The good, the bad, and the pricey: UK EV charging infrastructure in 2024

[@robinallen7356]

On pricing, the biggest help would be some regulation forcing service stations and shops to put their charger prices on a big 15ft tall sign next to the chargers, just like petrol stations do. A lot of EV drivers do shop around and plan ahead to find cheaper prices, but it needs to cater for the 70 year old grandmas - not just the tech-savvy middle aged dads and youngsters. There are places like Peterborough where Gridserve and Ionity share the same service area parking but are at opposite ends 300yds apart. If there was a sign above both sets of chargers, proclaiming : Gridserve 79p with app 60p Ionity 75p with subscription 43p with Electroverse 65p Now suddenly you have people thinking a bit more about which charger to use and HOW to use it, and now you have competition.

[@robinbennett5994]

I'm not sure big sign boards would help, because many chargers are tucked away in small carparks. However the prices are available in apps like ZapMap or Electroverse, so you can compare prices without even visiting.

[@StormeeSkyes]

The 70 year old grannies are driving for a week on a single charge to go shopping/Doctors and back and probably using only 50%. Then getting their kids/grandkids to plug the car in to their charger at home they got on motability for free.

[@LVBRIP]

Have you seen how low the prices are in France and Spain? Even with electroverse mark up they are a LOT lower than UK. And if you use the Iberdrola app in Spain, prices are less than half the UK. And yet Spain has worse gas supply problems than the UK.

[@zrogon]

These prices are absolutely absurd. I thought Germany was insanely overpriced.

[@stuartburns8657]

Nope. UK is really bad. Same with the heat pump agenda. Nothing wrong with the tech, it's well proven, but trying to fit these to the aging housing stock that thermally leak like a sieve is a joke too.

[@x5toledo]

Green energy, innit

[@martinmorgan9]

This was quite a depressing video. So - no real change in the ridiculously expensive public charger rates, with only Tesla chargers offering a similar cost/mile to a diesel ICE car. I'd love to buy an EV but I'm damned if I'll ever routinely charge at a public charger, which bears a close resemblance to the current need to visit a fossil-fuel filling station. . . . only more frequently. So, for me, as a retiree without the need to travel daily to a place of work, I'll be buying a BEV only when I've installed adequate facilities for home charging AND have bought an EV with a REAL range of no less than 250 miles to keep away from public charging.

[@PJWey]

Gridserve was a brilliant £0 per kWh on Dec 25th, thankfully

[@stuartburns8657]

@martinmorgan9 Yes. EV's if the majority of current owners would admit, are great for the driveway home charging demographic. For those reliant on public charging, and who's current car gets around 40+mpg, it becomes less beneficial. Potentially long term maintenance cheaper. However (touch wood) the only thing in over our last 4 diesels has been tires, although our two current diesels, we did each get the timing belts done. They are each at 75k mileage, but with me having a round trip of 7 miles for work, and the wife 100%, baring misfortune we'll be fine, even with the yo-yo ice ban. It's quite possible in 3.x years when the N4z1's (reform) or Conservatives get in, that will be reversed too lol. 2025 will certainly be an interesting EV year. Let's see what the next round of electricity prices rises bring, now all of the EU will be fighting over LNG imports :( As I write this, Nation Grid energy is 59.1 derived from gas at the moment. 3% wind.

[@Kjillmatic]

So whilst I own an EV in the UK, I’d still say the charging network is pretty bad because I’ve been able to experience what it should be like when I lived in NL. And it’s nothing to do with ultra-rapids. The best solution is an abundance of slow, and most importantly cheap 11kWh charging for when cars are parked, predominantly in residential areas. It means there’s zero waiting around, less need for hefty ultra-rapids (as you can count on charging on arrival) and you can even precondition the car before you unplug and move on with no impact. Really is a game changer especially for people who can’t charge directly from their home.

[@cosmicpop]

Destination or residential chargers are sorely needed in the UK. I think partially the issue is that there are not many EV drivers in positions of responsibility in government and councils, so the councils assume that they're doing a good thing by putting in rapids when in fact the most important thing is to have appropriate chargers.

[@Lewis_Standing]

Yup I have a great holiday near Eindhoven and found abundant destination charging.

[@Kjillmatic]

@@cosmicpop I actually completely agree with you here. They seem utterly perplexed on how to build a rollout of EV support on a council level in most regions outside of London.

[@cosmicpop]

@@Kjillmatic I don't think it's necessarily the fault of the local authorities. They are doing their best in most cases. They just need proper guidance.

[@solidus784]

the price of fast charger in the UK is ridiculous £0.79/kwh, Its like €0.58/kwh in Ireland.

[@petrospetrosghali]

Agreed, that is ridiculous, basically means 20p per mile, 50% more expensive than a petrol car getting 50 mpg!!

[@pmb9172]

No idea whether it’s applicable but if it’s like our domestic costs there are large green subsidy taxes applied before you get to the end price .

[@donincognito189]

I'm always astonished that one of the largest fossil-fuel companies on the planet doesn't have EV chargers that work. It's almost as if their entire business model relies upon delaying the switchover to EVs for as long as possible 🙄

[@xchopp]

Agreed! We had no issues whatsoever on a trip from lincs to Cornwall and back - the exception being a BP service station somewhere in the midlands. A Mach-E was charging ok there, but our rented MG4 - an absolutely awesome machine - could not. Tried both chargers. Called support three times. Wasted about an hour. We found another charging option a few miles away. The other stations we used were great, especially the CC readers (we didn't even use the two apps i'd downloaded. The best station we used was FastNed. Pod Point stations are everywhere and also useful in a pinch (cheap and easy to use, except the one at Hay Tor!). We had a great trip!

