Great video, thank you for the accurate review! We absolutely agree with all your observations and are working hard on fixing the bug that you mention, which is freezing the app when starting a charge as we understand the impact on customers. We have taken all your feedback in the video, as well as in the comments, onboard as we are keen to keep improving the app and our customer's experience. If you or any of your subscribers would like to help make our app better, please reach out to us at customerengagement1@bp.com! Thanks again!
Thank you for the kind response. I am always to happy help the networks with feedback and have used the beta versions of some apps for some (eg PodPoint). I am sure you will be able to iron out the App bugs in due course in this new app. May I also recommend a signpost put next to the 150kW chargers that clearly says next to the charger “use this pad for Debit cards / use this pad for BP Pulse RFID”. I also hope you can work on reducing the answer times in the helpline (otherwise your operators on phone line are excellent and very helpful/professional 👍).
Any chance of ReTweeting my link? I’m going to do a repeat using my new EV soon to see the speed of the charger on a modern new EV capable of faster charging too. All good publicity 😉
Really glad I watched this as I definitely would have made the same contactless mistake. BP need to make these things idiot proof or at least clearly label them. Very useful to know all these tips!!
That’s how this channel got started really. As an early adopter I found a few chargers to have little little quirks like this and so I thought it a good topic for my fledgling channel in the beginning. Am so glad you found it useful 👍😁
Have to agree, I think the RFID is easiest of all. Also gives free use all their 7kW machines. We have some 7kW BP Pulse chargers in office car park , so can sometimes get a free charge, and so easily pays for itself.
Need to sign up to the subscription service to get RFID, costs £7.85 a month. You also get reductions in prices using their units. www.bppulse.co.uk/charging-on-the-go
It depends how often you use the BP 7kW or Rapid 50-175kW units to see if subscription method is worth the monthly fee. The RFID is another handy benefit of being a member.
Abserloutely. We are starting to see many Electric Vehicle chargers now in the 150-300kW Territory , either ABB or Tritium machines. Even more promising we are seeing examples of these appearing in Hubs with 4 or more at a location. This is kind of like playing catch-up to what Elon Musk and the Tesla Supercharger network got right from day 1, now other networks are following their example
It caught me out for ages. I delayed releasing video 2 months cos wasn’t sure what hell I was doing wrong 🤷♂️😆 so at least now hopefully others can learn from my error too.
Used the app with my Kia-E-Niro yesterday. It worked first time, I was thrilled and relieved as first time ever used a charger as away on holiday in Poole and was worried how I was going to charge the car.. 😁
Yes. The Kia E-Niro uses a DC CCS cable to charge. Here is the stats on the E-Niro from the EV Database website ev-database.uk/car/1125/Kia-e-Niro-64-kWh
The other issues is pro/cons regarding min charge regarding the different options you covered. Monthly subscription would allow an free Asda charge without the min charge??
Previously I’ve worked it out that the savings made in costs on a 50kWh rapid charge session using 30kWh Leaf made the £7.80 a month worthwhile if rapid charging more than 2 per month. But also with membership the 7kW posts are free, and charging a larger battery or using the 150kW machines may be even more worthwhile to be a Pulse Subscription
Thanks for vid. I don’t use rapids, so contactless on Instavolt and now BP pulse will suite me. Is it me, but there seems to be a basic fault with the installation of EV chargers by non Tesla. We need to be able to que up and drive out the other side. Like Tesla? If we have to que we need a queuing system. They seem to be short sited? You don’t drive into a petrol pump parked at a dead end agains a wall/hedge. Twelve charges in a line are never going to be enough. So even with extra no charger parking spaces, who is going to be next to use the charger? Existing cars may need an hour, but new Ioniq 5 etc, may only want 10 minutes to put in 100+ miles. So what, they have to reverse out and who will be next in the que to fill up. So these BP etc chargers are already built in the wrong place? What do people think?
I think it is different from Petrol stations in that you are going to likely be there 15 mins to 45 mins rather than in and out. In terms of whose turn it tends to be quite polite and you know which cars came before you. Hopefully as numbers of charging posts at a location increase (hopefully taking the place of petrol pumps.), there will be no issues with queueing.
