InstaVolt Charging | What You Need To Know

[@richardcorns8553]

I totally avoided instavolt, never use them due to rip off prices. For public charging, I only use Tesla or Osprey (using my Elli card at 41p kW). Mostly charge at home at 7.5p. Several years ago, chargers like these were always busying, at 30p I'd always use them just for a quick top up when out and about, like most people i suspect. Now, they are mostly quiet and used when desperate for a charge.

[@Donncada1]

I avoid using them on cost, I plan them out of my plans. That being said I have used them twice in the last year as they are the only rapid chargers in a destination area and a charge was required

[@John-FourteenSix]

Thanks for doing what you’re doing. Upside - If you really need a fast charge. Instavolt has been the most reliable of all (inc Tesla!) No failed charges to date. Downside - Eye watering expensive. Failed Card payments are my biggest gripe. This would never happen at a Petrol station. I fundamentally object to apps for everything, but that’s just me.

[@rogerphelps9939]

I also object to apps and accounts. Contactless is no longer rocket science, it should always work. Prices have to be sorted out; it should never be more than 50p perkwh.

[@mickinmerton8053]

Thanks Dave another useful video. I'm not sure about 'most EVs can charge at over 100kW' really? Maybe many new EVs can charge at 100kW plus but there must be a very large number of older EVs that can't. Additionally, half an hour at 50kW, assuming 4 miles/kWh would result in 100 miles added, surely that is useful to many drivers.

[@Popdog76]

Agreed most cars (not Tesla) charge at between 70 to 150. 120 is perfect to charge for these.

[@davetakesiton]

Yes and no. Tesla outsell almost all the others put together and they charge at least 175kW plus some BMW Mercedes and the like hit over 150kW but many don’t, quite agree

[@paulcopestake7481]

For me i only do 4 or 5 trips needing to charge from home a year. Every instavolt i have tried to use has worked. BP and osprey and gridserve and tesla have not on my MG5. SO im willing to paythe extra for the few times a year i need it.

[@johndoyle4723]

Yes expensive,but they usually work well. Price is third place essential for me, I prioritize reliability then availability in first and second.

[@Jaw0lf]

I have usually had success in getting a charger ressurected, but BP Pulse was a problem as it was running so slowly and it wouldn't let me restart a charge as it said the charger was busy, even though my EV was disconnected. It would be amazing if the chargers that were broken indicated this in the app. Maybe they should be forced to drop to free if payment systems fail, this would soon make them fix problems quickly!

[@davetakesiton]

Brilliant idea. If it breaks down make it law that when it is fixed and working it must remain free for the same length of time it was not working. Love it

[@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270]

We live in France and came to the UK a few weeks ago. Rolled off the ferry in Portsmouth heading for Buckingham, a routine we do every year. We stop at Tothill services near Newbury where a row of Shell Recharge units weren't working last year and still were not working a few weeks back. We knew we could get to Buckingham with the charge we had onboard but stopped at McDonald's for a cup of tea and to get on the internet. They have the same set up as Dave shows here, two Instavolt chargers. We had real problems getting one to work, didn't like our French bank card and downloading the App didn't add anything to the process. Eventually got it to work but the price as Dave says is outrageous. Then again, electricity prices in the UK are much higher than in France. It took at least 2 minutes for the car to disconnect from the charger, everything took too long and thankfully it wasn't raining. To be avoided!

[@metube9541]

A friend of mine has just completed a round trip to Switzerland via a short stay in Paris. He was amazed how good the infrastructure is in France and the cost was reasonable, I think around 50 cents. He had no range anxiety and that was in. bMW i3 which doesn’t have the biggest range. Got back to the UK and found chargers not working or crazy prices. There needs to be a reasonable capped price but obviously the government wants as higher prices as possible.

[@davetakesiton]

Thanks for your experience but sad it was not positive. We need to do better

[@fenegroni]

Recently visited North Wales. Instavolt was the fastest and most realiable of all chargers in the region. A pair of 160kW chargers, it was sufficiently fast for me, at 5% charge remaining and at 85p per kWh I charged for 25 minutes, enough time to have a coffee and enough charge (added 32kWh to ~70%) to take me to a cheaper charger on way back to London. Being the only reliable charger in the area, a queue quickly formed for the two chargers, luckily they only had to wait 15 minutes.

