Random EV thoughts.....

Yeah, a hotel charger should be just plug and play... no messing around with apps.. and I get that it probably can't even be a free service anymore, so maybe they just go with one of the big providers like EasyGo... and then at least it's an app a lot of people will already have and be used to..

Or barrier off the charging spots, and any paying customer can get a spot opened up with a fee paid to the hotel..

At a guess I'd say the majority of people that plug into free hotel chargers are doing it because it's there and they can as opposed to them actually needing it...(and maybe it saves them a charge on the way home), so lets see if they'd still want to use it if it costs €15 to get access to the space/charger.

I'd certainly prefer to pay in the hotel than register for yet another app.

Doesn't even need to be very elaborate, could just have the reception able to remotely start the charger once the guest plugs in and let's them know.

At the end, they just note the number of kWh delivered and add a charge to the bill accordingly

I feel like all the problems that are very slowly being solved for DC charging (availability, reliability, interoperability and convenience of payment) are all going to still exist for destination charging for some time yet

Some charge points have the ability to take a token. Very simple process then. You get a token at reception which gives you X hrs on the charge point. The hotel can decide if they want to charge or not. No apps and very simple and easy to understand.

Also allows the hotel to somewhat manage access by saying, "every guest is allowed Xhrs on the charge point and then move please to allow others use it". Policing that I guess is a different topic, but it at least gets the guest thinking about others and not just leaving it plugged in for 24hrs.

Ideally the hotel would just add more charge points but electricity prices as they are, its becoming more difficult to be giving guests free charging.

I generally look up hotels on Plugshare with the accomodation filter. Then use that as a starting point to find a good one. It has worked occasionally, except last trip the charge point was ICE'd and no chance of getting it cleared. My preference would be plug and charge even if it's a slower than normal charge point its fine. It seems quite a few hotels are using easygo now and those are generally reliable.

Even before the latest electricity price increases it was no longer feasible for hotels to be offering free EV charging. Newer cars have bigger batteries and could cost a hotel €30 to €40 for a full charge, in addition to the capital costs of installing the chargers in the first place. Somebody has to pay for that and surely that should be the EV driver. As is the case with all public EV chargers, the era of free charging is gone, it was great while it lasted as long as you were lucky enough to get to the charger first!!

Yeah true enough, there's certainly a difference in charging costs for a hotel between a gen1 leaf or Zoe versus an ID.4 or Ioniq 5 or Model Y LR

Funnily enough we're looking at booking somewhere for March-ish and I was looking at Plugshare recently. Fingers crossed we get the Model 3 before then and if that's the case then I won't bother trying for a hotel with charge points. It's more of an issue for us now with a small battery (and no DC charging) EV.

Even when I was tracking across Europe last summer doing an A to B of 1,300km and back, hotel charging wasn’t even on my mind…

Stayed in Maastricht on the outbound leg and topped up at a Supercharger 5 minutes from the hotel… a 24 stall supercharger (and when we pulled in were the only car there).

Then on the way back staying in Germany & France, there was a supercharger within 5-10 minutes from both hotels..

And I’m in a ‘gen 1’ SR+ so the lowest range in any Model 3 (409km WLTP).. but hotel charging? Nah, couldn’t be bothered anymore..

I'd probably do the same but usually hotel booking is not in my remit, and herself has EV charging very low on priority list. Having said that I found out that most of the nice hotels have also some sort of charging facility. Recently I noticed a big increase of hotels with charging points. I'd never expect them to be free of charge. It is true the ICE-ing happens but from experience it is usually locals with short stays and with AC charging cables are quite long and CP accessible from different spots.

On another slightly tangent topic I received a newsletter about EV rental in Spain. Don't want to advertise but they have 5 classes ranging from

to

1,000% plain sailing….. I never even gave charging a 2nd thought….. just let the car decide when and where I should charge.. it would automatically route me away from busy superchargers, or if I was hammering it on the autobahn, it would recalculate and bring me to closer superchargers etc….

in my opinion this is one of the greatest strengths of a Tesla (and one we don’t get to experience that much in Ireland)

Beside that you have no guarantee you're getting an electric car. I've rented a Polestar or similar, on October last, only to get an A6 Avant PHEV. I said, but I rented an electric car and the girl at the desk "This one has both, petrol and electric". They were acting like they are making me a big favour, which in fairness if you're into ICE kinda is. However, the battery was depleted and with only 3.6kW Type2 I never had the chance to charge it. Probably that car will never be charged in its lifetime with the rental company.

I had a Leaf in Switzerland last year and overall a good experience. There is an app which has all Swiss chargers in one place. With the elli app I have now I wouldn't be worried on the continent. I was in December in Germany/Austria, on an ICE though, very impressed with the charging infrastructure. We stayed in an aparthotel in Austria and over 3/4 of the parking spaces had chargers. Asked at reception where shall I park as there were very few spaces without a charger. She said "they are not exclusive to EVs and soon all will have a charger beside them. The same was for all places where we stopped. The AC chargers where scattered everywhere some not even on plugshare.

I feel more tired after driving a long distance in an ICE than I would in the Tesla... The Tesla drives itself (basic autopilot/autosteer), so I'm literally just a passenger resting my hand on the steering wheel.. it is so so so much less stressful..

Over the years I've driven a sh1t ton of 'prestige' cars plenty of large distances (mainly in the U.K./Europe the last 10-15 years), including all the C & E Class/AMG Merc's, Volvo's, BMW's & Audi's etc.... and for a long distance drive (300+km) there's just no comparison to the Tesla.

Back in February 2021 I did a 700km trip down to Cork and back in a day, and when I got home honestly felt like I could easily drive back down to Cork again.... I've done the same trip in my BMW and been absolutely shattered by the end of it.

Yeah the charging network along the route which meant I didn't look at a single charging app once during the trips from Cherbourg to Kiel and back again, or even give charging a single thought..... just followed the cars nav all the way, and charged where it told us to charge...

And I've tried a few other driver assist systems, and of the ones I've used, the Tesla system is miles better.

yeah, noise & vibration fatigue are the big ones that just aren't nearly as bad in an EV... then add to that the driver assistance in the Tesla (and the charging network) and they are motorway monsters...