The state of public charging (and how to fix it).

As a newbie to EV's (with no actual experience of living with public charging) I've been watching various discussions with interest and the following is my thoughts on the state of public charging in the UK and what I think can be done to improve matters..

 

Types of chargers

I think that although numbers of fast (7kw+) and rapid (50kw+) chargers are improving across the nation, many are the wrong type in the wrong location...

Hotels - shouldn't have rapid chargers in my opinion, as many people get to a hotel, plug in and then go to bed for 8-10 hours. No point having a rapid if it's hogged all night by a car that's fully charged before the resident has finished checking in... Hotels should be a bank of 6 or more 7kw chargers so people can plug in and leave... Hotel Rapids are no good for non residents as they usually involve a trip to reception to put your registration on the list to avoid getting a parking charge in the post...

Talking of parking charges - places that have a 2 hour parking limit (supermarkets/on street parking) with 3kw chargers are pretty pointless unless you're a serious penny pincher looking to get 6kw in your battery for free whilst spending 2 hours at the supermarket...

Similarly - having chargers in a pay and display car park - having to pay to park and pay to charge is a double whammy.  Perhaps a surcharge through the machines (slight increase per kw/h) that covers the charge and parking whilst charging...  

Rapid chargers need to all have an overstay charge on them -  say 15 mins free after a 100% charge before charging £10 an hour on top. Either that or ANPR parking set-up.

Also rapids need to be in places such as supermarkets/retail parks/short stay car parks where the parking time isn't much longer than the longest charging time of current EV's. Ideally the time will come where petrol stations with an attached Costa/Starbucks will have the pumps replaced with rapid chargers..

I'm going to appreciate getting a free charge where available but I'm being realistic with my thoughts (I think!) as I know chargers (especially rapid) don't come cheap when it comes to installing and maintaining...

Working Chargers

I've read various reports of people having charging issues - I think these are overly reported as people don't report the many successful charges in comparison..

People need to contact the charging company as many times they can either reset it remotely, or put it on free-vend... Or worst case they add it to the list for fixing.. If they don't know about it then they can't sort it. Just driving off and finding another one doesn't help anyone. All new chargers should (imo) be network connected and report back to base... This also helps with live maps showing availablity..

Research - most areas now have an abundance of chargers - people need to familiarise themselves with the ones in their local area - store the customer service phone numbers in your phone, find out the facilities and plan when you charge - if you've got a supermarket nearby with a rapid charger - fit it in with your weekly shop - it'll take the stress out of the remainder of the week depending on your mileage obviously!

Lastly people need to educate themselves on ev-etiquette.