Road trip to Barcelona checking out electric vehicle charging points

Even though the day was a little bit damp and rainy I decided I wanted to get out of the house and have a drive in my 2018 Nissan Leaf. look for some Rapid Charging Barcelona.  I had been wanting to go and check out a few public electric vehicle charge points in Barcelona for a while and today was the day. The first planned stop for the day was in Granollers which is on the north side of Barcelona. The charging point is not far away from the motorway and looks like a good point to stop on a journey back from the airport.

On my last trip to the Barcelona airport to collect someone I wasn’t able to use the AMB charger because I didn’t know how to use the application. I needed to ask some people on Twitter or Facebook how to do it. I was trying to press buttons when all I needed to do was to slide a tile from the right to the left to get access to the switch. Now I know how to do it, it’s as easy as pie. Next time I go to the airport I’ll be able to use that charger with ease. There’s always the possibility someone else could be using the charger or I don’t have time to wait. It’s for this reason I’m looking at other rapid charging barcelona ssibilities on the flight path from home to the airport.

A list of rapid charging Barcelona possibilities in Barcelona

On this particular occasion, I wasn’t able to add to the list of charging points. The public CHAdeMO charger in Granollers was out of service. It looks like it was new and had never been in service. It didn’t show any signs of wear and tear from being used. Maybe I should send an email to the Ajuntament for Granollers and asked them when it’s going to be available. When it does become available it looks like it would be a good place to stop. Easy to get in and out of and a safe place next to sports facilities in the town. So I had to move on to my next port of call.

Just a short hop to the next public electric vehicle charger in Barcelona

I checked out where the nearest charging point was and that was at Santa Perpetua de Mogoda. Following the directions from the GPS in Waze it took me about 20 minutes. I first of all drove past the entrance to the car park where the charger was situated. There was a sign-post saying there was a charger there but it could only be read when coming from the opposite direction. I had to go to the next roundabout, do a U-turn and come back. The charger is situated in a car park next to public buildings including a library. I was able to get into the library to use the facilities. Charge your car in Barcelona.

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Activating the charger and visiting the nearby shops

One of the good things about driving an electric car is the chance you get to stretch your legs while the battery gets charged. I spent about 20 minutes to half an hour walking around the town nearby. I saw there were plenty of supermarkets, restaurants, cafés, and bars in the vicinity. During the day and late until the evening many of these places would be open and available. Not a bad place to spend 30 to 60 minutes while you’re waiting for your car to fully charge.

DC and AC chargers in the car park

In the car park there was the DC charger for the CCS and CHAdeMO cables and plugs. That was for two of the parking bays for electric vehicles. Next to that there was another charger, a fast charger with two Type II charging sockets. So if someone was using either of the DC charge points you’d still be able to plug in and get a lower rate charge at the other charging post. I didn’t try out the other charging post, but on the front if there were QR codes. I suspect these work in the same way as the charging post in Tossa de Mar. Scanning the QR code take you to a website where you can activate after signing up. Either that or you can download an app which allows you to activate the electric vehicle charging point.

Checking out more chargers in Barcelona

The day was still young and I decided to continue further. I wasn’t far away from Barbará de Vallés. I used PlugShare to find where the electric vehicle charging point was situated. I used the button within the app to get directions from Waze. It didn’t take long to get to my next destination.

On arriving at the charging point I found it was occupied with a Renault Zoe on charge. I wasn’t too bothered about getting any electrons from this charger because I just wanted to know if it was in operation. Seeing this Zoe being charged confirmed that it works. It’s an AMB charger and I’m confident in the use of the application now. There was also a Type II charging post in the next parking bays in front. I could have plugged in there while waiting. I saw in the rearview mirror the driver of the Zoe was being a gentleman and unplugging his car. I gave him a friendly wave as he drove away. This allowed me to reverse into the parking spot for the CHAdeMO charger and plugged-in. Rosie was only charging at about 20 kW and I suspect it was down to that level due to the fact there was still 70% or 80% of charge in the battery. The charging always slows down when you get to the higher levels of percentage of charge. The temperature of the battery was still only about halfway. With my charging done it was time to move on and get some food.

Charging the car while on the magical mystery tour of IKEA

When I arrived in the parking area for IKEA I had to ask somebody where the charging points were. Often you find the charging points are close to the entrance, but not on this occasion. I had to drive the car towards the exit of the car park where I found about half a dozen Type II sockets. I was impressed to find that number of sockets available. It was also good there were no cards needed and it wasn’t necessary to register with IKEA in order to use them. A good strategy by IKEA to encourage people to drive to their store with electric vehicles. It takes a long time to get around the magical mystery tour of the furniture store. It’s for that reason using the type II charging points, also called destination charges, is a good idea. When I got back to the car after spending money on plates for the kitchen at home, I had a fully charged car. It was then time to drive home.

Onto the busy motorway to drive home.

The traffic on roads is always worse when the weather is wet. The motorway by Sabadell is always busy and may have been slightly busier due to the rain. I joined the queue of lorries to get to the next junction in order to turn off for Girona. It was an easy journey home and I decided to pull into one more charger on the way back. There is one which is only 15 minutes away from home in Vidreres. I was keen to try out this charging point even though it’s only a Type II charger. In any case, it was good to stop because I was feeling tired and my eyes were getting heavy. This charger would be useful on the way back from Barcelona if all of my other attempts to add some power to the battery had failed. If I got down to 2 or 3% in the battery and I wanted to give it just that little bit extra so I could breathe easily on the way home, I could do so.

There is very little in Vidreres, so not much to entertain you if you need to stop there. There are a couple of places you could eat or get something to drink. In any case, it would be just a good place to stop in an emergency to add a few percent of power to the battery. The charge point was well marked with green paint on the floor for the parking spot. There was a cover missing from one of the sockets on the charging post. Hopefully, that’s not going to lead to a breakdown in the near future.

• Category: EV Charging