Charging on public chargers

[Jerrymjj]

I've just returned from a trip to the French Alps and back in my 2021 Kia e-nero 150KW. (At least that's what I think it is...) I thought I might share some thoughts on that journey and report what we found en route.

Clearly the charging infrastructure has a long way to go to make routine long journeys viable. In the best case scenarios we found Shell Fast chargers that delivered 75KW and charged us to 80% in a matter of 20 minutes or so. Worst case was finding "dead" zones with no chargers for long periods on the motorways resulting in us having to come off and use very slow public chargers. It really is hit and miss as to what payment cards or apps that the chargers accept. The most commonly successful was an "Electroverse" card provided by Octupus Energy, our energy provider which worked in most cases. Hardly ever did debit or credit cards work which one would have thought would have been the most commonly accepted.

Range anxiety used to set in at about 100Km and we'd be tense, coming off a few times at motorway services to find unsigned chargers but then discovering that they didn't work. They seem to have installed them then forgotten about them. Very occasionally we'd find a bank of chargers that all appeared to be working. No competition for spaces yet thank goodness. There is clearly a massive amount of investment going into installing them but if they are not maintained, very little point.

Happy to answer any specific questions.