First non home charging experience

[icedup51]

Having had the car a couple of months with all journeys being in range of round trips from home, and no need for on trip charging. That all changed this week with a trip down to the south coast. Drive there was good and plenty of charge left in battery to get a long way back to home. The drive was mainly A roads and motorways with the car giving 3.2 miles per kilowatt hour, all good so far. Put route for home Into Sat Nav and gave a fast charge at Newbury Services with 22% battery charge remaining. Got to the services, Shell, all 4 chargers out of service., explanation power outage! Next fast charger some 30 miles away. OK not a good experience but it happens then disaster, traffic jam. Having not experienced the yellow warning light coming on and thinking how do I get out of this if it goes to zero was a questionable thought of why did I get an electric car! In the end got to a fast charger at Oxford with 7% battery a bit close for comfort. The charging was impressive at 268 kilowatts so a very fast top up. I did have zap map but couldn't get it to show chargers, just told me filters weren't set, which was strange as worked perfectly well when I used at home, just to see how it worked.
Moral, UK needs to go a long way to improve infrastructure of its EV charging network. Why doesnt Sat Nav have real time info of charger status, Should I have had hybrid before all electric. Dont get me wrong I love the car but if this experience is repeated is it worth it!

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[gusone]

The Shell app would have told you they were not working. Did you check?

 

[icedup51]

The Shell app would have told you they were not working. Did you check?

Nope, total novice on this. Didnt know was a Shell Charger till got there. But if they know it's not working surely it's not rocket science for the sat nav program to be linked Into charger networks?

 

[W1NGE]

Having had the car a couple of months with all journeys being in range of round trips from home, and no need for on trip charging. That all changed this week with a trip down to the south coast. Drive there was good and plenty of charge left in battery to get a long way back to home. The drive was mainly A roads and motorways with the car giving 3.2 miles per kilowatt hour, all good so far. Put route for home Into Sat Nav and gave a fast charge at Newbury Services with 22% battery charge remaining. Got to the services, Shell, all 4 chargers out of service., explanation power outage! Next fast charger some 30 miles away. OK not a good experience but it happens then disaster, traffic jam. Having not experienced the yellow warning light coming on and thinking how do I get out of this if it goes to zero was a questionable thought of why did I get an electric car! In the end got to a fast charger at Oxford with 7% battery a bit close for comfort. The charging was impressive at 268 kilowatts so a very fast top up. I did have zap map but couldn't get it to show chargers, just told me filters weren't set, which was strange as worked perfectly well when I used at home, just to see how it worked.
Moral, UK needs to go a long way to improve infrastructure of its EV charging network. Why doesnt Sat Nav have real time info of charger status, Should I have had hybrid before all electric. Dont get me wrong I love the car but if this experience is repeated is it worth it!

Shell Recharge app would have advised status of their EVSEs at that location.

PCM Nav map shows many EVSEs (not all - BP Pulse 150kW appear missing experienced that earlier in the week) plus there is an option to search en route if your destination is set.

Not perfect and can be frustrating but stick with it!

 

[LLA53]

Just unlucky I would say, I have done 17,000 miles in mine since November I travel all over the uk and never had any issues, it’s just a case of planning in advance and having a back up. I usually make sure I am at a min 80% charge at my destination so all good for getting back. ?

edit; the sat nav in the car is linked to the charging network and does show how many are available out of total chargers and if any are out of order.

 

[icedup51]

Just unlucky I would say, I have done 17,000 miles in mine since November I travel all over the uk and never had any issues, it’s just a case of planning in advance and having a back up. I usually make sure I am at a min 80% charge at my destination so all good for getting back. ?

edit; the sat nav in the car is linked to the charging network and does show how many are available out of total chargers and if any are out of order.

Guess I was just unlucky but being first time leaves a bit of a bad taste. It didnt show the Shell chargers being out of use as I would have thought it would have not programmed that in as stop, unless I've really missed something?

 

[W1NGE]

Just unlucky I would say, I have done 17,000 miles in mine since November I travel all over the uk and never had any issues, it’s just a case of planning in advance and having a back up. I usually make sure I am at a min 80% charge at my destination so all good for getting back. ?

edit; the sat nav in the car is linked to the charging network and does show how many are available out of total chargers and if any are out of order.

That's true but not 100% reliable.

The availability eg 2/2, 1/4 etc markers on the map also needs explaining as it fools you into thinking there are multiples of EVSEs when in fact it relates to connectors per EVSE. 2/2 translates as 1 EVSE with 2 connectors - 1 AC and 1 DC.

 

[icedup51]

That's true but not 100% reliable.

The availability eg 2/2, 1/4 etc markers on the map also needs explaining as it fools you into thinking there are multiples of EVSEs when in fact it relates to connectors per EVSE. 2/2 translates as 1 EVSE with 2 connectors - 1 AC and 1 DC.

Thanks guys for the info. I'll do more research.

 

[LLA53]

That's true but not 100% reliable.

The availability eg 2/2, 1/4 etc markers on the map also needs explaining as it fools you into thinking there are multiples of EVSEs when in fact it relates to connectors per EVSE. 2/2 translates as 1 EVSE with 2 connectors - 1 AC and 1 DC.

This is interesting as I don’t think this is always the case either. There is a shell stop near Putney bridge with 11 chargers, each one has 2 x connectors but always shows X/11 available.

 

[W1NGE]

This is interesting as I don’t think this is always the case either. There is a shell stop near Putney bridge with 11 chargers, each one has 2 x connectors but always shows X/11 available.

Yep could be and not sure how this data is moderated across the various providers. It's a case of pot luck in some instances.

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