SulleyJP shares her experience of public charging with her SEAT Mii Electric 36.8kWh 2021.
What do you think of the UK public charging network in general?
REALLY good in the North East of England and rapidly improving on major routes. I’m completely dependant on public charging and have no problems finding chargers within a few miles of home or work. I did lots of work on how infrastructure in my area was being managed before switching to 100% battery EV as I will never be able to have a charger a home.
At the time of getting my new car there were 4 x 7kWh chargers at work and 8 in the town 3 miles away with 2 in the next village 1.8 miles from home. 2 years on town has 20 chargers with more planned and my own village now has a 2 point 22kWh charger just 800m from my front door. Installation at the community centre was bumped up the list due to my personal enquiries around the time of getting my car and participating in some focus groups about local green policies.
I regularly travel 180 miles to visit relatives. Initially, this needed quite a bit of planning on where to stop and always having a plan B in case the first choice was busy. Again, in the last 2 years the number of rapid chargers along the A1, M1 & A46 has rapidly increased and in some places there are as many as 4 sites with rapid chargers to choose from within a few miles of each other e,g. at Markham Moor area. More sites come on stream all the time.
What and where are your favourite UK public chargers?
MER charges in Chester-le- Street (and surrounding villages) which I use when shopping in town. They are close to shops in all council car parks and can be paid for using the Electroverse card from Octopus Energy OR with a credit/debit card. There are also 2 just 800m from my front door at the village community centre.
Next are the Pod Point chargers at work. Having an account with them makes paying up front easy and helps me keep good tabs on how (little) much I actually pay to fuel my travels. There are now 8 points available and a charge period of about 4 hours once a week keeps me topped up!
What’s been your best experience with a UK public charger?
A NEW super rapid charger at Sainsbury’s, Bishop Auckland. Topped up my battery from 9% to 85% in just 20 minutes while I did a quick shop for some urgent items on my way home from guide camp. Paid for with a debit card and reasonably priced. NO queue at all and I was the only person using the 4 chargers at that site.
What’s been your worst experience with a UK public charger?
Trying to connect to any GeniePoint charger. There are none of these locally but quite a few at Morrisons along my route from Durham to Leicester. I now ignore them completely as I have NEVER managed to get a connection and charge even after I’d managed to get through to their helpline!
What’s got to change about public charging in the UK to get more people driving electric cars?
Most public chargers at places like out of town shopping centres and supermarket/local shopping areas need to be RAPID or SUPER RAPID chargers. That way more drivers per day can access them and get a useable amount of range from the kind of short-term connections used while on an average shopping trip.
The Pod Points at my nearest Tesco are only 7kWh ones and since they started charging to use them very few drivers connect to them. It’s great for me who is entirely dependent on public chargers as even getting 5-15 miles in the time I am connected is worthwhile. However. you can only park there for 2 hours tops so you get a limited charge. Also those rapid points need to have a parking time limit with significant penalties for overstaying so that cars are not left connected and charging meaning others cannot access the point.
Payment needs to be a LOT easier too. I hate how many bloomin’ apps I have on my phone. Payment using a contactless card is great and those providers who are part of things like Octopus Energy Electroverse where you ‘pay’ using a specific RFID card which then bills you weekly are fantastic.
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