Comms from Free Charger about to be turned off

[Ferdinand]

just had this email.

 

It is 3 years since my freebie car charger was installed in the garage.

 

I have never had an Ev.

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As a loyal customer to Chargemaster (now trading as BP Chargemaster), we hugely appreciate your commitment to shaping the future of the Electric Vehicle industry by purchasing an EV and a BP Chargemaster Homecharge Unit.
 
When you originally purchased our Homecharge Unit it came with a 3 year communications package providing access to BP Chargemaster’s ChargeVision platform. This package period has now come to end. However, as a thank you for your custom we are offering you an option to extend this package and access to the ChargeVision platform for a cost of only £50 for the next 3 years (usual price £95).
 
To take full advantage of this offer, please email comms.pack@bpchargemaster.com stating your name, and your contact telephone number, and if you have a preferred time/date to take a call. One of our team will then ring you to confirm the renewal of your access to ChargeVision and to take payment.
 
If this offer is not taken up over the next 30 days, we will send you a confirmation saying that the comms element within your Homecharge unit will be deactivated and your login in details to the ChargeVision platform will be no longer apply.
 
We also would like to take this opportunity to share with you about our Polar Plus membership, which for £7.85 a month you can access the UK’s largest electric charging network away from your home. For those first-time users, the first three months’ membership is FREE! Please visit https://polar-network.com/ for more information.

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Hmmm.

 

A solution to the Big Brother problem that goes with these?

Are there any gotchas hereeg could it disable the whole thing?

 

Ferdinand

Edited April 12, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Jeremy Harris]

This is because OLEV was paying for the data collection, and they've decided to stop, as new OLEV subsidised charge points will need to be "smart" grid compliant, so that the energy companies can control when cars get charged (or not) so as to better manage peak demand.

 

You could have disabled the Chargemaster at any time by just taking off the cover and removing the SIM card, it's what some people who have been concerned about the pretty lax data security with these things have been doing, and it doesn't have any impact on the function of the charge point at all.  The only function of the data link was to transmit data about the usage of the charge point, to allow manufacturers and electricity providers to build up a database of usage statistics.  There was never any control capability built in to the data linked charge point, so they can't be turned on or off remotely (unlike the new "smart" charge points, that are specifically designed to be able to be turned on and off remotely).

[ProDave]

So let me get this right. the only benefit was to them, and they want to charge you £50 if you want to continue providing them with data?

 

I wonder how many mugs sign up for this?

[Ferdinand]

Cheers.

 

F

Edited April 12, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Jeremy Harris]

22 minutes ago, ProDave said:

So let me get this right. the only benefit was to them, and they want to charge you £50 if you want to continue providing them with data?

 

I wonder how many mugs sign up for this?

 

I've no doubt that some will sign up for it, in the erroneous belief that they need to continue to supply usage data to those who want it.

[Sue B]

I don’t have an EV so I don’t know about this stuff.  My assumption was that the ability to plug into any charging point anywhere entailed signing up to a price plan with the provider - is that what this is about?  You can’t use their charging points without being a member of their gang?  An EV is a few years away for us so haven’t done any research at all.

[Jeremy Harris]

25 minutes ago, Sue B said:

I don’t have an EV so I don’t know about this stuff.  My assumption was that the ability to plug into any charging point anywhere entailed signing up to a price plan with the provider - is that what this is about?  You can’t use their charging points without being a member of their gang?  An EV is a few years away for us so haven’t done any research at all.

 

 

No, not for home charge points.  They are usually always active, and are turned on by any car that's plugged in to them.  Some can be restricted use, so that they need an RFID card to turn on, but in my experience these have always been domestic type charge points installed at hotels, where they wish to restrict use to hotel guests only (seems fair enough, especially as I've used charge points like this as a hotel guest a few times now).

 

Public charge points, i.e. those installed by councils, supermarket owners and at service stations and cafes along our road network, have a plethora of operating methods, which is one of the major disincentives for electric car use, IMHO.  Last time I looked in detail, there were over 30 different companies offering charging services, and all used a different way of charging users.  Most use a subscription service, with a monthly charge for a card, plus a charge for electricity used.  The monthly charge is typically around £8, so having a handful of these cards in your wallet is a pretty big monthly cost, before the cost of any electricity used is added.

 

Some charge points have shifted to a 'phone app based model, but generally these are very flaky.  They fail to work as often as not, so charging has to be initiated by a lengthy 'phone conversation with their help desk.  The app based systems all require a direct debit authorisation to be set up in advance, so again you could have maybe a dozen or more of these set up, just to ensure you can access a charge point wherever you happen to be. 

 

The government have passed legislation that is aimed at allowing free access to any public charge point, with a common payment system (just like buying fuel at a filling station) but the charge point operators are really reluctant to adopt this.  The main companies that seem to be shifting towards compliance with the government requirement are Instavolt and Shell, who are both offering charge points that accept normal contactless payment by debit or credit card, or Apple Pay, which uses the same RFID technology.  This seems to be the way to go, as it makes paying for electricity much like buying fuel.