Day 2: The Bath Debacle

Rather ambitious perhaps, but my second day of owning EV and I was due at the University of Bath for a conference - 16 miles away from my home; I had also had my usual school run trips to complete, which accounts for between 12 and 18 miles.  After the problems charging at Ikea through Ecotricity the night before, my battery was down to 60 miles.  It's not easy for me to trickle charge at my house over night because I do not have an outside socket.  So, I took the decision to wait and charge at the University of Bath while I attended my conference.  That way, I'd have a full battery for the way home and wouldn't need to charge again until the following day.

The Sat-Nav on EV didn't take me to University of Bath from the postcode given on their website.  It took me nearby, but I did waste a couple of miles attempting to find the campus.  Once on campus I'd read that the EV charging points were in the East car park.  I dutifully followed the signs around the campus to the East car park.  There are signs for disabled spaces and coach parking, but none that direct you to the EV charging points.  At this point I should add I was getting a little stressed for a few reasons:

• The conference started at 10.30 and because I hadn't been able to find the campus I was running late.
• The EV charging bays at the University of Bath are only reserved  for EVs until 10.30, after which point they are open for any vehicle to use. 
• I was down to 25 miles on my battery and knew that I'd need a charge to get home without worrying.

With the clock ticking towards the magic 10.30 cut off, I stopped driving around the (large) East car park, found an attendant and managed to get directions to the EV charging bays.  As I arrived at a space the time was 10.28 and there were no fewer that 6 cars waiting to jump into the unused EV bays.  I pushed in front, parked in the correct space and half let out a breath of relief. 

The EV charging points at the University of Bath are run by PodPoint - currently free to charge as long as you register for a swipe card, although I fear that the free charging days are severely limited.  There were two other EVs charging at the University of Bath that day (5th November 2014).  I was confident that it would all be plain sailing from there on in.  

Late for my conference, I got my lead out of the car, went to the POD Point and tried to swipe my card.  The display screen on the charging point said 'initialising'.  I waited, it still said 'initialising'.  I waited some more.  The clock was ticking, I had already missed registration for my conference and the Keynote was about to start. I checked the next POD Point along: 'initialising'.  Bugger, I could feel the tension rising again. I checked the POD Point that was charging the other two vehicles: 'charging has been temporarily suspended'.  So, for the second time in two days and in as many attempts at a public charge, the points were out of order and I was unable to charge my EV.  

By this time I decided to cut my losses and attempt to charge my car at Bath Spa University (BSU), which is a few miles away.  I am a member of staff here and although I haven't seen anyone charging their car, I knew where the charger was, that it was a POD Point charger and that I had until 11am before the spaces were, once again, opened up to non-EVs.  

I made it to BSU just in time for the 11am cut off.  I swiped my card, plugged EV in and waited. EV started to calculate time remaining - a promising sign.  I waited to hear the charge start and to see a charge time on EV's screen.  Nothing.  Went back to the charge point screen, at this point I noticed that the LEDs running down the side of the charging unit had changed from blue to red. My heart sank. The screen on the unit had come up with an error message asking me to call POD Point.  My battery was now down to 20 miles. 

The man on the phone at POD Point was helpful, he called me back so that I didn't have to pay the 0845 charges from my phone.  He tried to access the point remotely but could find no errors with the point.  Eventually it was decided that he'd need to contact the maintenance team at BSU and ask them to reboot the point in an attempt to help me.  He promised me a call back.  After about 10 minutes I had a call from site the maintenance manager at BSU, he and a member of his team came down to the charging point and attempted to reboot the machine, to no avail.  The maintenance manager was lovely and did everything he could to try and get the charging point working.  But, after half an hour, it was decided that while they tried to converse with POD Point, that I should plug my car in at their Security Lodge and trickle-charge to give me enough battery power to get home.  He promised to keep me up-to-date with the charging point and when it was repaired.

Not a good start to my EV public charging: 3 units tried, 3 units unable to charge the car.

I knew that I'd need my car fully charged for the next day so I called Ecotricity to ask if there was an ongoing problem with the Ikea charging point to save me attempting to trickle-charge at home overnight.  Ecotricity promised me that it was just unfortunate that I'd tried to charge at that time: they'd had a freak hour of downtime that had knocked out all of their units and their phones.  They reassured me that if I tried again, the unit would be up and running.

I got to Ikea, now wise to both the location and the manoeuvres needed to get into space, swiped my Ecotricity card, plugged in, and... success!!! Finally, after a day of running around, a missed conference, and the 4th attempt at public charging, EV was hooked up and charging away happily.  Thank you Ikea and thank you Ecotricity.

