At your inconvenience

My wife and I took a 200-mile return journey in our Peugeot e-208 a few weeks ago, staying overnight. I can’t begin to recount the problems we had in recharging, but in summary:

Chargers weren’t working, and when I phoned for help, I was told no technician was available until the next day, so I moved on with 29 miles remaining.

I found a charger with two bays, one occupied, but a message on the screen informing me that only one car could be charged at a time due to “a lack of power”.

I found a car that clearly had finished charging, but its driver was elsewhere (not an infrastructure issue but thoughtlessness, which I suspect will become more common).

Chargers required me to sign up with full details of name, address, card number etc, all for a maximum of about £10. Why can I pay up to £100 with the tap of a card without giving details but not at chargers? In all, I signed up with three different suppliers for that modest journey.

I’m sure this next problem wasn’t envisioned by Peugeot’s designers: the e-208’s charging port is on its left-rear flank, so when trying to use the right charging bay (reversing in), on two occasions the CCS cable wouldn’t reach. As the left bay was occupied, I got round the problem the first time by driving on to the grass, much to the annoyance of a local. The second time, in a supermarket car park, I parked sideways across the right bay. Cars with their charging port at the front have no such problem.

What do I say to my friends who ask me if there are any problems in the ownership of an electric car? Tim Terry

Via email