshire tariff increase from 1st April.

& offpeak overnight tariff.

[wyx087]

Out of interest, how do they bill you for charging at cheaper rates? Do they need smart meter on every charger?

 

I've never seen used any Time-of-use priced charger apart from Tesla superchargers, Tesla are done in a dumb way where the time you plug in is used to calculate price, so if you plug in 1 minute before the end of expensive tariff, stupidly your whole session is still at expensive price. Similarly, plug in before expensive period starts, get charged cheap price even if end within expensive period.

(based on my reading, I've only used these once so far so no actual experience)

[Ootohere]

Surely they know the tariff at the time and the kWh taken in that period, that is on your account, or paid on your card if you are paying that way. 

Not found the time limit yet for Aberdeenshire Rapids but i do not intend paying 47 pence unless desperate.

As it is if there is a Max charge period you just stop using the card and then restart with another card not the CPS one.

I though Angus were bad looking at 41 pence a kWh.

Edited 30 March, 2023 by toot