Who thought the Megane was going to reverse into him?? :)

My takeaway is this. (1)If you need a daily shopper then home-charging is fine. That's how I run my Nissan Leaf. 120 reliable miles and it charges overnight on my driveway. (2) If you do long daily drives then you need a 250 mile range (Tesla Model 3?) plus home-charging. You have a full tank every morning and plenty of range to get you to a big charging hub. (3) If you don't have home-charging then the UK network isn't mature enough to give you peace of mind. PLUS it costs the same as filling with petrol. Summary - You absolutely need home-charging to make EVs worth the bother, or you'll have range-anxiety your entire life.

@peteradamsonful

4 ай бұрын

Mg4 long range. I do a 180 mile journey from home, and arrive at a hotel with over 20%.

@llchristubell

4 ай бұрын

lots of EV cars can do 250+ miles now, not just a Tesla

@andymccabe6712

4 ай бұрын

​@@llchristubellwhatever....that's not his point.... .... His (completely valid) point is the general one...that, you need home charging for an EV to be worth even considering... currently......!! .... Otherwise they're completely not worth the stress, hassle, inconvenience.. and PRICE....!!!

@Brokenbritain2024

4 ай бұрын

I totally agree having an ev for nearly two years having a home charger is key and makes owning an ev cheap to run. With the price of the public chargers being ridiculously expensive they wouldn’t be as cost effective. I will say though that I do the airport run twice a year and using the main motorway network I have never had range anxiety. There are lots of chargers in most services and ones that only have a couple are being upgraded to have more at quite a good rate. I do have a born though and it has a summer range of 230-250. The one time I arrived as a services(cobham) that was fully in use I went on ABRP put in next closest (3miles) checked it had been used on the app recently and went there no stress just 1 mile detour each way of the motorway simple.

@damindra

4 ай бұрын

Your all not seeing the issue, if you even do have home charging and you need to suddenly go somewhere you just can't if you have just started charging the car?

You are quite right about a failed petrol pump as there are usually a 'dozen' available however they are also only 'in use' for, literally, *minutes* so the inconvenience is even less!

@bmw803

4 ай бұрын

The difference with gasoline pumps is that when they break, it also doesn't take months to repair or even left abandoned. My local mall had a 50kwh charger that got knocked down last Dec 22 and no replacement yet. They cut the power and put 3 cones on top of the concrete base.

@AussiePom

4 ай бұрын

With a failed petrol pump here in Australia the petrol station puts an orange plastic cover over the bowser nozzle so you can see it's out of order. Here EV charges that are out of order have a big metal sign on them reading "out of order" It seems that in the UK with EV chargers they don't put a big sign on it reading out of order you have to try and connect with it to charge your car, or not. Its the same with motels and B&B's here for if they're full they hang a sign out reading No Vacancies or they have a large enough lighted sign which incorporates a lit No Vacancy sign. Often the Vacancy sign is at the bottom of the main sign with the word NO blacked out when there are vacancies and the word no lights in red when there's No Vacancies. But in the UK you have to go the reception desk to find out if they have a room or not. OMG what a backward country. Many EV manufacturers are now supplying cables to enable people to charge non Tesla EV's from Tesla Chargers, well they are here.

The price they charge at these rapid chargers is insane. More expensive than diesel.

@iambenmitchell

4 ай бұрын

Only reason I plan to get a model 3 over a polestar… Tesla is so much cheaper when it comes to public charging

@SloaneEsq

3 ай бұрын

@@iambenmitchell They've got to be subsidised by Tesla. Business electricity isn't that cheap.

I’ve just done the same test where i live, both petrol station at 100% full working order, only 2 EV chargers for 30 miles, both out of order due to no signal.

@ivannavi8154

4 ай бұрын

I just finished a 5000 km road trip through South Africa in a borrowed VW Passat. SA is the most developed of the 54 countries on the African continent. I know SA very well, been coming here for many years. After six weeks on the road it is glaringly obvious that ICE vehicles will always prevail here. EVs in SA are as rare as rabbits In Antarctica, only the wealthy elite in Johannesburg and Cape Town can afford a handful of these. There is zero infrastructure and according to a Johannesburg Sun 2023 survey there are only about 1000 EVs in SA. If EVs are a non starter in the most developed country in Africa (SA has several large vehicle manufacturing plants) then the other 53 countries will always be ICE. The same for the Middle East.

I rented a Polestar 2 over Christmas and thought the car was fantastic! I did my first ever public charging in a McDonald's car park in west Leeds at an Instavolt charger in December 2023. I tapped my card and plugged in but the screen on the charger was broken and then the cable was stuck in the car for 45 minutes and did not charge. Went to a different Instavolt charger a few days later in Bradford and the charging session was fine. On the M1 at Leicester Forest East services, they don't even have any chargers. I love EVs but I want to be able to drive up to a charger, plug in and not have to plan anything. I want a similar experience on the motorways as I do with ICE cars.

4 years ago my company “pushed” me and 11 of my team into EV company cars from ICE. 5 of us went down the Tesla route whilst the rest went Legacy EV. Common complaints since from the Legacy EV drivers were centred around charging (queuing, multiple apps, multiple payment methods, third party charge operator website poor, having to credit funds before use, reliability of chargers) - The Tesla drivers never had an issue and the consensus is the Supercharger network is pretty great (personally in almost 4 years and 67,000 miles never had a broken charger and have only had to queue twice, both times in the last month at Gardano) - We are all pretty much on the cusp of selecting new vehicles again, the car list has a much greater selection of EV’s that last time but my realisation is to rely on anything outside of the Supercharger network would just be too much of a frustration. Until Tesla opens every Supercharger to Legacy or third party charger co’s get their act together the general message about EV’s and their desirability as an alternative is being damaged.

