DEFENDER2.NET - View topic - Huge increase in EV charging points on M9, J10

↓ Advertise on Defender2 ↓

Home · FAQ · New Posts · My Posts · PMs · Search · Members · Map · Calendar · Profile · Donate · Register · Log In

Home > Off Topic > Huge increase in EV charging points on M9, J10

Page 1 of 2

Print this entire topic ·

Tim in Scotland

Member Since: 23 May 2007
Location: The Land that time forgot
Posts: 3753

Huge increase in EV charging points on M9, J10

During the week I parked in the Castleview Park and Ride car park just off the M9 at J10 at Stirling to Use the free parking and to take the free bus into town. This was one of the two out of town charging places I used when I had the Countryman PHEV.
Several surprises on arrival yesterday at the Castleview Park and Ride car park about ½ mile off the M9
a) half the car park was being ripped up
b) a huge parking facility but on arrival at 10am only 4 other cars there, pre-Covid you had to search for a slot.on leaving at 1230 only 2 additional cars had parked - city centre was dead, C-19 after effect?
c)the half of the car park being ripped up was to build 20 new 150kw charging points and the 8 existing 50kw charging points that you usually have to queue to use will be replaced once the new ones are commissioned. Interesting too that looking at the site hoarding the entire charging area will be covered, owners of ICE vehicles will have to walk in the wet to the shuttlebus, EV owners have a covered walk way to the bus stop. The roof isn’t a grass roof, it’s going to be totally covered with solar panels.

Every one of the charging points will be free to use (as the present points are, provided you have a Chargepoint Scotland RFID card (£20 pa fee) and a good number of the new chargers will be Tesla Superchargers. BTW even if you aren’t resident here but coming to visit you can apply in advance for a card.

Today I had to go to the out of town shopping area on the other side of town where there are also charge points and wow, another massive development of charging points including points in the coach parking! I also went round to the 2nd Park and ride car park were there were not previously any charging points - 4 Tesla Superchargers and 10 other points are to be installed. Tonight I went to the Co-op in the next village where there is also a charging facility and there is a planning application notification indicating that the present 4 charging points will be increased to a bank of 10 x 150kw chargers with a covered parking area for EV’s.

Stirling Council are really grasping the need to provide plenty of charging points if you want lots of tourists in EV’s to visit. Being just off Scotland’s main route to the north the Castleview development will fill in a gap in the charging facilities close to the motorway network. We do have Ecotricity, ionity and Polar operating up here but they all want you to pay for the electricity you need and in my experience Ecotricity’s Electric Highway chargers are not only very expensive to use, a lot of the time they are out of service!

Maybe I should have purchased a Tesla or an IPace instead of a diesel powered car...... Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come
2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed!

15th Aug 2020 7:22pm

custom90

Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20487

Considering this is a Diesel Defender site the point in this post is what exactly? No Guts, No Glory.
🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇺🇸⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪

15th Aug 2020 7:57pm

VVS210

Member Since: 12 Nov 2016
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 953

I think there might be one or two people with petrol engines in their Defenders (and earlier) who would disagree that this is a Diesel Defender site! Some might even say it's a 'petrolist' comment

15th Aug 2020 8:42pm

Bian Considine

Member Since: 25 Jul 2020
Location: Margate
Posts: 53

Personally, I were resident in Stirling Councils area I would not want to be paying for other peoples "fuel" or the means to distribute it.

15th Aug 2020 10:58pm

22900013A

Member Since: 23 Dec 2010
Location: Oxfordshire
Posts: 3150

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 USW Keswick Green

Any evidence of upgrades to local power cables, transformers, switchgear etc...?

I rather doubt it. I hope the locals will enjoy the inevitable brownouts.

I wonder if the plan is to use solar energy to power them. Would that work at night or in the middle of winter? 🤔 2011 110 USW
1973 Series III 1-Ton
1972 Series III 1-Ton Cherrypicker
1969 IIA 1-Ton
1966 IIA 88"

16th Aug 2020 6:30am

Tim in Scotland

Member Since: 23 May 2007
Location: The Land that time forgot
Posts: 3753

It’s not paid for by the council but the Scottish Government who are trying to encourage more zero emissions vehicle usage.
This might be a forum for ICE powered vehicles but there are, if people hadn’t noticed, 4 PHEV vehicles in Land Rovers’s product range and a BEV in Jaguar’s - they all need to plug in somewhere and all 5 are able to go offroad to some extent.
There are more JLR EV’s planned to come soon as well including a PHEV or BEV Defender
There doesn’t seem to be a problem providing sufficient electricity to the quite large Tesla charging areas at motorway service areas so why should it be a problem for any other charging place? Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come
2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed!

