UK Finding/ using recharging points

I am about to receive my i3 and I am trying to find a map - or ideally an app that will direct me to my nearest free charging point. The BMW comes with a 'concierge' service that will direct you to your nearest free post apparently, but presumably I all shortly be expected to pay for this. So if anyone could find & post an app I would be happy.

At present we seem to have a number of competing systems with varying access arrangements and I believe I will link to two:

1: Ecotricity - our electricity supplier who charge £10 a year for unlimited access - http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-the-road/our-electric-highway but who focus on motorways and my nearest post is 50 miles away....

2: BMW - https://www.chargenow.com/cnde/ which is in german and thus not confidence inspiring and is I understand actually a front end for http://www.chargemasterplc.com/index.php/live-map/ who do have posts about the local area. Again a £10 annual charge.
Chargemaster also will fit a free charging station in your home by the way.

However if you actually phone some of the locations shown as having charging posts they "dahn' know 'nuffin abaht that" - although talking to Chargemaster the engineer assures me there is a charging post because he fitted it himself..... Again confidence inspiring.

So I hope this will prove to be a fruitful thread as I plan in my crazed enthusiasm to drive the car more than half a charge away from home..... With my range extender guaranteeing I don't conk out...

Geoff

As far as I know, there are no DC rapid charging points for the i3 in the UK yet. Ecotricity plant to start installing some on motorways this year, I believe.

The few that are dotted around near me all seem to be AC slow chargers which would mean driving there and leaving the car for several hours.

I'll stick to charging mine overnight at home to start with.

www.zap-map.com shows a few 7kW chargers in the Bournemouth area. Although often inaccurate or out-of-date it is considered to be one of the best. There is also a single CYC point at Dorchester, otherwise a bit of a desert. Much to same in N Yorks where we tend to go for walks etc. Which is why I have a Rex on order.

Hmmm. Zap map is useful, but not "live" and has a lot of entries from this source: http://zerocarbonworld.org/zero-net which I think is using the same government scheme as Chargemaster to provide free charge points to commercial sites. Zero carbon imply you have to haggle with the charge post provider if you aren't a customer.....

But it leads on to this: http://openchargemap.org/site/ who say that have an app, but it demands a twitter account. Can anyone give it a whirl & report back?

Geoff

Openchargemap is even less live than zapmap. Nether have, or can get, feeds from the commercial operators. Both depend on input from users - good in principle, but only if many users provide it. Most don't.

The only live or near live maps I know of are Ecotricity's, CYC and Podpoints.

The ZCW points are destination charging, i.e. you can use them, almost always free, if you are using the facilities where they're installed. Rarely any use to me, but others find otherwise.

Podpoints seems to have disappeared - does anyone have a link?
CYC - charge your car http://www.thechargingpoint.com/knowledge-hub/charging-points.html is using open charge map and says it's North East England only.

It will be interesting to see how BMW cope with this situation...... I must admit I would expect that many of the "public" sites on the zero carbon list will be only available if you use the facilities of the provider. Helpfully there is one 20 metres from my office, so I will go & see.

Geoff

Good thread Geoff, I have the I3 for July delivery and have started to apply my mind to free charge points along with getting a free charger installed too, I am trying for the 7kw charger and looks like I'll be paying the extra £95 for the higher rated one.

We live in an area (Northamptonshire) lacking in public charge points and will soon be writing to the local councils around our area asking if they intend installing any in the near future, hopefully prompting them into doing it....

I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Mark

I get my i3 on Saturday.

I have four cards so far:

Ecotricity - free http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-the-road/registration-form
Chargemaster - free (to chargemaster customers) £10 otherwise but think it's being discontinued (replaced by charge now)
Plugged in Midlands - £24 - http://www.pluggedinmidlands.co.uk/join/
Charge Now (ordered but waiting delivery) - £20 - http://chargenow.chargemasterplc.com/index.php/chargenow.html

It's worth noting that there is some overlap with some chargepoints being sponsored by more than one of the above.

The i3 has all of the charge now points in its Sat Nav.

http://www.pod-point.com/home_new/live-availability is still up. Whether it is up-to-date I can't say.

CYC own site is http://chargeyourcar.org.uk/ and covers all their points - not just the NE.

Chargemaster seem to still be selling cards for £10: http://www.chargemasterplc.com/index.php/polar_online/
Somehow I am unsuprised it's double from BMW. :roll:

I found an app called carjuice but it is very new. I don't know yet if it works well.

Geoff

Got a free card from Chargemaster when they installed my Polar home charge point, but I was told there are changes coming in April and that I would be informed nearer the time. Rex is arriving in May so Probaly won't even get to use this card.There is a live charge point map here http://www.chargemasterplc.com/index.php/live-map/

I have checked the zero-carbon "public" pod-point close to my work & it is indeed only available if you are a customer of the hotel. This is clearly going to make identifying available points a little tricky if one is going cross country.

Certainly there are large areas which chargemaster and ecotricity don't cover.

Geoff

I have enjoyed near to 100 kWh of free charge at a GMEV / Charge your Car charger over the last few weeks. I didn't bother paying £10 for the card but instead use the excellent app. I love the system, but sadly from 31st March they will charge for the charge! No indication of tariff so far except that it will be by the hour, not per kWh.

Well I have had a fascinating chat with Chargemaster - who aren't going to send me the £10 card because it's invalid from April... As yet they cannot tell me about the pricing structure that they will adopt.... But I have been told that Charge Now is the Chargemaster Polar Network plus all BMW i dealer ultra rapid chargers, and the Chargemaster website is becoming more BMW quite quickly now.

From my experience of less than a week of ownership I can predict I am going to be very interested in the location & availability of the the ultra fast chargers.

I think I will end up with three cards: Chargenow, Ecotricity & Chargemycar [because it covers an important output I need in Dorchester].

The carjuice app seems to be pretty pants too, but I can't find any other app that will give live cover of multiple networks.

Geoff

You don't need the card for "charge my car", use their app instead, I do, regularly.

Cant find ‘Charge my car’ do you mean "charge you car"?

This is the link... http://chargeyourcar.org.uk

PS everyone my new i3 failed after 4 days - computer problems.....48 hours & counting.

Geoff

Oh no! What went wrong??

Oooo nooooo thecyclist. . What happened? Is your machine back now?

Well yes it [now known as "Po" after the Kung-Fu panda as it's black & white] is back after having it's software re-installed. It didn't actually stop, it just put up a "Do not turn off your car drive to the nearest i-drive dealer" - which we did. They had to ask Bracknell before they could plug it in to the diagnostic computer. They lent us the demonstrator without any backchat.

I had a really impressive chat with Ecotricity who gave me the bad news that their fast chargers are incompatible with BMW/ VW cars as they use a different charger plug & computer handshake etc. They plan to "roll out" compatible stations, but it does mean that only BMW will have the fast chargers in some of their dealers.

Has anyone got any idea of ChargeNow's pricing structure? There is a clear statement from Chargemaster http://www.chargemasterplc.com/index.php/polar_online/
But BMW seem to expect us to buy a pig in a poke. Currently I plan to use the Chargemaster App as I expect to use it rarely. But there are times when I will really need the BMW fast charge....

Have we got any further with apps to lead us to charge points?

Geoff