[Rupert Holdsworth]

Completed my first big trip yesterday, just wanted to share my experience! Left home with a full charge, up through Coventry to the M69, onto the M1, charged at Leicester Forest East, up to Tibshelf Services just before J29 on the M1. Plugged in and chatted to some folks looking around the charger, they didn't have an EV but were intruiged, then another fellow in a Leaf pulled up (sorry had to wait 15 mins) as I needed enough charge to venture into the charging black hole which is the Peak District. I did tell him all about SpeakEV and the ChargeBump development. 3 hour meeting at Head Office (quick 10 amp top up). Left at 4 p.m, back to the M1, would have had enough to get back down to Leicester Forest East but decided to put a quick 10 minute 'insurance' charge in at Tibshelf south bound. Stopped at LFE for a 40 minute charge (89%). Put my home address into the Leaf satnav which duly told me I hadn't enough charge to get home (gulp, but I'm pretty aware now of what range I can expect from a charge). Steady 60 home back into the North Cotswolds from there (another charging black hole). Got home with 9 miles showing on the GOM. Perfectly Judged!

 

[NissanGB]

Great story Rupert! Looks like you planned it perfectly. ^GH

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

It was interesting to see what difference speed made to range in working out the drive faster / charge more, drive slower / charge less argument. Leaving an emergency 10 miles on the GOM, I got 40 miles from 77% charged with the cruise set at 70 (occasionally) speeding up to match the traffic flow. My rough estimates are that with the cruise set at 60, I got 10 - 15 miles more out of the same charge on the way home.

I appreciate that it's better to arrive at a rapid with as little charge as possible because the earlier stages of charge are much quicker but there's always the nagging feeling that you are [email protected] if the rapid is faulting when you get there so safer to leave a few miles in the tank just in case!

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

I appreciate that it's better to arrive at a rapid with as little charge as possible because the earlier stages of charge are much quicker

I wouldn't say "as little as possible" really (in the red is not so good for the batteries ) but you you want it well under 50%. I have found that if I have charging at close enough intervals (as Exeter to Bristol ) then charging to 50% means that I am always charging at full speed... above 50% it slows the charge.

How much to charge, and therefore how much you arrive with still remaining, is a very personal thing. I know people that have no issue arriving at a rapid with 1% remaining but I am of the persuasion now that it is worth having some "in reserve" so to speak in case of unexpected occurrences (rapid failing, diversion etc).

As I say... personal choice.

 

[Nero]

Regards to speeds and energy use for the leafs, not sure but I think it's for mk1

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

Wow, great chart! So I wasn't too far wrong with between 10 - 15 miles. Couple of questions, regarding degradation, if the 'battery gauge' shows 80%, whether your battery is degraded or not does this still mean the same amount of capacity, or as an example if your battery capacity had degraded by 20% (eg: to 220 GID's), would 80% on the gauge be more like ~60% in real terms?? (please excuse the very rough ratio comparison ;-)

So concerning rapid charging, if you had a 20% degraded capacity, would you still get the rapid charging to 80% (220 GID's) or would the charger slow earlier (say at 180 GID's)?? (Not a concern for me yet but just being inquisitive)

Also, why do the Ecotricity rapids seem to be down for such a long time if they 'fault' ? Checking out the ecotricity.xml on the evstatus.com page suggests that when they are down, they tend to be down for quite some time.

The few times I've really been confident to push the range, it's always in the knowledge that I am close to guaranteed charging availability (home / work etc). I know it's not good for the batteries but it's good to know exactly what range the car may be capable of in certain situations!

 

[The Badger]

Just wondering...............If each charge was £6-7 (when Ecotricity cease to be free) how would that equate to the cost of ICE?

 

[Nero]

I do believe then plugshare.com will be very handy I mean people who share their charging points but of course it's bad comparison to RC when I mean type 2 7kw charging points. Well, I'm sure they'll keep the price reasonable because them are the only ones who has such a good locations and them would earn from the amount of charges(kwh) not from the fixed fee. And I think them are the company who cares about the customers but not their pockets.