@bradsmith9189

4 ай бұрын

You should tell them for your own safety you demand an ICE vehicle.

@casperhansen826

4 ай бұрын

​@@bradsmith9189for their own safety they should select a Tesla, the world's safest car.

@onlyme972

4 ай бұрын

Tesla Safe? 😮 Never heard any Ice driver roasted because the doors won't open.

@peterjones6322

4 ай бұрын

I had an Opal Omega diesel that had a complete electrical failure and I couldn't get out of the car.

@kjh789az

4 ай бұрын

Agreed. Plus the high cost of public charging is not an incentive to make an EV the main vehicle in families sufficiently affluent to run more than one car.

I'm not sure it matters who's responsibility it is to repair, The simple fact as far as the end consumer is concerned is that it's not useable. The infrastructure simply isn't mature enough yet. With the cost they expect people to pay, to charge, I'm shocked that companies aren't fighting to get new chargers installed.

@Philltbag

4 ай бұрын

I don't understand, it's broken so the repair man comes to fix it and bills the person who gets the revenue from it, isn't that how every other business is run in the world?

@bmw803

4 ай бұрын

Exactly. Politicians are talking shit by saying, "you always have some bumps", but when it means that this bump in the road leaves you stranded and you need to get a tow truck, and book a hotel to be able to continue, WILL NOT RESONATE WITH DRIVERS.

@colinwiseman

4 ай бұрын

It's not that the infrastructure is not mature, it's these companies cutting corners. Or because of council budget cuts from central government, councils decide they it's more important to have front line services paid for rather than a charger. It sucks. It should be "it's broke, it gets fixed". It should have been part of the costing or lease. But with so few EVs it feels like companies don't care.

@ianemery2925

4 ай бұрын

@@Philltbag Councils refuse to work that way, they insist on a quote and then you cant start until authorised. This isnt just an EV charger problem; the local playground had DANGEROUSLY broken equipment for over 2 years before the council authorised repairs.

@DigiDriftZone

4 ай бұрын

Putting in a 7kW charger is cheap, but putting a 150kW charger... that's another story. A house uses 30kW-ish average, so you're looking at 5 houses' worth of energy infrastructure per charger. Imagine 20 chargers, that's 100 houses' worth, you need underground capacitors and inverters and probably batteries - I mean look around at superchargers you'll see giant containers making buzzing noises nearby (some are diesel powered!). That costs millions to put in and you still experience a vast reduction in charge speeds if too many cars charge at once. It is just not economical to install so all these companies are going bankrupt, even at the ridiculous per kWh prices...

I completely agree with your rant about inaccurate maps! In my experience ChargePlaceScotland are the worst for this, I've been to 20+ chargers which the CPS app claims are working. When I've phoned up to report the fault, I've then been told "Sorry we know it's broken, it's been like that for weeks". There's absolutely no excuse for a network not to keep it's own online map/app up-to-date. I've politely approached a couple of councilors for help getting long-term broken chargers repaired but been ignored. Some councils really need to get their act together. My plea to anyone reading this is complain to the local council when a council-owned charger is broken - if enough of us complain then something might change!

I have only found a few chargers not working during my travels. If I am having difficulties, I usually call the number on the side of the charger and after a brief discussion, they will remotely reboot it. This has solved most issues and only once have I had to find a different charger. i very much agree that if a charger is not working it should be marked as such in the apps.

@hamshackleton

4 ай бұрын

If they can remotely reboot it, why can they not remotely see that it NEEDS rebooting?

@pioneer7777777

4 ай бұрын

Agreed. Or you should be able to reboot it yourself with a button on the charger. ​@@hamshackleton

@mikemorley2797

4 ай бұрын

My first DC charging experience with instavault was a complete failure. Calling for assistance and reboot did not fix so had to wait and then move to the next charger. Someone then moved in and it worked ok. Next day a Tesla was having the same exact problem on the same charger...what can I say??

As a fellow computer technician for decades, I absolutely concur with your frustration! 😭

Wow.... 1 year ago!! Ferk!! I saw that video and time certainly flys!!

Here in Portsmouth, they shut off all the posts and lamp post chargers in the public streets because even when they have been online for a few years now they only found out the other week that they have been wired up dangerously and thus need rewiring to fix

@SteveLoughran

4 ай бұрын

That and and your high speed chargers are: broken BP one, broken Geniepoint, taxi only in the P&R, one only available during Tesco opening hours and a pair by the Brittany Ferry port. When we visit family we make sure we are charged up on the way in and that we can get as far as somewhere on the A34/M4 on the way home. One thing Pompey does say is "here is how to safely run a cable from your house" -most other cities say "don't" which is already being ignored

Since 2016 I have used Tesla Supercharger 135 times, I have queued on one occasion (for less than 10 minutes), on two occasions the "pump" was slow and I moved to another. Not once have I had "nothing working" If Tesla can do it, using UK infrastructure, why not the other muppets? On one occasion the location I was heading to (Rugby) had a power cut, I got a notification on dash, SatNav re-routed, and a bit later power was restored and it re-routed back to Rugby. Does anyone else, other than Tesla, do that? Why not?

It is always nice to see an update from you on how things are going on the other side of the Pond.