@@ThePlugSeeker Exactly. I don’t understand why we can’t drive into a charger and drive out the other side, so a car behind or in a queuing system can drive in. So how do we accommodate people that want a 10 minute charge in an Ionique 5 putting in 100+ miles in ten minutes and a Leaf who wants to charge for an hour? With more EVs coming, unless you provide unlimited numbers of chargers, there is going to have to be a system. You don’t put a petrol pump in a dead end, if one person wants £10 or someone else wants a full tank. Maybe it should be valet parking? We are still going to have the same types of customers. Charging for an hour and eating/not eating/toilets.Charging for 10 minutes eating/not eating/ toilets. Not charging and using toilets. Just charging. But for the sake of efficiency, surely you can’t let someone leave car charging for 20 minutes and go for a meal for 45 minutes? It needs different thinking? I sent an email to BP. Will be interesting to see response. Why I should be arsed about it I don’t know, they must be planning, but to me the placing of the existing chargers has built in obsolescence. How many cars will need long distance charging or be people who don’t have off street parking? Maybe induction charging in multi-storey car parks etc will make it all obsolete anyway in the not too distant future. Good fun. What’s the New Car?
I guess one reason why we don’t need unlimited chargers at forecourts is because it is easy to forget charging with EVs is not same as refuelling with petrol. The point is that actually using a rapid charger to refuel is actually always going to be a small proportion of refuelling of the nations EVs. The average U.K. drive is 30 miles a day, and about 60% households will be able to charge at home, hence many people hardly use public chargers. Contrast that with a petrol / diesel car that can ONLY refuel at a public pump. You can also add the many occasions where EV drivers will opportunity charge “grazing” on 7kW posts whilst parked doing other things or at workplace chargers. Furthermore there are masses of roadside / car park / supermarket/ hotel locations U.K. wide that have rapids. Hence the number of forecourt charging sessions will be nowhere near number of sessions needed by petrol cars at forecourts at BP / Shell.
Tried one for the first time today, it was a nightmare! App would not work so had to use card, then it would not register to finish so could not disconnect cable! All very stressful!
Yeah. They really are not the best rapids for reliability, even now. I have to say I’d rather use MFG, Instavolt, or Osprey. Checkout the free PlugShare app to checkout nearby networks and ratings.
This all seems like so much Faff!. Would you like to come with me to a Tesla Supercharger (Liphook) and make a video on charging with a Tesla. It’ll only need a 3 minute short!
Richard - you are quite right of course. I did charge a Tesla, in fact I went on to do a whole episode on the background and the history of the Tesla Supercharger Network. Checkout link below, be interested in your comments. But yes, essentially Elon Musk got it right first time with the Supercharger network, and gradually other networks are only now starting to emulate, I would say Fast Ned the Dutch network is the closest to Tesla in terms pure simplicity, and they have just one in U.K. at Sunderland. I would say probably Instavolt in U.K. next closest. ua-cam.com/video/_KoR-YbHGH8/v-deo.html
You are quite right of course , 3kW is the potential abserloute highest can get, similarly 7kW is often 5-6kW and you rarely get maximum kW from a rapid charger except perhaps if turn up at 0% charge for first bit of the charge.
Need to sign up to the subscription service to get RFID, costs £7.85 a month. You also get reductions in prices using their units. www.bppulse.co.uk/charging-on-the-go
It depends how often you use the BP 7kW or Rapid 50-175kW units to see if subscription method is worth the monthly fee. The RFID is another handy benefit of being a member.
It’s sad to see 43kW type 2 disappearing too, although at least some such as Gridserve, Osprey provide 22 kW chargers as do many stand alone PodPoints that ZOEs can charge at 1/2 Rapid charge speed, and many for free for the older ZOEs. Plus for now still have Pulse 50kW, Geniepoint, some Shell, PodPoint, ESB all still providing triple chargers.
Well. I try to stay positive. I loved them when they were Polar network. They are still biggest EV network in U.K. so we blame “BP takeover “ and look for nefarious motives as BP they are struggling now with charger failures and app problems. OR are they just struggling to manage a huge network and need to just get on top of their issues. Was it a good move to take BP money and expand with all that oil money? Or stay smaller and expand slower. Who knows. But I’d also point out we waited for good decade for the Electric Highway to start to turn itself around and it’s steadily updating, with all BPs resources I still hope to see Pulse do same.
The apps from Chargemaster have always been rubbish and between that and 42p/kWh on PAYG it's to push people to take out a monthly subscription. Thankfully we've EH/Gridserve, Instavolt and Osprey networks that just work with contactless payments and change between 30p and 36p kWh.
I certainly am not a fan of charging using apps generally from any network, and this one certainly is a bit glitchy. But I would point out it has perfectly good Contactless option too. I am not adverse to monthly subscription, if you use a BP Pulse Rapid 2 or more times a month the fee pays for itself. Even quicker if have ready access to a 7kW post as these are free!
