Electric theft by EV owners causing charge points to be switched off.

[ericmark]

It seems Podpoint allow 15 minutes charge while the EV user set up the app so he can be charged for the rest, the Podpoint charge point are supplied from firms, then Podpoint pays the firm a percentage of the money paid to them, which is slightly over the cost of power so means a user taking 350 kWh of power and paying for only 300 kW is still paying enough to cover cost of the 350 kWh used.

However users have it seems been sitting in their cars, getting the 15 minutes then unplugging and plugging them back in again, so the firms supplying power to the chargers have had bills for 350 kWh of power used, but have not got anything from Podpoint.

This leaves them with no option but to turn off the supply to the charge points. They can't simply give away energy.

I suspect Podpoint will stop the practice of giving away first 15 minutes, but until that has happened, it means EV charging points are being switched off. They have not broken down, but switched off, the local one you now need to ask at the office for it to be switched on, so usable in office hours only.

 

[flameport]

100% the fault of PodPoint.
Absolutely no reason why there should be any free charging of any time length.

 

[Avocet]

If they're the ones I'm thinking of, they're usually the poxy 7 kW "supermarket car park" chargers anyway. I saw one in Leicester, in a Tesco car park, and thought: "Oh well, better than nothing, I suppose" and plugged-in while we did some shopping. It was raining and the bloody thing was asking me to download an app and put some credit on it, so I downloaded their stupid app and put a tenner on the account, then went off to do the shopping. When I came out, half an hour later, it wasn't charging. I muttered a few choice words under my breath, unplugged, and went on my way. Later that day, I checked my PodPoint balance and it was still at £10. (In fact, today, a month later, it's still at £10)! I can only assume (because the car did get another couple of miles of range) that it must have been my free 15 minutes, but for some reason, never swapped to the app for payment after that.

Podpoint still claim to offer the first 15 minutes free, by the way?

Pod Point Network | Pod Point

The easiest way to charge your EV on the go with over 6,200 charging bays across the UK.

pod-point.com

A couple of things that irritate me though:

1. "Fast" chargers are not 7kW - or even 22kW! It's hardly worth getting out of bed for a public charger of less than 50kW! These days, on a long trip, I try not to stop at anything under 100kW.

2. All this messing about with "apps" or "chargecards" is really irritating! Some public chargers are just so simple to use - tap your ordinary contactless card on the reader, and you're good to go. Why can't they all do that?!

 

[robinbanks]

People have the patience to cycle the plug every 15 minutes til they reach a full charge? Good luck to em; I'd rather do something interesting with my life than spend 10 hours saving 20 quid filling up an i-Pace

 

[mointainwalker]

If th

2. All this messing about with "apps" or "chargecards" is really irritating! Some public chargers are just so simple to use - tap your ordinary contactless card on the reader, and you're good to go. Why can't they all do that?!

Either they believe that this somehow binds you tightly to their system ...or...

they are these dopey nerds for whom the "app" is the Holy Grail and getting people to download it, is more important than actually selling them power at a profit

 

[conny]

I'd rather pull up at a petrol pump, fill up my tank and be on my way in 5 minutes, safe in the knowledge that, when I need more fuel, there will be plenty of places along the way I can pull in to and repeat the exercise without having to worry about waiting for hours while someone else is using the facility.

 

[Avocet]

I'd rather pull up at a petrol pump, fill up my tank and be on my way in 5 minutes, safe in the knowledge that, when I need more fuel, there will be plenty of places along the way I can pull in to and repeat the exercise without having to worry about waiting for hours while someone else is using the facility.

And I, for one, am grateful that there are people out there who are willing to get their butts kicked by the oil companies for the privilege of doing so, as it means I don't have to queue for an EV charger!

 

[norseman]

Just for the record I am a petrol-head (albeit an old one) & likely to remain so, but I'm not taking sides.

With the current mad drive towards EV transport, not just private cars but heavier users such as buses, goods vehicles & even agricultural/plant machines, my concern is that when the power industries prediction of inadequate generation/distribution comes to fruition it will effect everyone as it's the SAME electricity that power the devices that enable us to survive in our own homes.

The inconvenience of not being able to charge your EV will be a minor problem.

 

[Avocet]

It's certainly a subject that's being talked-about a lot! The problem is that we don't utilise our generation capacity very efficiently. We have plenty of electricity most of the time, and too much, some of the time. Part of the answer won't be popular, but "smarter" charging is, I suspect, a big part of the answer. There are certainly no easy options. Fossil fuel is a finite resource too. And when you think of all the disruption to the country that these increasingly severe "weather events" cause, there's probably little to choose between the two.

 

[robinbanks]

it will effect everyone as it's the SAME electricity that power the devices that enable us to survive in our own homes.

Don't worry; we're foreseeing and solving the problem as it develops. You aren't going to die through lack of electricity because EVs are plugging in. If anything they will become part of the solution because they're little more than a huge, moving power bank; local small and medium scale generation and wide scale battery storage can resolve many problems facing the grid today

 

[cwhaley]

I know electric is the future, but I'm happy knowing I can fill the tank and get 800 mile from her which lasts me a good couple of weeks!

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Don't worry; we're foreseeing and solving the problem as it develops. You aren't going to die through lack of electricity because EVs are plugging in. If anything they will become part of the solution because they're little more than a huge, moving power bank; local small and medium scale generation and wide scale battery storage can resolve many problems facing the grid today

I wish I shared your optimism

I can't see how we can keep electric vehicles moving, unless we have a LOT less of them on the road. That in itself I don't mind, but it also impinge on work and leisure.

The biggest issue not yet addressed for me is the movement of goods, nothing suitable electrically yet

 

[robinbanks]

We're looking at electrified roads and charging HGVs as they go.

Perhaps eventually someone will get think "we should have something like a network of low friction, high load capacity, wireable, point to point transport devices where a single large motor could pull a huge load.." and we'll cease looking at ways to turn the road network into a rail network and see it as a last mile delivery device

 

[robinbanks]

All this said, a huge number of problems come from humans establishing an incredibly intensive approach to something and, when it grows to become unsustainable, look for ways to sustain it in its established form rather than ways to reduce it to something appropriate for the sustainable replacement

 

[Fred Blogs]

What a load of cobblers, pretty much par for the course on this forum though. ANYWAY so so glad to see that EV owners are having a hard time. I will never have an EV or a hybrid until I am forced to. Electric is absolutely not the way to go and anyone who actually takes the time to sit down and think about it will realise that PDQ. Petrol and diesel are the way to go for the forseeable future then I believe that hydrogen will be the fuel of the future although I will be long gone by then. Forget about the enviroment as far as your cars are concerned. What powers your car one way or the other will not make a blind bit of difference to the climate. that's going to change regardless as it has for millenium. And unless the hundreds of thousands of ships on the sea and the hundreds of thousands of aircraft in the air, not to mention industry, all become clean what you drive will make no difference whatsoever nor will sadiq khan's clean air policies. Absolute waste of money that could be better spent else where.