[371389]

Slightly off-topic:

We will be driving from Norway to the UK in summer. While we will obviously start with a full battery, this will be depleted almost immediately and using the car in standard, hybrid mode only seems to keep about 5% charge.

As discussed in other threads, charging the car through driving (using "save" or "sport" mode) while it works, is very fuel inefficient, so I'd like to avoid that.

Can any UK residents recommend where to look for cheap/free public charge points? As the car is quite slow to charge, using pay-by-the-minute charging doesn't make economic sense either.

 

[Tim in Scotland]

In Englandshire you will be charged (excuse the pun) for any public charger unless you have an account. To find chargers and who operates them then there are two very useful apps - Zap-Map (https://www.zap-map.com/) and PlugShare that also tells you which network chargers belong to. Both are available on the App Store and the Android App Store
If you come to Scotland then we have a public network of chargers operated by Chargeplace Scotland (https://chargeplacescotland.org/) there is no fee to charge and in some places parking is also free while you charge, but you pay £20 pa for the card. One issue I have had with some of the 13amp charging points in carparks has been that if you use the cable that comes with the car (the one with the “transformer box on it) I haven’t been able to charge as the safety shutter on the socket won’t completely close and start the flow of electricity because the black bit of cable is too thick to permit the cover to fully close. I’ve never had any issues the type two sockets and my accessory cable that has a type two plug on each end. There are also an increasing number of charging points with tethered cables and type two plugs on the charging point.
BP recently took over one of the charging networks to expand it into their branded service stations. There are Charge points now at nearly all the motorway service areas but there can be queues of BEVs waiting to use them. There is a green energy supplier in the UK whomalso have a vast network of chargers but you have to subscribe or be a customer for domestic electricity - Ecotricity https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-the-road

 

[Shiki2000]

It really is the wild west. As an example, there is a Morrisons supermarket car park, where they only charge you a £1 'connection' fee and that is it. However, the car park is restricted to 2 hours parking at a time. Can't argue with that, as you'd probably get around 70% charge for only £1.

The only free charger I know of, requires Costco membership, so essentially isn't really free. The charger at Heathrow airport car park is 'free', but you pay an arm and a leg to actually park in the car park itself.

To be honest, you will be hard pressed to get easy cheap charges, unless you happen to have any friends living in the UK, who don't mind you charging your car at their house...

 

[371389]

Yepp. As I feared, it's probably going to be a petrol-only trip as soon as the initial battery level has depleted (almost immediately).

Thanks to UK residents for their advice!

 

[Shiki2000]

If you can be bothered, grab Zap Map if you don't already have it and look at the areas you will be in. You should be able to get a rough idea of what is available and how much it could cost. However, due to the limited capacity and charging rate of the Mini, you are probably better off devoting your time to more interesting things instead...