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EV Charger Rant

D

Sorry for the rant, but I need to vent.

I bought an EV last year. I love the car and think EVs are the way forward, even if they need improvement to the batteries. The charging is a nightmare at the moment though.

For home charging, I'm on a looped supply. Survey has been done, and they are going to have to run a new supply cable to 4 houses on my street including mine. I'm on the waiting list, and it's taking months. I don't think they've even told my neighbours about it yet.

For public charging, the availability of the chargers or charge time is not a problem, even the chademo connector that mine uses. I just charge while eating or stick a TV show on. The problem is faulty or confusing chargers. As with fuel pumps, it takes a pre-auth payment, then refunds the difference. Unfortunately if the charge doesn't complete for any reason, even user error, it usually takes 7 days to refund, but can take up to 30. 


To add to that, there is no pin pad, they are all contactless. By law all cards must ask for the pin after £200 of contactless payments. So if you have £50 contactless left, you try use a pump that take a £30 pre-auth payment, then it doesn't charge, you're unable to charge.

There also doesn't seem to be anything can be done about it. I complain to the companies and they say I just have to wait for the refund. I complain to my bank and they say they're bound by law and payment provider so can't do anything. Best I can do is leave reviews in various places.

As a result, I'm now having to:

* pay with chip and pin whenever I'm in a shop to make sure I have contactless limit remaining

* pay using a credit card for protection

* avoid certain networks that have the most unreliable chargers (geniepoint)

Parents

  • What puts me off is the number of EV cars catching fire, and EV battery fires are apparently very difficult to put out. 

  • in reply to Marianne72

    The things that put me of EV's are the price of them and that I'd probably have to learn how to drive all over again! I have been in a friends tesla as a passenger, I don't think I'd cope with an A4 sized screen on the dash it would be too distracting, and knowing my luck with anything with a silicon chip in it, I'd probably crash it before I left the drive of my house!

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    Driving them is not too different from an automatic. Just a lot more torque so you have to be careful about pressing the accelerator too much.

  • in reply to D

    Apparently BMW are doing this app thing, my step son and I were wondering about maybe us going in to buy one as a sort of spoof thing just to watch the salespersons face slide off the front of thier heads when I said I have no smart phone.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    It depends on the car. I have a Nissan Leaf. It still has physical buttons for most things including the climate controls. The only thing you have to use the screen for is the radio and satnav. I think there's also a button to put the screen into standby. It doesn't turn it off fully but switches it to a black screen with a small clock display.

    Even as a technical person, I don't like the screens replacing everything. Tactile feedback is valuable while driving. You should be able to feel for the correct button so that you can keep your eyes on the road.

    Mine has a key but the car can detect when it is close by. If you have it in your pocket within 0.8m of the door, you can press a button on the door handle to lock/unlock it. Then when you're in the car you can start it from the dash button but only when the key is in the car. It will also detect when the key is in the boot I think and refuse to lock. It's quite convenient and stops the car being scratched by the keys when you're opening the door.

    I'm not sure if they are doing cars without any keys as that could cause issues. I booked into airport parking recently and there was a specific note about you needing to provide the key if you have a Tesla so that the valets can move it once you drop it off.

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  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    It depends on the car. I have a Nissan Leaf. It still has physical buttons for most things including the climate controls. The only thing you have to use the screen for is the radio and satnav. I think there's also a button to put the screen into standby. It doesn't turn it off fully but switches it to a black screen with a small clock display.

    Even as a technical person, I don't like the screens replacing everything. Tactile feedback is valuable while driving. You should be able to feel for the correct button so that you can keep your eyes on the road.

    Mine has a key but the car can detect when it is close by. If you have it in your pocket within 0.8m of the door, you can press a button on the door handle to lock/unlock it. Then when you're in the car you can start it from the dash button but only when the key is in the car. It will also detect when the key is in the boot I think and refuse to lock. It's quite convenient and stops the car being scratched by the keys when you're opening the door.

    I'm not sure if they are doing cars without any keys as that could cause issues. I booked into airport parking recently and there was a specific note about you needing to provide the key if you have a Tesla so that the valets can move it once you drop it off.

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