[@Joe-lb8qn]

As an aside, not sure where else to post this but it is charging related, I went through Leigh Delamere(M4) yesterday in both directions. I was not stopping to charge, but i did have a quick look. Westbound, at a glance, the newish ?6? double headed Gridserve were full or close to it, plus the original 2 ecotricity units had one car using it, while the ?16? Tesla SC's were all empty , but also only available for Tesla (I checked on the Tesla app) . Looks like Tesla were losing out on some revenue there. Eastbound, all thats there is the original 2 ecotricity units which IMO is very poor.

[@davetakesiton]

Fast changing world go back in a month and it could be quite different

[@edenviews]

Yes, we got some new ones on the Carlisle area, and tested them out, while in the shop nearby. Cost more than I intended, of course as I can charge at home by 3pin plug. I welcome their modernity, but price is a bit steep, yes.

[@DashyDino_is_back]

We have InstaVolt chargers in a local community centre . Six of them , 85p. This is a two minute walk from our house our Local car park 55p 22kw chargers . A local Lidl pod point 1 mile away 50 kw 65p Sainsbury 130 kw 75p I’m amazed InstaVolt are used to be honest !

[@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270]

Wow! You guys pay a lot to charge. Here in France the prices have come down a lot since Tesla got into the game. I pay €0.43 (£0.37) at Tesla when I can find one. Last year Ionity , Total and others were typically charging €0.79 (£0.68) but have since dropped their prices...Most are in the €0.50 to €0.65 range now.

[@sagalout]

There’s a Miller and Carter restaurant at Banbury which we used last year. When we had an iPace Instavolt was our go-to chargers as they always work, but now we have a Tesla and the charge price of Instavolt shooting up we never go anymore.

[@simonreeves2017]

Hi Dave, greetings from Oxford. I did very occasionally use the InstaVolt chargers at Frilford services near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. I don’t anymore because they know how to charge, not in kW, but in £! Absolute ripoff prices!

[@bernardcharlesworth9860]

Thanks

[@ohyesitsme]

Two expensive chargers well hidden by the DPD van, no wonder nobody is using them. When I made my first long distance journey just over a month ago I stopped at the Instavolt station at Banbury not realising that they were 85p/kwh. If I had known I would have gone up the road to Banbury Cross and used the Tesla chargers

[@davetakesiton]

Expensive lesson

[@davidthornton3346]

InstaVolt are relatively reliable and have never had an issue with getting them to work, but their price is honestly criminal now. The way they place their chargers, you will almost always find a cheaper alternative nearby. They've completely shot themselves in the foot with that price. Emergencies only for me to use them now. Their price has more than doubled in 2 years.

[@SteelCityRider]

Is the new reporting app you refer to the &Charge one? I've have it already and set it up, but I haven't yet had the need to use any pubic charging station so I can't tell you anything about it. I'd be interested to know if their clams of working with the public charging companies as as good as they make out.....hope so, as I'm all for the power of user communities!

[@metube9541]

Almost 2 years of driving an EV and have only used public chargers a handful of times. The cost is generally way too high and only used ionity chargers due to free subscription with car. 85p is ridiculously high which is why these are normally not being used. I pay 15p at home on Economy 7 tariff so there’s no reason why public chargers have to be so high, it’s all the same electricity.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

Before the stupid war in Ukraine I was paying 12p standard rate ! The price of energy is a disgrace.

[@prjackson7802]

Great video

[@garyhill9723]

Very expensive, equates to around £2.42 per litre for my old MX5. Glad I could add a few kWh from my mixed solar/grid at around 10p per kWh today in November.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

In the future when most EV's will travel 400 miles+ almost all chargers will be low use. How often do people travel 400 miles in a day ? Well for me and I was a salesman 300 was along way. Most meetings were less than 80 miles away. After that I used a train so I could read and sleep on the way back if needed.

