Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme 1st Sept - 31st March2015

[chrisevcharging]

Following applies to UK drivers
1st September sees OLEV's 3rd attempt at homecharge grant - titled Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme.
Main bits to be aware of - you will need to provide evidence of ownership of an EV, receipt / order number / declaration from lease company / declaration from company that you are the primary user for at least 6 months. No allowances for friends and family I'm afraid - one vehicle one unit.
The grant will also reduce from £1000 at present to £900 - does this mean you will have to pay £100 for the install? Depends on the installer. We are in discussion with Pod Point and Rolec regarding margins. Pod Point have confirmed they will still offer the home charge unit for free - great news, I expect Rolec to come back with the same offer. I will keep you posted with any news we receive.

If you require help with your home charge unit drop us a line [email protected] if it is leased please provide details of your lease company as we will not be able to fit the unit without their declaration. Although we are Midlands based we often hit the road if we can double up on installs so let us know your location and we will see if we can help.

Hope to see some more PHEV owners soon. Cheers Chris

 

[DavidEJM]

Sounds great Chris but since I can't get people to call me back or, it seems, turn up as arranged (Chargemaster installer due to come tonite but didn't turn up & no call to say why-could that have been EV charging solutions?) I'm wondering what I need to do to get one of these mythical charge points installed!
Also, I would like something similar to be installed at my place of business (my own office premises) mainly for convenience and not having to plug in a 13amp plug in the rain, but I can't seem to find anything appropriate. I don't mind paying but don't want a freestanding unit that looks like it is supposed to be in a public place, just something similar to the home charge units.
Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Tristar500]

I can offer one positive vote for Chris at EV Charging Solutions - several phone calls returned, survey date agreed, advised when he was en route and installation done in the same day free of charge and left very neat and tidy using the smart looking Pod Point wall mounted unit. Chris is a VERY busy man but my experience has been nothing but positive. He can also fit work place chargers though these are not free!

 

[chrisevcharging]

David we have nothing to do with chargemaster - please don't tarnish the few decent independent installers with the same brush as the bigger companies. We appreciate the need you have as EV drivers - we have a PHEV ourselves, one of the first to arrive in the UK. Most of our business comes off the back of poor customer services by the bigger guys. Our contact details are listed above please feel free to drop us an email - I guarantee you will have a reply same day, unlike the bigger companies.
Cheers

 

[DavidEJM]

Hi Chris, being a small business owner myself in a business that is often derided (I will say no more!) I feel your pain for being 'tarred with the same brush' as the bigger operators (apologies for that inference it was just the name was similar but I cant remember it as I didn't think i would need to). There was some interesting confusion in dealing with PodPoint (as I reported in another post) and then filled a form in on the Chargemaster website and was impressed by the quick response and giving me an immediate time and date for installation. I have called them and await a response and if i get nowhere i will give you a call. I can only assume that there is a period of chaos with these guys as we approach the end of the current scheme.

 

[maby]

I guess everyone can make mistakes. My experience of ChargeMaster was very positive. I requested the installation and they offered an appointment about eight days later. During that period, they called me twice to ask if I was available to accept an immediate installation since they had an engineer in my area with time on his hands - unfortunately I could not. On the day they turned up on time and completed the installation neatly within a couple of hours. The engineer gave me a quick introduction to the device, completed the paperwork and left everything in excellent condition.

 

[Eggtastico]

Hi Chris,
I was given your number by ChargeMaster as they said EV was the local company to me.
I am based in South Wales nr Swansea, is that somewhere EV cover?

 

[DavidEJM]

I've been on the phone to them today and it is a company in Nottingham called EV charging centre (evchargingcentre.com) that is supposed to deal with the chargemaster installs. I spoke to a lady called Vicky who I believe was the same lady that I spoke to before as she said she had some recollection of speaking to me! However, it was not on their list to install on 18th August, its as if I dreamt the whole thing! Going to look into it and call me back.

I know the charge point is not absolutely essential and in no way connected to Mitsubishi but I do keep wondering if I'm supposed to buy an EV! I could get myself a nice used Aston Martin for the same money . The fuel use would be the same as I couldn't afford to drive it and would spend all my time looking at it! OK maybe another day!

Sorry off topic, if i get nowhere with EV charging centre I will give EV charging solutions a ring!

edit; just googled 'EV charging solutions' and there is another company with a website charging-solutions.com that do seem to be chargemaster related. Wow this is getting confusing!

 

[maby]

Perhaps I was just lucky - I live quite close to the Charge Master head office and they were round within days of me calling.

 

[chrisevcharging]

We don't sub contract for chargemaster we don't use their units. It may have been ev charging centre but they are Nottingham based. We have fitted in south wales but that was when we went on tour, your out of our installation area sadly but if you struggle I may be able to find an installer for you.
You guys want to try going to a trade show with anything to do with charging solutions written on you - last one I had 4 different people say I know your colleague Julian. This was news to me as I don't know a Julian - he works for charging solutions!

 

[DavidEJM]

Well, after some more phone calls to EV charging centre I spoke to a call centre manager earlier in the week and he confirmed that 'human error' meant that my installation was not added to the job sheet for the contractor last week. I accepted that (with good grace as we all make mistakes) and the installation was then scheduled for this morning at 9am sharp. By 9:45, no-one had turned up and I went to work!
I received a phone call from the contractor an hour later to say they were on their way. Hurrah! Looks like it was going to happen after all. Having had all the hassle, I feared that they would come to have a look and say that it couldn't be done for some reason, however other than not being able to site it where I wanted the install was easy I believe (I wasn't there as I was now at work for the morning).
Popped home at lunchtime to find that it is an 'untethered socket' rather than the 'tethered cable' which was my preference for convenience, so I now need to obtain an appropriate cable! Apparently they (the contractor) don't fit the tethered type!? Oh well I guess there might be some future proofing benefit for the socket type!

 

[greendwarf]

According to the OLEV on-line doc for householders, the old scheme installers are not necessarily authorised to administer the new scheme and you need to go to the OLEV web-site to check the validity of the installer. Of course, only the old list is there - presumably to stop anyone claiming under the new scheme :lol:

 

[greendwarf]

Anyone yet to order may be interested in the following reply yesterday:-

Dear Mr Briant,

We intend to publish the new list later today or on Monday. We have only recently received the applications from installers which we are currently processing. There should be a handful of companies authorised by the end of today.

Kind regards,

Sara

From: IAN BRIANT [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 24 August 2014 16:43
To: olev enquiries
Subject: Authorised installers from 1/9/14

Your householder guide for the new scheme, states that the previous scheme installers are not necessarily authorised to administer the new scheme and we should check your web-site for the new list - however, only the old list is available! Where is the new list?

Ian Briant