My local Lidl has a Podpoint 50kW charger that has still yet to be commissioned after probably 2 years at this point. The one at the Lidl the next town over was destroyed by youths months ago, it still worked even with the broken screen but it's now been taken offline on the app. The 7Kw charger at Aldi is an old BP Pulse unit that's dead, and at the newer Aldi the 22kW chargers haven't been turned on yet after 6 months. The 150kW chargers in the retail park are in the bottom corner of the car park, and if it rains the bays flood because there's no drains, so you have to step out into a kerb heights worth of water. The main issue for us seems to be the lack of Chademo on new chargers. Sainsbury's ripped out the 7Kw Type 2 chargers and replaced them with 350kW CCS chargers, which is great and all, but the units they installed have Chademo at other sites so it was an active choice

You clearly have more patience than I do, I was anxious watching this. I'll stick with diesel and filling up once a week or even every 2 weeks. But a very useful video, thanks

I’ve had an EV for 18 months now with home charging. I wouldn’t get one without it. Appreciate lots of people do this and it works for them, but for me, the moment you move away from cheap home charging, the benefits case for an EV diminishes substantially. The few times I’ve had to public charge have been hit and miss, just like this video. Again, lots of people do this a lot and it works for them. I just don’t like the range anxiety without the certainty I can always find a working charging station. Whilst I love my EV and won’t go back to ICE, I can sympathise with people who just wont consider one until we have better infrastructure, more range, faster and cheaper charging and of course cheaper cars. We have a long way to go here.

@davidlewis4399

4 ай бұрын

So half the population wont be able to have a charger so running a EV will be a complete pain and stupidly expensive. Thanks all the virtue signalling rich tossers who will force us peasants off the road.

Great video... Thanks. Some progress over the last 12 months.

@davidlewis4399

4 ай бұрын

Until the population who dont want an EV are forced to have one and cant charge at home.

@mikadavies660

4 ай бұрын

@@davidlewis4399 We can only see... ? And that won't happen in our lifetime. Even after 2035... ICE will be around for 30 to 50 years.

Good video! I live on the other side of the pond. When I was in Northern England this past summer for a wedding, I drove around Manchester, Burnley, Liverpool, and Leeds. Did not see many charging stations, but did see plenty of electric vehicles.

Having watched a lot of videos on EV use i am sticking to my diesel for the foreseeable future. Loved the polestar 2 i test drove, but don't want all this hassle.

@rusty911s2

4 ай бұрын

It's such a shame that the product is now there and getting really good, and the infrastructure is still awful. As this is nationally important infrastructure regulations need to impose a minimum service standard: if you operate a charging network there needs to be a requirement-to-work or face consequenses.

60% working, 40% working. These figures don't mean anything when you live in a northern town of 90k people like I do where you can count the number of public charge points on the fingers of your two hands, nobody has put more in for years and most people can't charge up at home because it's mostly terraced houses so it's mostly kerbside parking only. What do you think is going to happen as more and more councils go bust or are stretched for funds if they're the ones responsible for the maintenance of a public charge point? They're not going to get repaired. Then recently in California there was a whole bank, I think it was 38 new Tesla public charge points that had their cables chopped off by copper thieves. It's only a matter of time before that starts occuring here in the UK.

1st call Geniepoint, had you said what network I’d have guessed it wouldn’t work. Geniepoint are useless.

Come to Québec, all the rapid chargers I’ve used in the last five years apart from one have worked flawlessly and the temperatures range from the -30's in winter to the +30's in the summer. 😮 ( I hope I haven’t put a curse on myself ) 😂

I would be totally frustrated if I had to go through all this charging stress if I bought an EV. Yesterday I rolled into a local service station in my 2006 Golf TDI with about one eighth of a tank remaining. It took less than 3 minutes to fill it up and that tank will take me about 900 km around town and 1000 km on the open road. There are 6 EV charging stations (that is 6 “bowsers”) in my town of 150,000 people and 40 listed petrol stations. I’m told by my Tesla owning neighbour that 2 of the public EV chargers are not working. He got a quote for rooftop solar and a wall battery terminal thing for the Tesla and it was $16,000. His wife is furious and has gone back to driving her 20 year old Ford Telstar every day.

Very interesting, i must do the same in my area. What about any news sites in that year? Given how many are going in you would expect a couple of new sites as well?

Im convinced the UK needs to just have Tesla do it. Their V4 chargers are great and their software is the best anyway, as well as their prices tend to be lower than the rest.

This is why people are a bit scared about buying one

@sargfowler9603

4 ай бұрын

So true. The price may be plummeting on used EVs but the lack of decent charging locations really puts me off. Look forward to big changes in a years time eh? 😂 Hopefully the EVangelists watch this video and understand what the ICE people are complaining about!

@RTR1879

4 ай бұрын

This isn't their biggest complaint though. The anti-EV brigade have pivoted now to child exploitation in mining minerals. The oil companies are doing a great job in steering the narrative.

@justincase9471

4 ай бұрын

I would be more concerned about EV batteries catching fire.

@Joe-lb8qn

4 ай бұрын

@@justincase9471 fossil fuel 10x more likely to catch fire Guess how many ice fires last year. Go on. Ok I'll tell you. Not counting arson 100. Yep. 100. Oh BTW that is the per day figure. But media reports every single EV fire (and many that aren't (like Luton for example) while ICE fires are so commonplace it's not newsworthy. 100 a day. Every day.

@stuartburns8657

4 ай бұрын

​@@RTR1879Don't know about that. As 1st world citizens, we all benefit from exploitation, be it our cheap clothes, food or electronics.

