Bye bye ecotricity?

[jaapv]

It was indeed inevitable. Realistically, rapid chargers along the Motorway were never intended for PHEV use.They are meant for Teslas and other long-range EVs. I'm sure the reason is that government subsidies ran out by now. Anyway: look at the upside: Your batteries will last longer :twisted:

Full disclosure - I will only charge on my car at home, at work, at free points and to avoid parking charges. Too stingy for anything else.

 

[jaapv]

If everyone who gets the email replies to politely tell them "no thanks" perhaps they will get the message

I doubt that they will be very upset with non-paying customers leaving.

 

[Claymore]

The eco trinity website says that the £5 for 20 minutes is NOT suitable for Mitsubishi PHEV due to its slow charging. This will surely upset a lot of people.

I couldn't find that on their site, any chance of a link?

I did see that they still state ChaDeMo chargers for, amongst others, Mitsubishi cars. Aren't all those PHEV?

Just thinking if there's a mass exodus it might actually be worth going with Ecotricity as all the chargers will be available...and still free to Ecotricity customers.

Having said that, having just got an estmate from them They would be £250 a year more expensive than the current deal I have with E.on although that was a 'collective' deal done via the Moneysaving expert.com site. E.on' s current cheapest non collective deal would be more expensive than Ecotricity.

So will depend on whether in September I can get another decent 'collective' deal.

JimB

 

[ChrisMiller]

I doubt that they will be very upset with non-paying customers leaving.

Many of us would be happy paying customers for a reasonable cost (£1.50-£2?). No-one is going to pay £5 unless they have to (i.e. they drive a pure EV).

PS I haven't received my email yet (not that I'm complaining)!

 

[geoffshep69]

Same response from me as everyone else.

Understand the need for a charge, but almost fell off my chair laughing when I saw their "flat fiver for a 20 min charge" quote.

It's no big loss for me, as I've only ever used their chargers once anyway. That was at the local Ikea, and even then I was more worried about it screwing up my car having read some of the horror stories on here !

Not disputing the financial need for them to charge, and I guess nothing can be free forever, but makes a bit of a mockery of their 'green' claims when they are basically making electricity more expensive than petrol ??!!

 

[geoffshep69]

If everyone who gets the email replies to politely tell them "no thanks" perhaps they will get the message

I doubt that they will be very upset with non-paying customers leaving.

True, but then again shouldn’t they be upset the fact that huge numbers of drivers will not use their pumps at all, and therefore generate no income, whereas implementing a charge at a more realistic level (e.g. £1) would have resulted in significantly increased revenues for Ecotricity ? By setting the charge at such a ludicrous level they are alienating large numbers of drivers and will probably see less total revenue than they would have done had it been more sensible ?

 

[jthspace]

Jim B - in their description of the App,

Quote

Using the app to charge your car

Compatible with all pure EVs, including Nissan LEAF, Renault Zoe, and BMW i3

Compatible with hybrid vehicles, including Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – but not recommended for these vehicles due to the slow rate of charge

Unquote

Jeff

 

[jthspace]

Copy of my email to Ecotricity

Quote

Thank you for your email and the advice reference the start of a charging cost.

While I appreciate that “free” charging was unsustainable in the long run, the indicated cost for 20 minutes of charge and the statement on your website that the charge is not suitable for Mitsubishi PHEV or similar vehicles means that I will not be utilizing the App for my charging.

Probably only £1 worth of electricity for £5 isn't exactly a bargain. However, a great way to remove all the PHEVs from the bays freeing up for full EV owners who will have no other option but to overpay.

As to getting “free” charging if I swap to your electricity deal – hardly the cheapest deal out there - even taking into account the saving of £5 for the occasional charge, your offering is far more expensive that the combination of “Petrol / Home Charging / Current Electricity Supplier” that I will be utilizing.

Hopefully, you may consider a rethink.

Unquote

Thanks to the posters for the assist in the drafting, hopefully others will respond to the ecotricity email, as suggested earlier.

Jeff

 

[Ozukus]

Got the email and had to check my Calendar to make sure I hadn't gone back in a timewarp to 1st April.

I use, well used to use, these quite regularly and on average I get about 6.4KW of charge. That works out to be about 78.1pence per KW. I pay 9.1pence at home so that's an 850% uplift in the charge cost. Guess we now have EcoWonga, as that's the sort of interest rate that companies like that charge!

Best I could probably get on a rapid charge is 18 miles, and its a fiver for a gallon of fuel so that's 18MPG, which on pure petrol alone I get around 40MPG.

I tend to use Cobham services and would say that around half the cars I see there are PHEVs, so for that station they just p!ssed off 50% of their customers.

The other thing, I would now NEVER consider them for an electricity supplier, even if they were competitive, as if that's their customer satisfaction model for EV Drivers, I'd hate to be a pur electricity customer.

 

[user 816]

Have not got time to kick it off now but perhaps we need a thread on other networks, slow and fast and the cost factors of using those but I suspect not many are viable.

My local council put a rapid one at the local sports centre, good I thought! charge whilst the kids are at swim training. Until I saw the price, again £5. I have never seen it in use even by EV drivers!

 

[SolarBoy]

This is the main reason I chose a short range PHEV over a medium range BEV, at the whim of others for recharging and costs for any decent journeys.

I have a Ecotricity card, never charged via the CHAdeMO, only used the card to access a local PodPoint to check it the lead I purchased worked.

The £5 is £5 more than I pay at home, I recharge for free (see signature).

Was considering a BEV as a second car, I'm reconsidering now and will wait for a decent size range extender that also has a meaty battery.

