https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/27/one-man-and-his-tesla-an-electric-cars-journey-to-edinburgh One man and his Tesla: an electric car's journey from Brighton to Edinburgh 27 Jul 2018 Adam Vaughan
[images https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/277234b736e3b563ce9d2f2d0bd5021fcbd5a513/0_224_6720_4032/master/6720.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=5fde415895dffde21e3609d2469f0899 Charging up was complicated by a confusing range of speeds and poor location mapping of stations. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian https://interactive.guim.co.uk/uploader/embed/2018/07/journey-zip/giv-3902rHcZcE2adfrE/electric-car-trip-map-inArticle_620.png The Brighton to Edinburgh journey included five successful charging stops https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9c2e9b67f8de1c83910467349ffa9dc9063c1a71/402_510_6244_3746/master/6244.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=0321bfee1cdbd2f31a27751ab2213a3a Adam Vaughan at the Polar electric vehicle station at the Holiday Inn hotel off the A1 in Doncaster. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian https://interactive.guim.co.uk/uploader/embed/2018/07/plugs-zip/giv-3902Epo2MXcI1vOK/Tesla_Plugs-inArticle_620.png UK networks have 17,281 charging connectors in seven configurations • Slow 3kW • Fast 7kW to 22kW • Rapid 43kW+ and 50kW+ • Super 120kW 81 Commando 26 Type 1 1,234 3-pin 2,096 Tesla Type 2 8,057 Type 2 656 Type 1 381 Commando 335 Tesla Supercharger 1,032 Type 2 1,342 CHAdeMO 954 Type 2 1,076 CCS Guardian graphic. Source: Zap-map.com. Note: Data as of 25 July 2018. Total includes 11 connectors of unknown type and speed ] Erratic charging support led to some anxious moments on a long-distance run in a Model S Guardian journalist Adam Vaughan charging a Tesla car at a Polar electric vehicle station at the Holiday Inn hotel off the A1 in Doncaster. “Oh, I rarely use those,” said Manoj Varathodiyil, gesturing at a pair of public electric car chargers at a West Midlands service station. Instead, the GP has plugged his car into a “supercharger”, one of a network built by US electric carmaker Tesla, exclusively for the use of the firm’s customers. Varathodiyil, who went electric because of concerns over air pollution and fossil fuels, is one of Britain’s vanguard of 160,000 early adopters learning to live with a plug-in car. Most of those drivers charge at home (87%) and work (8%). But the government wants to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 and recently laid out its Road to zero plan for getting there, envisaging “a massive expansion” of public chargers. For the 43% of households without off-street parking, that infrastructure will be vital if electric cars are to become the future norm. But what about today? Is the road to zero riddled with potholes? To test the state of infrastructure now, the Guardian embarked on a grand tour of Britain’s car parks, service stations and hotels by driving an electric car from Brighton to Edinburgh. Things started badly. Oil giant Shell recently branched out into electric car charging [ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/18/shell-to-open-electric-vehicle-charging-points-at-uk-petrol-stations ], so one of its petrol stations in Surrey, just 56 miles into the journey, looked like an ideal coffee stop. But the app could not start the charger. “No sir, I can’t help you from here,” helpline staff said, but insisted workers at the forecourt were “familiar with the procedures”. They were not. Thirty minutes wasted but a more reliable-looking Tesla site 70 miles north beckoned. Fortunately, the Guardian had borrowed a Tesla Model S, which has the longest range of any electric car on sale in the UK, at 319 miles at 70mph [ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/07/tesla-drivers-claim-model-s-distance-record-of-670-miles-on-one-charge-elon-musk ], and a price that starts at £66,730 to match. But a closer charger might have been needed for more affordable models, such as the BMW i3 (124-mile range). Chargers are ranked with confusing labels on how quickly they can top up a car’s battery. Fast is better than slow, but rapid is faster than fast, and super is best of all. Adam Vaughan at the Polar electric vehicle station at the Holiday Inn hotel off the A1 in Doncaster. The Tesla chargers in a Northampton hotel car park were super ones, so half an hour provided another 121 miles of range. Next stop was one of the growing number of rapid chargers at motorway service stations. Signposting was poor but operator Ecotricity’s app was easy enough and, unlike some charging sites, this