[@garyhill9723]

@@TheSmallRabbit my MG4 will do around 250 miles on a charge (summer), which more than covers my longest day (round) trip so I have little need for public charging. Most of my ‘fuel’ has come from solar panels in the summer so even with normal capped rate home electricity it averages out pretty cheap to run. Even extended trips away don’t work out that bad, 1100+ miles in September on holiday I spent a total of around £71 on mostly public charging so it still less than half the cost of petrol and I didn’t queue once.

[@24393813]

Instavolt were my goto chargers, now i use them as a very very last resort. As long as they are ripping us off they can go and do one. I now use tesla chargers that make much more sense.

[@harrycummings6501]

As someone who is on the edge of changing to an EV these videos just fill me with dread……..and stop me from going electric

[@ianhayward3060]

Just get a Tesla then. 2 years in and it's been a breeze!

[@TheSmallRabbit]

I hear the new Tesla model 2 is due to come out soon at a price that will kill off most competition. Also you will see 250 miles as the minimum range on any EV. I guess 600 miles will be the norm in less than 5 years@@ianhayward3060

[@TheSmallRabbit]

As most say. Only used in emergency which is not a good business model. I charge at home for 26p as I don't charge more than once a week now retired. No more sales rep journeys for me. p.s Maybe this is a good business plan for emergency use as they are always free :-)

[@gillscorner794]

Used one at macdonalds in wincanton and the touch screen had a platsic cover that made it completely unresponsive - couldnt stop charging without thumping the screen!

[@davetakesiton]

Be careful you don’t break it by hitting too hard

[@rogerphelps9939]

Plenty of other chargers in Wincanton. Being on the A303 it has around 10 rapids, whereas somewhere like Yeovil, which is much bigger is way behind. The nearest alternatives to McDonalds are the wagtail just around the corner and Morrissons.

[@rcurtis7583]

I've sacked Instavolt off since they upped the price a few months ago. Ones locally around here are getting used less and less since the price hike.

[@andrewnicholson9857]

I had to use the Instavolt chargers in Banbury which you mentioned. As I am an Octopus Intelligent Go customer I got charging at 78p per kWh. Still hideously expensive compared to the nearby Tesla chargers which I wanted to use but the retail park they were in had a huge queue to get in. Although my Kia EV6 can charge at over 200 kWh I was only getting around 120kwh from a 160 kWh charger.The car had pre conditioned the battery so it was at the right temperature but I still had wait around 20 minutes to get a decent amount of charge. On my road trip I used Gridserve a few times and found the availability of chargers was way off what my Kia head unit said. When I was at Wetherby it said only 2 ultra fast chargers were in use when in fact 8 were being used. The other Gridserve chargers I used were similarly inaccurate on my Kia. Have you had similar experiences on your travels?

[@rogerphelps9939]

Get your units straight. Kw is the charging power. kwh is a unit of energy, power times time.

[@DavidPlayfair]

Rather worried by your comment about Chademo chargers being phased out Dave! Still plenty of us Leaf drivers out here.

[@davetakesiton]

Yes but don’t blame the networks. Why is Nissan still installing Chademo sockets against EU regulations 6 years later and why don’t they make an adapter

[@DavidPlayfair]

An adapter would be great. Why Nissan hasn't produced one is a very good question. Is it even possible? Dala is looking into an adapter made by a third party, although, so far, it doesn't actually work! I can't help thinking that if anyone could produce one, and sell it for a reasonable price, they'd become very wealthy indeed. Without it, Nissan Leafs could become simply 'shopping cars' that could only be charged at home! A sad thought. @@davetakesiton

[@TheSmallRabbit]

Reminds me of VHS vs BETA vs V2000 oh the 80's how nice @@DavidPlayfair

[@paulscott1759]

Where are the Burnley ones situated Dave I am visiting my daughter soon in Hapton it w8ll save me getting my granny charger out in bad weather cheers for the input

[@davetakesiton]

Briercliffe shopping centre, it’s a double installation but tucked away I missed it first time in the small car park

