how to pay when out and about.
Now this is important, and for those who use the contactless credit or debit card options it’s worth knowing a few things…
Paying contactless with a debit card will reserve an amount against the charge on your account, that can be a lot using an Ionity charger & each charge session (how many times did you need to restart to get it working?) reserves more, often for days. Solution is to use a credit card rather than a debit card.
With both debit & credit cards the banks like you to use a chip & pin reader occasionally & will only allow a certain number of contactless transactions in a row (maybe 5), so your card will get declined if you only use it on chargers. Plan to pop into the McDs for a flat white & pay using chip & pin occasionally.
Ecotricity, also known as the network where chargers rarely work & there’s no CCS…. all those Motorway Service Areas devoid of a reliable charger. Well, Ecotricity has now sold all its shares in the Electric Highway to Gridserve who are backed by Hitachi Finance. What this means is that ALL the ancient chargers are being ripped out & replaced this summer as a temporary measure with more reliable chargers with CCS! But, no AC for the moment but that should be resolved using AC charge posts soon too.
So, Gridserve (yes you can Zap-Map just that company & see where all those new chargers have already arrived) will also be rolling out multiple chargers where possible too, of note is the already completed Rugby Services at J1 of the M6. The constraint is currently electricity supply & negotiations for more charging spaces, but if you have a name like Toddington Harper you have a link with the MSAs already.
Gridserve chargers on the Electric Highway cost 30p/kWh. The chargers at Gridserve HQ in Braintree are 24p/kWh. So, 30p/kWh at an MSA, compared with 41p for Shell, 69p for Ionity, etc., so expect all the Electric Highway chargers to suddenly be rather popular (Toddington services Northbound 2 chargers only 1 taken yesterday when I popped in, Toddington Southbound hasn’t been upgraded so no-one trying to use the ancient & likely broken charger. Also Cobham services has 3 new Gridserve chargers (all busy all the time) and 6 Ionity chargers (all empty as no-one wants to pay outrageous prices of course)).
So, finally we can get a charge whilst using the motorway network (by the end of summer) if we use CCS.