Problem Charging when Low.

[Perchede]

On the French A61 southbound everything seemed out of order or ropped off to install additional charges.
Down to less than 10% route planner directed me off motorway to 50KW charger which was out of order I selected other chargers and was directed to a non existant charger and then back to the out of order charger. There seems no way to say charger out of order.
I decided to ignore all and header to a small town which had a 50/22/3 KW charger. The 50KW it said defective.
I connected the 22kw which worked at the expected 11KW.
Went for a few 0.4 ABH beers and returned to wait until I projected 15% charge at destination.

Return northbound found a nice working vacant 50KW.
We need more chargers on motorways, everyone wants to stop for a meal at the same time, for the current situation I would say 4 per service area.

[Goaty]

Totally agree. I think this will be the first summer when a lot of people will experience dilemmas such as you had.

First time in 3 years that many people will venture out in their cars across Europe again + far more EV’s being used for this purpose than there was in 2019 (which is probably the last time many of us did head to the continent by car) = interesting test of the EV infrastructure!

I’m still a bit apprehensive travelling around the UK. No dramas yet, but have indeed found chargers to be out of action when Zap Map seemed to indicate they’re operational.

I know someone will pipe up and say the same could apply to petrol stations in remote areas but I’d say: not really; in my last two diesel cars, I could generally get 500 miles of range from a full tank, there was an abundance of petrol stations, and it only took 5 mins to get another 500 miles of range back in the car. Completely different experiences, not in the slightest bit comparable !!

I like driving an EV but the worry never fully subsides on long journeys where I know a charge or two will be required.