23rd November: Midsomer No Go

Since I had my domestic charging unit fitted I've been using that rather than charging publicly.  So far, I haven't had the best of experiences with trying to use public charging points and I worry whether the EV infrastructure in the Bristol area is up to supporting EV drivers.  However, I've decided that I need to do something to fix that if it's not, rather than being passive and just charging at home. Besides, if I need to undertake longer journeys (which I will because my family all live over 100 miles away) then I'll have to get used to relying upon public charging points.  Public charging is one of the main aspects of driving an EV after all.

Today I had to join a friend and head down to Bognor Regis, so I decided to find EV a charging point near their home that I could leave EV parked up in, while I continued my journey with them.  I found a POD Point charging unit at South Wansdyke Leisure Centre which was 45 mins drive and 22 miles away from my home.  I'll be honest, I wasn't overly confident, so I made sure that my Zoe was fully charged before I went, meaning that I'd have enough battery to get back should it not work.

I arrived at the leisure centre, found the sparky parking bays easily, all looked promising.  I attached my cable, tried to activate the unit with my card, and... nothing.  I couldn't get the unit to recognise a card was being presented to it.  I tried both my POD Point and sourceWEST cards, to no avail.  No free public charging for me today.  I left Zoe parked there thirsty, while I continued my journey in my friend's ICE car.

When I arrived back to my car, it was dark, late and very cold.  It took me a while to defrost the car.  The climate control still isn't working, so it was a long, cold 22 miles back home.  I'll have to find time to take off work in order to get the climate control fixed. Not such a great day for EV driving today.

EV parked up and ready to accept a charge

This is the only thing that this point wanted to say today