[@paulscott1759]

@@davetakesiton thanks for the information much appreciated

[@raymondlodge260]

They need to sort the chargers out, no app's just pay with your card. I would love a EV, but you got to admit there's still a lot of hassle. Maybe In a few years when it's sorted, I'll buy an ev.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

Most of us never use a public charger. I sure don't and my EV is only 160 miles range. Suits me because I never travel 160 miles anymore that frequently. Plus we have 2 cars. For the times that I would travel over 150 there's plenty of choice of good chargers available and not all of them have problems. I would hunt out a Tesla site as there's a lot to choose from now.

[@Yorkie-UK]

They have the coverage and they have been there when I need a charge and nothing is remotely near but they never supply the advertised speed and they are grossly overpriced. I would use them a lot more if they were more reasonably priced. They do force me to look for better priced chargers when I go or work somewhere new.

[@decimal1815]

Nissan are still selling lots of brand new Leaf 39 and 59. Hundreds of used Leafs still being sold too at dealerships. CHAdeMO phase out seems premature.. and this is the problem when charging is left entirely to the private sector: they end up catering for the most profitable options rather than the needs of the country.

[@davetakesiton]

Just like mobile phones? One plug please

[@decimal1815]

@@davetakesiton you're a hard man Dave. Lots of people out there with cars that will be of limited value without Chademo charging for a few years yet.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

There's a marketing opportunity for an adapter !! @@decimal1815

[@rogerphelps9939]

That has been sorted. The mandated standard is CCS and contactless payment must be an option.@@davetakesiton

[@rogerphelps9939]

There will be an adapter.@@decimal1815

[@casperhansen826]

On my last vacation I was charging at some Superchargers and they were almost too fast since I had to go out to move my car after my family ordered some food

[@TheSmallRabbit]

Yep that's going to be a problem in the future with say 15mins charging. You pop in for a coffee and get stung for over stay fee's :-) Just get an i3

[@jeffcartwright7270]

DPD driver - "How is my driving". Crap mate - you are parked on the curb 🤣.

[@Fearnstein]

50kW charger at Bannetyne Health club Solihull, rip of charge rate at 85p kW hr.

[@ogriboy]

To be fair many fossil fuel garages have no facilities either. Never had an issue with a coffee break on a 50kw charger in terms of rate of charge to stay time. Most chargers require more than £5.00 in the account if using the app or if you have signed up they just deduct from your payment method via the app.

[@martinmacnish2945]

Hi Dave my 12month old I-Pace can only charge at 100kW MAX so those chargers would be fine even if the price is not.

[@davetakesiton]

Yes I agree but most networks are installing for the future EVs not last generation’s. That didn’t work out for Eco Tricity

[@fredgray2376]

I normally avoid Instavolt because of the narrow bays.

[@mandismith89]

mind blowing that not only have people paid alot more for an ev than the ice equivalent, but they are also paying double for the mileage

[@garyhill9723]

Truly mind blowing is that people think we only use expensive chargers. Most EV drivers charge at home, off peak electricity equates to petrol at 20p a litre, even price capped is around 70p a litre equivalent. My 600+ miles in August cost me a total of £1.80 the rest came from solar. We might gripe about paying 10x the price of home vs Instavolt (I don’t doubt you’d complain at £14 a litre for petrol) but a lot of people never use expensive rapid charging and others accept that the odd £10 top up of expensive electric to get us home is a small price to pay compared to the advantages.

[@mandismith89]

@@garyhill9723 if you educate yourself properly then you could could truly blow your mind and know that only 40% of ev owners can charge at home and also you cant take your house with you....boom

[@Paul-cj1wb]

@@mandismith89 And how many have a gas station at home? Does anyone know?

