Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Some articles/figures on Californian BEV sales caught my eye. I appreciate it's 'only' Cali, but they do represent about 10% of the US population, and where they go, most states follow, eventually. Another caveat perhaps, is that the impressive results for the Tesla Y could include pent up demand. But overall, I get the impression that BEV's are just about reaching disruption in the US.

Tesla Model Y — 2nd Best Selling SUV In California, & Model 3 The 5th Best Selling Car

The Tesla Model Y is now the 2nd best selling SUV or truck in California, based on registration data from the first half of 2021. The Model 3, meanwhile, is the 5th best selling car in the Golden State, and the 12th best selling light-duty vehicle.

And it's not just Tesla, the Bolt is hotting-up too.

3 Electric Vehicles Are Class Leaders In California — Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model Y

First of all, starting with the little guy, the Chevy Bolt is leading its Subcompact Cars class. In fact, it’s not even close, and the Bolt has a whopping 34.6% share of this car class. The send best selling car in the Subcompact class is the Nissan Versa, with 25.5% share.

Interestingly, the Tesla Model 3 has a similarly strong grip on its class, the “Near Luxury” car class (which, I’ll admit, I always find to be an [odd(?] name for a vehicle class). The Model 3 holds 36.6% of this class, more than three times more than than the BMW 3-Series’ 11.1% vehicle class share.

[My insert]

Rather than going from more impressive to less impressive, though, we’re getting more impressive each step of the way. The Tesla Model Y was far and away the king or queen of its class, the Luxury Compact SUV class. The Model Y held a jaw-dropping 38.9% of this class in the first half of the year, while the #2 Lexus NX held just 9.6% of the class.

JKenH

Did a 270 mile trip in my Leaf on Friday. First stop on the M1 at Northampton Services could not have gone more smoothly, with the new Gridserve contactless charger a doddle to use and it started off at 47.5 kw, the highest charge rate I have seen. There is though only the one charger there so we were lucky it wasn’t in use.  

The rest of the trip didn’t go so well. I called in at Watford Gap where the single charger was in use and as there was no sign of the vehicle owner I couldn’t find out how long it might be before it might be free. Carrying on, on the way to Leamington Spa, I found a Swarco charger at a golf club off the A45. It looked like a contactless one but you actually needed a card or an app. That was when the fun started. I tried the App Store but my phone said turn on mobile data - it was on and restarting the phone didn’t help. I tried my wife’s phone and got a bit further but she couldn’t remember the password for the App Store. I then tried my iPad using my phone as a hotspot and miraculously it worked. I had to fill in lots of details (apparently to be sent a card) and then repeat most of them to create an account. Twenty five minutes in to our stop and we were charging. I was going to stop at 80% but the app showed network error so I closed and reopened it but whatever I tried I couldn’t get back to the charging screen. I rang customer services who thankfully were able to stop the charge remotely, just before the one hour maximum stay elapsed. 

Conclusions from this trip

1. Contactless chargers are easier to use than a petrol pump and a contactless option should be mandatory on all chargers, not just new ones. 
2. One charger at services on the M1 is just not good enough. 

3. There is still a shortage of chargers on main roads. 

4. Even planning ahead there are too many different apps in use to be able to just turn up at any random charger and be sure of being able to charge quickly. I have half a dozen apps and 3 rfid cards but still have to mess around loading new apps when I arrive at a charger. 

5. Zap-Map is unreliable. Quite a few chargers are missing and sometimes, for whatever reason, it just doesn’t show any - that might be operator error but I don’t find it that user friendly. 

6. Charging an EV is easy if you use the same chargers all the time. It’s not so easy when you are occasionally travelling long distances (even with planning ahead) when there is often only one charger available per location or when encountering new charging networks. 

I am sure there are many of you very knowledgeable and organised EV drivers who will tell me you travel the length and breadth of the country and never encounter problems but there are also some of us out there who unfortunately do. 

michaels

JKenH said:

Did a 270 mile trip in my Leaf on Friday. First stop on the M1 at Northampton Services could not have gone more smoothly, with the new Gridserve contactless charger a doddle to use and it started off at 47.5 kw, the highest charge rate I have seen. There is though only the one charger there so we were lucky it wasn’t in use.  

The rest of the trip didn’t go so well. I called in at Watford Gap where the single charger was in use and as there was no sign of the vehicle owner I couldn’t find out how long it might be before it might be free. Carrying on, on the way to Leamington Spa, I found a Swarco charger at a golf club off the A45. It looked like a contactless one but you actually needed a card or an app. That was when the fun started. I tried the App Store but my phone said turn on mobile data - it was on and restarting the phone didn’t help. I tried my wife’s phone and got a bit further but she couldn’t remember the password for the App Store. I then tried my iPad using my phone as a hotspot and miraculously it worked. I had to fill in lots of details (apparently to be sent a card) and then repeat most of them to create an account. Twenty five minutes in to our stop and we were charging. I was going to stop at 80% but the app showed network error so I closed and reopened it but whatever I tried I couldn’t get back to the charging screen. I rang customer services who thankfully were able to stop the charge remotely, just before the one hour maximum stay elapsed. 

