Gridserve Takes Different Approach To Tesla In Major Upgrade

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:03]We travel the country trying to find out what's going on where we're originally in Stafford and they had two of these electric highway uh 50 kW dual bay shared power and one of those was a Chadamo and a lot of drivers were queuing up for that bay because they only have CCS2 nowadays and this is typical. This is a very busy charger.

[00:00:25]We're at limb services on the M6. It's just off the M6, so it's north and southbound. Limb services, it's a truck stop, lorry, lorry stop, whatever you call it. Uh, and a very, very busy charger because there's McDonald's, there's KFC, Gregs, Costa, uh, W Smith, Emma there. Everything's here, apart from the chargers. And for a long time, this is all that was available. But these seem now to be a bit deserted. And the But there's also something really strange. We got two bays there. Two bays. We got two bays here, which is that one again, and this one. And then we got two bays here, which is that one and that one. So, we got six plugs and four bay. Weird. Anyway, one of the biggest reasons people will not switch to EVs is range and charging infrastructure. and when they're faced with this can understand why. But you only have to look over there and you'll find it's absolutely dramatically changed chalk and cheese night and day. Let's go and have a look what it is. This is Dave takes it on.

[00:01:30]I'm Dave. Now we often talk about design of chargers and we just this morning we're filming in Charlotte Richard.

[00:01:36]Lorries everywhere parking on the bays the whole lot. Uh we went up to Lancaster filming there. The entrance in the charges are there. to trying to reverse in. Absolute nightmare. They've put some thought into this here. This is the main entrance in. Uh bit of a queue at the moment trying to find the car park cuz the car park's not that big.

[00:01:54]Although there's some overflow car park there, but there's no charges over that side. So, everyone coming in goes in that way. The services and facilities are over that side. The charging here is a hub and it's grid serve and Tesla. And you enter it there. The road markings haven't been completed yet, but you enter it there. There's a one-way system around it and it's easy to maneuver into and out of bays. Plenty of space and plenty of parking spaces if you're not charging. I'm over there parked, not charging. So, this is well thought out.

[00:02:27]So, let's go and have a look. The last time we were here, uh we were in a dash of spring and it was snowing and freezing and we done a motorway trip for a range test. Uh this time back in my Tesla and sun's shining some of the time. Uh but this one now is in full use. But the main reason we're here is that the Grid Serve has just opened up.

[00:02:46]They've been uh they were finished way before Christmas, just waiting for something. And now we've been following it day by day by day. Now they finally open. So let's go over there and see what they've got. So on our way to the Grid Ser just over there, we were sidetracked by this. And this is the Tesla Supercharger, which opened just about Christmas time. They have 24 bays here. Some of them ordinary bays, some of them are the disabled or wide access bays. Two of those there. They've got pullth through bays as well. You can pull through either way. They've got loads of parking. This is really good.

[00:03:22]This is also, as you can gather from the cars, a Tesla open to all supercharger.

[00:03:28]So, everyone can charge here. And that might explain why when we get over onto the grid south side, nobody's over there. It is now open. And I remember the day this one opened and there were cars here already. They were finding it before we did. Uh but over there that's been open now for a day or so. Doesn't look that busy to me. Anyway, we're going to come back to that. So, this is the future. It's the hub. We got a one-way system here. We got lovely pedestrian here. Unfortunately, once you get out of the hub, the the the road markings and the painting and everything breaks down a bit. I'm sure they haven't finished it yet. uh things like zebra crossings and uh disabled access. Uh but this is a great start. So, let's go and have a look what we've got over at Grid Serve. Now, when I'm filming normally, I'm always very aware that vehicles are buzzing about everywhere and I'm immediate risk of getting moaned down.

[00:04:20]We're here at the Grid Serve uh new supercharger bay of their own. Uh they got 12 units each dual bay, so 24 charges here. And I could lay down and have a picnic here or asleep. Nobody's using them. Could that be anything to do with the fact that 10 ft over that way we have a Tesla open to all at about half the price? Maybe. Maybe. Anyway, we're here to look at these. So, the first thing we notice is the new chargers. These are 400 kW. They are We've not seen them before. They've had the flagship 360 kW before. They've now gone up to 400. Uh units are made in Italy. Good old Europe once again. Uh there's a lot being made over there.