The rapid chargers in Guiseley (the Osprey ones at the retail park) are inaccessible after 8pm as they close the gates. When I asked the council about this, they stated that the chargers are there as a convenience for shoppers using the shops, not the general public 🤦🏻‍♂️ The Ionity chargers at Skelton Lane services at Leeds on the M1 have been running at less than half their advertised rate for over a year now. I went to Peterborough last week and tried a couple of different sites, to try and avoid paying service station prices for food while I charged. I tried a Shell and BP charge stations and had problems at both so ended up wasting an hour driving around and then going to the services anyway. When people ask me if they should get an EV, I tell them yes, but ONLY if you can charge at home.

A small town in rural Oxfordshire this morning. Parked in the municipal car-park. Surprised to see two chargers, both ICEd! Then realised the chargers were out of action, fenced off with road-works plastic. Then noticed there was actually a complete row of TEN! Looked like they’d not been used for years. The suppliers had obviously given up as all their decals had been removed, leaving plain white fridge-size boxes. Ten spaces in a very busy 70 space car park and not an EV in sight [apart from mine]. So I’m sure they’d be ICEd even if they were working. It’s a quaint town where few of the ancient terraced houses have parking so as 2035 draws near there’ll be lots of the citizenry grateful for ten public chargers. But someone on the council’s obviously got well ahead of themselves. Let’s hope they can find the funding to resurrect these two at a time as demand increases.

Big hubs on major routes have come on a long way. If you’re travelling a long way thats probably most important to you. Singletons or dual units locally that may be old, gridserve/geniepoint/BP pulse etc I’d try and ignore as much as possible. couple of times I’ve wanted something near a destination - St Ives and Isle of Wight. Former they didnt’ have anything so just charged up enough to get me back to camborne on the way out (but they now have some at the leisure centre and more opening soon). Isle of wight I popped out one morning to a mcdonalds for an instavolt top up.

@hamshackleton

4 ай бұрын

Try finding one that really works around Holyhead, Anglesey! The one I know of hasn't worked for five years - but I have to add that I've not been there since covid struck. It was still listed on zap-map, though!

@paulbuckingham15

4 ай бұрын

I used the AC one in the public car park in Sandown on the IOW whilst having a curry (a very nice curry ) on the high street nearby. When we went back after dinner, the DC one (still only a 50kw) was free so I switched to that and we went to the Pier for about half an hour and had a play around on penny falls machines, video machines ( the driving type ones) etc . That plus the 100% ( 273 miles wltp) range I started with in Ruislip did enough for the trip there and back and out and about across the whole island for the week. I did only get back with about 15 miles range though. That's fine when arriving home where you are guaranteed a chargepoint (albeit 7kw or a granny on a 3 pin).

Yes there are occasions when a petrol station has pumps out of order, however you haven't far to drive to find another. I live in a rural village and there is a petrol station then within 5 miles they are 2 more. I have never found any if any out of action. Plus it takes me about 5 mins top to refuel, pay and depart. I don't need a smartphone, several apps and normally 1 plastic card to pay. Keep your EVs by all means but don't force me to give up my form of transport.

The Osprey charger in Bridge Street Car Park in Skipton is one of my favourites. It's just right in distance from Nottingham for my motorbike, always works, I rarely have to wait, there's cafes and shops, and I can get right out from there to the nice roads in the Dales.

Deep chuckle from here in France. The one in our village hasn't worked for at least a year but we have three more within five clicks, so no worries. We still charge at home for a week on reduced rates.

We live in a country where the establishment tells us to put up and shut up, leading to we middle class scraping by and many more vulnerable people being unable to heat and eat. I’ve only thrice used public chargers in the 9 years we’ve driven EV, but great content, great points and a great public service sponsored by SmartHomeCharge I can’t get installed in Rural Shropshire. Maps being reliant on user reports, not system logging map updates is something that winds up we IT competent folks!

@fartknockers

4 ай бұрын

The problem is corporations and billionaires hogging the money. It never trickles down and every successive generation gets poorer and poorer, it can't go on like this forever it isn't sustainable. Especially with automation coming in and people needed to reskill to keep employment. The UK has some excellent standards but actual practices of fixing things and keeping services running we are a massively incompetent country. The Government even saying this week don't expect the potholes to be all repaired there's no money. Hold on a minute but you quit HS2 to free up money for road infrastructure investment, so where is the money?

@Mizzkan

4 ай бұрын

@@fartknockersThat’s the good news boss. You ain’t seen anything yet…..

@jamesbowskill362

4 ай бұрын

middle class no less !!!!!

My belief is still EVs for home charging only. Keep your ICE for long distances

@kellyeye7224

4 ай бұрын

Sort of destroys the whole idea behind EV's, doesn't it? Reduction in CO2?? *Having* to use two vehicles, both of which actually do produce CO2 (during manufacture and use - check out the Advertising Standards Authority poo pooing the idea that EVs are 'emission free'). It's like the wind energy con... wind turbines MUST have conventional backup to work when the wind doesn't blow and EV drivers 'must' have an ICE vehicle for when range is an issue! lol

@fyank1

4 ай бұрын

I do long journeys in my EV without issue. Only use the big hubs and an EV has been my only car since 2013 now.

Pretty much a similar picture where I am. At least 2 sites nearby which have been faulty for ages, still faulty. Also not on the maps as they’ve been off for so long. One actually owned by Scottish power. Another nearby site supposed to be replacing a damaged unit with 6 new ones. Put in the ground 3yrs ago. Never powered to this day. I’ve been on my soapbox to the council and local councillors but to no avail.

