IONITY Chargers

[ChrisM]

To answer those questions - P&C simply recognises my 4S without needing to do anything else.
I use the RFID occasionally if needing to charge my wife’s Polestar - it works absolutely fine.
Just remember though that the rate isn’t that favourable since OPC charge you for time spent at the chargers as well as the electricity consumed so you are paying well over 60p.
Simply charge at home or use Ionity when you can at their 30p rate - still p***es me off that OPC charge us double !!!

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[b16mov]

Two questions please:
First; is plug and charge something that recognises your vehicle without having to use the Porsche RFID card or the MyPorsche App?
Second; Does the RFID card only work with the Porsche or could you charge another electric vehicle at the favourable Porsche rate by using your Porsche RFID card?

Yeah you just plug and charge
& the machine recognises the car and get billed to the payment card you have set up via the your Porsche account

as for using another vehicle I couldn’t tell you
You might need to give it a go see if it works
But it might know your not using a Porsche and it will charge you full rate

 

[Jay_Walking]

hmmm... I use the one at Cobham services often and rarely do I ever get more than 100kw/h out of it, even if my car is set to stop there. I've found the same at Cambridge services too on the few occasions I've stopped there. In almost a year's ownership, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had over 150kw/h. I just assumed there is some throttling going on dependent on how busy the charging points are but it doesn't seem consistent.

I don't think your experience at Cobham is down to the car.

i have an EQS and when I charged at Cobham initially (June/JulyAugust 2021) I could get 210kW. Since then the max I have had, even from 8% SOC, is 120kW. Makes no difference whether all points are in use or whether I'm the only one there.

It must be the chargers as I have used IONITY at Maidstone and Channel Gateway a lot and they always give between 190 and 211kW.

 

[tigerbalm]

IONITY Channel Gateway

Is this station back being reliable? – for months it was very flaky due to a power transformer issue to the grid connection there.

 

[Jay_Walking]

Is this station back being reliable? – for months it was very flaky due to a power transformer issue to the grid connection there.

I think it is hit and miss. Had one session where speed was very low, sub 100kW, but otherwise fine and get 150kW on average over 7 sessions. Hopefully not an issue in a few weeks as it's my 1st stop on a road trip to Budapest.

 

[RGBArgee]

I was about to dispute your claim as the pic was showing charging on the slow port (which ionity doesn't have) but then I realized you're UK so the high speed charge port is on the wrong side

Glad you enjoy reliable high speed charging

It’s on the correct side!! Nothing’wrong’ at all!!!

 

[Throb]

hmmm... I use the one at Cobham services often and rarely do I ever get more than 100kw/h out of it, even if my car is set to stop there. I've found the same at Cambridge services too on the few occasions I've stopped there. In almost a year's ownership, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had over 150kw/h. I just assumed there is some throttling going on dependent on how busy the charging points are but it doesn't seem consistent.

I've had excellent charges at most IONITY stations both in the UK and on the continent (around 95% of the time). The only place I've really had issues is at Cobham. At night when I'm the only person using them it gives around 250kW. During the day when it's being fully used, I've never got above 50 KW. The rumour is, another six chargers will be installed at Cobham this year.

Cambridge is perfection every single time. I've used it about ten times and every single time I've had 250 kW until beyond 50% SoC, and it tapered off very gently. I used it a few days ago and it was brilliant, even when every other charger was being used also. It's very satisfying pulling in to charge, getting 70% in around 15 minutes, and then unplugging before anybody else has moved.

Also, the last two times using Cambridge I've never actually been billed. That's using Plug&Charge via PCS.

Is this station back being reliable? – for months it was very flaky due to a power transformer issue to the grid connection there.

I haven't used Folkestone for a few months, but I may pop in on Friday on my drive back to the Continent. If I do I'll let you know how it went. I can recommend Maidstone highly, however.

The warm weather and therefore greater range has thrown my usual charging strategy out of the window!