[@garyhill9723]

@@mandismith89 I think a recent RAC survey said 80% of EV owners said they mostly charged at home and I’m sure that if there was an issue out of 40% of around 750,000 EVs on the road there would be an awful lot of houses going boom, not mention the remaining 60% going boom whilst on rapid chargers delivering 140 kW down a cable. Last year in Sweden for every 100,000 ice cars they dealt with 0.8 fires, for EVs it was 0.04 per 100,000, the US reported similar figures. I suggest you get your education from somewhere other than the Daily Fail.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

If you buy a modern EV with say 250 miles range most people never need to charge away from home. How often would you fill up your petrol car and would you fill it full at each fill up. I used to put half a tank to save on carrying heavy fuel around if I was doing short daily journeys. Any EV will do 80 miles a day and then you just fill up at home like charging your phone when your asleep. 250 miles is very good and useful in fact my little BMW i3 has 160-180 miles of range and I have never yet used a public charger as my usage is less than its range each day. Its a mindset thing you don't need a full car every day. p.s Edit.. If you do not have home charging don't buy an EV it makes no sense at the moment.

[@iantaylor1172]

Oh, had the dpd transit broke down. Sick of the sight of them.

[@davidsworld5837]

that DPD driver is good at parking on the curb. heheheh. You would always find the cheapest charger at what speed you need.

[@bshah4831]

Discount with Electroverse card if you are an Octopus customer.

[@Joeb4iley]

The faulty charger reporting needs to be made much easier. You shouldn't have to dig through a website are app to report it. A simple report faulty charger button on the front page woild make it easier. If we all startd reporting faulty chargers when we found them the cpo could get to repairing them faster.

[@davetakesiton]

I would like the button, great idea. Not sure if they will be motivated to fix them

[@robertpemberton8562]

Hi Dave, totally agree InstaVolt a complete rip-off. But strangely enough there is a McDonald’s in Gorton in Manchester, which has two InstaVolt chargers just like the ones on this video . I called in to the McDonald’s last night on my way back from work and noticed a brand-new IONITY charging hub ,I think there is six double chargers, so 12 charging bays. It’s the biggest non-Tesla hub South Manchester . I like ionity because you get a discount through Octopus Energy bring the price down to 66p and on Tesla. I was over at the Etihad Stadium tonight and they’re building a new Tesla showroom and I only quickly saw brand-new v4 charges has been installed. Do you not know how many ? will check it out?

[@davetakesiton]

Yes competition will kill off the dearest chargers. I spoke to the engineers doing the electric and they said 12 but I wouldn’t swear by that till I hear from Tesla or see the bays tarmaced and painted up

[@robertpemberton8562]

Hopefully there will be 12 and open to non-Tesla drivers. I’m over in that part of Manchester quite regular and there’s very few public charges so it would come in very handy.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

Yes and you could then avoid Gorton :-) @@robertpemberton8562

[@TheAlien1974]

The only time I used one I got 30kw at 85p per

[@petej502]

My local McDonald’s has InstaVolt advertised as 125kw. Never managed to get more than 60kw out of them. All the zap map comments say the same.

[@tonyjesshope6861]

Maybe you should comment on the price Instavolt charges!

[@G6EJD]

They clearly don’t have any competition to drive their prices down at certain locations, and neither do they care about their pricing structures, it’s an odd business model. I haven’t checked their company health as maybe that will give an indication - Companies House will reveal all and it’s all in the public domain.

[@djtaylorutube]

What you need to know... Take your own Vaseline.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

I now know why it was so hard to get the charger working. I could net get it in :-) Maybe they wanted me to shove it somewhere else.

[@richardblayney5898]

Sorry but even on a 50kw charger you will get a decent charge in the time it takes to have something to eat. Most people dont want and certainly dont need to charge to full every time they stop somewhere….and you certainly don’t need to encourage people to leave their car at a rapid for an hour or more while you go off shopping, that’s the function of destination/AC chargers ….

[@stevebeever2442]

People that can't charge at home do want to charge to full when they stop

[@oneeyedgirl617]

Absolutely. I assume that most “destinations,” supermarkets, gyms, cinemas, fast food outlets, etc, will be fairly local to most people that use them. If they are using ultra rapids you have barely sat down and you are going to have to get up and move it, which will be bloody annoying. Not to mention, at 85p per kWh, who is going to use them? My local Sainsbury’s have ripped out the free 7kwh Podpoints , and installed 250kwh ultras. Pointless. Tesco’s are better, with 7kwh podpoints at 44p per kWh, as well as faster chargers.