2:40 Depends on the nature of the contract. If the contract is to provide a charging service with a certain %age up-time then the charger company is at fault if it isn’t fixed. If the contract is just an install and maintain to order then yes, they might be awaiting a purchase order from the owner.

Old person in a flat. No phone. No home charging. What they gonna drive for the next 30 years?

@andymccabe6712

4 ай бұрын

Er....... ....this is a very confused comment.....isn't it......'peter'...!?!!

I caught a dose of range anxiety just listening to this 🎉

I honestly would have enjoyed watching you visit and film every single machine to show if they where operating as we have finally got an ev and we frequently travel from Newcastle to London in our diesel chugger, so it's vital for me to learn 👍🤞

@Antiguan_Dart

4 ай бұрын

Depending on your EV (range) and any manufacture charging loyalty card you have I have a recommendation for the journey from Newcastle to London. In a Genesis GV60 ( motorway speed range 253 miles ) which has a Shell Recharge Loyalty card ( gives discounted charge rate to Ionity and Shell Recharge Network 58p/KWh ). Newcastle to Haringey just inside M25 is 290 miles via this route. Newcastle to Skelton, Leeds to use Ionity. 100 miles Skelton, Leeds to Coachway, Milton Keynes, 143 miles. Ionity chargers. Coachway, Milton Keynes, to Destination. 47 miles. Then re-trace the return journey. If destination charging is available you could probably get to Skelton on a full charge missing out Milton Keynes in the return leg. Good luck on whatever route you select.

Nearly every video I see with Genie point they are never working, BUT the one in Shrewsbury at Morrisons does GO FIGURE!! and on the A5 the gridserve has been replaced with EVpoint, and Girdserve are installing 6 charger near by. Plus we have 2 old Instavolt, which only once found faulty. Welshpool though is now well served with 7 Rapids and they all work.

Loved when you laughed at "first" charger.. Imagine you are on a trip with family and got 10-15% charge left....Great news 😅 Other piint - would be nice to know the prices per kWh at those charges.

It’s always good to get it off your chest. I used a charging map which stated there was on at a services on a motorway and when in France and I got there to charge and it was not built they had only just started digging,

I find genie point the worst. There was one in West Cardiff that was offline November 2022. Last month it was still offline and then recently removed from the app's map. The actual unit is still in place though. I reported it twice. It was in a Texaco petrol station. The app is continuously showing locations off line.

I’m lucky that my nearest six EV chargers are run by motor fuels group, at a manned petrol station. 100% functioning so far.

Each EV vlog i see confirms my thought that this is still someway off being reliable, convenient and affordable. I'll give it another 5 years in my ICE and review! Can you imagine if you had to pay for fuel with a shell/BP app or whatever!

I found that because there so many charging companies and charging unit manufacturers, there are problems in sourcing parts and engineers who know how to fix these! Ionity in particular have this issue as they have very old units now. So what we need is fewer charging unit varieties.

I plan my holiday routes before setting off. We headed to Bude last summer and it’s a charger desert down there. The 2 charges were out of action at our holiday park. I did find one charger working in Bude centre. There’s another charger at the other end of town and it’s £1-49.PKH. It’s not good down there. But I do like InstaVolt and Podpoint. When travelling..

Really interesting video, thank you. I have never used lone chargers, or council run chargers. I wouldn't use a garage with a lone fuel pump, if they still exist, because there is always a chance of a queue or a failure. I wouldn't use council run chargers because they get funds to install, but they do not get ring fenced funds to maintain, so there is a good chance they are not working, and they will usually have ways of fining you for the slightest mistake. I have a list of large rapid/ultra rapid charger sites with multiple chargers throughout the country, just as I used to with fuel stations, and I stick with these. Consequently, if a few chargers are down, there are always others, and I hardly ever have to queue. I think this will be the way eventually, that big charger sites, privately owned and run, will dominate.

Do the chargers have a hotline number on it? Did you ever try to contact the support number? Did they tried to reboot the charger or did they just say we know it's not working? A few times when I called the support here in Germany and they rebooted the charger it worked afterwards. I'm surprised you didn't mention the support.

TBH I am surprised you did so well! The fact that the largest UK charging networks are owned by petrochemical companies makes me doubt if it's in their interest to have effective & efficient charging!

I got my Leaf in 2016. A number of stations are now offline, or have been removed, or have been changed to a private Carrier. I mostly charge at home.

So these were the ten nearest rapid chargers a year ago? How many new chargers have been installed in the area in the last year if any?

We had the same situation here in France until a year ago. But things have changed so much recently, rapid chargers are popping up like mushrooms and tobe honest, it's very easy to travel anywhere today in an EV. Most of the networks are now very reliable

Thank you to everybody who has commented on this very important issue sensibly. Those of us that are still ICE orientated need hands on EV user's testimony's to decide what is best for their own circumstances. We are all aware of the difficulties and this video and the comments helps a great deal. Basically the bottom line is that the changeover is not ready for millions of car users to make the change for a whole ton of reasons even by 2035. I live in a rural area where I could easily have a home charge point but many people live in little cottages and are unable to even think about that. In a 10 mile area there are currently just 2 public charges and 1 of those last week was out of order. It needs to be a lot better than that!!!

It's useful to know what proportion of chargers are working. I've heard reports of some chargers with prices that are extortionate compared with charging at home. What are your observations and would you do a video on charger pricing please?