Conclusions from this trip

1. Contactless chargers are easier to use than a petrol pump and a contactless option should be mandatory on all chargers, not just new ones. 
2. One charger at services on the M1 is just not good enough. 

3. There is still a shortage of chargers on main roads. 

4. Even planning ahead there are too many different apps in use to be able to just turn up at any random charger and be sure of being able to charge quickly. I have half a dozen apps and 3 rfid cards but still have to mess around loading new apps when I arrive at a charger. 

5. Zap-Map is unreliable. Quite a few chargers are missing and sometimes, for whatever reason, it just doesn’t show any - that might be operator error but I don’t find it that user friendly. 

6. Charging an EV is easy if you use the same chargers all the time. It’s not so easy when you are occasionally travelling long distances (even with planning ahead) when there is often only one charger available per location or when encountering new charging networks. 

I am sure there are many of you very knowledgeable and organised EV drivers who will tell me you travel the length and breadth of the country and never encounter problems but there are also some of us out there who unfortunately do. 

I did my first paid charging session after 6 and a half years of leaf ownership (we have a second car for long trips and only normally take the leaf beyond round trip range if we have checked out a Nissan dealership on route has a working charger). Chose a grid serve at an IKEA, got there another car was on charger at 98% and no driver, so came back 20 mins later, space was free, contactless was fine but got a message 'insufficient power to start charge' - there was an egolf on the CCS. Anyway we mucked about a bit and the egolf did a charge error and we were able to put in 4kw to get home. Might have made it without had we not detoured to the IKEA in each direction but we would have been running on fumes.

Geeky fact a lot of our trips start at just over 100m and end up at sea level. I calculate that gravitational potential energy means that the way there we gain 3% which we give up on the way back so if we get there on 53% left then actually we probably won't make it back.(leaf 24 with high 80s battery health)

shinytop

JKenH said:

Did a 270 mile trip in my Leaf on Friday. First stop on the M1 at Northampton Services could not have gone more smoothly, with the new Gridserve contactless charger a doddle to use and it started off at 47.5 kw, the highest charge rate I have seen. There is though only the one charger there so we were lucky it wasn’t in use.  

The rest of the trip didn’t go so well. I called in at Watford Gap where the single charger was in use and as there was no sign of the vehicle owner I couldn’t find out how long it might be before it might be free. Carrying on, on the way to Leamington Spa, I found a Swarco charger at a golf club off the A45. It looked like a contactless one but you actually needed a card or an app. That was when the fun started. I tried the App Store but my phone said turn on mobile data - it was on and restarting the phone didn’t help. I tried my wife’s phone and got a bit further but she couldn’t remember the password for the App Store. I then tried my iPad using my phone as a hotspot and miraculously it worked. I had to fill in lots of details (apparently to be sent a card) and then repeat most of them to create an account. Twenty five minutes in to our stop and we were charging. I was going to stop at 80% but the app showed network error so I closed and reopened it but whatever I tried I couldn’t get back to the charging screen. I rang customer services who thankfully were able to stop the charge remotely, just before the one hour maximum stay elapsed. 

Conclusions from this trip

1. Contactless chargers are easier to use than a petrol pump and a contactless option should be mandatory on all chargers, not just new ones. 
2. One charger at services on the M1 is just not good enough. 

3. There is still a shortage of chargers on main roads. 

4. Even planning ahead there are too many different apps in use to be able to just turn up at any random charger and be sure of being able to charge quickly. I have half a dozen apps and 3 rfid cards but still have to mess around loading new apps when I arrive at a charger. 

5. Zap-Map is unreliable. Quite a few chargers are missing and sometimes, for whatever reason, it just doesn’t show any - that might be operator error but I don’t find it that user friendly. 

6. Charging an EV is easy if you use the same chargers all the time. It’s not so easy when you are occasionally travelling long distances (even with planning ahead) when there is often only one charger available per location or when encountering new charging networks. 

I am sure there are many of you very knowledgeable and organised EV drivers who will tell me you travel the length and breadth of the country and never encounter problems but there are also some of us out there who unfortunately do. 

Maybe I'm missing something obvious but I'll ask anyway.  Why do we need apps, cards, accounts, etc., to charge an EV.  Why can't you plug in, fill with electrons and pay, by credit/debit card, for the amount dispensed, i.e. the same as with a petrol pump?  What problem is the all the additional technology solving? 

JKenH

shinytop said:

JKenH said:

Did a 270 mile trip in my Leaf on Friday. First stop on the M1 at Northampton Services could not have gone more smoothly, with the new Gridserve contactless charger a doddle to use and it started off at 47.5 kw, the highest charge rate I have seen. There is though only the one charger there so we were lucky it wasn’t in use.  