@@ThePlugSeeker I think the only two in the UK I still need to use are for EH and GeniePoint. I imagine the EH one will be discontinued once Gridserve have replaced all the old EH units and are running the network for them, the Rugby HPCs are not listed in the EH app. Does feel like we are turning a corner with charging with numbers of chargers at locations and ease is use :)
@@MattHill303 yes indeed. It started slowly with the Milton Keynes Pulse Hub, and the Dundee hub, but now virtually every company is making hub locations with 4 or more, and then there Gridserve with 30+ at its first location and helping Ecotricity at Rugby, with GS planning 100 new sites and a redevelopment at all Ecotricity I think a corner has already been turned about 6 months ago !
Great video, thank you for the accurate review! We absolutely agree with all your observations and are working hard on fixing the bug that you mention, which is freezing the app when starting a charge as we understand the impact on customers. We have taken all your feedback in the video, as well as in the comments, onboard as we are keen to keep improving the app and our customer's experience.
If you or any of your subscribers would like to help make our app better, please reach out to us at customerengagement1@bp.com! Thanks again!
Thank you for the kind response. I am always to happy help the networks with feedback and have used the beta versions of some apps for some (eg PodPoint). I am sure you will be able to iron out the App bugs in due course in this new app. May I also recommend a signpost put next to the 150kW chargers that clearly says next to the charger “use this pad for Debit cards / use this pad for BP Pulse RFID”. I also hope you can work on reducing the answer times in the helpline (otherwise your operators on phone line are excellent and very helpful/professional 👍).
Ps if you wouldn’t mind sharing the link on Facebook/ Twitter if you are permitted I’d be very grateful, it helps my channel a lot. 👍😁
Any chance of ReTweeting my link? I’m going to do a repeat using my new EV soon to see the speed of the charger on a modern new EV capable of faster charging too. All good publicity 😉
I am watching this in May 2024. Has the app bug been fixed please?
Really glad I watched this as I definitely would have made the same contactless mistake. BP need to make these things idiot proof or at least clearly label them. Very useful to know all these tips!!
That’s how this channel got started really. As an early adopter I found a few chargers to have little little quirks like this and so I thought it a good topic for my fledgling channel in the beginning. Am so glad you found it useful 👍😁
Had the RFID card for 4 yrs , never failed me.
Even helped out a few app user's .
Worth the 2 pints a month payment.
Have to agree, I think the RFID is easiest of all. Also gives free use all their 7kW machines. We have some 7kW BP Pulse chargers in office car park , so can sometimes get a free charge, and so easily pays for itself.
Mr Paul please tell me how to get Rfid card.Thanks
Need to sign up to the subscription service to get RFID, costs £7.85 a month. You also get reductions in prices using their units. www.bppulse.co.uk/charging-on-the-go
It depends how often you use the BP 7kW or Rapid 50-175kW units to see if subscription method is worth the monthly fee. The RFID is another handy benefit of being a member.
The cords on those things are positively massive!
Glad to see 200amp Chademos rolling out in the UK.
Abserloutely. We are starting to see many Electric Vehicle chargers now in the 150-300kW Territory , either ABB or Tritium machines. Even more promising we are seeing examples of these appearing in Hubs with 4 or more at a location. This is kind of like playing catch-up to what Elon Musk and the Tesla Supercharger network got right from day 1, now other networks are following their example
THANKYOU I did not know about the 2 different posistions for the card. I wonder why I had to keep using the app. DOH. 😂
Hey if it fooled me as someone who does an EV channel and driven EVs for 8 years it can fool anyone 😂
It caught me out for ages. I delayed releasing video 2 months cos wasn’t sure what hell I was doing wrong 🤷♂️😆 so at least now hopefully others can learn from my error too.
That's a really useful review.... warts and all... Thanks.
Very welcome 🤗
Used the app with my Kia-E-Niro yesterday. It worked first time, I was thrilled and relieved as first time ever used a charger as away on holiday in Poole and was worried how I was going to charge the car.. 😁
Ah excellent. Am pleased it worked ok for you. Was it a BP Pulse EV charger you were using?
Yes it was a BP Pulse 24403 at the Toby Carvery so popped in for a drink while I waited :-)
Why not! (As long as it’s a soft one😂 🥴 🚗)
Can kia e niro be charged from 150kw charger ? How much it cost everytime ? And how long it take on 150kw rapid charger?? Plz reply
Yes. The Kia E-Niro uses a DC CCS cable to charge. Here is the stats on the E-Niro from the EV Database website ev-database.uk/car/1125/Kia-e-Niro-64-kWh
The other issues is pro/cons regarding min charge regarding the different options you covered. Monthly subscription would allow an free Asda charge without the min charge??