I just changed my car. I seriously looked at electric again. And my problem was exactly the same as when I last looked 3 years ago. The charging network if you have anything other than a Tesla (and no Tesla was suitable for what I needed) In the end I went for a PHEV. Enough battery get me to shopping and back, and I can charge it using my solar panels. And then for longer journeys I have a petrol engine where I don't need to worry where I'm going to get a charge to get me home. Love it. The electric car technology is absolutely ready, and ready now. The networks is where the problem lies. I found pure electric cars that I could have bought, but I could not take that leap if it wasn't a Tesla. Until every petrol station and supermarket in the country has a bank of 20 working chargers, is a no-go from me. However n that news Morrisons has announced the sale of all their petrol forecourts in order for them to install chargers. One step in the right direction.

Out of the fast chargers I have around 4 have never been turned on after been installed(no idea why) and we have other 5 that work. · in gas stations that are always full and the other 2, quite affordable, reliable and usually empty are in the parking lot of mcdonals. Great for the car, not so for my diet. I've been eating there once a month lately when I visit that restaurant twice a year or less before having to charge.

Every diesel pump i went to has worked really well.

It seems to be becoming easier perhaps get trust the whiff of an iffy charging location vs a reliable one. I am hopeful that rollout of hubs such as Sainsbury’s in a similar style to Tesla is the way forward. Councils should go all in on fast chargers, as you say, that would be a big help if reasonably priced.

Although what you say about remote monitoring is generally correct; I have been in a situation where my ADSL connection was broken, but the BT monitoring equipment insisted it was working. The engineer finally came out and admitted he could SEE with his own eyes (and test equipment), that the module was not working - at the exact same time his remote feed was showing data passing through it. My only long range foray this year, was a 270ish mile visit to Manchester - all the chargers I encountered worked - but both of the locations around Manchester had payment issues - different brands of charger, different TYPES of charger, and on different networks - were refusing credit or debit cards, and only working with membership/Electroverse RFID cards. The semi-functional AC charger (BE), located in the Manchester Metro car park - had an additional issue; it claimed to be a 22KW AC charger, but was only giving 3KW; I expected to come back 3 hours later, to a fully charged car, but came back to one with 73% charge - bearing in mind my ancient EV can just about manage 90 miles on 100% - and it was 80 miles to my planned recharging stop. At this point, an FYI to people who might use these chargers. These bays are for EV CHARGING; if you cant get the charger to work, park somewhere else, as leaving your car sat there NOT charging - will get you a ticket; an Audi Etron was being ticketed at the same time I was fighting with the shared charger to allow me to use it - this cars' driver obviously didnt have a BE or Electroverse card to use. Also, a shoutout to the wanker who parked his ICE Honda Civic in the only EV charging bay not in use at a BP garage, just because it was 3ft closer to the Amazon lockers than regular parking - AND LEFT THE ENGINE RUNNING, UNATTENDED.

Octopus Energy aren’t too dissimilar to your first one - our smart meter stopped working but they have nothing in place to say “oh - we’ve had no readings for a fortnight - maybe there’s an issue”.

Frequently visit eldest daughter in Leighton Buzzard which requires my charging our Renault Zoe ZE50 for (winter range especially 😉) the return journey. Out of 5 rapid charging points visited and attempted to use, the only one working was at Tesco and I was 3rd in queue to use it. Previously even that charge point has been out of service on two occasions in the last six months. Seems to require some running around to find out if the different charge points are working as you mentioned, the apps don’t seem to update accurately enough. 👍

@stuartburns8657

4 ай бұрын

Yup, hanging onto our lovely diesels thank you!

@T8RTU

4 ай бұрын

@@stuartburns8657 our previous diesel Skoda was unfortunately Euro 4. As we also need to travel to London it would be pretty costly to do so as often as we need. To be fair when using the charge points on the motorway we have not yet been let down, it seems the ‘legacy’ chargers in towns are the biggest issue from our experience and this is the experience indicated by EVM too. We have done a near 500 mile round trip in one day, with two charges on route (2nd a quick top up) which worked out fine, I more generally use the car locally and charging at home costs £4.12 for 100% charge from zero giving upto 240+ miles range which is more than adequate for our needs. 👍

@stuartburns8657

4 ай бұрын

Glad it working. We have the Euro6's and funny enough are travelling to London in a few weeks. As they're fully paid off, in good health, it'd be foolish to change given the low annual mileage we do

It's popular to give Tesla some flak these days ... but years ago Tesla offered to partner with other manufacturers to develop a nationally coordinated charging system to facilitate long distance driving. Nobody took them up on it. Having not received any support Tesla went ahead themselves and installed reliable rapid multiple charging sites across the country for use by their cars. When Tesla released their more recent models (3 and Y) they made sure to use the standardised CCS connectors common to other European EVs ... over the space of a couple of months they updated most of their sites across the UK to match that standard and fitted new cables to their charging stalls ... it all worked, and continues to work. Then the government (possibly lobbied by other car brands) realised that there is the possibility for everyone to use Tesla chargers, there being advantage to having all charge points available to all brands of EV ... these are the charge points that Tesla and those who bought Teslas have paid for. Amazingly Tesla didn't throw their dolly out of the pram and agreed that they would trial a few sites with a view to opening to all. The newest so called V4 chargers that are installed at all new Tesla Supercharging sites have been automatically open to all brands once commissioned. During the transition Tesla Superchargers have maintained the highest availability/reliability of any network. To be fair to other newer rapid charging networks they are "getting there". These are more likely to be found on strategic routes near motorways ... which is where they are mostly used. Tesla still scores by keeping their kWh charging prices at a much more realistic level, reducing prices if the electricity price goes down and not just raising them relentlessly! The the very real issues in this video are often related to older hardware that is tied into unhelpful contracts that were foisted upon cash strapped Councils years ago. EV Man knows that if he needs to travel any distance from his home location there will be many choices en-route... but for locals who can't charge at home and want a rapid charge in their town or village in the middle of Yorkshire it's still pretty dire!