[@colinwiseman]

This morning, going to the park to walk the dog and every single car was frozen over. So guess what...all of them on warming their engines up to defrost their windows. I could smell the difference. Months of rarely being in a petrol car and my sense of smell has attuned. I will never do petrol, hybrid or otherwise.

[@MrEV]

I couldn't agree more! It's really grim on cold mornings, isn't it? Driving behind ICE cars is horrible for that matter as well!

[@K12beano]

Of course, we all know it’s an illegality to leave a car “idling” unnecessarily on the public highway. Failures of the laws are simple: a) on a private drive you can pollute to your heart’s content, and b) who would ever police any UK laws for the benefit of the people? Either way, the sooner ICE is banned (from killing people unnecessarily), the better!!

[@robinallen7356]

It's a joy to be able to just press "Start", press "defrost" and immediately feel the heater warm up and be away and driving in 60 seconds. Meanwhile my neighbour leaves their ICE car idling, burning dinosaur juice, for 20 minutes in the morning.

[@MrMannakin]

@@robinallen7356 Or just get the car to do a 10min defrost before even leaving the house ;p

[@robinallen7356]

​@@MrMannakinindeed. Wish mine had an app with a remote defrost function. Definitely something I'll want in my next EV.

[@sjb1604]

On CCS the upper pins are the handshake/data comms. The big fat heavy high power charge cables drag the connector downwards therefore the handshake pins can have poor contact. Thats why supporting the cable makes the handshake work. Careful routing of the cable ensuring that it is supported as best as it can be or you could resort to the "TeslaBjorn" method of using the parcelshelf! :)

[@themixape4561]

5 years on EV's for me and I wouldn't change back, I have had the same issues with Shell Recharge and avoid them like the plague now. Pricing does need to come down and if you can't charge at home it doesn't make sense to me to own an EV yet. There are certainly a lot lot more chargers now than 5 years ago and I don't get that charger worry so much anymore, Applegreen are the winners for me, work on electro verse, plenty of space in between the chargers and usually plenty of them.

[@chrisbudge1159]

Charger availability does seem a lot better now than when I started with an EV 4 years ago. I can’t remember the last time I had to wait. Mostly recently using Tesla at Lifton on several trips to Cornwall - great to have a nice place there to eat a meal while charging rather than sitting in the car so no time wasted. Have had the occasional Tesla app issue where you end the charge but it doesn’t stop. I did see someone elsewhere saying there was a button on the plug handle that would stop it. I stopped it charging by changing the charge limit in my car but I know you can’t set a limit in some cars. There still need to be many more chargers if the ZEV mandate continues as planned with a big increase in EV sales each year. It also helps if you have someone else in the car who can monitor charging occupancy especially if you have 2-3 options to charge.

[@MrEV]

That's a great tip about setting the charge limit. I had to do that once a while ago.

[@1892Bear]

Ionity in Ireland are charging 66 cent or 56 pence per kwh for rapid charging, good reliability as well

[@keithware5314]

I had the same problem at a Gridserve charger it couldn't connect to the car so I tried again and held it in and it started charging.

[@roberthartley6629]

75-85p is a rip off. If you have a Tesla membership only one charge pays for the monthly cost. 75p for a supermarket charger. If Sainsbury's would charge a cheap rate or a "nectar rate" if you buy eg >£100 shopping then I would shop at Sainsbury's all the time.

[@DanielJones-c1i]

Have a Tesla membership. They need to start adding more sites to the charge any car list.

[@K12beano]

I’ve been driving EV for 3 years and 2 months. All public charging. I welcome any discussions with anyone who believes or has been led to believe that EV might not work. I’m always interested to learn from people the actual reasons why they are finding it a challenge. For quite a few months my jobs have included visiting and assessing (independently) public charging. It’s all only going one direction. And the pace of change is quite amazing. In seeing my own attitudes maturing, I am ditching plenty of those annoying apps and reappraising my own priorities wherever I need to make a charging stop or - more correctly - where I am that will allow me a charge whenever I am stopping. A subtle, but very important, mindset shift that everyone should make. As ever, Andrew is hugely informative in just presenting some simple facts right there from experience. Talk to EV people before you take an EV plunge - we all have a wealth of info that makes it so easy when you do take a little bit on board. PS - don’t “hold it in” …. Just take the “weight” of the connector by lifting up, because on CCS one of the top pins is deliberately shorter and would be the one to make a poor connection on a handshake. On most cars, just watch the lights next to the plug and let the “weight” off once the handshake has happened. PPS - none of us like fossil fuel companies when it comes to choosing your CPO brand, let’s just support those CPOs that keep their kit well maintained and have really nice people on their helplines. (“You can be ‘sure’ of Shell” used to be the old advert….. 🤷🏻‍♂️ yeah, we’re pretty sure of you!)

[@MrEV]

Thanks, Ron - especially for your PS!

[@Terry-q7y]

They will wait till most people have an EV then the price rises will start

[@geoffreyjones6019]

@@Terry-q7y which is the case with petrol stations now, the difference will be that a large number of EV owners will be able to charge at home.

[@Terry-q7y]

@@geoffreyjones6019 But on average it's still cheaper using petrol or diesel if you have to use charging stations plus putting up with all the issues with them even if there working

[@johnnodge4327]

​@@Terry-q7y It depends on the cost per kWhr and the efficiency of the EV, when compared to a particular petrol or diesel vehicle. Our diesel Audi coats 20 Pence per mile in fuel, compared to 2.5 Pence per mile for our EV when home charging. The massive savings on the EV easily offset the higher prices of public charging, simply because public charging is the exception, rather than the norm. I can run our EV for an entire year, for the same cost as the servicing on our ICE Audi, let alone the fuel costs, which is substantially more than the EV equivalent in electricity. Then the EV gets all the fringe benefits like preconditioning the cabin in winter before setting off, so the car is warm and defrosted, and safe to drive. This can be done with ICE vehicles, but only by leaving the engine running, which obviously is asking for someone to dive off in the vehicle, unless you're happy to sit and wait. For us the benefits of EV ownership definitely outweigh the pitfalls.

