EV Charging Accounts

[JohnEG]

How many charger accounts do you think are needed to travel the UK without anxiety?

[NickEmm]

According to PetrolPed on YouTube he has had to register with 11 providers!

[Deleted User 192]

Totally depends where you would be stopping.

Route planning your regular routes is the best first step.

14 months ago I opened accounts and made credit deposits with Pod Point and BP Pulse, I’ve used both of them once each in all that time, the Pod Point was a couple of weeks ago to use up the credit. I have an Instavolt account and app, I’ve not used it yet.

Many of the providers have PAYG with any contactless debit or credit card anyway.

[rawws]

Long distance I tend to use the best ones, ease of use etc instavolt , shell recharge and pod point these are the 3i use as they are always reliable etc. The rest I don't use and filter out they tend to have poor reliablity and either too expensive or often of order. Recently used next charge app enables you to use Porsche dealership ultra rapid chargers 320kw great if you don't want to stop for a long time during your journey

[mish]

If you (plan to) travel in Scotland then it's worth setting up an account at https://chargeplacescotland.org/ including direct debit 24h before you use any of their charging points. There might be delays when setting up direct debit, so don't leave it too late like I did! I wasn't able to start my first session with their app near Edinburgh last weekend. I ended up driving to Livingston where I used Instavolt (contactless payment) without any problems.

Like @scott28tt said, it all depends on the network of charging points near your route. From my experience it's best to set up all the apps at home. I have also ordered a RFID card for Charge Place Scotland in case the app causes trouble again.

[JohnEG]

Thank you all for your comments/advice.

I'm trying to educate myself in advance of taking delivery sometime next year!
With an ICE I've always regarded half-full as empty and refuelled.
Would it make sense to aim to top up an iD3 at around 50% charge?

[Utumno]

Would it make sense to aim to top up an iD3 at around 50% charge?

Personally I’d suggest a more practical amount would be 20%, but I’d apply that same percentage to an ICE vehicle as well. Ultimately it depends on your comfort factor - keeping a fuel tank half full in an ICE strikes me as very risk averse indeed but you may have really rational reasons for it so I wouldn’t want to suggest otherwise!

For example my father always keeps his Model 3 at 50% or higher in case his partner’s mother collapses or something and they need to do an emergency trip from Kidderminster to Grantham in a hurry.

[Cooksp]

Thank you all for your comments/advice.

I'm trying to educate myself in advance of taking delivery sometime next year!
With an ICE I've always regarded half-full as empty and refuelled.
Would it make sense to aim to top up an iD3 at around 50% charge?

Are you having a home charger installed?

[Smitten]

How many charger accounts do you think are needed to travel the UK without anxiety?

Roughly in order of frequency of use this is what I have. Some set up especially for Christmas trip the Germany now not happening for Omicron reasons

Most used:
Instavolt - no account necessary
Gridserve - no account necessary
Ionity - no account necessary access via WE Charge subscription for cheaper charging
MFG - account/app/RFID
Shell Recharge/New Motion - set up account and get App and RFID card. Useful in UK and New Motion is handy if travelling through Europe
BP Pulse - no account needed at many chargers but with account you can get cheaper. Lots of older 50kW chargers around
Geniepoint - for Morrisons and elsewhere App/account set up
Podpoint - for Sainsbury's free charging App and account set up
Source London - hugely expensive but better than paying for parking Account/RFID set up

Least used:
Chargemap - account/App/RFID for European use
Chargeplace Scotland - account/App/RFID for family trips to Scotland
Fastned - App and account set up mainly for Europe but have a few UK charger locations
Plugshare - account/App/RFID for European travel
Plugsurfing - account/App/RFID for European travel
Osprey - Account/App/RFID set up but not yet used
Octopus Electric Juice card - set up but not yet used
Charge Your Car - account set up and never used - tried once and chargers all broken

Where I have account/app/RFID is because you have options if RFID doesn't work.

[JohnEG]

Yes, Cooksp, having a Zappi charger installed.

[sidehaas]

Smitten - I thought both MFG and Shell worked with a contactless card? Is an account essential?
Hopefully picking our car up in early January and I'm planning on making some use of both the above. Thanks

[Smitten]

Smitten - I thought both MFG and Shell worked with a contactless card? Is an account essential?
Hopefully picking our car up in early January and I'm planning on making some use of both the above. Thanks

In my experience, the more options you have to pay, the more likely you will get a charge. Sometimes payment on your phone will work. Sometimes you need a physical debit card and sometimes I don't have my wallet. Sometimes one method will just fail for no reason and quite often a debit card will fail but then the app or RFID might work. Go figure. Some suppliers are more reliable than others - Instavolt and Gridserve for example. Today at Shell Recharge the charger wouldn't recognise the car but it still took x2 debit card payments first then switched off. Then I switched to 2nd charger which worked fine when I used RFID card. Another guy rocked up and used 1st charger with no issues....magic

[Cooksp]

Yes, Cooksp, having a Zappi charger installed.

