Bye bye ecotricity?

[user 816]

just looking around at other options like Plugged in Midlands, plenty of chargers but most are type 2 @ 7.2kW so that's about 32 amps, but I seem to remember that the PHEV on a type 2, even with a 32A cable will still only charge at 16 amps?

Does this only apply to home installations or can you use the 32amps at 'commercial' posts?

I have a feeling its going to be a no. Massive pity!

 

[Dusz]

I believe that the car limits the charge to 16 A. My home charger is 32 A with a Type 2 socket as I wanted the installation as futureproof as I could make it.
When I next have an opportunity I will try to see how long it takes to charge up from empty but may not be for a couple of weeks.

 

[user 816]

I believe that the car limits the charge to 16 A. My home charger is 32 A with a Type 2 socket as I wanted the installation as futureproof as I could make it.
When I next have an opportunity I will try to see how long it takes to charge up from empty but may not be for a couple of weeks.

Hi, well its going to be about 3.5 hours @ 16 A which makes doing it on the road a certain non-starter too. Plenty of places I visit I do stay that length of time but non with a charger anywhere near.

According to the map there are Type 2 chargers around rated at 22kW that is as good as a Rapid Charger! in fact a PHEV on a Chademo only pulls 315V at 50A so 16kW.

I wonder what car can charge at 22kW @ 230/240v ? that would be near 100 Amps!

 

[kwbarlow]

They have now increased it to £6 for 30 minutes. Not very sensible. I have no objection to paying for the power used, and would be happy to pay a premium over even their daytime rates, which are 16,7p on their Economy 8 daytime rate, 20p per kwh maybe, but at LEAST 60p kwh is just extortionate. And their comments about PHEV's squatting on charging points is also nuts. If I am away from my home 16amp charging station I would only every use DC rapid charging, which I have used three times since last November, and have never been plugged in for more than 20 minutes.
Having been an owner since November 2015 I am running at over 99% electric and have maybe put 70 litres max in the tank. Almost all my journeys are in the usual central London traffic jams, and rarely exceed 20 miles. It would be nice to be able to hit triple figures MPG on a long run, as I did recently returning from a trip to Norwich with a single charge from Ecotricity ( free, thank you, but as I said, happy to pay a reasonable charge ). Oh, and sorry if I am repeating previous comments, only just registered and skipped to the end before posting and reading the long list of comments.

 

[user 816]

Found a 'still free' one today so got a charge, they really are very quiet already!

bumped into a lovely old retired fella with an old Leaf doing the same. To do the longer trips he had been used to would now cost too much as he would need several charges on route so it will probably have to go. He was a veteran and seemed to know every charger everywhere, sad that early adopter are now forced out.

 

[greendwarf]

I just used the Ecotricity CHADEMO charger at Leicester Forest East and noticed that it's also open to Source London and Plugged in Midlands card holders. Does anyone know whether these cards will still work and, if they do, whether they'll also be subject to the £6 charge? I expect the charge will still apply - possibly these cards will no longer work, but here's hoping

As for the fair use policy, that is another reason for not even looking at switching to Ecotricity as a home energy supplier. I wonder what happens if you are a multi-electric car household - is it fair use per car or per account?

No message yet from Source London on this but I was still able to use my card last week on the M4. I assume once the upgrade is in place only app users will have access anyway and all RFID cards will cease to work.

However, still able to use my free esb card for free charging here in Ireland

 

[JSC]

I was back at Leicester Forest East today and tried to use my plugged in Midlands card. it didn't work, but I don't know if that's a change as I hadn't used it before. One of the CHADEMO chargers says it takes plugged in Midlands cards but I used the other one - Doh!. Anyway, still able to get a free charge with my Ecotricity card. The upgrade programme is supposed to be complete by August 5th (see copy of email from Ecotricity below).

"Thank your for your email regarding the Electric Highway, apologies in the delay getting back to you.

We are rolling out the app compatibility to all charge points gradually, all units are due to be transferred by August 5th 2016."

 

[greendwarf]

Its just a pity the network wasn't built by a sensible energy company rather than a wacko renewable one with a maverick boss..

I am sorry Maby, but I just don't believe this isn't a cynical profiteering attempt. Misjudged as the future level of usage will be too small to make anything.

....