[@jonmckee6482]

Hi Andrew, very interesting findings. I have an IONIQ6 coming up to 2 years now. I have a home charger so always load up to 100% before long drives of over 200 miles. I live in Scotland and travel a couple of times a month to the midlands and occasionally to London. I have a subscription with IONITY and use them exclusively because it costs 42p/Kwh. I very rarely have had a problem trying to charge and if I have I phone their help line. They answer very quickly and have never left me stranded. They can initiate a charge remotely. I spoke to their UK boss a few weeks ago as he and others were opening a new site in Doncaster. I told him about busy stations that occasionally mean a wait. He indicated they are opening another 36 outlets in the coming year and they are also waiting on planning permission to extend existing outlets. A specific example is Leeds which has 6 stations and they are planning to extend to 24. Reason for mentioning this is that I believe in 2025 the number of outlets across UK will increase dramatically. I agree with your comments on Shell and wonder if it is on purpose as they don't want interest to move away from ICE cars too quickly. However I don't go near them.

[@computerbob06]

I have to say, if I lived in Scotland and had to go to London, I'd either fly or be getting drunk on the sleeper!

[@gregthompson1140]

I collected my first EV, a Renault Megane, at the beginning of this week. I’m intending to charge mostly at home when the charge point is installed in two week’s time. After watching this video, I thought I’d try charging at Sainsbury’s today to see how it works, although fortunately I didn’t need to. I say fortunately, as I had some problems. I followed the instructions at the first charger, but thought I had to swipe my bank card on the RFID contact on the display screen, which is about chest height. It didn’t work, so I tried another charger. As soon as I drew up, I saw that the card reader is at waist height and I hadn’t seen it at the first charger as the charging cable was curled in front and obscured it. So, one problem resolved. I swiped my bank card, then couldn’t get the charge cable out of the charge point. So I stopped the charge (a mistake in hindsight), I pulled hard on the plug with both hands and quite a bit of weight and managed to release it (there was a burr on the plug end, which may have caused the jam. It’s not an experience you’d have at a petrol pump, so I’m at a loss to understand why it should be so difficult at an EV charger). Anyway, I tried again and the payment card was rejected this time. Tried another card, and that was rejected too. So I gave up. No charge! Not the most auspicious start to my EV charging experience. I’ve used chargers with a work van before with no problem and without having to do a weight session beforehand. They were free, though, so no payment needed. I’m hoping that the Electroverse RFID card works better - or just works. It takes 14 days to arrive, so another week to wait and then we will see. In the meantime, I might cadge a free charge from the Renault dealer…

[@peteglass3496]

With luck you'll get the E-verse card quicker than that.

[@MrDAVIDATKIN]

Wherever I go in the UK I now only use Tesla or a passport Ionity subscription. I have a long range Polestar 2 which allows me to do this, will never use Shell, BP, Instavolt or most of the others as they are a total rip off. Not had a failed charge in 2024 or had to wait to get on a charger so definitely improving with more choice available. My avearge cost per mile is about 14p a mile on public chargers. As about 80% of my mileage is done through home charging my overall cost per mile is less than 5p a mile. Keep up the good work.

[@sjb1604]

I did a 2k miles tour around the UK using only Ionity Passport and Tesla other than one 7 kW free charge overnight!

[@themanofmead5273]

This sums up my position exactly. Every time I see anyone charging on Instavolt I die a little inside. Absolute rip off business model based on people having no option but to charge with them. Or company card drivers who don’t care because someone else is paying. For me they are an avoid at all cost.

[@pmb9172]

If you expect companies to make the investment with the substantial capital outlay involved and then cover the overheads of on going maintenance and running costs without any form of subsidy then you will likely find their charges are reasonable . The problem seems to me the EV drivers are expecting the subsidy for having made the decision , admittedly at the behest or encouragement of the government, to go down this route . The reality is that it is costly and the subsidies are being withdrawn bit by bit and the true cost is beginning to appear , when the majority are converted and the full cost is being applied it may be rather alarming . Look at this for a suggestion , The Resolution Foundation and the Centre for Policy Studies want to target electric car (EV) drivers with new tax burdens on a per-kilo and per-mile basis. it’s all very contradictory.

[@themanofmead5273]

@ in other countries they seem to be able to make the investment and keep prices a fraction of Instavolt

[@JamieHeron72]

Hi Andrew. Never had the "hold the handle" problem in our EV6 but regularly have it with our EV9. Easy to resolve, when you know.

[@rupertwilson5928]

Interesting roundup video with a variety of chargers and vehicles. I've not needed to rapid charge much in the UK this year but did manage a roadtrip in the NiroEV to Switzerland via France, Germany and Belgium in the Autumn. Didn't bother to plan charging ahead and didn't have any nightmares. Thought I would use the 🐙 Electroverse card at lot but actually found using Tesla Superchargers was more cost effective even adding a one off monthly subscription which reduces the rate further. Overall there are so many more chargers available than there were even a couple of years ago.

[@kpsmithz]

The bp pulse chargers in my area are always broken and when they do work the app is useless. I was thinking of changing to a tesla model 3 but there are no tesla chargers near me In the junction 9 m6 area

[@ians3328]

Shame we did not standardise on the Tesla NACS connector, instead on the heavy CCS cable. I hold the connector in/up every time.