Am currently with Eon for a electricity and gas supplier, their CO2 per kWh isn't great (ok, it's awful) and we've been looking to move elsewhere, even if it costs a bit more.

 

[Claymore]

Jim B - in their description of the App,

Quote

Using the app to charge your car

Compatible with all pure EVs, including Nissan LEAF, Renault Zoe, and BMW i3

Compatible with hybrid vehicles, including Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – but not recommended for these vehicles due to the slow rate of charge

Unquote

Jeff

Thanks Jeff.

JimB

 

[Sailordoc]

Same as others, I won't be using Ecotricity again. However, I suspect the charging structure is *deliberately* designed to deter PHEV drivers. If the infrastructure is expensive to install, and demand is currently too high, they will no doubt be getting lots of moaning from BEV drivers about 'real' EV drivers having to wait whilst stingy PHEV drivers save a few quid. Thus the flat charge helps to deter us, reduces demand, and reduces the infrastructure investment required. Charging by the KW would presumably tie up their charging points for the same time, but at reduced income - hence perhaps not surprising why they have decided to charge this way?

 

[anko]

The £5 is £5 more than I pay at home, I recharge for free (see signature).

So you got your PV installation for free and if it wasn't for the PHEV any generated power would have disappeared into thin air? Or do you have a different notion of 'free'?

 

[SolarBoy]

The £5 is £5 more than I pay at home, I recharge for free (see signature).

So you got your PV installation for free and if it wasn't for the PHEV any generated power would have disappeared into thin air? Or do you have a different notion of 'free'?

My PV installation cost me just over £10,000 I own it, it is mine. Free as in the payments from the government and the reduction in my electricity and natural gas bill are a better investment than putting £10,000 into a bank account. I guess it's not free as the payments from the government are met by the UK tax payer.

Getting an extension to the house soon and some more panels ... they are great {and we might be buying a BEV or Rex though not sure which}.

Discussed with a neighbour that we don't need to use the washing line, we can use the tumble dryer as the solar panels generate plenty of spare energy. The neighbour suggested that we were wasting the energy. I suggested back that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it is merely converted into another form. Fortunately the are very understanding neighbours and we are still friends.

 

[Dusz]

Got my email today too. Have only had my PHEV since end of March so not much opportunity to use the Ecotricity chargers. Their charge of £5 is way too expensive. Where is Angela and Co of Rip off Britain?
Will not bother to download the app or use any of their chargers in the future. What they have just done is alianate a customer base. Use abroad I believe comes to about €2.40 assuming an 80% charge so much cheaper than Ecotricity.

Will this affect company car drivers when the time comes to renew their cars? I wonder if they will return to diesel.
Could this be the demise of electric/plug in hybrid motoring? In order for electric cars to be viable there need to be sufficient charge points and a realistic pricing policy.

 

[greendwarf]

To be fair to Ecotricity they have recently upgraded the chargers at both Heston & Dartford Services from 1/2 to 3 new ones which are very simple to use. BUT at Dartford I saw only one other EV (Leaf) in 2 visits and at Heston at least one charger is being hogged at a time by the BYD trial taxis - who must be costing them a fortune with repeated charging day & night for Heathrow pickups.

Someone has to pay for all of this and I assume gov't funding has now run out. So unless IKEA and the Service Area operators are willing to subsidise them, the money can only come from the punters. Clearly they can't have a different flat rate charge for PHEVs but if I wanted low pollution motoring I might, on occasion pay £5 to get it - its not all about money for me :mrgreen:

However, the real killer for me is having to use an app rather than the RFID - I don't have (or need a Smart 'phone) :lol:

PS. Just checked my mail but I don't have the message. This is because I don't have an Ecotricity card but use my Source London one. It will be interesting to see what they say, as there could be a different charge structure for their customers. :?

 

[jaapv]

Got my email today too. Have only had my PHEV since end of March so not much opportunity to use the Ecotricity chargers. Their charge of £5 is way too expensive. Where is Angela and Co of Rip off Britain?
Will not bother to download the app or use any of their chargers in the future. What they have just done is alianate a customer base. Use abroad I believe comes to about €2.40 assuming an 80% charge so much cheaper than Ecotricity.

Will this affect company car drivers when the time comes to renew their cars? I wonder if they will return to diesel.
Could this be the demise of electric/plug in hybrid motoring? In order for electric cars to be viable there need to be sufficient charge points and a realistic pricing policy.

Rapid charging over here is too expensive to consider, yet the place is littered with PHEVs.

 

[user 816]

Hmm

a Polar subscription costs £7.85 per month subscription but is free for the 1st six months, lots of free use 7kW chargers but not anywhere I would want to spend that amount of time to be useful, although a bit of top up at say, Asda is better than nothing for sure, although it would be rare as we shop at Lidl mostly.

Plenty of Rapid's at 9p +vat so 10.8p per kW which is not unreasonable, comparable to home and cheaper than petrol miles.

I think I might sign up for at least the first six months and see how much I use it and if it would justify the £7.85 after.

EDIT - correction, 9p per kW at the 20% of their slow posts that are chargeable.

It says FROM £2 for a Rapid Charge which is a bit steep for a PHEV.

2nd EDIT --
Confused! Website says Rapid Charge from £2 but go on their live map and select any rapid charge site and it states 9p/kW, I have emailed them for clarification!

FINAL EDIT --
Next catch, their rapid chargers are few and far between, unless you live in Milton Keynes where they have enough to drain a medium sized power station - bizarre! oh and a few free Rapid's, if you can afford to shop at Waitrose darlings!

 

[greendwarf]

Do you really mean Rapid chargers i.e. CHADEMO, like the Ecotricity ones?