[@oneeyedgirl617]

@@stevebeever2442 stick to ICE if you are relying on 85p kWh chargers for all your charging.

[@stevebeever2442]

@@oneeyedgirl617 I will be thanks

[@richardblayney5898]

@@stevebeever2442 then find a destination charger or a much cheaper rapid charger.

[@clivethomas6864]

Hopefully istavolt will go out of business soon. Same with Shell and BP.

[@metube9541]

Hopefully not Shell, my shares are doing well!

[@davetakesiton]

No I don’t wish for that. I would prefer they drop their prices to Tesla and remain open and used

[@TheSmallRabbit]

Why not use the Jewish shop mentality sell a lot cheap rather than 1 item with crazy prices. Volume. What was that show called back int he day 'Never Mind the Quality feel with Width' :-)

[@keithware5314]

I avoid Instavolt at this price.

[@TheSmallRabbit]

As most say emergency only and that applies to Shell as well.

[@rogerphelps9939]

I have used Instavolt a few times and have never had a failure. All public chargers are a ripoff.

[@thelifeofbatteries2603]

I can use these for 53p thanks to my charging contract, however i still avoid them on principle. Price gouging companies deserve to go bankrupt

[@colin7898]

Instavolt chargers don’t ever achieve anywhere near the advertised rate. No one is using them because of the 85p per KWh. Ridiculous cost given wholesale prices have dropped and Instavolt put their prices up. On the plus side, always available 😂 McDonald’s charger locations consider from ICE’ing. Doesn’t that Green box house the massive Diesel Generator that every rapid charger in the UK?😂

[@rogerphelps9939]

No.

[@GEORGEHUNTER-SMITH]

McDonald’s is hardly a meal.

[@lharris828]

Hyundai? N o it delivers max 75%

[@stevebeever2442]

So basically everything the mac master gets slated for as dramatizing clickbait turns out he's correct. Not all roses and sunshine when public charging

[@mrpink8554]

Who's the Mac Master, if I may ask?

[@stevebeever2442]

@@mrpink8554 He's a guy on KZbin that has a taycan

[@devonbikefilms]

Macmaster the click baiter😂😂

[@oneeyedgirl617]

Mac master doesn’t get “slated” for saying public charging is expensive, or even that it is not good enough. Everyone knows that. It’s the drama queen nonsense that he gets slated for.

[@stevebeever2442]

@@oneeyedgirl617 What by actually showing the trouble he encounters instead of seeing thing's through rose tinted glasses

[@sirbum1918]

EV charging has turned into the wild wild west and you are better off choosing an ICE car if you drive a lot. If you can live with charging at home then a little EV is great.

[@Harrythehun]

What do you mean? We have options nowadays at least. If a CPO has high prices, just go to the cheapest if you don’t want to pay for their services.

[@sirbum1918]

@@Harrythehun If you watch videos on long distance travel with EV's you will see that the cost often is higher than for ICE cars and sometime a lot higher! It's really only if you can charge at home the cost is lower. And then we have the travel time that is always higher if you need to charge. If you like to plan and get the right deals with the right companies on your routes then go for it, but most of us just want to get from A to B with as little hassle and cost as possible.

[@Harrythehun]

@@sirbum1918 I have road tripped through Europe several times with my Teslas. The cost is lower than a petrol car. But the biggest savings are in my daily and weekend trips. I travel over 50000 km each year and 85 % is home charging with a cost averaging of 0,15 euros per kilowatt including taxes and grid costs

[@davetakesiton]

Disagree. I can charge at home and a big EV is great

[@sirbum1918]

@@davetakesiton You go buy a Cybertruck and charge it at home and see what happens. Unless you have a really fast charger and no neighbors that use EV's you might get away with it but most will have to charge the darn thing for up to 36 hours.

[@rayd332]

Thanks

[@davetakesiton]

Thank you, your contribution is most welcome