[@Sp_75-76]

Iam in the process of driving to Gibraltar, and my cost so far from driving from Guildford to Madrid (via the Portsmouth Bilbao ferry (pretty rough, never again) the cost for charging is £28.60 started off from home @ 100 %, having taken advantage of the cheep overnight rate, the other two charges were on Tesla chargers 12 stalls at each site, and I was at both by myself,open to all(I have a skoda enyaq 60kwh battery) The car is now in the hotel garage topping up to 100% overnight before continuing the journey tomorrow. I did discover that driving at 120 km per hour really hits the battery on my car, whereas dropping down to 110 -105 makes all the difference to range

[@darville7521]

Hi Andrew, I have a KIA EV9. I found these 2 steps are often required to get the car and high power charger to communicate: 1. Lock the doors before plugging in and 2. Push the plug in to the car’s socket to ensure that all pins are connected. I checked with my KIA dealer and he confirmed these two steps are necessary as a precaution apparently to avoid uncontrolled sparks. Since using these two steps, I have had almost no issues with charging the EV9.

[@stever656]

I charge at home but when i go on holiday or long trips the chargers have all worked for me been in a Tesla for last 6 months and absolutely no problems and i have 15,000 free supercharger miles and i have used around a 1000 of them so will use them up over next couple of years

[@sargfowler9603]

I do think it largely depends on where you live and where you're going for chargers. I live in the North West and charging is quite poor. Yes, the motorways have chargers, but if I go cross country on A roads, they're virtually non-existent. I also travel to the North East every month or so and find that once I've arrived, I need to pop out for an hour or so to charge the car. It's quite inconvenient. It's that or stop somewhere on the travel back where I wouldn't normally stop, but we'll just have to in order to charge and get home.

[@petergrant6484]

Six years with a Golf GTE (PHEV) and now eight months with the Polestar 2. I have to say the charging network in the UK has got a lot better in that time. The range on my Polestar 2 is so good I don’t have to charge on public chargers very often - even in winter.

[@ashb8572]

I was looking forward to this update, thank you 😊 Did you experience any scenarios of waiting for a charger to become free?

[@haydensmith888]

We’ve constantly had charging issues in the UK, any long journeys now we take our diesel unfortunately

[@mdshovel]

Over the past 3 years my experience has been ... 1) queued once for 10mins - yep, only ever once had to queue. 2) had three dispensers not working - but in each case I only had to move across to the adjacent one. 3) BP Pulse RFID reader not working, in early days, but switched to App and all OK. I rarely charge more than 30 mins and usually Public Chargers with occassional top-up for long journey with overnight granny charger.as cannot charge at home. In reality, by using Car Maker supplied discount RFID cards it has been cheaper than diesel and I've actually had more problems with ICE. For £4.99 a month I pay 43p/Kw at Ionity and have a back-up BP Pulse membership that gives 57p/Kw

[@robinbennett5994]

I think the big change over the last couple of years is that there are a lots more charge points with multiple chargers. That means there's much less chance of needing to wait for the previous person to finish, and alternative chargers if one is broken. Now we need a solution for contactless units that are covered with scratches and totally unreadable.

[@rhiantaylor3446]

On pricing, I was surprised that Tesco Extra/Superstores often have 7/22/50/75kW charging at 43/49/62/69p per kWh. I have a Zoe so 49p/kW for 22kW will give me almost 100 miles at a half-decent price while I shop for an hour.

[@KennethPaul]

Generally you need to be paying less than 40p per kW to be cheaper than a petrol or hybrid. Public charging needs to get much cheaper for many more people to transition over

[@LVBRIP]

I've never been able to get a charge at a Shell recharge. Has anyone? You are right Andrew, Shell has lot of money and they can afford to install them just to generate frustration for ev drivers. This also prevents anyone else installing nearby due to grid limitations. All this serves Shell's business goals perfectly.

[@jasondavis545]

Considering the cost of Electricity has dropped in price since it’s peak in 2022/3 and I do understand that industry is not covered by the U.K. price cap, even that being said, the cost per kW from the company’s providing the electricity to the chargers for us to use, should of come down by now!! Fossil fuels have drain price, even the cost of gas to produce the electricity ⚡️. Perhaps the monopolies commission should look at this as tbh I feel it’s like a cartel as all these companies know if your on a journey you need power and they can charge basically a premium for this, until this is sorted out and we have pence per kw displayed like in a garage forecourt, we will be at the mercy of which ever charging network we have to use to charge our vehicles 🚗 out and about.

[@timothybloomer4246]

We have had our e Niro for 3 years now and the improvement in charging infrastructure is very obvious over that time. Gridserve has been excellent, we have also had good experiences at MFG and Instavolt, mixed at Podpoint and universally dismal at Geniepoint. We also charged successfully at a charge place Scotland on holiday and as far as I can see that ended up being free!

[@lookoutleo]

Thankyou for sharing your experience. I charge on the granny charger at home because I get octopus go at 8.5p kWh . For the last 3 years I've only used this and once a year I drive 150 miles to see my brother and my leaf only does 50 miles between charges and 75p kwh so only do when I have to. Argyll and highland are expensive . :) Would love a car with 200 miles range then would never charge on public

[@paulmetcalfe3493]

Nice summary, thanks. Now that public charging so much is easier to find, can you please campaign for the price to be displayed? Petrol stations would never get away with it!

