Toyota EV Charging Network

[georgepilk]

What good and bad experiences has anyone had? Just joined it-not used it. Any advice/comments? Simply too many charging apps to download (which is absurd IMHO) so hopefully this eliminates this issue as well as potential payment issues. 

[Cyker]

Yeah, it really winds me up that you STILL need a bazillion apps and/or proprietary RFID tag/card if you want to access all the chargers - Weren't they going to legislate mandatory contactless??

[ernieb]

15 hours ago, Cyker said:

Yeah, it really winds me up that you STILL need a bazillion apps and/or proprietary RFID tag/card if you want to access all the chargers - Weren't they going to legislate mandatory contactless??

Yes they were going to legislate to ensure all chargers had a card payment option but that’s the last I heard of it. I think one of the issues that the motoring trade raised was that the cost of use was going to be made a premium option. Sadly, a quick search around this morning and I can not find what is happened to this potential option.

[Cyker]

Given how much they charge per kWh already I think they can smeg right off with their raised costs!

 

[ChrisON]

22 hours ago, Cyker said:

Yeah, it really winds me up that you STILL need a bazillion apps and/or proprietary RFID tag/card if you want to access all the chargers - Weren't they going to legislate mandatory contactless??

Since l had solar installed and buying the bz4x  l now have the following apps installed:

Givenergy

Myenergi Zappi

MyToyota

Octopus

Zap-Map

Instavolt

BPPulse

..and I'll probably end up with more to try and cover all bases.

 

Chris

 

 

[philip42h]

26 minutes ago, ChrisON said:

Since l had solar installed and buying the bz4x  l now have the following apps installed:

• Givenergy
• Myenergi Zappi
• MyToyota
• Octopus
• Zap-Map
• Instavolt
• BPPulse

..and I'll probably end up with more to try and cover all bases.

Chris

I've had solar for over ten years now - I have zero apps for that and it works perfectly well ... 🙂

I assume that Octopus, Givenergy and Myenergi Zappi cover your solar and home charging solution? (And I accept that your solar solution will be a generation or two smarter than mine!)

I've got MyToyota / MyT which comes with owning any modern Toyota - it's not an EV specific thing.

Zap-Map simply helps you find EV charge points - a sensible thing to have if you have an EV.

So your current count of "a bazillion apps" is just two - Instavolt and BPPulse ... 😉

As you say, you'll almost certainly wind-up with more but I'm prepared to bet that at the end of the day you'll just stick with two or three that you find reliable and convenient.

I agree that the current charging infrastructure is deficient and vastly over-complicated and hopefully the situation will improve "rapidly" but it strikes me that the folk that are complaining most loudly right now are those of us who don't have EVs ... 🙂

[Cyker]

In my case, yeah, because I don't want to deal with that, so I will repeatedly complain about it in the hope it gets fixed *before* I have to have an EV, rather than getting it *then* suffering through it and have people say "Oh well nobody complained".

If you only use local chargers, then naturally you won't need that many apps, but if you wanted to go from e.g. London to Edinburgh for a holiday in summer, you are almost guaranteed to have to install multiple apps en route right now, especially if you have to divert due to long queues at chargers or chargers out of order at planned stops, and in some cases are just unable to use some chargers at all due to them requiring proprietary RFID tags (Thankfully those are on the decline and are much rarer now.)

There's just no reason any of us should have to deal with all that faff when contactless payment exists.

[ChrisON]

17 hours ago, philip42h said:

I've had solar for over ten years now - I have zero apps for that and it works perfectly well ... 🙂

I assume that Octopus, Givenergy and Myenergi Zappi cover your solar and home charging solution? (And I accept that your solar solution will be a generation or two smarter than mine!)

I've got MyToyota / MyT which comes with owning any modern Toyota - it's not an EV specific thing.

Zap-Map simply helps you find EV charge points - a sensible thing to have if you have an EV.

So your current count of "a bazillion apps" is just two - Instavolt and BPPulse ... 😉

As you say, you'll almost certainly wind-up with more but I'm prepared to bet that at the end of the day you'll just stick with two or three that you find reliable and convenient.

I agree that the current charging infrastructure is deficient and vastly over-complicated and hopefully the situation will improve "rapidly" but it strikes me that the folk that are complaining most loudly right now are those of us who don't have EVs ... 🙂

My point, if there was one, is that we seem increasingly dependent on 'Apps' to deal with modern life; I'm far from being any any form of Luddite but the relentless trend towards everything revolving around our smart phones is uncomfortable. I guess some of that worry stems from being of the generation that experienced both sides: l can still recall a time as a youngster when we didn't have a telephone (when we did get one it was a 'party line') and the TV had just three channels. I had an Outlander PHEV before the bz4x; there was an app for that but l never used it in the 4.5 years of owning the car. You can't really not use the MyT app.