@Rupert Holdsworth do you mean that? I don't how to explain it, but I do believe RC still would charge up to 80% SOC

 

[AndyG]

Just wondering...............If each charge was £6-7 (when Ecotricity cease to be free) how would that equate to the cost of ICE?

Exactly why we must be charged by the kWh

 

[Nero]

I wouldn't mind to pay per kwh used, especially if the tariffs would be similar to York ones or even lower because you would get your kwh straight from Ecotricity

 

[Number64]

Exactly why we must be charged by the kWh

I used to think that, but I'm starting to wonder whether per second billing based on charge point capacity might be better. This might discourage people from hogging Rapids (though I don't think it's a problem at the moment) to go to 100% unless they REALLY needed to? At the end of the day, unless the chargers are a public service someone has got to cover running costs and if purely kWh based, the last 10% is poor for the provider? Would also discourage mismatches in vehicle / charger (if such things exist?). What I wouldn't want to see is fixed time payments of 20 or 30 minutes.

 

[AndyG]

I used to think that, but I'm starting to wonder whether per second billing based on charge point capacity might be better. This might discourage people from hogging Rapids (though I don't think it's a problem at the moment) to go to 100% unless they REALLY needed to? At the end of the day, unless the chargers are a public service someone has got to cover running costs and if purely kWh based, the last 10% is poor for the provider? Would also discourage mismatches in vehicle / charger (if such things exist?). What I wouldn't want to see is fixed time payments of 20 or 30 minutes.

If you discourage mismatching vehicle to charger what you will end up with is cars like my Volt no longer charge in public as it will always cost more to charge than to use petrol even on a 16amp post.

 

[Nero]

I'm charging up to 100% only if I'm going somewhere more fat than 50miles or when battery is nearly flat. I have no possibility to charge at home very often (poor ground I do believe because everywhere else EVSE works fine) so I'm using either PiM or Ecotricity rapids

 

[Rupert Holdsworth]

@The Badger Very rough comparison, 250 miles approx £35 diesel, I would have been able to push 3 charges = £18 plus left the house with 100% charge (£3) - £21 electricity if EcoTricity charge at £6 per session vs. £35 diesel. IMO The only fair way to charge is by kWh so an equivalent would be about £0.33 per kWh (assuming about 65 kWh used on the journey) I think I'm paying about £0.12 per kWh at home. Whatever is charged, it has to be competitive to encourage folk to use the electric highway, especially as there's always going to be an inconvenience factor involved, I spent 87 mins charging and drove about 10 - 15 mph average slower than I usually would on that journey so very roughly it took me about 2 hours longer as I would be stopping once or maybe twice for a natural break anyway. To really get the masses out of ICE cars, there has to be a big incentive or the 'risk averse' will never take the leap(f) IMO.

I'm lucky I'm not exposed to the Chargemaster £7.50 per half hour rubbish, I'm assuming that's targeting city dwellers that don't have the ability to charge at home but from an outside perspective that seems wildly ambitious pricing! EV ownership has only started to make sense for me as they are getting competitive on the used market, most of my mileage is for work so I claim it back, the cost justification is borne from the depreciation saving on my ICE car due to reduced mileage. I can't get away from the fact that I'll need an ICE car on a regular basis, I'll be looking at 700 miles this week and try as I may I couldn't have done them all realistically in the Leaf. (having said that I've already surpassed the 900 miles a month I estimated I'd be doing in the Leaf, which is a very positive sign. ) It makes absolute sense for my 60 mile daily commute to the office and I can't praise the car enough as a comfortable, relaxing commuting vehicle. There's already 2 other guys at work considering an EV based on my experiences so far which is a great advert for the car, and proof that the marketing should be extended to concentrate on folk with a regular large(ish) commute rather than just urban runabouts.

@Nero yep, the gauge on the right.

 

[Nero]

@Rupert Holdsworth you shouldn't be afraid of mileage. On Sunday I had 400 miles journey with my iOn, my mum and stepfather went by the ICE car. I came 3 hours later then they did, but he was tired because they didn't have any single stop, I came happy firstly because I did it and secondly because I had to stop for a charge every 40-50 miles.

As far as I was reading it still charges up to 80% because rapid count your battery SOC. I don't is that true or false