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It must be getting warmer…

Having charged the car to 100%, I was pleased to see that the predicted range was 182 miles. This is the biggest range I have had in a while (and is close to the advertised 193 WLTP electric range). I think part of the reason is that my AEC (Average Energy Consumption) figure which over most of the winter had been in the 32+ range, has been much lower recently, around 25 kWh/100 mile.

I used the Revive chargers at the Diamond Batch car park at Worle Station. When I first connected, it initially said it was going to take nearly six hours to charge from 23% to 100%. In the end it did the charge in just over three hours.

Still find it a little strange (and need to remember) that when the battery is at 100% there isn’t any regenerative braking, so I have to use the brake pedal more.

 

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Working now

I mentioned previously the last time I tried to use the Revive chargers at the Diamond Batch car park at Worle Station they didn’t work. I was unable to charge my Funky Cat and had to move to a “normal” space.

This time, when parking at the car park, I connected the Funky Cat to the charger, went to the app, and all worked fine.

The only downside is that North Somerset have raised the cost of parking at the car park by 20p and now charge 10p if you use the app. Still, as I was going to park there anyhow as I was catching the train to Bristol, it’s nice to be able to charge the car up as well at the same time.

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These ones worked

After my poor experience with the Tesla chargers at Merry Hill I was a little hesitant when I arrived at the Frankley southbound services on the M5. I did know that if these Tesla chargers didn’t work, there was a bank of Gridserve chargers I could use.

However, unlike Merry Hill, this was a seamless experience, I parked, plugged the Funky Cat into the chargers and set it charging on the Tesla app.

I had time for a quick lunch, and, it wasn’t long before I had sufficient chaarge to continue my journey.

When I went to York last year, these chargers weren’t installed. I have also seen at the southbound Gloucester services on the M5 they are installing a bank of Tesla chargers.

I have also seen that there are now Tesla chargers that can be used by non-Tesla vehicles in Eastville in Bristol. It’s getting much easier to find and use Tesla chargers with my Funky Cat. 

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It just didn’t work…

I was travelling from Weston to Loughborough via Wolverhampton and had planned to stop at Merry Hill in Dudley and use the Tesla chargers at the shopping centre.

I arrived, plugged in the charger. The Funky Cat recognised that it was plugged in. However on the Tesla app, it failed to recognise the Funky Cat. I couldn’t get the charger going. It also wouldn’t unlock me from the cable. I had to use the manual release to unlock the cable. I remember the first time I did this, I struggled to find the cable under the bonnet. I think it was because I was looking for a substantial cable and handle, and not something that looked like a bicycle brake cable.

I did try a different charger, but this also didn’t work.

In the end I use the Ora navigation to find a charger nearby, and up on the hill there was a choice of three, MFG, Instavolt, and BP Pulse all very close together. I chose the MFG as I had a card I could use with them. 

Alas my plan to walk around the Merry Hill shopping centre was scuppered and I had to make do with Greggs.

Having got a 77% charge, I unplugged and drove off.

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Hotel Screen Casting

When I travel and stay in a hotel I sometimes connect my iPhone to the hotel TV via an HDMI cable and adapter. This is so I can watch something, either I have downloaded or stream from a streaming service. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t. I did quite like the idea of AirPlay Hotel, but have never seen it in reality.

Recently I was up in Edinburgh attending a conference and staying at the Moxy Edinburgh Fountainbridge and the televisions had a facility to be casted to from a mobile device. Though I have seen this on other TV menus in other hotels, it usually is a feature of the television, but not set up to be used. The functionality on the TV in the Moxy was setup.

It was easy to configure and it wasn’t long before I could cast video streaming from my phone to the TV.

It worked with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and BBC iPlayer. I didn’t try other services such as Disney+ or services from Channel 4, Channel 5, UKTV, and ITV.

Overall it was a seamless experience which worked well.

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Nice and easy

Now I have an electric vehicle I check at places I am going to, to see if they have charging facilities.

When I travelled to the University of Warwick in September 2023 for a conference, I checked the university website there was charging available in the car park I was going to use. These weren’t specific car charging ports though, just standard three pin plus sockets. It took over sixteen hours to charge the Funky Cat. At least I could charge, but it was a good thing I wasn’t in a hurry.