I bought my bz4x Premier Edition (from a Toyota dealer) for a VERY good price with only 154 miles on it. The story behind that deal sort of reflects some of the discussion here. The car was orginally bought by an elderley gentleman who had owned Toyota's for many, many years and was very keen to own a full Toyota EV. He lived in a residential care home. He offered to pay for the installation of a charging point on the care home's property; which they agreed to. So he ordered the car. Right at the last minute, after he had taken delivery of the car the owners of the care home reneged on the agreement. The chap didn't have or want a smart phone and didn't use cards so he wasn't really able to use public charging points. He ended up trading the bz4x in for a RAV4. 

...and it wasn't me who wrote 'a bazillion apps'. 😄

 

Chris

 

 

[philip42h]

37 minutes ago, ChrisON said:

My point, if there was one, is that we seem increasingly dependent on 'Apps' to deal with modern life; I'm far from being any any form of Luddite ...

... He ended up trading the bz4x in for a RAV4. 

And a very valid point it is too ... and I probably am some form of a Luddite - I've certainly been accused of being a dinosaur.

The apps seem to be all about "customer loyalty programmes" - and I really don't see the need either. When I go over / under the Dartford crossing I am charged automatically - my registration number and credit card details are registered with the operator. I can't see any reason why a similar approach couldn't be applied to EV charge points - read the registration, check that the card used is registered for that car and with that supplier, provide charge. It doesn't need any more technology that we have today, is and they can still track who their users are ...

The cars are there or thereabouts for those in a position to make the switch. One certainly does need offroad charging at home and there is some way to go before the public charging infrastructure is really fit for purpose - but it is getting there.  And the RAV4 hybrid is a great choice for those who are not ready yet ... 😉 

[ChrisON]

Yes, l was very close to going for the RAV4 PHEV but the lead time put me off. Next on the list was a Suzuki A-Cross; which is essentially a RAV4. It was getting difficult to choose but the bz4x popped up; effectively a new car without the long lead time. No regrets so far. We have gone Toyota for both of us having ordered a new Yaris Cross GR Sport for my partner. Problem is until we take delivery of the Yaris on the 1st September we are down to one car and l can't get her out of the bz4x - she loves it.

Much of my gripe with it all is how much of what we do on our phones/tablets/PC..etc is tracked by all of the 'technology giants' with the sole purpose of increasing profits. Everything you do online is tracked: information on everyone's browsing history is traded and used to create targeted advertising. Even your ISP wil trade (your depersonalised) browsing history. All of the companies behind charging apps will make extensive use of that information. There is much you can do to mitigate it all but it takes time, effort and some technical know how and perhaps a bit off topic for this discussion.

Chris

 

 

[Matt Bumstead]

I found the Toyota Charging Network to be inferior value for money. So much so that I didn't utilise it once during the entire 6-month free trial.

When I compared the cost of using chargers via the Toyota Charging Network with the costs of using the charge supplier directly, the Toyota Charging Network was always more expensive. It was more than twice as expensive to charge with Ubitricity (Shell Recharge).

So my advice would be to use direct methods of payment. It just doesn't make sense to pay a monthly recurring fee for the privilege of paying higher charger prices.

[georgepilk]

Thank you for that Matt. So which apps did you download and then use? I'm not aware of many or if any that simply allow you to pay contactless. The apps are, to be frank just a source to find an EV charge point. Why there are so many is beyond me. More and more people creaming off a %age from the actual electrical supplier. Thanks,  

[ChrisON]

Instavolt & Osprey can be used with contactless, others probably can too. All of them pre-authorise a set amount but only bill you for what you use.

 

Chris

 

[Mister Mike]

Also, Gridserve do contactless payment. I'm going to cancel my free 6-month Toyota Charging Network subscription, as I've never needed to use it.

[Matt Bumstead]

On 6/28/2023 at 12:08 PM, georgepilk said:

Thank you for that Matt. So which apps did you download and then use? I'm not aware of many or if any that simply allow you to pay contactless. The apps are, to be frank just a source to find an EV charge point. Why there are so many is beyond me. More and more people creaming off a %age from the actual electrical supplier. Thanks,  

The main app I have been using is Shell Recharge. It's a fairly well implemented app and Shell has partnerships with other charging providers, including Ionity and MFG Power, beyond their own (Shell Recharge and Ubitricity). I've also used Instavolt which, as far as I'm aware, isn't supported by Shell Recharge, but I didn't need to use an app with Instavolt and just initiated the charge with a contactless card.

So far, I haven't needed to use another app. Oh, aside from Octopus Electroverse. That's also a very good app, and it has a wide range of roaming partners. You can either have the cost of charging charged to your linked debit/credit card or, if you're an Octopus electricity customer, you can have the charge added to your monthly home electricity bill instead.