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on 16th Aug 2020 7:35am. Edited 1 time in total

16th Aug 2020 7:32am

discomog

Member Since: 09 May 2015
Location: Notts/Lincs Border
Posts: 2531

2015 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Santorini Black

I know from reading some of Tim's earlier posts that he was an advocate of PHEV, particularly the Mini Countryman. Looking at some of the above reactions to this post he is amongst EV luddites here on this forum. I class myself as a serious petrol and diesel head but even I am looking at swapping our DS for either a PHEV or even a EV next year. I've already ruled out the Tesla which I consider to be an iPad on wheels but there are lots of others to choose from. Defender 90XS SW
Mini Countryman Cooper S
Morgan Plus 8

16th Aug 2020 7:34am

Tim in Scotland

Member Since: 23 May 2007
Location: The Land that time forgot
Posts: 3753

Moi, a Luddite?, I’m quite happy to embrace new/advancing technology - I bought a New Defender after all
Prior to my test drive of the 110 there were 3 cars on my shopping list - all electric cars too. Jaguar I-Pace, Tesla 3 (but I would prefer a Y which isn’t available here yet) and the Kia e-Nero. Defender won the day because it meant I could reduce to a single comfortable vehicle that could do everything I need of it, if I had gone for any of the BEVs I would still have had to keep my 1996 90 to cover the Offroad driving , it has always been a 2nd car for me. Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come
2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed!

Last edited by Tim in Scotland on 16th Aug 2020 7:53am. Edited 2 times in total

16th Aug 2020 7:37am

discomog

Member Since: 09 May 2015
Location: Notts/Lincs Border
Posts: 2531

Not referring to you as a luddite Tim, it's the others

Defender 90XS SW
Mini Countryman Cooper S
Morgan Plus 8

16th Aug 2020 7:43am

Zed

Member Since: 07 Oct 2017
Location: In the woods
Posts: 3330

2010 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 XS CSW Santorini Black

Thanks for posting Tim.
It's good news.
I very much hope England and Wales follow Scotland's lead. For my use I think I could exclusively charge at home and use one of our other cars for occasional long journeys but with a decent charging network it would open possibilities.

EV's are very exciting. After 150 years of development the internal combustion engine has pretty much hit the peak of performance, while 1st generation EV's already blow them out of the water. As soon as it's practical I will be ripping out the crppy Ford effort from my 110 and converting to electric. WARNING.
This post may contain sarcasm.

Last edited by Zed on 16th Aug 2020 8:58am. Edited 1 time in total

16th Aug 2020 8:49am

90 Dreamer

Member Since: 13 Jul 2019
Location: Oop North
Posts: 2171

2016 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 HT Corris Grey

Regardless of its performance or benefits EV as a 'no or low emission' vehicle is a nonsense...........

We need to really get to grips with a much more green alternative that doesn't destroy third world areas, etc

16th Aug 2020 8:58am

Ads90

Member Since: 16 Jun 2008
Location: Cots-on-the-Wolds
Posts: 812

2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 CSW Keswick Green

Posted in ‘off-topic’ & titled about ev charging, and apparently takes some by surprise that it’s not all about diesel defenders?

There is no affordable ev alternative to our family’s defender yet, but the wife’s diesel golf is getting long in the tooth, & like many we’re weighing up whether we should go bev or buy a newer 2nd hand ice to do us a few more years. The charging network needs much investment to make the elec choice more attractive, so interesting to hear of progressive projects like this.

16th Aug 2020 9:09am

RDR

Member Since: 27 Apr 2018
Location: Derbyshire
Posts: 595

There is a definite rapid expansion happening which is pleasing to me as a BEV owner. We have been on the BEV bandwagon since 2015 where to start it was pretty much home charging only and now it seems not to hard to find somewhere within short reach of most major destinations.

On the brownout comment above, i did get into a discussion when we were asking for more charging around our work office. They couldn't do it as there wasn't the supply infrastructure to cope without causing issues so we are having to wait for a phase of city development which will then allow it. 110 MY23.5 X Dynamic HSE
RR MY23 HSE PHEV
D5 MY19 HSE - Now Sold
D4 MY16 HSE Luxury - Now Sold
D4 MY12 HSE - Gone
D3 MY06 S - Gone but not forgotten

16th Aug 2020 12:36pm

Ramsay

Member Since: 30 Sep 2015
Location: Moffat, Dumfries & Galloway
Posts: 629

1995 Defender 110 300 Tdi CSW Auto Keswick Green

I’m considering a HUGO 2x2 BE motorcycle to supplement the Defender when I move to Dumfries and Galloway next month. I will be off grid but the solar array there produces enough to be charging the bike. It won’t run to full EV charging. If we get these multiple charge points I will consider it as I can use them when I come down from the Fell. 1995 Defender 110 CSW
1971 SIIA Lightweight

16th Aug 2020 12:55pm

VVS210

Member Since: 12 Nov 2016
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 953

discomog wrote:
Not referring to you as a luddite Tim, it's the others

I hope I wasn't included as one of the "others"? - my post was certainly not knocking the OP but just pointing out that 'other fuels are available' for Defenders not just diesel

16th Aug 2020 1:04pm

Page 1 of 2

All times are GMT

Jump to

< Previous Topic | Next Topic >

Posting Rules

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum