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Hi Jit187. Thanks for that information. To be honest we have not used many public charge points at all, but the ones we have tried have all worked with the card we have, even though one car park’s chargers only had 13 amp sockets!(Obviously we didn’t charge there.)
The issue at Wisley though is slightly different though since they have 2 charge points and 3 cards to lend (after taking a deposit) to anyone without their own, and one would think that these cards automatically would work at their own points! There would be no need for them to work on a different scheme.
I do wonder though if the Leaf driver was placing the card on the correct spot on the charger. We were not there at the time he was trying and the driver did say that this was his first attempt at using a public charge point, so he might have been doing something wrong himself.
The Norfolk escape route
(I was going to add a new thread but couldn’t see how – so replying so a similar one!)
I live just south of Norwich and the Zoe is perfect for my use to and from work and local etc but I would like to go further afield!
On visits to bedfordshire in a petrol car I have checked charging points on the way. The direct route has a stop on the A11 before Cambridge (but only Eastbound, not westbound and when I tried it it was not working. An email to chargemaster returned NOTHING), then there is a convienient charge point off the A14 just into cambridge at the science park (but I have no idea where it is and gave up driving round it).
The problem I have, sorry HAD, was the range from my house to Cambridge (just out of reach I think) so it left me stranded in Norfolk.
But…
On a journey home last weekend I stopped in Bury St Edmunds. waitrose has charging points and they work!
So I can now leave home, 42 ish miles to Bury St Edmunds, then 62 ish to Bedford and there are bound to be points in Cambridge and beyond!
Can anyone let me know if the 50% charge in 30 mins really works? (Is it up to 50% or 50% extra?)
Thank you!
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I’m not sure what you mean by ‘50% charge in 30 mins’, I think you’ve misunderstood – there is an ‘80% charge in 30 minutes’ provided by 43kW fast chargers such as the Ecotricity ones (available at motorway services and IKEA stores).
They work much like your home charger but at high current, except batteries can’t accept fast charging when they are nearly full so they slow down above about 80%. You can still charge to 100% but the last bit will be at a similar speed to your home system (e.g. 7kW) rather than 43kW. The ‘80% charge in 30 minutes’ is just a way to market them – although it’s true, you’ll typically use them as ‘100% charge in 45 minutes’.
Of course, if you turn up with 80% charge already, you’ll only get charged at the low speed!
A long distance trip in France with a ZOE – it seems we should be grateful for Ecotricity’s public chargers here, I certainly wouldn’t want to rely on Renault dealers:
I had to collect something at short notice last night and I wasn’t confident that there was enough charge remaining, so I decided to go via Fleet Services on the Southbound M3. I arrived just as a Leaf owner was connecting to the Ecotricity rapid charger. As he was using a different connector, I thought I would be able to go ahead, but I couldn’t find any way to do this. The only button active on the screen was ‘Stop Charging’ (tempting). I tried waving my card at it for a while, but to no avail.
I couldn’t afford the time to wait for him to return, so I carried on with my journey, which I managed to complete using ECO mode.
Can an Ecotricity charger only charge one car at a time? If so, why are there 2 bays?
Hi andyfras,
The Ecotricity fast charger can only handle one car at a time.
I had a similar issue and when I phoned them, they told me that the charger can only handle 50kw max.
The reason for the two cables is simply that they are different connectors.I think they should up the output, as EV’s become more popular or that the charger knows that a second car is connected and split the power between them.
Thanks for the explanation. I think I’ll stick with home charging in future, as it’s (mostly) less stressful. 🙂
My advice would be to start using public chargers even (particularly?) when you don’t need to just to get use to them and their foibles.
I always try and use public chargers, provided they are working, or they accept the Rfid card or they might be working but for some reason don’t accept the Zoe (something I noticed a lot using Source London).
I will always charge the car at home before setting off, and then top up wherever I am. Even if it is just 1kw, at least I didn’t have to pay for it at home.
I have tried doing it the other way round and charge at Asda when I do my shopping and then top up at home, but they are always ICE’d up, usually by staff. Despite numerous emails to Asda customer service, nothing really has changed. I told them that if the bays are not available, they might as well remove the chargers.
The other day I wanted to charge using the charger in Park Street near Borough Market and it was ICE’d up and the owner must have thought it is ok, as they put a disabled badge on.
I mainly rely on the Ecotricity charger and soon there will be an Ikea about 2 miles from my house, so that will become my main charging point. Just need them to install one near Stansted, and then I am a happy bunny.
most councils and government bodies such as OLEV monitor how much public charge points are used. we should try to use these as much as possible even if its only for a short period as this still counts are usuage activity.
Most councils and gov agencies are making decisions based on how much the current charge points are being used so we really should try to ‘boost’ the usuage to “justify” further investment etc.
this is something i found out through my local council when i asked about how they decide on charge point locations!
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