The key is getting the cheapest ‘window’ of charge time you can at home. It’s the main balance between convenience and cost. You don’t need to ‘speed-charge’ at home because you are already home, doing home-things while your car is primed to charge at the best times.
If you have to public charge then there’s an increased cost, an increased inconvenience, or both.
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Just had fun downloading charge apps and looking at Zap-Map.
From what I can see for England there are 9 main charging providers (no particular order)
- InstaVolt
- Ionity
- Pod Point
- GeniePoint
- Shell recharge
- BP Pulse
- Osprey
- Charge your car
- Gridserve Electric Highway
(The only one I can see that can’t use an app to select and pay is Gridserve which was Ecotricity but now taken over and made contactless)
From what I can see clicking about
Dedicated parking (like Tesla’s setup)
InstaVolt
Fuel stations
BP Pulse
Shell recharge
Supermarkets
Pod Point
GeniePoint
Random town car parks
Charge your car
Pubs/Restaurants and Retail parks
Osprey
Services
Gridserve Electric Highway
Ionity
From looking at app scores:
4.4 InstaVolt
- app looks very sleek and intuitive
4.3 BP Pulse
- very fast and sleek
3.4 Osprey
- very functional and quick to use
3.2 Pod Point
- app looks very sleek and polished
3.2 Shell recharge
- bit basic looking but has all the info and is quick
2.3 Ionity
- app seems fine to me and I like the presentation, not many chargers, low score appears from registration bugs and people being idiots
1.7 GeniePoint
- looks like a school project and slow and clunky
1.3 Charge your car
- feels like a council website
From looking at what rapid chargers are available it looks like the winners are:
InstaVolt and BP Pulse
Then
Osprey and Pod Point
The others are a bit meh.
Shell is disappointing compared to BP
GeniePoint is expensive and crap
Ionity is expensive and not very distributed
Gridserve appears to be a captive audience at crappy services and reviews aren’t positive.
Charge your car looks like a last ditch if you are desperate
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On Gridserve - remember that they took over the Electric Highway in the spring of this year. Since then they’ve replaced the majority of the old Electric Highway chargers and plan on replacing all of them by the end of the year.
The old Electric Highway chargers were notoriously bad - they were one of the first chargers deployed in the country so you have to give them credit for that, but never worked well when the ‘CCS rapid charge’ standard became popular. So, a lot of negative reviews are potentially about the old service.
Also, Gridserve have both the Electric Forecourt (initial one in Essex, new one being built in Norwich and plans for others around the country (plans in place for one in Plymouth for example).
Osprey Chargers also will have a bit of an extra gimmick which could be a game changer when they roll that out - basically each charger can change it’s rate based on the maximum the car can charge at so it ‘pools’ the charging. Traditional rapid chargers (and something you have to be aware of with rapid charging) is that although they might have 2 rapid charging cables attached to them, generally trying to charge 2 cars at once will either mean both cars get a poor charge, or the 2nd car wont charge until the first has finished. Osprey have a different setup which avoids that.
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Clicking on those percentages for the 5021
Tesla 780
BP Pulse 744
InstaVolt 643
GeniePoint 485
Gridserve 240
Pod Point 238
I’m assuming Osprey makes up a good amount of that 29% other as it has quite a lot.
It appears both InstaVolt and Osprey both charge 40p
BP Pulse 29p for 50kW and 42p for 150kW
That trio seems to be the best to target on long journeys. Osprey don’t appear to have quicker than 50kW, they also to be targeting pubs rather than main roads.
So InstaVolt and BP Pulse to make use of the 100kW potential
Pod Point looks only useful for a free 7kW top-up in some supermarkets like Tesco’s. I have delivery so it’s rare I’m visiting in person or more than 5mins to get something that can only be found at a specific supermarket. (Tesco’s Freefrom onion rings 
)
Gridserve appears to be 30p but nearly all are 50kW apart from a handful 350kW
This is the ‘game changing’ tech that Osprey are now introducing which should allow more maximum charging per ‘hook-up’ that your car can take.
I think Osprey, InstaVolt (sponsored by Starling btw!) and Gridserve are the main networks actively upgrading most of their sites.
Oh - and it shouldn’t be too long before Tesla open up their network in the UK as well to non-Tesla cars (it’s already happening in the Netherlands).
Ionity is the other (European) network that is still expanding across the UK - I think some car companies have done deals with free/cheaper charging through them (Ford and VW’s I think?)
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btw - based on this the MG5 has a max DC rapid charge of 80kW. So you may find it better to just stick to 50kW charging at those that charge a premium for 100kW or above.
Not sure if that’s out of date, but EV Database is normally pretty good at giving accurate and verified data.