When I was at a conference at Loughborough University last month I was actually staying off campus at the Link Hotel, but when I checked I saw that electric vehicle charging was available on campus. Rather than drive over and check, I actually walked over. They did have quite a few charging spaces, using EVC chargers. I checked the parking costs, which was quite cheap at £1.20 for the evening, and created an EVC account.

I then walked back to my car at the hotel, and then drove over to the car park, and plugged in the car.

It was relatively quick to charge to 100% and was quite cheap at 39p per kWh.

After I got to 100% I collected the car and drove back to the hotel.

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I think the app was faulty

Decided to catch the train to Bristol, but left earlier to plug the Funky Cat into the Revive chargers at Worle Railway Station. When I arrived I saw there was another electric vehicle already plugged in. However after plugging in the Funky Cat, the app said there was a fault with the charger.

Looking at the other chargers (on the app) they were all at fault. However I think there was a fault with the app, as the other electric vehicle looked like it was charging.

I moved the car to a normal space, paid for my parking, and walked to catch my train.

Checking later the app was still saying Faulted.

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Working just fine

I noticed that I’ve not posted a post about the Funky Cat for a while. There is a simple reason, the car has been working just fine. I have been predominantly using the Revive chargers at Worle Station. 

Driving has been fine, even the much maligned emergency steering function (lane assist) has been okay. I’ve been leaving it on, and as a result I am getting a better understanding of why it works as it does. Where the road markings are poor, then I do turn it off.

I am still waiting for CarPlay which has yet to arrive. I have been waiting a while…

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So you know it doesn’t exist?

I wrote in a previous blog post about my experience with a non-working revive charger.

On my first use of the chargers, mine was the only electric vehicle using them. On my second visit to the chargers, quite a few of the chargers were in use and my car’s charging port is on the front nearside. There was one optimal space where I parked. I plugged the car in and then used the Revive (web) app to find the charger and start the charge. However the (web) app said no such charger existed. Which I thought was weird. As there wasn’t a suitable alternative space, I moved the car, parked in a normal space and caught my train to work.

I decided to email Revive and see if there was an issue with the non-working revive charger. I did get a response.

We are aware of the issues with this charger and our faults team are currently investigating.   Please be advised, that the charger RV01082 has been removed from our network until further notice. Once charger is available again, it will show on our live map.

I do think that they should at the very least turn off the faulty charger, or even put a sign on it…

I will wait until it appears on the map.

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What do you mean it doesn’t exist?

I had seen a few months back they were preparing the Worle Station Diamond Batch car park for EV charging, well they had put in the space markings, but there were no chargers. The chargers are now installed and I have used them before and was pleased with their speed and cost. The Revive charger charges 55p per kWh. This is less than the 85p that MFG charge. Obviously, there is the £2.40 car parking charge as well. I said before:

I was actually quite impressed with the speed, taking just over three hours to charge from 25% to 100%. I would certainly use these chargers again.

They are Revive chargers, which I had also used before at Sand Bay. The chargers at Diamond Batch are 22 kWh chargers so are not “quick” compared to the rapid chargers you find elsewhere. However they are ideal for a station car parking, you park, plug in, catch the train, go to work, come back, your car is charged to 100%. It’s also great that there are no idle fees, this means you can set your car to charge and not worry about moving it once you have a 100% charge. This is ideal for this kind of car park, where you are likely to be parked for the whole day.

Now it hasn’t all been plain sailing. On my first use of the chargers, mine was the only electric vehicle using them. On my second visit to the chargers, quite a few of the chargers were in use and my car’s charging port is on the front nearside. There was one optimal space where I parked. I plugged the car in and then used the Revive (web) app to find the charger and start the charge. However the (web) app said no such charger existed. Which I thought was weird. As there wasn’t a suitable alternative space, I moved the car, parked in a normal space and caught my train to work.

Worle Railway Station

The following day I went to charge the car and used a different space with a different charger. This worked as it had the first time I had used these car chargers. All worked as expected. It took three hours and forty-three minutes to go from a 8% charge to 100%. At the end of it, there was a 152 mile predicted range, which is expected at this time of year.