[@GiovanniMazzeo-r1n]

I have had a new EV for only a few months but i have noticed alot more chargers being installed in the Cambridge area,i saw new works for Ionity chargers at Cambridge Services and even Morrisons Supermarket in St.Ives,Cambridgeshire is installing alot of MFG chargers.I did a road trip to Italy through France before Christmas,France was really good and cheap for chargers.I thought Italy needed more chargers on the motorways,the Free-to-x chargers on the autostrada's was good but there needs to be more of them.Tortona services is now installing new chargers.You have to use Be-charge chargers off the motorway in some areas in the Turin area.I found Italy more expensive to charge than France.I saw alot EV's in France but not so many in Italy.

[@Jaw0lf]

I now own a Tesla Model 3 having previously owned a Kia E Niro. Must say that the Tesla having access to their network is a game changer and prices are where I believe they need to be. Many are just well overcharging when electric prices had dropped.

[@robinallen7356]

7000 miles in 6 months in an MG5. So far I've had only two occasions I've needed to wait. One was an Ionity on a busy summer day, needing to wait 5 minutes - barely something to complain about. The biggest failure was Folkstone chunnel terminal where there were FAR too few chargers and FAR too many broken chargers. Many had QR codes / websites not working, bank card readers not working, etc. If it was petrol pumps failing, then at least a shop assistant would walk out and put a "not in service" yellow tag on the pump handle. The shop staff feel accountable for the petrol pumps, and they do something about it when they're broken. But with these DC chargers there's no "ownership" or "accountability" between shop staff/employees and these chargers - often with chargers sited 100yds away from any human beings. So the chargers sit broken for days or weeks without attention, and the only clue that they are broken is if a driver ties a plastic bag over the handle to warn other drivers. One thing that would help is some clearer automatic indication (lights, signs) that the chargers are broken.

[@ians3328]

Did you realise you can use the Tesla ones at the chunnel ?

[@robinallen7356]

@@ians3328 You're actually wrong. Tesla chargers cannot be used by my car. Or rather... Tesla refused to do what other charger manufacturers do to support all cars. Tesla can charge MOST ccs cars. Not ALL ccs cars.

[@bobbinbob]

My first ev a couple of weeks ago, on my way back needed a recharge, stopped at an ionity station, 6 stalls, 1 out of order, and the one I had turns out was faulty also, ionity service very quick to answer and could 4 failed vehicles, so the marked that out of order as well,it did put a sour taste in my mouth when you describe issues, and wiggling plugs to get them to work, possibly a manufacturing defect on the plugs, not hard wearing enough…..thanks for the vids!

[@nigeldutson7478]

For the first time ever I went to 2 separate chargers in Worcester and both places had had their cables hacked off and stolen! Is this a growing trend?

[@caldan8]

I'm also a frequent visitor to Denbies (Love the chargers there) and Cobham as they are on the way to see family. I had the same issue with the Ionity at Cobham not accepting electroverse card for unknown reasons. I was in too much of a rush to try and troubleshoot this so just started it from the app, but annoyingly had to pay more.

[@patrickjr11]

I am still avoiding MSA where they have less than 10 chargers as they are just not worth the grief. Apart from that, the chargers just improved month by month. It's still a case of the right chargers in the right location and the right number by location but is certainly good enough now.

[@Lewis_Standing]

I just avoid travelling at peak times, you avoid traffic too

[@koenlenaers]

Living in Belgium, drove 70.000 km last year with an VW ID.4. For the moment I drive between 1000 and 1500 km per week. About 2 fast charges per week. No problems whatsoever. In Belgium I use the charging pass of my employer that allows me to charge at almost all fast charging networks. IONITY, FastNed, Electra, Allego, … I’ve used them all whiteout problems. When traveling abroad I can not use my company charging pass so I mostly use Tesla because of the really good pricing especially of you take a subscription for one month.

[@gazzaman28]

I've used Tebay chargers a few times in the last 6 months, they are generally pretty good but when one of them fails there doesn't seem to be a good system to highlight this. They have cones so you can block the bay, but there is nothing on the screen to say there is a problem. They must have an idea back at base that the charger isn't working, so a message on the screen surely can't be behind the technical ability of their technicians. When it fails and the site is busy, you're then trying to communicate to other drivers at the same time as trying to move to a different bay, it can get pretty stressful. That sort of experience is really what needs a lot of improvement in order to get more people out of their petrol & diesel cars.

[@ians3328]

I had an issue there too Southbound where only 2 units and one not taking payments properly. HOWEVER I have been told you can drive round to the Northbound side where there are many more and better units !

[@gazzaman28]

@ians3328 yep, there are 12 on the NB side, you just need to follow the signage to the hotel, it takes a couple of mins.

[@Scouser22]

Hi Andrew, hope you sorted out your heating with this cold weather. Been watching Jonathan P's trip to Spain. Infrastructure and prices in France look way better than UK. Tesla seems to offer best prices and availability.

[@jond46687]

I find accessibility is much improved but the unit cost is terrible, not helped by 20% vat. I think that does add to the argument to get an ev with good range as then you can rely even more on home charging. Great video .

[@RedemptiveChief]

Quick hint right next to Debbie’s superchargers are free destination chargers I’ve used when I had to use the loo on the way back from Gatwick airport.

[@Michael-v8x4y]

In my area, they're cutting the cables as soon as the chargers are live.

[@_Dougaldog]

Who’s cutting the cables ?

[@chrisspanswick7312]

Very helpful information. I usually rent an ev when we visit and of course don’t have the advantage of home charging which we do at home in Alberta. Electricity in general is much more expensive in the UK.