one in Nottinghamshire had toilets. A short 42-mile drive north ended in the electric equivalent of a satnav guiding you into a lake. The postcode of the charger was a residential road outside Doncaster that led to a dirt road and a dead end. While there are many charger maps – such as Zap Map, PlugShare, Open Charge Map – the postcodes and pins are not always perfectly accurate. Surprisingly, they are not built into Google Maps’s route-mapping. There are also a dizzying array of networks – 35, according to Zap Map. The Doncaster charging spot, newly painted in a hotel car park, was part of the Polar network run by Chargemaster, the UK’s biggest network and now owned by BP [ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/28/bp-buys-uks-biggest-electric-car-charger-network-for-130m ]. [bar graph About 35 networks operate at 6,004 locations in the UK Biggest networks by number of locations 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 Polar ChargePlace Scotland Charge Your Car* Pod Point Tesla ZeroNet Source London Ecotricity ecar NI GeniePoint Others Guardian Graphic | Source: Zap-map.com. * incl. sub-networks. Note: Data as of 25 July 2018 ] Fragmentation, of networks, maps, payment methods and charging cables, is perhaps the biggest problem facing the electric revolution. Many drivers would like contactless bank cards to be accepted, which only some networks currently offer. Researcher and student Sam Earle called the fragmentation “chaotic”, while electric car driver Simon Canfer said: “Overall, I suspect it’s too fragmented for the mainstream.” Margarida James said: “It is a joke! Too many different companies, you need cards and apps for them all.” As other electric cars drivers noted, they need to plan more than those burning fossil fuels. But the next stop was Harrogate on a whim. Fortunately, a map app threw up a B&B with a charger. “I get quite a few people coming for it,” said Tony Hay, who runs Shannon Court guesthouse and installed two chargers a year ago. It is a slow charger, so an hour’s charge added just 20 miles of range (fine for overnight use by guests, who get the electricity for nothing). After a brief rapid charge at a spa outside Durham – regular drivers said north-south is a “doddle” [ https://twitter.com/SESUK/status/1019956537580716033 ] compared with east-west because there are so many rapids – the last stop in England is Berwick-upon-Tweed. The charger in a maternity ward’s car park was hard to find. Worse, the app did not work, the out-of-hours helpline went through to several people who could not help. They offered a mobile number, which promptly went to voicemail. So no charge for the final 58-mile leg to Edinburgh, a potential headache for an electric car driver with shorter range. Parts of the journey felt like a glimpse of the future, with extremely fast charging points where you can stop for a coffee until an app notification tells you to set off again. But, too often, it feels like being a beta tester, grappling with iffy mapping, broken apps, unhelpful customer support and endless forms. The trip ended with 72 miles of range at an Edinburgh hotel whose electric car point held out the salvation of an overnight charge. But no, the space was occupied by a huge diesel car and the hotel would not move it. The Guardian had been “ICEd”, a term to describe the surprisingly common practice of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle owners blocking an electric car charger. The road to zero still has a few speed bumps to overcome … [© theguardian.com] http://www.4-traders.com/TESLA-6344549/news/One-man-and-his-Tesla-an-electric-car-s-journey-from-Brighton-to-Edinburgh-27010720/ One man and his Tesla: an electric car's journey from Brighton to Edinburgh 07/27/2018· “Oh, I rarely use those,” said Manoj Varathodiyil, gesturing at a pair of public electric car chargers at a West Midlands service station. Instead, the GP has plugged his car into a “supercharger” ... + https://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/demand-electric-vehicle-trained-technicians-rises-25-07-2018 Demand for electric vehicle trained technicians rises 2018-07-25 -1 hour ago The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) has repeatedly called for more technicians to be trained to service electric vehicles, lobbying members of parliament ... Demand for EV trained technicians has seen a sharp rise ... https://djx5h8pabpett.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/24101859/Milton_Keynes_Electric_620.jpg For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/archive/ {brucedp.neocities.org} -- Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