[00:05:03]Spain and Europe seem to be top of the list at the moment. Uh these are obviously uh the the 980 uh volt architecture. So if you got a um a TYON or a ionic 5 or Ionic 6 or EV6 um these are great. They they should give you a good charge. Uh be aware the dual bay and that means quite simply that if you are charging here you will be sharing power if someone's next door. But I have to say looking at it at the moment the chances of you charging here are pretty slim. The chances of you you got more chance of being bitten by a lettuce and finding someone nicking half your power.

[00:05:41]Anyway uh here we are. Uh they are nice units. Lovely big screen very reflective. Uh gives you a choice of language. Uh, so let's see. Plug in to charge. Now, regular viewers will know I've had my um bit of a tiff with Grid Serve about their auto charge. Uh, it's taken a long long long long long long time, but I finally got it working and this is the first time we're going to try it on one of these. It does say these are autocharge available. Now, with the trouble I've had, I'm going to cross my fingers, cross me legs, cross everything. Uh really I don't know what to expect, but wherever I film, I'll always if it's new or interesting or different, I'll always plug in and charge. So, let's see what happens when I plug in here. And I'm not going to use my contactless or my app in any way at all. If it doesn't auto charge, it's a failed charging session. So, come on.

[00:06:39]Auto auto charge and grid serve. Can you do it? Okay. So, I know if I go over there, I just plug in and walk away. So, I should be able to do exactly the same here. So, let's try it and see.

[00:06:58]Plug charging socket plug in.

[00:07:05]Tada.

[00:07:10]Oh, look at that. Are we green? No, not yet. Saying charging started. So, this one has activated straight away. So, this is much more like uh just pull in, plug in, walk away. I'm just waiting for it all to get started. Showing 58% state of charge. Uh now it's charging. So, here we go. Uh we've got 70 71 kW of charging speed. So, ch state of charge is down a little bit.

[00:07:38]I would expect that to start creeping up a little bit. It should be a bit higher, but there we go. So, grid surf, well done. Auto charge works at last. How many charging locations have we been to?

[00:07:50]How many attempts have we done? It's It's well in excess of 20, but we finally got it all working. Anyway, uh here we go. So, dual bay shared power.

[00:07:58]So, at the moment, I can get anything that the car asks for. Car at the moment asking for 74 kW. That's it. Um, so even if someone pulls in alongside with a similar load, we're going to have plenty for us. It only be 150 200 kW at the most. And this is capable of 400 combined. So, um, for most drivers, these are fine. When you get up into your Porsche Tyans, your Lotus, uh, Electra and, uh, what's the other one?

[00:08:28]E, Audi, Sportback. Uh these are the ones that can charge 300 350 and the first of the cars now um Lotus Lotus is one of them and that has gone over 400.

[00:08:41]So there's there's at least uh I think it's two or three cars out there today on the market in the UK that can actually top out these. And I have to take me hat off to Audi for one thing, that on their top of the range car, which is about £120,000, they actually have not only a dead flat charging curve, it's not a curve, it's a straight line, but the charging speed actually goes up as it gets nearer and nearer to the 80%. Then it just takes a nose dive as all cars do. So, well done Audi for that. The rest of it, the price and everything, yeah, good luck with that. Uh the chargers here, there's not many cars at the moment will get anything like that. And even those apart from the Audi, as soon as you plug them in, you might get your 400, but then they will start dropping down. Oh, and we got a car plugged in over there. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. He's going to be charging there. So, uh we'll see how we get on.

[00:09:38]If he looks approachable, I might go and have a word with him and see why he's paying uh 89p here when over there the um it's in the 50 or 60 p range. Now disconnecting um how do we stop it? The am I going mad or get app help English charge details?

[00:09:59]Oh, stop the charge. There we go. Uh so we've proved the point. Auto charge works. These work absolutely fine. So, let's stop the charge. Yes, stop. That's fine. And it's gone light blue. So, we can pull it out. Now, one thing I will mention, uh, when I went to Apple Green very recently, the cables and the plugs are amazingly heavy and amazingly stiff.

[00:10:22]What I would say here is these are a little bit floppier as I find as I get older. Little bit floppier. Nothing like the Teslas over there, but amazingly heavy. And this plug for the first time I've seen is air cooled. Uh there's loads of holes in it.

[00:10:40]It's air cooled. So that's obviously designed to because these are technically approaching their limit.

[00:10:48]About 400 kW is the maximum. But if you have a a proper cable that cools and you have a cooling plug, you can go beyond that. It's a temperature limitation rather than a strict charge limitation.

[00:11:00]Uh but not seen that before. So it's ventilated. Could be a fan in there as well. It's trying to keep the plug cooler. Uh, all good moves because if you're advertising 400 kW, some people should be able to get that and use that.