[@andrewhill9369]

We’ve discussed the charging network here and I’m interested in your other thoughts/ideas. Currently petrol models still out register/sell over BEV models. According to the SMMT2024 final figures, petrol were a little over 1 million units, BEV almost 382,000. So, given how good EV’s are and the near price-parity with ICE, cheaper to run (if you can charge from home) and an overall better driving experience and increased model range choice to choose from (+38% in 2024 vs 2023), what needs to happen to make them the popular choice for the masses in the UK? Genuine question as something has got to change. Thanks

[@chapmandu2]

58 rapid charges across uk and France. One queue encountered, went 5 minutes down the road to the next one. 4 where it didn’t work first time and had to move chargers. Charging via the Electroverse app or Tesla SC seems to be the most reliable in our experience.

[@fredgoul1150]

Thanks Andrew, been driving evs for 2.5 years. I mainly charge from home but occasionally use rapid chargers. I rarely have any problems and generally stick to a few favourite networks and sites that have lots of chargers. MFG are super reliable in my experience, with tesla, gridserve(new chargers not old ones) and osprey not far behind. I use the big new bp pulse station near the nec on trips to liverpool and this is great as well!

[@DavidCooper-b5r]

16 pence per me compares unfavourably with HMRC expense rate of 7 pence. I would like to hear your thoughts on this Andrew. For those of us with EV company cars, no charger and no choice they are a burden.

[@martyndyer4444]

Very useful video and I feel it reflects my experience of rapid charging. The problem with connecting some chargers seems to be down to the weight of the cable. The top most pins in the handle then don’t connect properly and the handshake fails. Taking the weight of the cable and holding the connector up against the socket on the car often solves the problem. 😊

[@issiewizzie]

my goodness i refuse to pay anything past 40p kw for charging

[@adrianupnorth]

Been looking forward to your yearly update. I used a variety this year and found podpoint is always the hardest to work with. The app is just pants, the chargers tell you very little. Is it charging?? My niro is always an embarrassing charge on a Tesla v3. I do wish they would replace them all with v4's.

[@maxflight777]

Tesla Superchargers are typically 50 p per KWh in the UK…. Across Europe they can be about 35p per KWh

[@lauriedunkinwedd3411]

Shell Tonbridge: both chargers still u/s as of mid-January. Nearby the Instavolts at McDonalds are good, or there are two Osprey units outside M&S.

[@dfarma2568]

Had issues at Ionity West Brom with my Kia EV9. Tried 7 times at various chargers and all failed and charged £40 per attempt. All pending charges were removed week later. Managed to charge few miles away at Gridserve.

[@adrianwood2566]

Used that one a couple of times. Not had any issue with them working but the speed was very slow on both occasions.

[@Swwils]

You will need to hold it in on a EV9 for the handshake. Depending on your SOC the charger needs to find out what your pack is doing since its a "strange" nominal voltage of 522V. Ionity ABB units will be one of the best HPC for the EV9, since it will do 200kw+ for the first 75% then ramp to 170kw till 85% then curve down to 100%.

[@ohyesitsme]

£40 a pop without even charging, you must be joking, or mad.

[@Swwils]

@@ohyesitsme my EV9 has plug and charge so no fee.

[@EngineersFear]

You have to give EnBW credit for leading in the number of chargers they installed in Germany . But then I'm also under the impression that now they have trouble maintaining them. Plus their pricing has gone from top notch to rock bottom.

[@allisterbullock213]

The German network EnBW is Energy Baden-Württemberg, in German pronounced E.N. Bay-Vay (roughly speaking). This is named after the other southern Germany Bundesland of Baden Württemberg, the other being Bavaria in the south east.

[@allisterbullock213]

Shell Energies attitude appears to be the same as Total Energies when it comes to charger maintenance and repair. Take a look at my years old Google maps review of the TE chargers in Karlsruhe, and I bet it's still broken now. Maybe check Google maps before rolling up.

[@narrowboatlongpod4176]

I’ve only had an EV for a couple of years but the number of chargers has dramatically improved on the routes that I use. Nearly all my charging has been successful although I did have issues at Cobham recently with two Ionity faulty (and they did say they’d been reported on the screen and the bars at the top were red, if I’d bothered to look). I have used Tesla but they’re off limits at the moment due to Musk interfering in UK politics in a totally unacceptable way. Price is an issue but I’d rather have lots of working chargers as I usually charge at home for 7p. It’s extremely unlikely that prices won’t fall when there are more EVs and more competition. We really need supermarkets to offer cheap charging if you shop there. Sainsbury’s used to do it with petrol so let’s see a bit of action on electricity.

[@TassieEV]

Those Shell chargers, the reason it's broken isn't Shell's problem it's Tritiums problem those ones are notorious and parts take forever to get nothing to do with the operator but the hardware should know this from Bjorn's rant about Tritium chargers in Norway awhile back on the Ionity network there. Same units here in Australia also are broken alot and all CPO's that use this hardware have these issues.

[@roberthartley6629]

How did you charge on the leaf with CCS, was it with an adaptor?

[@MrEV]

Yes, it’s called the EV-Boy. Video coming soon.

[@therennisons]

A cynic might question Shell's reliability - it's almost like they have a stake in people not enjoying their EVs and returning to ICE!

[@johnmightymole2284]

Definitely.

[@DavidD93]

I've only been EV-ing for 9 months, but because I have (free😀) workplace charging, I have not needed to use public chargers at all yet. A question I do have - what's the best way to know if a Tesla site is open to non-Tesla's? The Tesla app? Does it say at each site if it is open to all EV's or not?

