Why so slow…

I have to say that I still get confused what to call different kinds of chargers, what with fast chargers, rapid chargers and the like…

I was needing a quick charge after a slip road closure had caused me to make a twenty mile diversion. When the Funky Cat gets down to a 10% charge then the range and battery usage seems to be unreliable. I only wanted to add 15-25% extra charge on the battery, it was getting late, and motorway chargers are expensive. I stopped at the southbound Sedgemoor Services, firstly hoping that they did have chargers, and secondly they would work!

Unlike other services on the M5 they only have a few Gridserve chargers. The Exeter services on the other hand have over fifty chargers!

I have the Gridserve app, and despite having the app, I always seem to have to log into the app. Why is that? I always have an issue with that as the username and password are not saved in my iCloud passwords, I always forget that I used Apple to sign in… Once I got past that hurdle I plugged the car in. 

It was an CCS 50kW charger, so I thought, well this should put on enough charge in 15 minutes… 

Other Funky Cat owners have had issues with Gridserve chargers when the car was initially launched, however a software update (on both sides I believe) sorted that out.

It took a while for the charging to start, I was a little nervous about that, but eventually it got going.

It started off at 26kW which isn’t the best I’ve had from a charger, but with a 50KW charger I was expecting to get above 40kW. I went to get a coffee, and then looking on the GWM app I could see the car was charging slowly, more slowly than I was expecting. So, I checked the Gridserve app and was a little surprised (and a little annoyed) to see the charging level had dropped to 13kW. Well I had little choice, so I left it charging. As the charge level got closer to 25% I could see the charging level had risen to 26kW again.

Overall it had taken 30 minutes to get from just below 10% charge to 25%. At this point, it was getting late, so I stopped the charge and headed home.

Not sure why it was slow, was it my car, was it the charger? There was no one else using that charger, though other cars were charging on the other chargers, would that make such a difference? I don’t know. All I will say is, it was frustrating when all I really wanted to do was to get home.

Some didn’t work

On a recent trip down to Plymouth, I had a number of issues with different chargers and the Funky Cat.

I had started off with a 100% charge and we headed down towards Plymouth. My plan had been to charge the Funky Cat in the Drake Circus Shopping Centre which had six Pod Point chargers. I arrived and found that there was only one charger available. Attempting to charge using the app failed. I did think it might be because I needed to top the app up, but even after doing that (well that was £10 lost) it still didn’t charge.  In the end I moved the car to a normal space.

After finishing the day in Plymouth, I started the journey home. The plan was to visit the Nuova Italia restaurant in Ilchester, and I certainly didn’t have enough charge to go straight home either. Having set off, I knew I would be able to charge at the Exeter Services on the M5. 

Having arrived at the services there were plenty of charging stations. As well as over thirty Tesla only superchargers there were another fifty Gridserve charging stations as well. However, upon plugging the Funky Cat into one of the Gridserve chargers I was unable to initiate a charge. Talking to the driver next to me it appeared that put of the fifty odd charging stations at the services, I had picked the one charger that wasn’t working.

After finding another charger and putting the Funky Cat on charge I went for a coffee.

A journey to York

I drove to York in my Funky from Weston super Mare. Should add that I didn’t see another Funky in the wild. Only time I have seen another Funky recently was  at the dealer where there were loads!

Anyhow depending on how you go this is about 250 miles. More than the range of the Funky. 

I had some interesting charging experiences which I thought I would share. 

On my way up I stopped at work for some meetings and took the opportunity to do a full 100% charge. The predicted range was 169 miles.

Once I set off again I had planned to stop at the Hopwood Services on the M42. These have the troublesome Gridserve chargers but having checked the map I had a backup plan to use the InstaVolt chargers at the Corley Services on the M6. 

As I approached Hopwood I realised I had a fair bit of charge in the car and seeing that the next services on the M42 were just thirty miles away I kept going and headed onto the services at Tamworth on the M42. They also had Gridserve chargers, but the Corley Services were still an option.

Once I was at Tamworth and having heard about the issues people have had with Gridserve chargers you can imagine my hesitation when connecting my Funky to a charger on the M42.

Gridserve

So I was quite pleased after connecting to the Gridserve charger all was working fine. 

Also impressed with the speed of charging as well. I went from a 35% charge to an 85% charge in just over thirty minutes. Just about enough time for a cortado from Costa.

Should point out that my Funky had two dealer updates recently.

After charging and the coffee I again headed north. 

As I approached York I stopped at the Moto Ferrybridge services for another coffee and a top up charge. The hotel I was staying at didn’t have EV charging. Not all the chargers at the services were in operation, but quite a few were available.  I did my charge and then headed off to complete my journey. All in all it was quite painless and not much different compared to when I drove to York in a petrol car.