What name would you like to appear in the article?
Anthony Hibbs
What is the make, model and year of your EV?
Volkswagen e-Golf 35kWh
What do you think of public chargers generally?
I don’t think the public charging infrastructure is good enough at present. There are too many providers, too many charger types, too many apps. The Government should, in my opinion, have subsidized a national charging network like the Tesla network before promoting electric vehicles. However, this time is long past.
I can only hope the strong networks can grow to meet the exponential demand that is clearly coming. I have my favourite networks, Instavolt and Osprey which I try and stick with. I have a two year 100% success rate with these two. I prefer contactless payment although it annoys me that it is often more expensive than app or account payments.
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What and where are your favourite public chargers?
Instavolt and Osprey are my favourite networks.
What’s been your best experience with a public charger?
Actually it was with Gridserve, with whom I also had my worst experience. I saw on Twitter they had replaced the old DBT with a new ABB at my regular and reliable charge stop at Birch Services. However, the chargers were now failing regularly. I contacted them for advice, they apologised and set the chargers to free vend until the issues were resolved. I had a successful, very fast charge for free on two occasions.
What’s been your worst experience with a public charger?
Gridserve ABB charger, replaced that week in a blaze of publicity, at Bridgewater M5. The services are chaotic. I successfully started a charge and left the car, returning 10 minutes later to find it had stopped. Unknown to me, a LEAF had started charging as I left my car, stopping my CCS charge. I called the helpline and had to give up, no answer. It turns out the new ABB chargers are unable to dual charge and that Gridserve knew this when they installed them. No info to this effect on the charger. This added 2 hours to probably the worst M5-M6 journey I have ever had. I was a very grumpy boy that day!
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