[00:11:13]And if the plug's letting them down cuz it's overheating, you're not going to get it. Peak speed 75 uh 3 minutes charging, 63%. I don't need a charge, but whenever I'm out filming, it's one of the things I always do. New charges, new locations, anything different, I will always plug in and find out what's going on. Now, we always look at business models and I raised this when it was being designed. Raised it all the way through the construction. These are your grid serves. 89 P day and night, summer, winter, the whole lot, day and night. 89 p per kilowatt hour. What I'm going to do is just walk over here for 5 6 7 8 9 10 paces away. We have a Tesla V4 open to all. And the price advertised at the moment and its peak time is 63 p per kilowatt hour. That's 26 p per kilowatt hour cheaper than over there.

[00:12:09]So on a uh 50 kW hour charge for a typical battery, what you'll find is uh 50 kwatt hours at 20 uh 26 p different.

[00:12:21]You're talking about 13 quid difference between filling up there and filling up here at peak time. come here off peak and that drops even more down into the 30s and that will make that 50 p. You're looking at 25 to 30 quid cheaper to charge here any car as compared to over there. Now I know I get regular updates on my car and it tells me uh all the different languages we can talk to. So uh we've got a button here which says uh language English. Let's press that one and we've got English. Okay. Uh what's the point of that one? I have no idea whatsoever. I'm sure they're probably going to do a software upgrade at some point and uh that offer maybe Welsh or Scottish or Italian. I don't know. Now, I do get regular comments from people who say if someone pulls in over here paying 89, do I tell them they can go over there? It's cheaper. While I was talking just before car did pull in, they had to go here. They couldn't actually get a charge here. So, on that occasion, I could see them struggling. I did go over to them. I did advise them that over there the current price is 63 p. Peak time dropped to 30 something at night and over here's 89. So they just pulled straight across. It's 20 ft.

[00:13:37]Plugged in contactless card went green.

[00:13:40]It's green now. It's charging. So not only is it 26 p cheap of a kilowatt hour, but it works and it works quickly.

[00:13:50]Do I need to say anymore? So, I've got a lot of praise for this. I find it absolutely appalling. If you look at the lries, just row after row of lorries, the stench from the diesel is appalling.

[00:14:00]It is a lorry stop, so I can't really complain, but the sooner they go EVs, the better. And there's an MCS charger location going in here somewhere in the near future. Uh, so that's planned. Uh, so we'll get some of these smelly diesel, poisonous lries off the road and get them onto EVs. Uh, but this is it.

[00:14:20]Uh nice layout. This is the hub approach, and it's a really good approach. It keeps the charging separate from the car park, so you get less uh icing of bays. Uh nice one-way system, plenty of parking if you're not actually charging at the time. Maybe you've charged and you're going for a meal or you just whatever you're doing. Um and it's a good layout.

[00:14:43]I I I'm appalled that one of the top reasons for people not switching to EVs is the quoted charging infrastructure.

[00:14:53]What is this? So when it comes to this charging infrastructure, people actually don't open their eyes.

[00:15:00]Over here we've got 12 grid serve 400 kW dual bay. That's 24 charging bays.

[00:15:07]Plenty of spaces. Over there we've got Tesla 24 bays, a lot of them empty, although that's much busier. So that's 48 here. Plus we've got the original three charges over there. Although only four bays. Weird. Uh two of those are Chadamo. So you've only got you've got four CCS2 Chadamos over there. But you can only ever use foot. Yeah. Nightmare.

[00:15:34]But what I'm saying is there's 54 charges here. 54. 54.

[00:15:40]How many more do people want before they're going to stop saying, "Well, charging infrastructure."

[00:15:46]Open your eyes. If you park over there, you can't fail to see these. And you can't fail to see, first of all, there's lots of them. Second, there's there's vacant bays. So, anyhow, that's my rant over. Thanks very much for watching. If you've liked this, click the uh like button. If you'd like to see more, please subscribe. Totally free to do so.

[00:16:03]Click the button. Done. And if you're on a smart TV, uh get your uh controller, go down one, you'll see subscribe on there, you can click on there on TVs as well. Um if you would also have a look at um uh memberships, we're on Patreon and YouTube. They come with additional benefits like uh member meetups, um advanced viewing of videos and uh live chats and pre and premieres. Uh so have a look, couple of pound a month. Uh it helps the channel uh get out and about, which is what we're doing. So thanks for watching. I'm Dave.