Yeah I’ve left that out as its 69p 350kW and the car tops out on 100kW
So kinda expensive, and there’s only a few on the major motorways mostly south east so probably rare I’ll be near one.
Maybe in three years time and have a Ioniq 5 instead of the MG 5 
Isnt that the original model rather than the 2021 long range high capacity.
The specs on the new have 61 mins on 50 kW and 40 mins on 100 kW
I guess it’s how long I’m going to be hanging around. At a services I might be 20-30mins with food and toilet breaks so with 100kW that should restore a good amount in that time.
I’m only ever going to be using these on the rare long journey so I don’t mind paying 40p or 42p to get on rather than waiting.
99% of the time it’ll be home or free charging, and the range is plenty without needing to top up 
That probably means then that at a 100kW charger, you’ll only charge at 80kW but it should still take 40mins to get from 20% to 80% as they advertised.
Just don’t be tempted to jump onto a 150kW or faster charger (esp if they charge more for them!)
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Yeah it has the following on that database suggesting 45mins 10%-80%. I’ll be aiming for 20% remaining tbh
If there’s an InstaVolt 125 (40p) or BP 150 (42p) it’s whichever is closer on route.
If there’s a 100 kW for less than 40p I’ll jump on that if it’s still near the route I’m on.
The battery of the MG MG5 EV Long Range has a total capacity of 61.1 kWh. The usable capacity is 57 kWh (estimate). A range of about 210 miles is achievable on a fully charged battery. The actual range will however depend on several factors including climate, terrain, use of climate control systems and driving style.
For example: sustaining high speeds in cold weather could result in a range of around 150 mi. However, driving at low speeds in mild weather will increase the range to around 320 mi.
Charging is done using a Type 2 connector and the on-board charger has a maximum power of 6.6 kW. This charges a fully depleted battery back to full in around 10 hours 15 minutes. Charging the car using a regular wall plug will take around 29 hours 15 minutes.
Rapid charging is possible through a CCS connection. The maximum rapid charge power is 80 kW. The battery can’t be charged continuously at this power. In an average rapid charge session the average charge power will be around 60 kW. This charges the battery from 10% to 80% in around 45 minutes. A rapid charge like this will add about 145 miles of range.
Yikes - Instavolt have just announced they’re putting up their prices to 45p per kWh from 1st December because of the increase in wholesale prices.
What’s the betting though that next Spring when demand drops again, they ‘forget’ to decrease their prices…?
Ah that is a shame but I’m not too sure many will be surprised with the +5p. I assume others might follow suit.
Well I don’t know how I’ve managed to wangle it but my delivery is tomorrow 
That’s six days from ordering to delivery, is that a record. 
Charger install booked for Jan 
I’ve also got to dig a small trench 45cm deep and add some conduit ready.
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That beats my 2 weeks! Family/friends were amazed when I took delivery - ‘parts shortages’, ‘supply chain issues’, ‘dealer confusion’ all meant nothing in my case. And yours even more so. Enjoy! 
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From 1 December, new prices will apply across the BP Pulse network. The cost per kWh of energy for subscribers has risen from 23p to 32p for the firm’s standard public chargers (AC 43kW/DC 50kW) and from 29p to 38p for registered users.
The firm’s fastest (150kW) devices will now cost 38p per kWh subscribers, 44p for registered users and 50p for pay-as-you-go users, while the slower 7kW units cost from 28p per kWh.
It was originally 12 December but they called and said would you like it Friday as its ready to dispatch and we have a delivery slot.
I’m going to see if they can get their ChargedEV partner to get a quicker install slot before Xmas 
I might actually be able to survive on three-pin but I’m going to test out the InstaVolt if I get it very low as an experiment.
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I’m managing fine on 3-pin at the mo, charging for about 4 days (nights) in a week - only charging between 00:30 and 04:30 @ 5p per kWh - the 3-pin delivers about 2 kWh with an average of 38p per 4-hour slot, which adds about 12% to the battery each charge.
It sounds slow, but I’ve spent less than £10, yes £10 on charging at home since the start of September and I haven’t changed any driving/distance habits compared to my petrol-guzzler ICE which got through £60-£80 per month of fuel (plus, indirectly, tyres) - a simply jaw-dropping comparison.
That dynamic would change once I got the 32amp charge point installed at home for the Ohme charger (jumping from 2-3kWh to 7kWh), but that would also offset the number of required charging instances/durations and could also be nicely offset by the free charging at work which I haven’t yet taken advantage of.
Going EV - It’s a big leap, but one that seems to be worth it so far?
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Agreed - bought 2nd hand Model S Tesla 5 years ago. Done about 70k miles since. With a combination of free workplace charging and free supercharging I’ve spent next to nothing on electricity. Would have cost me c£14k in petrol in an equivalent ICE.
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