[Danfinn]

I am seriously considering taking my new N-Connecta to Fort William for our 1 week holiday in a couple of weeks. Any tips for charging, eco mode (which I never really consider). Zap Map tells me it is 398 miles, their route planner wants me to charge 4 or 5 times. ABRP crashed completely after telling me it would take 21 hours and about 15 charges. I will be taking my granny cable of course

Thanks folks

 

[RobMac]

Sounds a great EV adventure. Assuming you have an Ecotricity account for rapid charging at motorway services, I'd take a 20m extension cable so you can use your granny cable to charge anywhere overnight if needed. Just make sure you fully unwind it so it can cool properly.

Tebay Northbound services is a great stop, just North of Kendal. Nice coffee! The Leaf connectors are on the North bound side, but there is access via a back road to use them when you're heading South.

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[sparky35uk]

Wow, exciting. I’m taking my ev to Balmoral from redditch this summer also, so like you, I’m checking the charging points!


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[Petriix]

I highly recommend booking a stop half way and doing it over two days. The Leaf battery will get really hot after a couple of rapid charges and continuous driving. 400 miles in one day is close to impossible.

 

[Danfinn]

Yes we plan to do an overnight stop at Penrith and if possible get a slow charge there on my granny cable, then when we get to our holiday cottage charge by granny every night. So I would possibly only do 2 rapids on the way up and 2 on the way back.. Not looking to boil the battery! Don't really want to go in an ICE

All good advice very helpful thanks folks

 

[ajc]

I am seriously considering taking my new N-Connecta to Fort William for our 1 week holiday in a couple of weeks. Any tips for charging, eco mode (which I never really consider). Zap Map tells me it is 398 miles, their route planner wants me to charge 4 or 5 times. ABRP crashed completely after telling me it would take 21 hours and about 15 charges. I will be taking my granny cable of course

Thanks folks

Hope you have a great holiday but remember your raincoats - Fort William is often the wettest place in the country! Also when planning your charging stops, take into account the heights you will be climbing and not just the distances.

 

[JonJ]

We did Surrey to Edinburgh (415 miles) in our 30kWh Tekna on a 4 stop strategy at new year.
Battery got to 8bars.

Although you plan a stop, I think you could do that journey in one go in a 40kWh without significant #rapidgate, on 3 stops, or 4 shorter stops (say to 70%) and sensible (65mph) driving.

 

[Danfinn]

Well I think this has to be for another time! There are 6 of us going and possibly 4 vehicles so it could be a bit tight on parking, also it does not seem that we can get close to the property for charging. I have a 5 metre granny cable and another 10 metre extension. What I enjoyed and have been fortunate to get in my Zoe has been end to end charging. Go to bed and wake up to a full battery. Two of the holiday properties we stopped in allowed free charging, this really brings EV ing right up to date. So it'll be a hybrid from the car club for this trip. The last one of these I drove was about 18 years ago and was the Honda Insight.

The other issue here is the Holiday Letting Agencies, who do not understand our cars, so they get excited about electric costs etc, want to talk to the owners, who may not understand either. My wife had a bit of this when she enquired before. Snowdonia is an enlightened place so we will be going there. What we have to do with the booking agencies is get them on board. "You do have onsite charging facilities, don't you??" "No, well we can't stay there then!"

 

[sparky35uk]

Shame :-(


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[Danfinn]

Well we're back on for this Discussed with my good lady and she reluctantly agreed, that we should not waste money on a hire car but go in my new one. Realistically I recon a 9.5 hour drive including 3 stops. Lancaster, Gretna Green and Glasgow. Take is nice and easy, see if I can better 3.3 per Kw which is the average up to now on 402 miles from new

 

[Danfinn]

Well we got here! Sharp learning curve for me with the rapids, Stopped at Lancaster, (a dump services) Gretna, (Nice service area, a few Teslas charging here), the ClydeBank Retail Park, (Dodgy Genie rapid).

My range is realistically 130 miles on a full charge, as the indicated 160 soon evaporates, and I'm getting 3.9 to the KW. All good experience and I now know the car, as indeed I do know my Zoe.

Keeping the car topped up on my granny cable. The first charge up here on the Granny took 14 hours!

 

[Ralkbirdy]

Birmingham to Ardrossan in an Ioniq.
Quick break at Polar Sandbach, then to Instavolt at Carnforth Booths and onto Instavolt at Dumfries either Costa or Bannatyne, both twin. No problems going.

Same on the return journey but Carnforth had 2 Leaf charging, one complete at 80% and idle, the other occupied and charging but they kindly moved. Other LEAF owner returned after another 30 minutes. Sandbach, one Polar was not working. The Polar stopped working quickly, not sure if this triggered a £1.50 fee?

 

[Danfinn]

We had a couple of probs on the way back. Serious accident just outside Clydebank Retail Park, access road closed by police, took 20 mins to get in another way. Don't think we will call here again. Then on to Gretna. We overnighted in Penrith and got charged on a genie in Morrisons car park. I will email these people and offer thanks. Every Morrisons should have one! We then got the last charge at Knutsford reading 11%. Wife not convinced this is the future but I am I think I need to run my leaf down to low % just to see what happens. Did this once in a Chargemaster e-golf was not happy, but good to experience

 

[ScotstounPele]

Advice for anyone reading this - the quickest way through Glasgow from the M74 to A82 is over the Erskine Bridge. If you are in Clydebank retail park then this suggests you crossed the Clyde further east, which will slow you down. There are plenty of rapids south of Erskine bridge.

 

[Garry TheBiz]

Another good tip would be to make sure you have a Chargeplace Scotland RFID card with you. The £2 it'll cost for the card can save a lot of grief trying to connect to remote charge points with poor mobile signal.