A bit of an aside, but I discovered a major downside to BP's new superhub at the NEC. Despite many visitors not needing to pay for parking, there is no escaping the fee for those wanting to slow charge. Oddly enough on Monday which was a setup day, the chargers were completely empty.
Sorry for the delayed response - been a mad couple of weeks. Do you mean to say there is parking fee + charging fee for visiting the NEC? I'm speaking to BP this week so can ask about it. Re: plug and charge, I'll defo do a bit more reading on it!
Unfortunately there is an £18 fee to use the slow chargers. This is because public show visitors have to pay. Unfortunately those with free parking in the normal car parks, such as exhibitiors and trade show visitors still have to pay. As a reference East 1 is normally used for exhibitiors. It's also worth pointing out day visitors only stay a few hours, and so the slow chargers are of limited use. Exhibitiors are there all day, although they will only need a single charge for a multi-day stay.
It's a good point to raise the issue of start up times. I've recently needed to deviate from my goto of MFG, and it hasn't been pretty. Both Gridserve and BPs new chargers have been a nightmare.
Another point is how they cope if they fail mid charge, to which the answer in Gridserve's case, is badly.
It's worth reading up on Plug and Charge. I can't remember them, but there are quite a few problems, which may explain why it hasn't happened.
A bit of an aside, but I discovered a major downside to BP's new superhub at the NEC. Despite many visitors not needing to pay for parking, there is no escaping the fee for those wanting to slow charge. Oddly enough on Monday which was a setup day, the chargers were completely empty.
Sorry for the delayed response - been a mad couple of weeks. Do you mean to say there is parking fee + charging fee for visiting the NEC? I'm speaking to BP this week so can ask about it. Re: plug and charge, I'll defo do a bit more reading on it!
Unfortunately there is an £18 fee to use the slow chargers. This is because public show visitors have to pay. Unfortunately those with free parking in the normal car parks, such as exhibitiors and trade show visitors still have to pay. As a reference East 1 is normally used for exhibitiors. It's also worth pointing out day visitors only stay a few hours, and so the slow chargers are of limited use. Exhibitiors are there all day, although they will only need a single charge for a multi-day stay.
It's a good point to raise the issue of start up times. I've recently needed to deviate from my goto of MFG, and it hasn't been pretty. Both Gridserve and BPs new chargers have been a nightmare.
Another point is how they cope if they fail mid charge, to which the answer in Gridserve's case, is badly.