The rest of the trip didn’t go so well. I called in at Watford Gap where the single charger was in use and as there was no sign of the vehicle owner I couldn’t find out how long it might be before it might be free. Carrying on, on the way to Leamington Spa, I found a Swarco charger at a golf club off the A45. It looked like a contactless one but you actually needed a card or an app. That was when the fun started. I tried the App Store but my phone said turn on mobile data - it was on and restarting the phone didn’t help. I tried my wife’s phone and got a bit further but she couldn’t remember the password for the App Store. I then tried my iPad using my phone as a hotspot and miraculously it worked. I had to fill in lots of details (apparently to be sent a card) and then repeat most of them to create an account. Twenty five minutes in to our stop and we were charging. I was going to stop at 80% but the app showed network error so I closed and reopened it but whatever I tried I couldn’t get back to the charging screen. I rang customer services who thankfully were able to stop the charge remotely, just before the one hour maximum stay elapsed. 

Conclusions from this trip

1. Contactless chargers are easier to use than a petrol pump and a contactless option should be mandatory on all chargers, not just new ones. 
2. One charger at services on the M1 is just not good enough. 

3. There is still a shortage of chargers on main roads. 

4. Even planning ahead there are too many different apps in use to be able to just turn up at any random charger and be sure of being able to charge quickly. I have half a dozen apps and 3 rfid cards but still have to mess around loading new apps when I arrive at a charger. 

5. Zap-Map is unreliable. Quite a few chargers are missing and sometimes, for whatever reason, it just doesn’t show any - that might be operator error but I don’t find it that user friendly. 

6. Charging an EV is easy if you use the same chargers all the time. It’s not so easy when you are occasionally travelling long distances (even with planning ahead) when there is often only one charger available per location or when encountering new charging networks. 

I am sure there are many of you very knowledgeable and organised EV drivers who will tell me you travel the length and breadth of the country and never encounter problems but there are also some of us out there who unfortunately do. 

Maybe I'm missing something obvious but I'll ask anyway.  Why do we need apps, cards, accounts, etc., to charge an EV.  Why can't you plug in, fill with electrons and pay, by credit/debit card, for the amount dispensed, i.e. the same as with a petrol pump?  What problem is the all the additional technology solving? 

Exactly. Contactless at Gridserve Northampton was just a matter of tap your credit and plug in. Effortless and stress less. This is what we need but some people still defend the useless app and card based system explaining you just need to plan ahead. It must be a conspiracy to make us all buy Teslas. 😉

JKenH

ChargePlace Scotland: Why the ‘world’s largest’ electric vehicle switchover turned into a ‘disaster’ and how a Dundee team are trying to fix it

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-environment/transport/2486779/chargeplace-scotland-why-the-worlds-largest-electric-vehicle-switchover-went-wrong-and-how-a-dundee-team-are-trying-to-fix-it/

JKenH

Do electric car charging points take credit or debit cards?

https://www.motoringelectric.com/charging/do-electric-car-charging-points-take-credit-cards/

Solarchaser

JKenH said:

ChargePlace Scotland: Why the ‘world’s largest’ electric vehicle switchover turned into a ‘disaster’ and how a Dundee team are trying to fix it

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/business-environment/transport/2486779/chargeplace-scotland-why-the-worlds-largest-electric-vehicle-switchover-went-wrong-and-how-a-dundee-team-are-trying-to-fix-it/

Hmm, I guess I'd say that it's kinda true.
The migration has definitely not went smoothly, and last week I pulled up at a 7kw charger that wouldn't recognise either my card, or either app, nor was it available to cps or cyc when I called them.

Sounds terrible right?
Well not really, that's the one time I've had that since the switch over and it was with a single 7kw charger.
Another twice on 22kw chargers when screens have been faulty or refusing the card I've phoned cps and they have simply activated the charger, once having to phone back again to get them to deactivate the charger so I could get my cable back. 

However within the switch-over time since the end of July I've charged around 20 times, and those 3 were the only issues I hit. 
Every other time it's been fine, including right now when I'm sitting charging at the Stirling charging facility on a free 50kw charger. 
This is the Tesla bank just now 

So in short it's true that the switchover has not went as planned, but those people who were complaining and saying its been set back years or that they wouldn't have bought an electric car, they must be daily mail/express readers, as that's simply sensationalist garbage.

I've charged 4 times in Aberdeen in the last month, no issues.

Grumpy_chap

Solarchaser said:

However within the switch-over time since the end of July I've charged around 20 times, and those 3 were the only issues I hit. 

I can't think of any other product or service where problems 3 times out of 20 would be "fine" or accepted as "the only issues".
... petrol station...hmmm
... restaurant...hmmm
... supermarket...hmmm
... online purchases...hmmm
... any retail shop...hmmm
... hotel...hmmm

I'm sorry, no, if I went to anything else, where competition exists, and the provider resulted in problems three times out of 20, they'd be ditched and I'd go elsewhere.

EV drivers must be very compliant customers to accept a failure rate at 15%.

Solarchaser

And if that was a normal failure rate, ie 1 in 20, not 3.... (2 of which I called the company and all was good) I may be a bit put out.
However this is the reported DISASTER of the last month.

Until the last month the failure rate is maybe 1 in 150 at a guess.

But then if we are to use your own comparison. 
How many of those things you listed are free?

This is a free service right now.