Motorway EV charging points

[Dustydog]

Sadly the EV boys may be behind. Does anyone know if Motorway services and others have chargers available for us EV owners with a caravan on the back?

 

[Hutch]

Sadly the EV boys may be behind. Does anyone know if Motorway services and others have chargers available for us EV owners with a caravan on the back?

Are the Knee Drugs kicking in, get back on the Beer DD.
With the best of regards as always.

 

[Dustydog]

Are the Knee Drugs kicking in, get back on the Beer DD.
With the best of regards as always.

Defo not a quick fix🍺🍺
They only tell you the bad bits after the op😥😥

 

[JezzerB]

They have chargers but not from my experience organised so you can park the car and caravan and charge; unless you're very very very lucky or take up far too many spaces! Short answer no; most I think unhook and park the caravan nearby with a guard; Tobes will put us right!

 

[ProfJohnL]

I think the answer is generally no they dont leave enough space for a hitched outfit, but as with all generalisations they are not universally correct , so there probably are some where it is possible.

 

[Dustydog]

It’s pretty clear no one knows the true answer😢.I didn’t!
I hope this excellent link helps and those with EVs today find it useful,
Moto excluded ( no response) the other three Services are a resounding NO.
Suggestions of unhitching may not be feasible due to location of caravan parking and EV hookup. Ie one way systems etc.

I wonder how the EV motorhomes will manage? Anyone seen one?

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electrictowcars.co.uk

 

[Tobes]

They have chargers but not from my experience organised so you can park the car and caravan and charge; unless you're very very very lucky or take up far too many spaces! Short answer no; most I think unhook and park the caravan nearby with a guard; Tobes will put us right!

Short answer is - no they dont have EV chargers for caravans. The longer answer is much more complicated.

Most EV chargers are situated at the end of a parking space. The ability to charge any car on said charger depends on where the charge port is on the car. Some cars (Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, Kia Soul, Kia e-nero, Hyundai Kona-E, Honda E, VW E-Golf, MG ZS EV) and probably a bunch of others, all have the charging port on the nose. I.e. drive into the bay nose first and you can charge. In theory this means you can stay hitched up while charging, but the caravan will stick out the back and you wont be popular.

Other cars like my Polestar, all Teslas, The Kia EV6, Volvo XC40 and C40 and many others have the charge port at the back, either in the light cluster or near where a fuel port would have traditionally gone. This means for an end on charger, you have to reverse into a space to charge - no caravan possible. A few cars (Audi ETRON is notable) has the port just forward of the driver or passenger door - an absolute pig of a place for end on chargers, as the cable may not reach.

There are a few charger locations (Gridserve at Braintree in Essex) where there are "electric fourcourts" with the familiar drive through chargers that look more like a traditional fuel station. There, charging while hitched IS possible, though the usual taking up of tow or three bays may be an issue. And they are FAR from the norm.

I stopped at South Mimms (M25 J23) yesterday for a loo break on the way back from holiday (not towing). There is a bank of about 12 or maybe 18 Tesla chargers, two double head grid serve chargers (on out of order) and 5 brand new chargers waiting to come on line. The caravan parking is in the main carpark, just a short walk from the chargers, and easy to get between. Would make a good towing charging location when the extra chargers come on line and especially when Tesla open their UK network.

It’s pretty clear no one knows the true answer😢.I didn’t!
I hope this excellent link helps and those with EVs today find it useful,
Moto excluded ( no response) the other three Services are a resounding NO.
Suggestions of unhitching may not be feasible due to location of caravan parking and EV hookup. Ie one way systems etc.

I wonder how the EV motorhomes will manage? Anyone seen one?

electrictowcars.co.uk - Diese Website steht zum Verkauf! - Informationen zum Thema electrictowcars.

Diese Website steht zum Verkauf! electrictowcars.co.uk ist die beste Quelle für alle Informationen die Sie suchen. Von allgemeinen Themen bis hin zu speziellen Sachverhalten, finden Sie auf electrictowcars.co.uk alles. Wir hoffen, dass Sie hier das Gesuchte finden!

electrictowcars.co.uk

I think its more nuanced than that, but not far from the truth. If EV motormome and campervan manufacturers have ANY sense (unlikely) they will use nose mounted charger ports, or have the ports present on both sides (A'la the Audi Etron).

 

[Tobes]

It’s pretty clear no one knows the true answer😢.I didn’t!
I hope this excellent link helps and those with EVs today find it useful,
Moto excluded ( no response) the other three Services are a resounding NO.
Suggestions of unhitching may not be feasible due to location of caravan parking and EV hookup. Ie one way systems etc.

I wonder how the EV motorhomes will manage? Anyone seen one?

electrictowcars.co.uk - Diese Website steht zum Verkauf! - Informationen zum Thema electrictowcars.

Diese Website steht zum Verkauf! electrictowcars.co.uk ist die beste Quelle für alle Informationen die Sie suchen. Von allgemeinen Themen bis hin zu speziellen Sachverhalten, finden Sie auf electrictowcars.co.uk alles. Wir hoffen, dass Sie hier das Gesuchte finden!

electrictowcars.co.uk

Interestingly, in the article there is a google overhead of a service area, showing how its hard to charge with a caravan. Hard - yes - impossible - no. This his Hilton Park southbound on the M6 just north of Birmingham. It's exactly where I charged with the caravan on the way back from the lakes, as per my post. I updated the overhead here with what I did. Red line is me arriving from the entrance. The caravan parking ins just under the black box (Electric cars towing park here). We put the caravan on the green rectangle. I then drove following the purple line to the gridserve chargers (there are 2 in the red circle with the hashed parking spots). You can also see the bank of 12 Tesla superchargers in the red box on the right. After charging, I followed the 1 way system on the green line back to the caravan. Hitched up again, and off we went.

 

[Hutch]

Yes it is, obvious that EV recharging on service stations need to be updated and probably very rapidly, I have noticed a huge increase in the number of EV's and when people start using them for going on trips at weekends and bank holidays , ie longer journeys, then just having say 10 recharge points may not be enough.

 

[otherclive]

Yes it is, obvious that EV recharging on service stations need to be updated and probably very rapidly, I have noticed a huge increase in the number of EV's and when people start using them for going on trips at weekends and bank holidays , ie longer journeys, then just having say 10 recharge points may not be enough.

In the last 12 months I read that the ratio of points per EV had halved. IE points are not meeting the increase in EVs coming into the roads. I guess the momentum to install new points will be ramping up more quickly.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I was travelling back from Cornwall om Easter Saturday and we stopped at Cullompton Extra services at M5 Jct 28. I think there were just 4 charge points all occupied and other cars waiting to use them. From what I could see there was no way a caravan could be left attached.

 

[Hutch]

I suppose the next thing ( maybe a good idea ) we will be having on our motorways will be little pull of sites to just refuel EV's and have a toilet break as in France. , Sorry forgotten the names of them,
Aire de Service.