Public charging points - Polar?

[cottie]

I've gone with Chargemaster/Polar card - the right choice? Any better out there?

It's taken me 3 weeks to find one where I wanted it.

Also - has anyone used the points to use the Tesla and BMW cars? It seems odd I only need to charge my Outlander 9 times to get a (almost) supercar for a week?!

 

[JSC]

Hi there

I haven't yet applied for a Polar/Chargemaster card, but I've reached the conclusion that it's probably the most universal one. Regarding the 9 charges to get a go in a super car, the small print does say that you need to charge in different towns to get more than one credit a month. So if you always charge in the same place it will take you 9 months to get your free ride

Also, was charging at a motorway Ecotricity point yesterday and was told by a BMW driver that Ecotricity will be charging us from next month - has anyone else heard this? It's been nice getting a free boost, but if it starts to cost money, then it makes the worth of the 25 mins to get 25 miles range even more debateable.

 

[cottie]

Ooh cheers for that - clever small print! I am going to find different points in quicker time mind.

Funnily enough I have an Ecotricity card on the way too but not paying monthly for that as well. £2 for 25 miles isn't much less than petrol is it...

 

[greendwarf]

I don't have an Ecotricity card because I can currently use my Source London one on their chargers. Source London have not told me about any changes. However, having parked between Teslas at Aldwych this week I can see that these "gas guzzlers" :lol: :lol: will soon be crowding us out from public charge points and costing the suppliers a lot of money compared to our penny's worth of juice.

More seriously, deterring us from charging will free up more of what is a limited resource for the pure EV drivers.

 

[cottie]

I have since applied and used an Ecotricity card (apart from pressing the wrong button), works very well indeed.

I rang them direct and asked them, the ever so polite lady was very vague about the subject of charging. Clearly it's going to happen people, but when is the question.

Until then my hunt for Chargemaster locations goes on - 2 down, 7 to find. 4,000 locations and I can't see one South of Coulsdon!

 

[onlynik]

Someone has to pay for the electricity.

In Aberdeen the council currently soaks up this cost. Last year it was just over £10,000, for 70,000 kWh.

I assume when more people start charging and it cost more to service the units, there be a charge for the electricity.

 

[maby]

Someone has to pay for the electricity.

In Aberdeen the council currently soaks up this cost. Last year it was just over £10,000, for 70,000 kWh.

I assume when more people start charging and it cost more to service the units, there be a charge for the electricity.

Don't underestimate the cost of installing and maintaining the physical charging infrastructure either - that also has to be recouped. Each ChaDeMo rapid charger costs several tens of thousands of pounds to install and the number of chargers out of service at any time seems to indicate that reliability is not particularly good. There is a tendency to think in terms of the cost of fitting a charging point in your driveway, but the public infrastructure is in a completely different league - most people want rapid chargers that can recharge your car in half an hour, not standard chargers which take several hours. They are far more expensive than home charging points. People also fail to take into account the cost of the bureaucracy you have to go through with H&S before you fit anything electrical that will be used by the general public. Finally, it is easy to not take into account the cost of providing access to the mains power - your individual home charging point is just back wired into the house distribution panel which is expected to be close by. A ChaDeMo charger will be drawing close to 100 amps off the mains and we are expecting to have multiple units retrofitted into car parks that were not designed with that in mind - chances are that there will not be anything like sufficient mains capacity into the building.

 

[steve2001]

I have done the vast majority of charging at home up to now but I did get an Ecotricity card - why not it was free! I have only used it once at Ikea but it worked fine.
I avoided Polar due to the monthly fee, even though the new Asda store nearby has Polar chargers. That and the fact the spaces are always filled with ICE cars :x
My employer has just installed 3 dual Polar
chargers servicing 6 parking bays. Apparantly there is only me and one other electric car owner Guess what - by the time I get to work they are all taken by ICE cars :roll: But can you believe it our premises team are going to get the security gaurds to cone off one of the bays for me each day! Now that is VIP treatment...
I was given a card today to activate the chargers and the company are not charging me either.
Will need to change my charging approach now so that I charge mostly at work and top up at home. That is not a bad problem to have compared to free leccy for the daily commute.
I will also try out the card to see if it works on the Asda Polar chargers, now that would be the icing on the cake...