Cold Weather Electric Car Charging Test at Sainsbury’s Smartcharge, UK’s Newest EV Charge Network.

In this video I test the UK's newest charging network, Sainsbury's Smartcharge. Coming to 100 stores this year, the network allows 150kW charging on 400V cars and 300kW on 800V cars. There is no membership, apps or special cards needed. It can be seen that even on a cold day. A quick weekly shop will be enough time to recharge the battery.

[@barriewilliams4526]

Between 0 and 1 degree, "very cold" 😂 You can tell you're a Southerner🙄 Up north here lad it's "very cold", like 11 degrees below, and my son's stupid battery powered works van is now telling him that the normal range of around 170 miles has now dropped to 140 miles, that is providing he dresses up like an Eskimo, and does not use the heater. Battery powered vehicles are the future, my arse🙃

[@theweekthatis]

Sorry, I’ll drive north to make the next video. My apologies.

[@budbud2509]

@@theweekthatis U say u did not pre condition the battery Surely u drove to Sainsbury, would that not have warmed it up and pre conditioned it ?

[@theweekthatis]

@@budbud2509 No, driving doesn’t generally warm the battery up much, if at all. It’s heated by a heater, which on this car will have started heating the battery as soon as I plugged it in.

[@stevecade857]

It's a van. Can't he pop a petrol generator in the back and turn it into a self charging hybrid.

[@decimal1815]

When I were a lad int olden days cars were run by pure 'orse dung from t'dales. Not that southerners knew owt abat it.

[@colin7898]

So that’s no queue, no where near 2 hours to charge, no issues starting the charge, no issues ending the charge AND you had the nerve to go and do the weekly shop whilst filling the car up! Thank goodness for this video, I thought I was the only one with a similar experience in my 30,000 mile per year electric van who has suffered like you have.

[@theweekthatis]

It’s really upsetting. I was promised so many problems!

[@djtaylorutube]

Yeah but... He wasn't towing the obligatory caravan, just before needing to go from John O'Groats to Land's End for the daily commute! 😉😮

[@theweekthatis]

@@djtaylorutube apparently it wasn’t cold enough.

[@stuartodell2828]

If this was the Mac master he would have nearly died in that temperature and also got lost on the way.

[@theweekthatis]

I’m still recovering from having to push the burning car home 😉

[@wayland7150]

I think you'll find that The Mac Master's journeys are a little more adventurous than popping to the shops. Frankly I can pop to Tesco's on a mobility scooter and not need to charge there.

[@theweekthatis]

@@wayland7150 I’ve done over 1,200 miles all over the UK on a road trip with my family in it. It’s been used for all sorts of varied journeys, not just ‘popping to the shops’. Which incidentally are a 20min journey in this particular case.

[@stuartodell2828]

@@wayland7150 to be fair the Mac master can make a disaster out of taking the rubbish bin out the bin man the block is a complete joke he’s doing it for clicks only and I’m sure the disaster rollercoaster will continue throughout 2024 as well.

[@decimal1815]

All hotels should have AC destination chargers in the car parks. Cars should also be able to exchange data with the charger to regulate charge speed to get the car to the target charge level by a programmable departure time. We're just at the beginning of the EV journey really. Still a long way to go.

[@davidjohnbarnard]

Very interesting Did I miss where this particular Sainsburys store is?

[@theweekthatis]

Westwood Cross, Isle of Thanet, Kent

[@harrycummings6501]

Looks very convenient, but at 75p per kW/hr it's still around twice as expensive as my current 2 year old soot blower.

[@djtaylorutube]

DPF failed already? 😅

[@theweekthatis]

I'll cover this in the next video. But I find it's around the same price if not slightly cheaper than my 207 GTI which this car replaced. But sadly 10 times more expensive than home charging overnight.

[@harrycummings6501]

Nah, as a dyed in the wool petrolhead, buying a diesel car (aka a soot blower) was as much of a shock to me as the change to an EV will be. I'm currently contemplating a BMW i4 eDrive40 to replace my two year old BMW 320d soot blower, but I don't see much of an advantage at the moment even though I can charge at home.@@djtaylorutube

[@theweekthatis]

Main advantage is you’ll not have to drive a Diesel 😉

[@decimal1815]

You really start to notice the stink of fossil cars after diving an EV for a while..

[@Sherukka]

Kempower charging stations for the win! 💪🏻

[@theweekthatis]

Best I've used yet, by a long way!

[@jakeroadtonowhere4070]

£60 reserve why did you do that They do not need to take £60 when it only cost is around about 30 to charge if that

[@theweekthatis]

Could conceivably spend £60, or perhaps more. I don’t like this, so much I made a video on it.

[@theweekthatis]

Paying for EV charging is WORSE than Petrol! kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2iaonaEmrh_qK8

[@jakeroadtonowhere4070]

@@theweekthatis I know I agree a lot of charger points are doing this. I saw one for 75 I don’t understand what’s going on because can you imagine if you go on holiday and you Did three or four chargers and one failed Could turn very expensive You also don’t get Your money back straight away. Some do some don’t specially, in my vauxhall Vivaro E barely get 70 miles in the winter. Ridiculous taking you back to the Nissan Leaf days I definitely won’t be getting another one when the lease is up

[@decimal1815]

​70 miles range? You can get a 200 mile EV now for £9k..

[@theweekthatis]

@@jakeroadtonowhere4070 well, the Sainsbury’s ones seem to refund you instantly. Extremely efficient.