Isn't there an 'open' system so that users can provide information on the status of the chargers?

Used to have this experience back in 2018, 2019. Since then, with a newer car, and keeping to networks like Instavolt that always work, it's rare to have an issue, even on multi thousand mile road trips. You mentioned that you focused on the older chargers. Is it also possible that the Tesla has an issue with some CCS? Not that that wouldn't still be a legitimate gripe, but it might be less of an issue for others.

Because of the uncertainty of single or double chargers actually working then I have always planned my journey so as to use a large hub but this has meant me having to drive a much longer route just to be sure I can charge. Just not good enough so I am contemplating going back to an ICE car.

Thanks for this, I'm potentially getting an Ev in 8 months, but I'm fighting my housing association and council for access to home charging, so may need other options, and being disabled I'm limited in these. Keep up the rants.

@rjbiker66

4 ай бұрын

Why are you getting an EV with no home charging? I saw a story about a person being tricked into getting an E V under mobility program. Was a complete disaster for her.

Some local chargers to me get their cables cut within days of getting replaced. It's happend that frequently, they've just removed the whole unit now.

@davidlewis4399

4 ай бұрын

Hmm cables that criminals can sell for cash who would have thought that might happen.

Geniepoint have been woeful in maintaining their chargers in west cumbria. However there's better news, an 8 charger instavolt in Whitehaven and a 16 charger osprey in workington. I would add that we charge on cheap rate overnighy at home now except for the occasional long journey.

I now have about a dozen and half rapid chargers or more within the mile to 2 miles around me in inner north London. Not using them much because the 5-7kW ones nearby are cheaper with the rapid I can see out my upstairs back window being the most expensive CPO!! Most of them are single units with very high utilisation which means cruising slowly around congested streets to find a free one; there are two twins and one MFG hub of four units with two in use as I type. BP Pulse seem to have replaced four or five old on-street units this last year which seem mostly to be working, one was dead for all but 2 months out of over 2 years and two were ex-council v.early ones that took a few years to get back online. Like your gripe, the second nearest to me isn't on either Zap-Map or even BP's own map so can't check if in use - probably easier to walk to it and look!! Two are inaccessible to EV's with a right rear charge port and one is probably a problem with a left rear flap. So, how many are working? One definitely isn't, most of the others are probably working, I certainly see several in use regularly, some have either the CCS or Chademo plug out-of-use, in summary better than a year ago although I've only actually used one recently - a distress purchase! [I plug in a lot at my partner's house] Obviously this is very different from your rural and small town experience, lots of chargers now but too many are single units, heavily utilised - much by Uber and other taxi drivers. My actual concern is slow expansion of 7kW and lamppost chargers and the pricing of slow charging - lamppost conversion is cheap and easy, hardly justifies high pricing to cover non-existent heavy capital costs. Onward to your next year's survey!

@SteveLoughran

4 ай бұрын

I was in NW London last month and ended up charging at an in-law’s house. That’s one benefit of wider adoption of EV and PHEV vehicles: more people you know will have places to charge when you visit them

Before you even set off, I knew the worst points would be Geniepoint. Out of interest, are they suffering from the same problem as many car park payment machines since the 3G network switch off?

How many new chargers have been installed in that same area? I mean really new not the replaced ones. The government keep telling us how thousands of new chargers will be installed every year but Im not seeing them.

@JoeOvercoat

4 ай бұрын

To be fair, they did not say they were working. 😜

@davidsworld5837

4 ай бұрын

It is were are they putting these new chargers and are they replacing chargers that are just rubbish. I can not see how some chargers are such very Poor quality. Tesla ones do not seem to have any were near the down times of any other network. and they charge there cars faster etc. If you look at all the chargers gridserve have replaced last year it is a lot. but it does mean they have not started many new locations.

Thanks for the update. So an improvement on working ones. But we also need more. You even said that it saved you time not going to the three ones far away. While I'll have to admit there is a new bank of five 50kW BP units nearish to me. But the cost is astronomical. Maybe it's time to try the council again to give planning for converting my front garden into a drive. But they seem obsessed with keeping the grass (well it's mud as people park and use it for turning) verge. It also doesn't help they hate cars. It's so bad they moved the voting location from a place with a carpark to one with no parking to discourage team blue voters as more team red ones are less likely to have a car! But the official line is it's greener so you walk. So if the weather is bad then turnout is low. I have to drive past it anyway. I seem to have gone off topic with a rant! 😂

Get "Dave takes it on" to do some consulting and advice on those charging inferstrucure problems.. Great videos it's right, this 2024 and some chargers are unusable..

my solution would be to buy an ICE car, but seriously I use electro verse which tells you if the charger is in use, faulty or otherwise and the bonus is you only need one card

Thanks for slogging through your local charging "opportunities" and confirming what the glossy EV adverts omit to mention. Public charging is Russian Roulette. And its nearly always slow compared with diesel/petrol filling up.

There should be legislation that requires all providers of public charges to maintain and repair within a given time frame.

One thought occurred to me mid rant :D (which I do agree with) is, try their support number, they might get it working and maybe even for free! I've been driving an EV for a total of 2 weeks and only use CCS, but I have access to a Tesla Supercharger and so far it's amazing. I was surprised how average Zap Map is, the web version is kind of broken, so ok I use the app and I'm puzzled why they don't just have a simple thumbs up/down rating system for each charger for the last 24 hours.