Previously I’ve worked it out that the savings made in costs on a 50kWh rapid charge session using 30kWh Leaf made the £7.80 a month worthwhile if rapid charging more than 2 per month. But also with membership the 7kW posts are free, and charging a larger battery or using the 150kW machines may be even more worthwhile to be a Pulse Subscription
Thanks for vid. I don’t use rapids, so contactless on Instavolt and now BP pulse will suite me. Is it me, but there seems to be a basic fault with the installation of EV chargers by non Tesla. We need to be able to que up and drive out the other side. Like Tesla? If we have to que we need a queuing system. They seem to be short sited? You don’t drive into a petrol pump parked at a dead end agains a wall/hedge. Twelve charges in a line are never going to be enough. So even with extra no charger parking spaces, who is going to be next to use the charger? Existing cars may need an hour, but new Ioniq 5 etc, may only want 10 minutes to put in 100+ miles. So what, they have to reverse out and who will be next in the que to fill up. So these BP etc chargers are already built in the wrong place? What do people think?
I think it is different from Petrol stations in that you are going to likely be there 15 mins to 45 mins rather than in and out. In terms of whose turn it tends to be quite polite and you know which cars came before you. Hopefully as numbers of charging posts at a location increase (hopefully taking the place of petrol pumps.), there will be no issues with queueing.
But it’s definitely a thought going forward. As obviously there will be a lot more people charging as time goes on.
@@ThePlugSeeker Exactly. I don’t understand why we can’t drive into a charger and drive out the other side, so a car behind or in a queuing system can drive in. So how do we accommodate people that want a 10 minute charge in an Ionique 5 putting in 100+ miles in ten minutes and a Leaf who wants to charge for an hour? With more EVs coming, unless you provide unlimited numbers of chargers, there is going to have to be a system. You don’t put a petrol pump in a dead end, if one person wants £10 or someone else wants a full tank. Maybe it should be valet parking? We are still going to have the same types of customers. Charging for an hour and eating/not eating/toilets.Charging for 10 minutes eating/not eating/ toilets. Not charging and using toilets. Just charging. But for the sake of efficiency, surely you can’t let someone leave car charging for 20 minutes and go for a meal for 45 minutes? It needs different thinking? I sent an email to BP. Will be interesting to see response. Why I should be arsed about it I don’t know, they must be planning, but to me the placing of the existing chargers has built in obsolescence. How many cars will need long distance charging or be people who don’t have off street parking? Maybe induction charging in multi-storey car parks etc will make it all obsolete anyway in the not too distant future. Good fun. What’s the New Car?
I guess one reason why we don’t need unlimited chargers at forecourts is because it is easy to forget charging with EVs is not same as refuelling with petrol. The point is that actually using a rapid charger to refuel is actually always going to be a small proportion of refuelling of the nations EVs. The average U.K. drive is 30 miles a day, and about 60% households will be able to charge at home, hence many people hardly use public chargers. Contrast that with a petrol / diesel car that can ONLY refuel at a public pump.
You can also add the many occasions where EV drivers will opportunity charge “grazing” on 7kW posts whilst parked doing other things or at workplace chargers. Furthermore there are masses of roadside / car park / supermarket/ hotel locations U.K. wide that have rapids. Hence the number of forecourt charging sessions will be nowhere near number of sessions needed by petrol cars at forecourts at BP / Shell.
Tried one for the first time today, it was a nightmare! App would not work so had to use card, then it would not register to finish so could not disconnect cable! All very stressful!
Yeah. They really are not the best rapids for reliability, even now. I have to say I’d rather use MFG, Instavolt, or Osprey. Checkout the free PlugShare app to checkout nearby networks and ratings.
Excellent video. All covered !
Thanks. They are great chargers the BP Pulse, but easy to make mistakes if not used to them.
This all seems like so much Faff!. Would you like to come with me to a Tesla Supercharger (Liphook) and make a video on charging with a Tesla. It’ll only need a 3 minute short!
Richard - you are quite right of course. I did charge a Tesla, in fact I went on to do a whole episode on the background and the history of the Tesla Supercharger Network. Checkout link below, be interested in your comments. But yes, essentially Elon Musk got it right first time with the Supercharger network, and gradually other networks are only now starting to emulate, I would say Fast Ned the Dutch network is the closest to Tesla in terms pure simplicity, and they have just one in U.K. at Sunderland. I would say probably Instavolt in U.K. next closest. ua-cam.com/video/_KoR-YbHGH8/v-deo.html
Brilliant video!