[@stevecade857]

Public charging is getting more available and reliable but it's also getting more expensive. I'll charge at home thanks. Once I upgrade my solar and install some home batteries I'll be charging my car for free and have the energy companies pay me for the electricity they take back to the grid. Yes it's a big outlay now but energy prices won't be getting cheaper.

[@theweekthatis]

I almost totally agree. I think there will be oversupply of public chargers and next year there will be a price war.

[@stevecade857]

@@theweekthatis I hope so but as EV user are used to paying the inflated prices the companies will need some encouragement to reduce them. It's a bit like petrol prices rise during times of higher oil prices straight away but don't come down because of current stock. No incentive and the price will stay high.

[@christye6013]

very interesting, what site was that

[@theweekthatis]

Sainsbury's Westwood Cross, Thanet, Kent

[@vanmore5124]

It just not true that it never really gets below 0 degrees in the UK. It typically gets to -10 degrees celsius for at least a week each year in most of the UK in winter and in many places even colder and for longer. These very cold spells are normal.

[@theweekthatis]

HERE in the UK. This part of Kent. I’m not going to drive across the country to get slightly colder. My point was to show the new Sainsbury’s chargers in, for what is around here, about as cold as it ever gets.

[@stevebeever2442]

Not very cold

[@theweekthatis]

It’s not that cold no. But not really seen it colder in this area of the UK.

[@Stubchain]

What did it cost, no one ever wants to talk about how much EV cost to charge.

[@theweekthatis]

Good news for you then, I’m going to make a video about it!

[@SustainableGal]

Home charging that EV is about £3.20 over night on Intelligent Octopus tariff. This rapid charging session probably cost him about £20. Public charging is very expensive because of the gas price. However as we build more renewables the price will come back down, in fact it's already forecast to drop by the end of 2026 once another 30GW of offshore wind comes online! 😎

[@djtaylorutube]

​@@SustainableGalIt won't because all UK generated electricity is currently traded on the wholesale market at the gas price. Unless it's decoupled, don't expect to see it better than gas although yes, if had comes down electricity will go in lock step.

[@SustainableGal]

@@djtaylorutube we won't need gas soon, they'll be backup generators only. By 2030 only 8% of our annual production will have come from them old fossil fuels. Battery storage & renewables will make people far richer than oil & gas ever could, the Torrie Muppets just need to realise & invest in sustainable business

[@Slacker65AMG]

Can't you just tell us...?@@theweekthatis

[@regagrey3680]

I wonder who you EV guys are trying to convince, I have a sneaking suspicion it's yourselves.

[@theweekthatis]

Convince whom what? I was showing the very new charge network.

[@theweekthatis]

This time last year I had three Petrol cars, this time next year I’ll have two EVs. For the last year I’ve been doing A/B comparisons. Don’t really need to do much convincing.

[@wayland7150]

@@theweekthatis Why would you charge up at the shops? Surely better to charge at home for such a short journey. Therefore why would Sainsbury's continue to invest in these? Not for the benefit of the shoppers so they must be justifying it purely for the markup on the electricity. Or is it that people will come to charge but then end up doing shopping whilst they wait? Do you buy shopping hundreds of miles from home? I'm not seeing a valid business plan here.

[@QuickSplashVideo-rm2kh]

Looks deserted. Being retired, I'd still be in bed at that time.

[@theweekthatis]

Yes, ideal.

[@wayland7150]

Small electric car for nipping to the shops, perfect. However you don't need to go to the shops, they deliver.

[@theweekthatis]

I’ve had it exactly one year tomorrow and in that year I’ve done 19,000 miles. But yeah, ‘just popping to the shops’.

[@wayland7150]

@@theweekthatis The way you travel suits an EV. Well done.

[@theweekthatis]

Yes, on the road.

[@wayland7150]

@@theweekthatis Charging times is not a problem for you. Cost of charging is not a problem. Range is not a problem. Purchase price is not a problem. Depreciation is not a problem. If none of those points affect you then an EV is just as good as a petrol car. For many people all of those are a problem. You're welcome to your EV but the world government wants all cars sold from 2035 to be EVs. This is unacceptable.

[@strongtheme]

If we all went to sainsburys at whatever time this is, it would be a video of cursing and swearing etc. In normal conditions when there are other people about, can you imagine? we lose our shit when someone fills up in two minutes with petrol and then buys a bar of chocolate on their way to the till. Imagine leaving your charger and going shopping for 30 minutes. In a world with nobody waiting it will appear fine. Anyone who pays with their watch has already been bought by the system so the review will be biased anyway and no electric car is worth the death of a 5 year old miner in the congo! it would be nice to see a rush hour charging session.

[@theweekthatis]

No.

[@SustainableGal]

Enjoy getting left behind. Batteries use less and less cobalt with every revision, also LiFePo4 doesn't contain any cobalt at all, or nickel. So your catalytic converter heavy metals are actually worse for the environment alone than an entire LiFePo4 traction battery pack that can be easily recycled. Your not looking at the broader picture here either, your considering one Sainsbury's car park, most people charge at home once a week, commute 5 days, go shopping, all on one home charge. Our motorways are becoming covered in rapid charging infrastructure, it's not an issue, I've never cued for rapid charging, I've been driving at least 18k fully electric miles per year for past 2 years never had a single issue, your just getting left behind with them old Combustion engines, already a thing of the past, move on

[@neilmick6778]

"bought by the system" - tinfoil hat man

[@strongtheme]

@@SustainableGal Theyve already ceased production and got cold feet. all tried before, masif con but you keep listening

[@strongtheme]

@@neilmick6778 regardless of what we think or how we argue EVs are not the future for many reasons.