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The Road to Zero Emissions Driving – PART 2

 

This blog is a record of the author’s personal reflections on The Road to Zero Emissions Driving.

Home Charging

Following the revelation that getting a home charge point was not going to be a simple as we’d hoped, we opted for an initial installation that would get us going until the issues surrounding capacity and cable routing could be properly resolved. In essence, we started with a 3-pin charger that was supplied with the car and plugged it into the garage overnight. This provided a slow charge that was more than adequate for our normal motoring needs, though it wasn’t powerful enough to do a moderate or fast charge, should that ever be needed. Either way, dangling a cable out of the garage door was less than optimal, so, I ordered a charge-point that was configurable in respect to the maximum current draw. With this charge-point wired permanently into the garage, we still have a current limit of 12Amps / 3kW (which can be changed later up to a maximum of 32Amps / 7.2kW), but at least now we have a proper weatherproof and isolated charge point that is convenient to connect to on the side of the garage. We will have to wait for the 32Amps facility until the electrician has worked out whether the single-phase house supply is sufficient and how to route from the fuse box in the main house to the garage!

On The Road

We decided to drive up to Norfolk in the EV for an overnight stop. As an adventure - type of thing. We’d never used a public charge-point before, but it can’t be that hard, can it? The car was a dream on the drive, smooth, quiet and effortless driving. The EV’s sat nav shows you all the available charge stations, whether they are available or in use and the charge in kWs. We’d planned to meet friends at the hotel in the evening and I had it in mind that we could charge the car after the journey and before we met up with them. Of course, we didn’t get away on time and having just under half a tank, so-to-speak, we decided that it would be prudent to get some charge before the return tomorrow. We found a convenient charge-point at a Tesco’s in Aylsham and a friendly EV driver tried to help us get charged. There were two 7.2KW charge stations, two 22KW charge stations and two meaty 50KW charge stations all supplied by PodPoint. Apparently the 7KW and 22KW chargers were free to use and the fast charge 50KW cost £0.28 per kWh. The helpful EV driver was on already on charge at one of the stations and explained that she routinely parked in these charge bays whilst she shopped and charged-up for free whenever she could (who wouldn’t). As ever, there was a complication. The “fast charge” station was out-of-order and so we tried one of the 22kW ones. It turns out that waving a debit/credit card, isn’t sufficient, you have to register with the provider first and activate the charge-point over the internet. So, after negotiating the internet on a smart phone we eventually got registered. But the car wasn’t accepting the charge. It turns out that I had to press a charge button inside, because I’d got a timer for the home E7 charging programmed into the EV. So, pressed the right button and it all started happening but by the time we’d done all of this faffing  around we realised that there was insufficient time to get any significant charging done in the time available. OK, we’ll charge tomorrow instead.

The following day was nice and bright and a walk was planned. Great, there’ll be time to put some charge in the EV whilst we enjoy a walk. We wanted to walk from or near North Walsham, and ZAP Map showed plenty of charge-points in the vicinity. First stop was a car park in the town centre and there were 6 new, empty bays. Different provider though, these were operated by Genie Point. Same deal, nothing is going to happen if you’re not registered with them. Unfortunately, there was very little mobile signal and we couldn’t connect to the internet reliably enough to make it all happen. So, let’s have a coffee. There was a Costa Coffee house and they had free WiFi – great. After drinking coffee and getting nowhere in terms of connecting to Genie Point, one of the staff told us that their internet was down and a friendly local chipped in that “Walsham is a dead zone!”. Not deterred we headed for the local Waitrose, as they’d got EV charging. These charge-points were operated by yet another operator – BP Pulse. Again, you have to pre-register. This time we had 4G in abundance, we got registered onto BP Pulse with no problem and we’re soon charging the EV. Waitrose have no limit on parking times and so we enjoyed a walk and were pleasantly surprised upon our return that we didn’t get charged for the electricity, as it was an introductory offer. We decided to do some shopping with them to show appreciation.

So, with the initial charge having been done at home on E7 night rate and with the top-up at Waitrose for free, the travel costs to and from Norfolk were very low indeed. However, if our initial experience is anything to go by, the network of charging stations needs to be expanded and made a lot easier to use.  I can’t believe that there’s so much dependence upon smart phones, especially in remote areas. There appears to be RFID cards that can be used as pre-paid cards on some points, but upon investigation they are being phased out. So, as prep, it would appear that the best thing to do is to pre-register for as many service providers as you can (I can see about 15 of them on ZAP Map!) and hope that 4G is working before you go driving across country in an EV!

Teething problems, I’m sure. I don’t expect petrol was available everywhere instantly people started taking to the roads in cars either.

A Greener Waldringfield – Transport Group

April. 2022.