As I said above, we did the sums with a view to possibly putting in a bid to run the London charging network - and our figures came out to pretty much the same as Ecotricity seem to have decided on. We are very experienced in this - we run many large IT and BPO contracts - so don't dismiss our calculations too lightly. Jaapv indicates that the pricing structure on the continent is very similar too.

I do suspect that the business model will not work, but cutting the price will not make it work any better. There is a significant infrastructure to cover and running it at a loss only makes sense if there is a strong prospect of being able to run it at a profit in the reasonably near future. Since the charging points are already installed and the cost committed, he is probably better off with them sitting there unused than selling electricity at less than the running cost.

PHEVs are an irrelevance to the public charging network - it will never be possible to sell them electricity at a profit because they can't take enough of it on and they don't have to buy it at all. The economics are different for pure EVs - 30 minutes on a ChaDeMo charger will take on enough power to do upwards of 100 miles - at £6, that gives you running costs that are competitive with petrol and still make financial sense. Anyone that bought an EV or PHEV on a running cost calculation that depended on free public charging was being very unrealistic - it was clearly only ever going to be a temporary thing and you only have to look 50 miles south east to see what was going to happen.

Certainly not dismissing your calculations, without seeing the Ecotricity accounts its difficult to truly evaluate their position. But if as you say its barely profitable or even unprofitable at the pricing they have introduced.. why bother to continue at all? that would make no business sense. It would be a strange business model to keep the network going long term subsidised by profit from domestic tariff customer signing up on Green principles (there being no financial reason to)

I assume that the motorway service sites are under a gov't contract so opting out may not be an option as there may be penalty costs and/or surrendering the chargers to a rival :?

 

[greendwarf]

Having used some of their Rapid chargers on the M4 2 weeks ago en route to Ireland, using my Source London RFID card, I was disappointed, when returning, today to find that they have been upgraded to the App - including those at the Dartford Services.

However, one of the latter was actually on "free dispense" - just plug in and charge (presumably in error) - no need for RFID card or App So a small blow for PHEV users :lol: Gave me enough to run the AC full blast once I got back to London

PS. No sign of any other EVs charging anywhere, despite it being a peak holiday driving day :?

UPDATE - 3rd Rapid charger at Dartford Services now correctly updated - so no longer free . However, again no EVs charging EXCEPT a PHEV, whose driver told me he had switched to Ecotricity so he wasn't directly paying for the charge. :lol:

Can't see that their business model is working yet.

 

[user 816]

Having used some of their Rapid chargers on the M4 2 weeks ago en route to Ireland, using my Source London RFID card, I was disappointed, when returning, today to find that they have been upgraded to the App - including those at the Dartford Services.

However, one of the latter was actually on "free dispense" - just plug in and charge (presumably in error) - no need for RFID card or App So a small blow for PHEV users :lol: Gave me enough to run the AC full blast once I got back to London

PS. No sign of any other EVs charging anywhere, despite it being a peak holiday driving day :?

I have not seen a converted one yet, how are they different? I presume visibly they just have new stickers all over? perhaps a new symbol sign showing Dick Turpin next to them? :lol:

Its seems the best way to spot an unconverted one at the moment from a distance is see if anyone is using it, if deserted then its on the app...

 

[greendwarf]

Has a large QR code sticker over where the RFID scanner was and the screen has a different menu - asking if you have the App yet and, if not, to scan the QR code to get it. The "defective" :lol: one at Dartford had the sticker but the menu just invited you to plug in.

 

[user 816]

Has a large QR code sticker over where the RFID scanner was and the screen has a different menu - asking if you have the App yet and, if not, to scan the QR code to get it. The "defective" :lol: one at Dartford had the sticker but the menu just invited you to plug in.

I wonder if they default to free mode if they have perhaps a loss of communication with the billing server fault... to prevent EV drivers getting stranded through no fault of their own?

Wonder if they are using cabled internet or mobile data?
That would be amusing.. a burst from a GSM jammer to trigger a free charge..

 

[NessunDorma]

Well, sadly I have had to cancel my order of the Outlander, last month. The whole plan was based on the ability to charge the car duirng the day, using a local Ecotricity charge point. It was the only I could justify the cost of the contract hire.

So, I will have to now keep my old Picasso and continue to pollute the nation's atmosphere.

 

[jaapv]

Bad luck... However these chargers being free always was a shaky base as it was likely that it was a temporary offer. However, isn't there an option of a regular charging point for you? I have always regarded the Chademo option on the car as a bit outside the concept.