When Best Laid EV Charging Plans Go Awry

There's nothing quite like when you're trying to showcase the future of motoring to sceptical friends, only to have real life and technology remind you that we still have a way to go in some respects.

I spent a long weekend in the Cotswolds a few weeks ago with some lovely non-EV friends I have known for many years. Before we left for the weekend, one of my friends told me she saw EV charging as "just a bit of a faff."

At that point, I decided to ensure our charging experiences were as smooth as possible to prove this wasn't the case. I didn't even say anything when we turned up to one town, and I popped the car charge in a local authority car park while we were having lunch.

We had travelled up in two cars, as one friend and I lived pretty close together, but the other two lived much further away. I insured the friend I was travelling with so we could share the driving. She took to it like a duck to water, with some background information on regenerative braking and a bit of verbal support from me en route.

I only managed to get a small top-up while we were away, but it didn't bother me as I knew there was a big charging hub on the way back home.

We drove into the hub with 20 miles of range remaining, and my friend pointed to some laminated signs hanging from each charger. At that point, I realised the entire site was experiencing an outage, and it had been all day.

To make matters worse, this information had yet to be reflected on Zapmap or the Octopus Electroverse App, which are my go-to navigation apps, so I wasn't warned in advance. Of course, to make matters worse, I had a really poor phone signal, which hampered my ability to find alternative charging sites, so I had to call my husband for guidance on the nearest working charger.

Our backup plan took us to a 22kW AC charger in a residential area, which wasn't pinned correctly. Luckily, I was able to ask a local resident who knew where it was.

I only realised why the next problem had occurred when I spoke to another friend with a Hyundai Ioniq afterwards: our car could only accept approximately 7kW on AC charging, so there was no way we would be able to leave quickly. After a somewhat frustrating 30-minute, very slow charge, we finally had enough charge to get home safely with a 9-mile range left. I must admit, though, that this wasn't the experience I wanted to leave my friend with.

Reflections for the Future

Conversations with my friend on the way home, including the reliability and communication within the EV charging sector when site outages happened, highlighted the critical importance of where these things had fallen down.

When multiple organisations are involved, reliable communication needs to exist between the landowner (if the outage is due to something they are responsible for), the charging networks, and any navigation apps (sometimes, many more parties are involved here).

As our charging network grows, we need real-time updates that seamlessly feed into the navigation apps we rely on. It's not just about having charging hubs; it's about knowing they're operational when we need them.

All organisations involved need to have an action plan that they share (or a Standard Operating Procedure) with steps they follow and a checklist to ensure that it is communicated not just at the site level but to drivers directly via apps, websites and social media, etc.

As an EV driver, this experience reminded me that having a charging backup plan and understanding our vehicles' charging capabilities are essential. Not all EVs can charge at the same rate, especially one like ours, which has a smaller battery and is less able to charge any faster than we would at home on an AC charger.

Just because it says 22kW AC charger doesn't mean that your car can charge at that level. We all need to learn this from the OEMs who manufacture the vehicles, the dealerships we buy from, the lease companies we lease from, and if you're buying a used EV like we did, either from whoever you buy from or by doing a bit of research (or by starting a podcast as I did, but that is a bit of an extreme measure, of course!).

But it's not just down to the driver; as I mentioned, charging networks can significantly enhance the driver experience. Real-time status updates, clear communication about alternatives during outages, better integration with navigation apps, and information on potential charging speeds dependent on the vehicle could transform these occasional challenges into minor inconveniences rather than anxiety-inducing events.

Thanks for reading

Liz