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Cont: Electric Vehicles II

These must be recent installations because the last time I scoped out Norton Canes there was nothing worth stopping for. I did see something useful at a nearby McDonald's but never needed to charge there. Tebay wasn't that bad, the queue wasn't that long and it didn't interfere with anyone else. I think it was just a very busy day at a very busy time. By the time I went back to the chargers about 3.30 the queue had more or less cleared. I've charged there before several times, recently, and had no trouble.

I suppose I should have done what I did last year and gone to Booth's supermarket or the Rheged Centre, which people seem to have been ignoring this year in favour of Tebay. But the Tebay chargers are faster and with there being 16 of them it seemed more attractive. To everybody.
 
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Rolfe said:
I believe the MG4 is only rated to tow 500 kg, so that's probably not going to be enough for some people.
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The car trailer weighs in at 600kg empty, and the horse float is a hefty 980kg empty- so the MG wouldn't be able to drop them off or pick them up- where the Atto could... (hell, I could even chuck 600kg on the car trailer, ie sheets of plywood or the like if I need some from the hardware store...)
 
Darat said:
I travelled on the M6 Toll on Sunday and Monday. I usually stop at the toll road services as there is a "country walk" for the dog there - we also get a McDonalds each - our guilty pleasure. I turned off for the services and on both days there was a standstill queue on the slip road into it. On Monday at the roundabout there was a couple of employees and I asked them what was the matter - they said the whole place was log jammed as people tried to use the electric car charging points, been like it for almost a week. I went around the roundabout and straight back onto the motorway both days. The dog was most upset. Plan your M6 excursions carefully. Had to look the name up - it's called Norton Canes.
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We used the chargers there for the first time just over a year ago on our trip to Manchester for QEDCon, with no problems (and in fact the cost was less than the charger we had planned to use in the car park in Manchester). On the way up this year, there was a queue, though we eventually got to use one after about 30 minutes. There are only 2 chargers there, each with two cables, though one of them has a Type 2 and a Chademo, and very few cars use Chademo so effectively only 3 working charging points. They really should have installed more chargers at such a busy service station by now. On the way home we stopped somewhere further on where there were many more chargers.
 
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zooterkin said:
We used the chargers there for the first time just over a year ago on our trip to Manchester for QEDCon, with no problems (and in fact the cost was less than the charger we had planned to use in the car park in Manchester). On the way up this year, there was a queue, though we eventually got to use one after about 30 minutes. There are only 2 chargers there, each with two cables, though one of them has a Type 2 and a Chademo, and very few cars use Chademo so effectively only 3 working charging points. They really should have installed more chargers at such a busy service station by now. On the way home we stopped somewhere further on where there were many more chargers.
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Surprised there are still any CHAdeMO chargers still around, its restricted to a small handful of older vehicles (basically only the early Leaf here in Australia) and even they now use CCs2 Combo here... (as does the Tesla lol)
As usual, the US has gone its own way and used the proprietary Tesla 'cloverleaf' charge port, where 'TROTW' is basically CCS2...
 
zooterkin said:
We used the chargers there for the first time just over a year ago on our trip to Manchester for QEDCon, with no problems (and in fact the cost was less than the charger we had planned to use in the car park in Manchester). On the way up this year, there was a queue, though we eventually got to use one after about 30 minutes. There are only 2 chargers there, each with two cables, though one of them has a Type 2 and a Chademo, and very few cars use Chademo so effectively only 3 working charging points. They really should have installed more chargers at such a busy service station by now. On the way home we stopped somewhere further on where there were many more chargers.
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That sounds like the old Electric Highway set-up, which is what I said wasn't worth going there for. If that's still all they have, and people were trying to use them, no wonder there was a problem. You'd get about 22 kw per car. [Rolfe checks ZapMap.] Sure enough, that's still all that's there. Oh dear. You'd have to be very inexperienced even to consider charging there. 22 kw. I do feel sorry for anyone who went there.

Gridserve have pledged to keep these old units maintained, because they're quite adequate for older cars. But there is a programme of adding higher power chargers to these sites as well. (Some of them have CHAdeMO too.) They don't seem to have done Norton Canes yet. What a mess.
 
Our 2nd gen Leaf* has Chademo, but we don't use it for long journeys, so we won't need that extra charging power any time soon

*seven years old in March. Not bad service
 
Apart from the infotainment system going nuts, which meant it had to go back to the Netherlands, and the inevitable flat 12v battery, it's been plain sailing. I see a few 1st gen Leafs still running
 
I remember scoping out Norton Canes last May, as a possible backstop in case I was doubtful of making the Tesla supercharger site in Solihull. I quickly decided the service station itself was a complete bust, but saw a nearby McDonald's with a couple of useful-looking Instavolts. There's also the NEC charging hub, but their BP Pulse chargers have a poor reputation.

In fact I didn't need to worry because I made Solihull quite easily and spent half an hour looking at high-end Teslas in the showroom. But there's no way I'd have gone to Norton Canes services even midweek in May when there was no holiday traffic. Absolutely inadequate.

