Electric vehicle charging whilst out and about

[Zireael]

Can anyone with an electric vehicle please explain to me how charging works away from your home charger?

How do you find the nearest available charger? How do you pay for the charging? Any tips to share?

There’s zap map or I use the two apps from the companies close to work and home (project EV and VendElectric). With both you can have a card associated with your account or top up your wallet so either charges to wallet or card.

if I need to charge elsewhere it normally doesn’t need an app just tap your bank card or Apple Pay.

zap map is the app to use, shows different types of charger (there’s different speeds), costs, people can log if it’s not working, whether it’s currently available etc.

most big tescos have free chargers, not the quickest but I get 10-15 miles for free while I shop.

Paying is a pain tbh…I don’t know why they haven’t gone for the paying for petrol/parking model of ‘this is how much I want/have used, now let me tap my card to pay’. Instead most companies have their own app, some of which are temperamental, so I have about 4 apps on my phone. V annoying when you plug in and realise you need yet another app. Certain companies I can pay through my Audi app which is easiest.

Thank you, I will look at the zap map app