[@adrianwood2566]

You can filter on the Tesla website to only show open for all chargers

[@martinandcarolyn]

6 years in an EV for me. Wouldn't change back to ICE but I am lucky to have home charging for most of my charges. For anyone relying on fast, public charging the cost makes EV ownership pointless - it's cheaper to buy an ICE car, and cheaper to fill it up. Yesterday I had to visit an Instavolt rapid charger, got 39.24 kWh (enough for a 25%-70% charge) and it cost £33.36. For someone like me the odd visit to a public charger means subscriptions are pointless and leaves me paying the highest prices.

[@Piezochem]

RE the Blue Diamond charge…. Blue diamond outside of Derby annoyed me a bit, the garden centre had signage to say chargers can be occupied by ICE vehicles when it’s busy. Not even blue badge, just free for all. So naturally when I visited a few months back all but 2 of 14 Mer chargers were ICE’d (1 rapid Kempower and one 7kW bay free) and yet the car park wasn’t completely full. It annoyed me because it’s actually on a very busy route and the alternatives are 4 Shell (vomit, more off the beaten track) and 4 InstaVolt with incredibly tight bays at a very busy McDonalds. Those Mer chargers off the a38 would be perfect for the garden centre to draw in business, particularly with them being wide bays with Kempower chargers, much more accessible for drivers with disabilities for example - but with the high likelihood of them being ICE’d they are off putting. Especially if you’re using ABRP or something and see there’s 10 Rapid Chargers only to arrive and see each one is blocked by a car that runs on dinosaur juice.

[@hairzilla]

These prices are nutso, i used to fully charge my Zoe 40kwh in 2019 for £5 on a 7kwh podpoint charger while at work to full

[@Lestat481]

Terribly expensive prices in the UK. In Germany I pay €0,43/kw at Tesla, €0,49/kw at ENBW and in the Netherlands I pay €0,20/kw at Tesla.

[@allisterbullock213]

To me it looks like many of these charging networks are hell bent on charging the same (if not more) per mile/km as for fossil fuels thus negating the usual advantage of EVs that are way more efficient than ICE vehicles. This seems particularly apparent for the traditional petrol stations which have had that attitude since 2019 and a reason I avoid them at all costs (no pun intended).

[@ohyesitsme]

With our Net Zero programme it won't matter how many chargers there are if the grid fails as it came close to doing this week. We have had high pressure weather patterns and no wind and plenty of snow to cover the solar panel farms so the future is not bright (in more ways than one)

[@jonwetherell5214]

Public charging needs 1) a far better system of off line charging points flagging up on the charge finder apps. 2) a decent queuing system for when all the points are occupied..as in you are 2nd in line expect a 20 minute wait. 3) a mega surcharge on cars that stay plugged in once charged. 4 my biggest pet hate…Put them under cover..why do EV drivers have to stand in the rain to connect up? If we had this ( ok first 3) then most of the problems would go away

[@th3gughy]

2:00 as an Italian myself, I'm not at all surprised to hear that the infrastructure is present, but just not working.. 😂 Overall good video, though, and thank you for sharing your experience: it gives me a good idea of how reliable the network is here in the UK!

[@spiderman999100]

Well, your findings show that Rapid Charging costs 9 times the cost of Intelligent Octopus Go home charging. For this reason I run a small Seat Mii EV for local mileage at only 1.4p per mile and a Petrol Golf for road trips! Fuel for my Golf costs 12p per mile and it travels 500 miles between refuelling! There’s no incentive for me to get a larger EV at these costs.

[@Paulruk]

at 11:45 Bit unfair not sharing some of your tuna sandwich with Flaviana 🤣 Seriously, good video as always Andrew. TY

[@saintuk70]

Over the boarder, majority of our "open" charger network is supported by ChargePlace Scotland. Whilst coverage is above average, its reliability is not great. Couple this with these mainly being destination chargers offering 50kphw, rapid is scarce as hens' teeth. Costs are at the very least 70p per kwh. Tesla, there's maybe about 12 locations. My concern is that CPS have invested heavily with Local Authorities and it'll take forever to replace/update this infrastructure - meaning we'll really suffer. Me, I want to make that jump from PHEV to full, but onstreet charging is not supported or even fully legal.

[@MyMateYourMate]

Congratulations on finding a sunny day to record this.

[@CRA1G1EBOY]

I have a 2020 enero and do mostly motorway driving at around 70mph and i never get 4 miles to the kwh. 3.1ish is the norm. Worse in the Scottish winter. If it wasnt for home charging i just wouldnt have it. It would cost too much to run. And i love the ev.

[@PJWey]

Personally I found very few issues when public charging, had a Tesla charger not work, also a Smartcharge with dead card reader. But absolutely zero range anxiety during 20k miles in my standard range MG4. 😊 On the whole Tesla has been my preferred option when available.

[@alanwongcw]

Thanks for the info.

[@peterjones6640]

I have had one EV for four years and 14 months ago changed my other car (a PHEV) for an EV. Although I don’t do much public charging I will usually use an Electroverse card or CPO app ( whichever gives me cheaper charge). Never had to wait for a charger but I use the adage charge when you stop don’t stop to charge. Mostly public charging when going on holiday ( sometimes when away on business). Call me cynical but I think BP and Shell do EV charging as greenwash rather than any commitment. Couple of things I think cross country routes could do with more rapid charger stations and ideally I think all chargers should offer better rates at off peak times ie outside the main demand times for electricity generally ( peak electricity usage normally being between 1600 to 2000), although I am aware Electroverse sometimes do plunge pricing. The other useful measure would be to put canopies over chargers, so when it rains you are sheltered.

[@warrenboswell1176]

You'll be glad to know that the shell charger in Tonbridge are still not working. They have worked for probably a couple of weeks in 2024.