I take the point about the monitoring of chargers but in a site I charge at regularly I see people try a charger once and walk away if they think it isn't working. I always find the customer service staff at Chargeplace Scotland are very good and will often just do a remote power cycle on the charger and it works fine. It would be helpful if drivers would take 2 mins to report it and they may find it's easily resolved.

@ElectricVehicleMan

4 ай бұрын

I sort of agree, but there are networks where I've never had to report a charger not working. That's very good customer service.

@mikemorley2797

4 ай бұрын

Rebooting a charger is not going to ensure reliability, coming from an IT background it needs investigating and possibly updating / replacing. Anyone with any sence should see that like Tesla do.

One of the problems the charging network has is the current electrical infrastructure is not up to the job Could you imagine if the money wasted on HS2 was used on the electricity generating, infrastructure and the like, the EV charging network could be considerably better than it currently is

It's not just about wether they are working or not! It's about how fast they are charging and how much it costs to charge! Should be the same charging rate and price across all chargers

Heads up EVM, your Smart homecharge link isn't being picked up as a full URL within youtube (at least on the website). So you might be missing referrals

I checked the zapmap yesterday for my area in north Cornwall and most chargers don't work. Worse than a few years ago. We now use a kia soul charged at home and don't even bother to go beyond its short range.

Great video and the ev evangelists wonder why most people have lost interests in EVs. I recently pulled out of buying a Mercedes eqc which itself was discounted by so much that is was way cheaper to a comparabl ice car. Fear of charging on the road did it for me confirmed by this guy

@camlegs2423

4 ай бұрын

If you can afford a Merc you can afford a Tesla. Their charges are far more reliable, BUT they don't cover some parts of the country. North Herefordshire and South Shropshire to Wales is a black spot.

@davidg9057

4 ай бұрын

@@camlegs2423 eqc was a pre reg at 43k - much cheaper than a Tesla. Insurance for eqc less than 600 for a model y performance c 1900. Tesla far more to lease and not worth it for the better charging. In any case plenty queue issues at weekends on supercharger locations

I have a question for you, do you not have any more rapid chargers in your area? A year ago when I was contemplating ordering an EV, my locality (Salisbury) was a desert when it came to rapid chargers. Now we have 7 CCS connectors available and four in a Shell garage waiting for power.

@iforpowell7390

4 ай бұрын

Same here my local 10 would now have 4 new sites one with 16 sockets.

I have a Tesla model 3 LR, for 3 months. I live in the USA, in north Georgia. No plans to use a public charger, at home charging is great. Love my EV!

@tatata1543

4 ай бұрын

What happens on long journeys?

@brucebaetz7621

4 ай бұрын

@@tatata1543 This is our 3rd car, so we don't take it on long journeys. For shopping trips or to our local waterfalls, nothing has been over 100 miles yet. For long trips, we use our Mazda.

My favourite EV channel on YT is Mguy Australia

The first one (Silsden) I've used a few times in the last month without issue, so you just got unlucky there.😊 I had free charging at all those GP chargers for possibly 2 years so can't complain, but I guess ultimately BMDC made a bad choice going with GP. The osprey chargers in Skip are fantastic, so cheers for pushing for that. You seemed to be suggesting it was all council, but I got the impression from the council that the chargers were GP responsibility, hence whoever bought the network from Engie slowly replacing the chargers (which as you know were only installed max 5 year ago).

@paulscott1759

4 ай бұрын

Osprey at Rawtenstall new hall are great quick and easy yesterday 25 minutes simple and 8 units to chose from

That is why I am happy Tesla to rely only on superchargers when planing. Of course it could be convenient to take into account all charge points, but since they are not reliable it would just be awful.

Thank you for being honest. It has felt like we are being blamed for being inflexible (now we're just being blamed for being poor and not having a drive). Have pestered Leicestershire but they give no hoots

MFG have put up a lot of new charging areas with 6 charging points on each garage forcourt not cheep but very good all 150 kw chargers and you are limited to 1 hour stay

Imagine just 4 out of 10 petrol pumps working. It would news globally.

This is why EV is impractical. The networks need fantastic amounts of investment. Not just in infrastructure, but in generation too. For people like me who CAN'T charge at home, it's impossible. Also, look at what you said about destination charging. If you have 10 chargers at a cinema say, by this test, only 6 would work so if more customers turned up to watch a film, needing charge, some of them will be disappointed. Not least because those chargers that actually DO work will be blocked for the entire performance.

Nothing has changed, it’s always been the infrastructure. Let’s face it, if a significant proportion of us couldn’t charge at home, there is no way the majority of those would own an EV. I, like many here, have been a massive proponent of EVs over the years, but too many bad experiences have left me jaded. After 8 years, I still have an EV, my new (well new to mii) arrives next week, but I’m pretty reticent these days about recommending them to someone considering switching as things stand now.

The irony of that bus looming in the rear window at 05:00 waiting to get the stranded EV user home.

Dear oh dear.....not much changes!

I just wish places like Tesco’s didn’t only have four charger. There has been a couple of Tesco’s that have had six but mostly just four chargers out of a carpark that has 1000 spaces in the big stores.

I used to drive 300 to 400 miles a day for work, having an electric vehicle would be totally wrong. I feel sorry for anyone who rents an EV as well. How can you drive a vehicle always worried that you will not be able to charge? What should have happened was the same as with petrol/diesel get the trucks sorted first and they drive the infrastructure then let the masses use them. Good video...