 

[simcity]

At night when I'm the only person using them it gives around 250kW. During the day when it's being fully used, I've never got above 50 KW. The rumour is, another six chargers will be installed at Cobham this year.

Ionity claim that they don't use power sharing on their units, so in theory up to the full 350 kW capability of the unit should be available - however Cobham and several other MSA sites have really poor grid connections, and they simply can't sustain the load in peak times so have to de-rate them.

I keep reading of various government / Ofgem grants and schemes that effectively are gifting public money to the DNO's to fix their shit, but they still manage to drag it out for years in many cases. It really is quite disgraceful how poor the investment in the distribution electricity network in this country has been allowed -decades of profits being siphoned to foreign shareholders and owners.

Meanwhile our neighbours can achieve this in the space of 12 months...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1665317846845358081

 

[simcity]

There’s a tracker for future Ionity sites here:

https://ionity.ev-info.eu/

 

[tigerbalm]

Meanwhile our neighbours can achieve this in the space of 12 months...

Your other neighbours – Ireland – can't do shit in 5 years! We have some lovely PDF plans from government though. And our grid is 100% owned by the state.

 

[MrB]

I use Baldock and Cringleford multiple times a week and the P and C works a treat at both. Baldock is markedly slower than Cringleford (the latter always gives me 250kw plus at the start, whereas Baldock only ever seems to give a max of 150kw - first world problems, I know!).

 

[Throb]

I haven't used Folkestone for a few months, but I may pop in on Friday on my drive back to the Continent. If I do I'll let you know how it went. I can recommend Maidstone highly, however.

The warm weather and therefore greater range has thrown my usual charging strategy out of the window!

@tigerbalm I never got a chance to use the Folkestone IONITY on Friday evening. I used IONITY Maidstone Services (fantastic charge, as usual), and Wetteren Zuid (not so fantastic).

 

[Jay_Walking]

@tigerbalm I never got a chance to use the Folkestone IONITY on Friday evening. I used IONITY Maidstone Services (fantastic charge, as usual), and Wetteren Zuid (not so fantastic).

Oh, what was the issue at Wetteren? I'm planning to use them on the way out and way back.

 

[tigerbalm]

@tigerbalm I never got a chance to use the Folkestone IONITY on Friday evening. I used IONITY Maidstone Services (fantastic charge, as usual), and Wetteren Zuid (not so fantastic).

Yep, I've stuck to using Maidstone when in the area too.

And my use of Wetteren (both sides of the road) has been fine too – though its been +1 year since I've stopped there.

 

[Throb]

Oh, what was the issue at Wetteren? I'm planning to use them on the way out and way back.

This was my third attempt at using IONITY chargers in the eastbound direction at Wetteren Zuid (I've never tried the chargers in the westbound direction). The first time was earlier this year and there seemed to be work going on to add some more units, which I suppose could explain the poor performance, but it shouldn't really have had an impact. It took several attempts to even start a charge as each unit I tried just wasn't commencing the charging process. On the third or fourth attempt it eventually worked, but with a power of around 50 kW. After five minutes I gave up and made it around 40km to Brussels. About a month later I tried again in exactly the same circumstances with exactly the same results. I decided to leave it a few months before trying again. That moment came two days ago. This time the charging did start immediately and reached 173 kW where it remained exactly for around fourteen minutes before I unplugged.

On all three ocassions I used them at around 2am and where I was the only user. The battery was in the perfect condition for a very fast charge (pre-conditioned, at a low SoC). 173 kW isn't terrible, but it's not 250-260 kW, which is what I get pretty much every time I use other IONITY chargers in the same conditions.

If they're this poor when I'm the only user, then I fear they will be even worse with a few other cars plugged in. As a comparison, I was getting 268 kW at around 50% SoC at IONITY Maidstone earlier in the journey (and still pulling 150 kW at 73%), and this is fairly typical.

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