[@remotaurog]

That's expensive charging,Currently I pay 52cents in Ireland at a 100kw charger ,sometimes the handshake does take resetting once or twice,also I notice it takes less time than stated.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

Please tell us more about charging the leaf on CCS. Adaptor i presume? Have you done a session on it?

[@MrEV]

I filmed a video with Paul Eden (from Nissan EV Owners UK) and I'll publish the video once there's some stock of the adapter. It's called the EV-Boy if you want to look it up.

[@stuartthomas4836]

Kidderminster nightmare. Tesco charger too slow sat nav took use to another charger that didn’t work the to Sainsbury’s lots of high power chargers couldn’t get them to work. Very very cold evening needed to get back to N Wales. Eventually got one to work and was very quick. But what a stressful time. My advice buy a petrol car. Although both our car are ev.

[@janhenkins]

Hi! Being a Leaf owner myself, I would love to know a bit more about the CCS converter you were using! Thanks for the video, very informative as always.

[@MrEV]

It’s called the EV-Boy. I will publish a video about it soon.

[@janhenkins]

@@MrEV Brilliant, thank you!

[@neilt]

I was in France for Christmas, I couldn't get my Electroverse card to work on Ionity chargers there. Is there a problem outside the UK?

[@MrEV]

I had some issues with some networks and I e-mailed Electroverse who sorted it. It turned out there was a weird charging session in the background that was still running for some reason. They force stopped that and it solved it. Worth contacting them to see if it's a similar issue.

[@neilt]

Thanks for that. The best thing about Electroverse is the 8% discount everywhere. I'd just assumed they weren't partnered.

[@KokowaSarunoKuniDesu]

I reckon 52p per KwH is the price match point for petrol, so I won't plug in to any charger that costs more than that. And, just as I carefully compare petrol prices per litre, I also carefully compare electricity prices per KwH. 79p per KwH is just gouging, full stop. I'm not especially concerned about the rate of charging, because none of my trips are organized to do, like, 400 miles in a limited amount of time. As to availability and ease of charging: well within the radius that you seem to operate, I couldn't possibly find the ubiquity within a 100 kilometre range of York that you seem able to find in the South East. So most of my charging is done at home, at 7KwH overnight, at 8.5p per KwH.

[@cannygrowabeard]

I had issues just this week using a Shell Rapid. Handshake fine, but the unit (ABB) Rebooted twice, got a total of 4kWh in a about 40 mins. And the audacity to charge 89p per kWh. Spot the oil company trying to make EVs unattractive.

[@MrSammotube]

I only got my first EV in September 2024, so do not have the historical view. So far, I have charged at home, at destination, at the supermarket and twice at a service station on the motorway - in all cases there were no issues to speak of. At the service stations, there was one out of order charger, but several free. My experience of ultra rapid chargers is that the charging is a bit too quick if you are stopping for food (and I am only 100kWh). You can be clever and limit the charging speed in the car's settings if you want to stay longer and not hit the limit.

[@iforpowell7390]

57 rapid chares last year just one total failure but at 5% was not fun and had to AC charge to get to something else. 3 or 4 stopes and restarts or try twice to start. Mostley Tesla OTA as I am price sensative. That's about 1/3 of my chareing with electric camper van.

[@taktileinnovation9415]

Green electricity costs next to zero to produce and similarly incurs almost zero shipping costs unlike petrol/diesel that needs to be extracted, refined, shipped in tankers etc. To find yourself paying more per mile in an EV over your ICE counterpart is absurd. I suspect a number of factors at play here. CPOs expecting to break even on the investment too quickly, high cost of installation (£1000 per metre for fibre optic in city centres is not uncommon so I think mains LX would be similar). There are also way leaves , ground rents and probably a whole pyramid of other parties who take a cut for you to stand up a charger in their car park. An EV only made economic sense to me due the favourable BIK taxation for a company car and charging at home.

[@spiritualdeath101]

Thanks for the real world feedback. At least you are honest which is unusual in EV people on youtube - especially where depreciation is concerned. If it wasn't for ludicrous depreciation I would have bought an EV.

[@MrEV]

That’s one of the reasons both our EVs were bought second hand. I’d not buy a new car any time soon - even if I could afford it. We were extremely lucky with the IONIQ 5, selling it at a profit just before the market dropped.

[@spiritualdeath101]

@@MrEV my neighbour had a nice brand new Ioniq 6 but he got rid of it because of the huge depreciation. shame - nice looking car.

[@Mister-Gee-9999]

EV driver of a few years. Mostly charge at home. Long distance my preference is Tesla, Gridserve, MFG, Podpoint. I like to use Electroverse where possible. The way I look at it, 7p at home 80p (10x) away (Tesla cheapest) overall it's still cheaper / same as my thirsty diesel SUV. I'd like a longer real range EV that gave me 300 miles all year round between charges.

[@davidg9057]

imagine if ice cars had never been invented and they dangled the carrot of reliably filling up in a few minutes for a 500 mile range that's cheaper than any public ev charging - you'd snap their hands off. ev is nowhere near ready. I drive a Mercedes EQC EV through my employer (retail 73k value maybe 45k after one year)- to get to our clients sometimes I have to leave my home one hour earlier than anybody else just in case none of the chargers on the way are working - the 259 range I really 200 In there summer and 170 currently in January.it just doesn't work yet.

[@anton_grahn]

Imagine the EV/Charger landscape if Tesla had not been there showing the way and proving that low cost/reliability and user friendliness is possible, all the ICE people would basically be right

[@stephenbagwell8275]

There needs to be more AC chargers at a reasonable price to encourage the proper use of PHEVs after 2030

[@bill_heywood]

I was surprised to see the Foley Arms, Streetly in this video 😀 I used to leave not far from there