I can’t find a better place to put this and, rather than start a new thread…
My brother and his wife are on their way to ours in his Polestar 4 (a Volvo in a party dress) and it’s been endless calls today.
Before leaving, his wife was a bit twitchy about charging and was suggesting taking her VW Polo instead but, following my my reassurance that charging is great in France, they took the Polestar.
He arrived off the boat on 33% battery and, rather than charging on arrival (or even before departure) he struck out of Cherbourg in a Caen direction, following the car’s guidance on where to charge. They stopped at the charger (on 17%) and it didn’t recognise his Volvo charge card and there was no obvious way to use a credit card, which seems odd but, he sent me a picture and I agree that it didn’t seem to take cards. Grumpily, he downloaded the app but it would take payment details unless he put in his “tax number”, which seems odd. I can only assume that he ticked a box for being a business but he’s adamant that he didn’t.
Anyway, he gave up and decided to travel on to the next charger, which he couldn’t find.
He then found a Lidl on the map and went there. Out of service.
Finally, he found a random 50kW charger at a supermarket which took his debit card.
I’m expecting rather a bollocking when he actually gets here, given my reassurances. Whether or not there is an operator competence issue is another question entirely.
Well thats your first and possibly second nights conversation. He must have done something wrong but in all honesty all this stupid stuff is nonsense, all operations should be forced to take a bank card same as a petrol station, no requirement to join this or that its utter bollix.
First EV and almost always charges at home, since the range on the Polestar is huge.
He’s also a bit of a tech numpty but then, one shouldn’t need to be a wizard just to charge your car but it seems to be necessary at times.
I think he just follows the car’s guidance at all times, whereas I’d have been charging overnight when he stayed in Poole. I tend to take every opportunity to charge when I’m stopped somewhere on a long journey and he might need some education.
I believe so but they should have started out that way not a bloody add on. I really wonder about some of the fore thought of people making our lives harder.
Stupid idea if it was, unless they rolled it out to ICE vehicles where they could make more money through the sheer numbers. Love to see how that would play out. Honestly when Govs want adoption of EVs it crass to allow this.
We have come through a genesis of EV’s so not surprising but most cables are available at the stalls to charge most EC models. Not like standing next to the charger unable to use it through a network card not being accepted. Imagine having to sign up to Total and then a different system for BP and a third one for Shell with an ICE vehicle. As I said before a complete lack of foresight. That is a common occurrence when people making the decisions have no real world knowledge of the topic but have been to business school etc.
If we replace my wife’s car in the next few years it will probably be a small EV, which would be ideal for those short journeys. We’ll keep the diesel car for the longer journeys and carrying stuff. I’m not opposed to EVs but the range still isn’t there.
Range anxiety seems to happen to a lot of people. I was one, but I have a 100% electric car now. It seems to me that range anxiety can sometimes be dressed up as other concerns.
Personally, I don’t think I could go back to an infernal combustion engine after 2 years with an EV. Like with most things on the internet, you only hear the interesting stories which tend to be problems. No one pops up spontaneously to tell a story about their painless journey to Glasgow, or wherever, and frankly constitutes the vast majority of journeys in any vehicle.
I’ve still got my old petrol Saab cabriolet as a toy which, although it’s dirty, most, smelly and a bit rubbish, I love so I’m not and anti-ICE evangelist.
