Public chargers, are they useful?

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BigKeith1962

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2018
Messages
5
Hi all,

I recently upgraded to a Outlander Phev as I do a lot of trips with the grandkids. Often drive from London all the way up to Scotland and anywhere in between and I keep seeing the public chargers ("quick charge") but not actually used one yet.
Does anyone use them? Are they as good as advertised? How much does a charge cost compared to just using fuel? Any extra information would be appreciated as it will help me to decide if they are worth stopping for.

Thank you,
Keith.
 
In the UK, as everywhere, it depends on the price of the electricity. Some are complimentary, and obviously attractive, some will set you back as much as the corresponding amount of fuel and not worth it. In general, if you are planning to charge every 25 miles for a four-hour charge, it is not worth the hassle, if you are standing in a car park anyway, it may be worthwhile ( and gain you a parking spot).
Beware of CHAdeMO chargers - they are quick, but overuse may shorten battery life.
 
Thank you for the prompt response Jaapv.
Is there any quick chargers that you would recommend?
Also do you find yourself using any quick chargers?
 
Big Keith, aptly I just got back from using my first one. Very straight forward. Use zap map web page to find most of the chargers (there's always sneaky ones to be used that are not listed but people don't tend to share their treasure!). It will tell you which scheme operates it and see if you value the service over the cost.

They mostly offer a one-off use that isn't worth it (Polar for example is £6+£1.20 connection fee at my local one) and also a subscription model (£8/month + normally about what you would pay at home in electricity). Most do a 3 month free trial so nothing to lose. I would say it stopped charging at 80% which isn't ideal for me but at 25 mins my god it was quick!

It does highlight to me that after battery degradation.....(mine is on 85%, you can see using a £20 OBD2 module and the very good PHEV watchdog app) and "usable capacity" (this is like an invisible battery reserve that we can never use, a waste but at least we don't have to pay to charge this part. On a leaf this is only 10% of a battery, on the Outlander it is 25%!!!)....I can only have 8Kw of battery to play with!
 
BigKeith1962 said:
Thank you for the prompt response Jaapv.
Is there any quick chargers that you would recommend?
Also do you find yourself using any quick chargers?

I only use standard charge points when they are complimentary or to secure a (free) parking spot. I never use CHAdeMO chargers to protect the battery.
 
I charged at a Ecotricity point on Motorway today for the fun of it as never used one before... 20mins ish 80% charge cost £2.20 and gave me about 20miles range.. Worked out you need to reverse into space for cable to reach.. It really wasn't worth it though might have saved me 50p from calculations
 
I use public points when convenient and generally when no fee - for instance a 45 min plug in at my local supermarket whilst shopping means I can do the full return trip on ev.

Though chademo seems quick, do remember that our car actually charges very slowly compared with a pure ev - 20 miles or so in 30 mins is paltry compared with the 120 miles plus achieved by a bev in the same time. So bev drivers hate phevs using the fastest chargers! Type 2 points are fine (you need your own lead) but you should aim to move the car when charged. Ev spaces are for cars that are charging so there is an etiquette around not blocking them if you don’t need to charge.

Scotland is great for public charging (most points are free to use) with Chargeplace Scotland which can be accessed by people living outside Scotland using the CYC card (£20 pa).

Cheers
H
 
No one knows what are the long-term effects of using Chademo chargers on the car apart from Mitsubishi. Making a decision not to use them is based on guesswork rather than any known data about degradation on the PHEV. I'm sure that occasional use will have no noticeable effect on a battery

I use Chademo chargers when they're on free vend if I happen to be stopping, at places like IKEA (Electric Highway) or Lidl (PodPoint). On motorways, most (if not all) chargers are provided by Electric Highway, which costs around 15p per kWh to charge to 80% in 20-25 minutes. That will save you roughly £1 compared to petrol, more if buying it at the MSA! So it's not really worth charging unless you're stopping for a break anyway, but then you have the cost of coffee and snacks ;)
 
bounderboy said:
I charged at a Ecotricity point on Motorway today for the fun of it as never used one before... 20mins ish 80% charge cost £2.20 and gave me about 20miles range.. Worked out you need to reverse into space for cable to reach.. It really wasn't worth it though might have saved me 50p from calculations

These are branded Electric Highway by Ecotricity. If you take your home energy from them you get to use these @ 15p per kwh - so a charge is around £1 (it used to be 50 free charges per year). Of course these are Rapid charges so maximising the savings by frequent use will be offset by the hammering your battery gets and, of course, you might be able to get your home "green" energy cheaper, elsewhere!
 
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