Still, the odds don't look promising 4 attempts at a public charge, 1 successful.

 Session in progress, a happy sign!

EV drinking up the juice at Ikea Bristol

Day One - Government Subsidies and initial Teething Problems

Government Subsidies

The ideas behind EV ownership are, as far as I could establish, fairly sound.  The government want to cut carbon emissions, motoring is the main culprit for these, electric vehicles are an up-and-coming technology and the global world is investing in this technology.  Although EVs range significantly, both in price and in battery range, there are appealing government subsidies to benefit from at whichever level you engage with:  

• Firstly, the government will give you a grant which counts towards the cost of your new EV.  This can be used against new EVs only, but does help to make a dent in the cost.  
• Secondly, the government will provide a grant for you to have a Domestic Electric Charging Point installed at your home.  
• Finally, should you be unable to charge your car on your own property, you can apply to your local council for them to install a public charging point near your home. 
• A small note, I am in England and I understand that there are slight differences for Wales, NI and Scotland.  However, as far as I understand, the grants available are similar and there are perhaps more options in other parts of the UK. 

In my case, I work between different sites and, while one of my regular sites has an EV charging point, the others do not and I will need to charge my car at home most of the time.  I have applied for a Domestic Charging Point to be installed at my home, but this won't be until 20th/21st November.  Until then, I will have to rely upon either public charging points or a trickle charge.  For those who do not know: trickle charging is when you use a standard 3 pin plug to charge your car, it has the benefit of being able to charge anywhere there is a plug.  The draw back is that it takes about 13-14 hours for a full charge. 

New Car, New Excitement, First Attempted Charge

Having collected EV from Renault with 85% battery charge, and picked the kids up from school, the three of us decided upon the obligatory 'new car' test drive, which in this case also included our first attempt at using a public battery charging point.

The nearest rapid charge point to me is Ikea Bristol, which is an Ecotricity charging point.  We were prepared and took the smooth, quiet and almost ethereal drive to Ikea armed with our Ecotricity card ready for charging.  

The kids loved playing with the gadgets on the Zoe, we now have three different profiles, a list of favourite places in the Tom-Tom, a purple car directing us... the list goes on. My eldest, in particular, is a bit of a techie enthusiast (gets it from his Grandad) and the thought of plugging in a giant Scalextric car to charge up was very appealing. 

It took us a while to locate the EV car charging spaces because they are not signposted and once located the space for a type 2 charger took a little bit of manoeuvring into; there is a pillar on one side and metal posts protecting the charging unit on the other, which means that you have to go against the direction of the traffic in order to be able to drive your car into the space.  Despite these little inconveniences we remained positive, bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready to charge. 

This charging unit has a lead attached to it. My son was poised in anticipation of being able to plug the EV in and watch as the dashboard changed. I swiped my card against the charging point... 'unable to read card'. Hmmmm ok, it's fine we'll call the number on the point and speak to Ecotricity.  No answer.  Went into Ikea for a drink.  Came back, tried again: 'unable to read card'.  Tried calling Ecotricity again, no answer.  That was when littleun noticed the icons in the top right of the screen of the charging unit.  

The unit didn't appear to be online. With no answer at Ecotricity HQ and no interest by the scarce Ikea staff, we returned home, battery down and more than a little despondent. Hopefully tomorrow's experiences will be better. 

Evie (EV) is Born

I'm imagining that Tuesday 4th November 2014 will be a day that I will be telling my grandchildren (should I have any) about for many years to come: today is the day that I bought my first Electric car.

Having grown up in a house where my Dad succumbed to the enchanting promises of developing technology - yes, we were one of the only households that actually owned a Betamax Recorder - I'm hoping that my investment in EV technology will promise to be a little more fruitful, and dependable, than the many emerging (and often failing) technological advances of the 1980s.

Here is my EV:
A Renault Zoe (Zen) 

I'll go into the reasons for choosing both an EV and this EV in another post.  But, just to clarify, I am no expert in cars, electric vehicles, or environmental issues.  I have conducted some (sofa-based) research into electric vehicles, charging points etc. but this is limited to information that I could garner as Ordinary Jo(anne)  - mainly courtesy of the lovely (and impartial ?!) Google.   

I've created this blog to record my experiences from day 1 of ownership, in the hope that it might be useful to others who may also be considering getting an EV. I hope you enjoy!