Aafter running a zoe + Zappi for three years I found the easiest way to manage charging was to set zappi to charge on off-peak rate over night, I got in the habit of plugging in every time I got out of the car at home, therefore fully charged every morning and never had to think about charging when travelling to work/running errands etc- after a while you will think of the traditional petrol station 'fill up' as a real inconvenience! (ev's are just better!.....)

[Scratch]

Would it make sense to aim to top up an iD3 at around 50% charge?

Personally I’d suggest a more practical amount would be 20%, but I’d apply that same percentage to an ICE vehicle as well. Ultimately it depends on your comfort factor - keeping a fuel tank half full in an ICE strikes me as very risk averse indeed but you may have really rational reasons for it so I wouldn’t want to suggest otherwise!

For example my father always keeps his Model 3 at 50% or higher in case his partner’s mother collapses or something and they need to do an emergency trip from Kidderminster to Grantham in a hurry.

Deciding to charge based on the percentage level of the battery would be a lot easier if VW actually gave you the facility to see the charge level instead of, or as well as the remaking miles guesstimate. I think someone said we may see that implemented in the V3 software update - please VW!

[monkeyhanger]

Would it make sense to aim to top up an iD3 at around 50% charge?

Personally I’d suggest a more practical amount would be 20%, but I’d apply that same percentage to an ICE vehicle as well. Ultimately it depends on your comfort factor - keeping a fuel tank half full in an ICE strikes me as very risk averse indeed but you may have really rational reasons for it so I wouldn’t want to suggest otherwise!

For example my father always keeps his Model 3 at 50% or higher in case his partner’s mother collapses or something and they need to do an emergency trip from Kidderminster to Grantham in a hurry.

Deciding to charge based on the percentage level of the battery would be a lot easier if VW actually gave you the facility to see the charge level instead of, or as well as the remaking miles guesstimate. I think someone said we may see that implemented in the V3 software update - please VW!

You can see % charge on the move, top left icon within "car". Also present in the "we connect ID" when you're stopped, to decide whether to charge or not.

[Scratch]

Personally I’d suggest a more practical amount would be 20%, but I’d apply that same percentage to an ICE vehicle as well. Ultimately it depends on your comfort factor - keeping a fuel tank half full in an ICE strikes me as very risk averse indeed but you may have really rational reasons for it so I wouldn’t want to suggest otherwise!

For example my father always keeps his Model 3 at 50% or higher in case his partner’s mother collapses or something and they need to do an emergency trip from Kidderminster to Grantham in a hurry.

Deciding to charge based on the percentage level of the battery would be a lot easier if VW actually gave you the facility to see the charge level instead of, or as well as the remaking miles guesstimate. I think someone said we may see that implemented in the V3 software update - please VW!

You can see % charge on the move, top left icon within "car". Also present in the "we connect ID" when you're stopped, to decide whether to charge or not.

Ok thanks. Still would be easier directly in front of the driver though.

[Deleted User 192]

Would it make sense to aim to top up an iD3 at around 50% charge?

Get it down to 20% or lower for the highest speed rapid charging.

[Deleted User 192]

Deciding to charge based on the percentage level of the battery would be a lot easier if VW actually gave you the facility to see the charge level instead of, or as well as the remaking miles guesstimate. I think someone said we may see that implemented in the V3 software update - please VW!

Infotainment screen > Vehicle

If it’s less than 20% you’ll get a prompt to charge and a warning indicator on the display behind the steering wheel.

Nice and easy.

[Flaming76]

Smitten - I thought both MFG and Shell worked with a contactless card? Is an account essential?
Hopefully picking our car up in early January and I'm planning on making some use of both the above. Thanks

In my experience, the more options you have to pay, the more likely you will get a charge. Sometimes payment on your phone will work. Sometimes you need a physical debit card and sometimes I don't have my wallet. Sometimes one method will just fail for no reason and quite often a debit card will fail but then the app or RFID might work. Go figure. Some suppliers are more reliable than others - Instavolt and Gridserve for example. Today at Shell Recharge the charger wouldn't recognise the car but it still took x2 debit card payments first then switched off. Then I switched to 2nd charger which worked fine when I used RFID card. Another guy rocked up and used 1st charger with no issues....magic

It took 2 payments but no charge?? How much and do you get your money back??

[Smitten]

Smitten - I thought both MFG and Shell worked with a contactless card? Is an account essential?
Hopefully picking our car up in early January and I'm planning on making some use of both the above. Thanks

In my experience, the more options you have to pay, the more likely you will get a charge. Sometimes payment on your phone will work. Sometimes you need a physical debit card and sometimes I don't have my wallet. Sometimes one method will just fail for no reason and quite often a debit card will fail but then the app or RFID might work. Go figure. Some suppliers are more reliable than others - Instavolt and Gridserve for example. Today at Shell Recharge the charger wouldn't recognise the car but it still took x2 debit card payments first then switched off. Then I switched to 2nd charger which worked fine when I used RFID card. Another guy rocked up and used 1st charger with no issues....magic

It took 2 payments but no charge?? How much and do you get your money back??

I haven't checked yet but suspect a pre payment of a few £ and it should be reversed in a few days