There are quite a lot of decent options around, close to the motorway, but you need to know how to find what's there, avoid the dud sites (like motorway service stations with nothing but the old Electric Highway installation) and choose the good ones. One day it will be possible simply to drive into any motorway service station and find plenty ultra-rapids waiting for you. That day, however, has not yet come.

I do feel sorry for people who have recently got an EV and who not only don't have the experience to find the good chargers, but don't even know they need to know this stuff. It's not good for anyone because it perpetuates all the horror stories about bad charging experiences.

Even in my own case, seeing that the Electric Highway site at the Rheged Centre was free as I passed, maybe I should just have gone there as I did last year. It's part of the same outfit as Tebay services and I'd have got the same food and been able to use my loyalty card. But I thought, if I end up on a shared plug (which I didn't last year) and get 22 kw I'll be there for ages. Tebay has 16 150 kw chargers, why wouldn't I? I just didn't anticipate it would be quite so busy, and then getting the broken charger. But at least I'm used to it and know that's the exception not the rule. Not a lot of fun if it's your first long trip in your shiny new car.
 
Rolfe said:
I just didn't anticipate it would be quite so busy, and then getting the broken charger.
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The free charger will always be the broken one. That's why it's not in use!

What surprises me is how often people say they got a 'broken' charger. The technology isn't that complicated, so why do they 'break'? Seems like a problem that should be easy to solve.
 
Roger Ramjets said:
The free charger will always be the broken one. That's why it's not in use!

What surprises me is how often people say they got a 'broken' charger. The technology isn't that complicated, so why do they 'break'? Seems like a problem that should be easy to solve.
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If you'd read my earlier post, you'd have seen that there were no free chargers, there was an efficiently-marshalled queue with actual tickets, and an engineer from Swarco on-site to attend to any mechanical problems with the chargers. It was just my bad luck that the one I was waved into was one that had just been "repaired", but obviously still had a problem as it broke down again while I was on it.

Nevertheless after I was moved to another charger and returned to my car after finishing my coffee, the one I had been on was working again and charging another car.

These DC chargers are quite complicated things, I think. It was very foresighted of them to have an engineer physically on-site on such a busy afternoon.
 
I went out for a drive this morning and I was taking note of the number of Teslas and BYDs about. It was like every third or fourth car was one or the other, in about equal numbers.
 
arthwollipot said:
I went out for a drive this morning and I was taking note of the number of Teslas and BYDs about. It was like every third or fourth car was one or the other, in about equal numbers.
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Teslas seem to be more prevalent in the more affluent suburbs, but out in the rural areas, BYD is king...
(locally, we got 4 BYD, 1 MG and zero Teslas, with another BYD (T3) arriving in Jan...)
Not bad for a tiny rural town of only 1500 people!!!
:-O
 
Rolfe said:
That sounds like the old Electric Highway set-up, which is what I said wasn't worth going there for. If that's still all they have, and people were trying to use them, no wonder there was a problem. You'd get about 22 kw per car. [Rolfe checks ZapMap.] Sure enough, that's still all that's there. Oh dear. You'd have to be very inexperienced even to consider charging there. 22 kw. I do feel sorry for anyone who went there.

Gridserve have pledged to keep these old units maintained, because they're quite adequate for older cars. But there is a programme of adding higher power chargers to these sites as well. (Some of them have CHAdeMO too.) They don't seem to have done Norton Canes yet. What a mess.
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Well, thank you for your concern. As I said, we'd had no problem on the identical journey the year before, when we just wanted to charge for a bit while we had a rest stop and a bite to eat, and hadn't considered the possible increase in EV ownership in the meantime, and lack of expansion in the facilities. We rarely need to charge away from home, so clearly don't have our fingers on the pulse as you do.
 
Unfortunately you need to have your finger on the pulse to some extent, given the wildly varying charger provision out there. All charging sites are not equal, by a very long way.
 
Blue Bubble said:
Exact same with me (Renault Zoe purchased March 2022).
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I got my Kia Niro not long after that, and I've done about 44,000 miles in it since then. Since free charging stopped being available at car parks and supermarkets, I've only charged at public chargers a handful of times (trips to Manchester and Wales). We used a granny charger for a long time, until we got an Ohme installed through Octopus.
 
I live in the US. Washington State to be exact. I don't have an EV, but eventually expect to purchase one

I see a lot of Teslas, a few Nissan Leafs, a few Chevy Bolts and little else. I know that Ford sells the Lightning, but I've read that Ford stopped production. There seem to be few charging stations other than Tesla charging stations. I do see a few 1 or two car chargers at various store parking lots. I don't think we have the variety of EV options that appear to be available in Europe. When there is a relatively inexpensive EV available I expect to buy one. And at the same time add about 10KW more of solar panels.

My problem is that I refuse to buy a Tesla even though it makes the most sense. I think Musk is one of the most dangerous people on earth. I see him as a threat to humanity.
 
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