Thanks a lot Andrew. Means a lot coming from a EV Pro UA-camr like yourself 😁👍
very informative, thank you
You are very welcome
Great video thanks 😊
Very welcome. 🙌
Thanks for another great video
You are most welcome, so pleased you found it useful.
Really insightful video.
Thanks ever so much.
Can you get receipts from BP ? Mine is a company car. I've found it's v difficult with MFG .
Not sure. Could ask BP Pulse. Here’s a link I found on this question. www.bp.com/en_au/australia/home/products-services/bppulse/faqs.html#
My guess is a newer leaf so you can continue to use your V2G.
Ah but we are not just a one EV household 👍😁
Looks like a leaf, 40 or 62 kWh?
Hmmmm 😉
Granny chargers on 13A plug normally 2.2kW max.
You are quite right of course , 3kW is the potential abserloute highest can get, similarly 7kW is often 5-6kW and you rarely get maximum kW from a rapid charger except perhaps if turn up at 0% charge for first bit of the charge.
Very helpful. Thanks.
Very welcome, I am glad you found it useful 😁
Please tell me how to get RFID card?
Need to sign up to the subscription service to get RFID, costs £7.85 a month. You also get reductions in prices using their units. www.bppulse.co.uk/charging-on-the-go
It depends how often you use the BP 7kW or Rapid 50-175kW units to see if subscription method is worth the monthly fee. The RFID is another handy benefit of being a member.
Thank you for your reply.
No problem 😉
🔥 I’m here
How did you get on charging here?
Chademo max's out at 73kw on my leaf 62
That’s interesting. Have you tried it starting at near 0% ?
No AC. Chademo for ancient Leafs. Nowt for ancient Zoes.
It’s sad to see 43kW type 2 disappearing too, although at least some such as Gridserve, Osprey provide 22 kW chargers as do many stand alone PodPoints that ZOEs can charge at 1/2 Rapid charge speed, and many for free for the older ZOEs. Plus for now still have Pulse 50kW, Geniepoint, some Shell, PodPoint, ESB all still providing triple chargers.
I found BP pulse is very expensive I charged for thirty minutes and it cost me sixty pounds that’s mad.
Any interaction with the system still has slow server functionality🤦🏻♂️
Do you mean when using the App?
@@ThePlugSeeker Absolutely they rebranded but it's the same home desktop computer running as a server probably a Pentium 133mhz🤦🏻♂️😂
It certainly is a bit “flaky” but with perseverance i did get it to work as I said in video.
Poorly thought out and implemented app - one to miss me thinks.
As I said in the video it is a new app and hopefully with improvements going forward they will be able to iron out some of these problems.
@@ThePlugSeeker - Hopefully this will be so.
Give it a year and it will be a solid network, bp just need to shake off the mindset that scale is good enough on its own.
Worst company I have come across in 60 years
Well. I try to stay positive. I loved them when they were Polar network. They are still biggest EV network in U.K. so we blame “BP takeover “ and look for nefarious motives as BP they are struggling now with charger failures and app problems. OR are they just struggling to manage a huge network and need to just get on top of their issues. Was it a good move to take BP money and expand with all that oil money? Or stay smaller and expand slower. Who knows. But I’d also point out we waited for good decade for the Electric Highway to start to turn itself around and it’s steadily updating, with all BPs resources I still hope to see Pulse do same.
The apps from Chargemaster have always been rubbish and between that and 42p/kWh on PAYG it's to push people to take out a monthly subscription. Thankfully we've EH/Gridserve, Instavolt and Osprey networks that just work with contactless payments and change between 30p and 36p kWh.
I certainly am not a fan of charging using apps generally from any network, and this one certainly is a bit glitchy. But I would point out it has perfectly good Contactless option too. I am not adverse to monthly subscription, if you use a BP Pulse Rapid 2 or more times a month the fee pays for itself. Even quicker if have ready access to a 7kW post as these are free!
Tbh I struggle to find any EV Apps that don’t have at least some issues
@@ThePlugSeeker I think the only two in the UK I still need to use are for EH and GeniePoint. I imagine the EH one will be discontinued once Gridserve have replaced all the old EH units and are running the network for them, the Rugby HPCs are not listed in the EH app. Does feel like we are turning a corner with charging with numbers of chargers at locations and ease is use :)
@@MattHill303 yes indeed. It started slowly with the Milton Keynes Pulse Hub, and the Dundee hub, but now virtually every company is making hub locations with 4 or more, and then there Gridserve with 30+ at its first location and helping Ecotricity at Rugby, with GS planning 100 new sites and a redevelopment at all Ecotricity I think a corner has already been turned about 6 months ago !