TL;DR: have a plan B, a plan C, probably a plan D, and even then, be prepared to improvise. Or just plan for Instavolt all the way.
It was all planned out from 100% charge, not exceeding 65 mph:
1. Cambridge to Cirencester (116 miles)
2. Rapid up to 80% back on Pod Point at Lidl Cirencester (checked the day before on ZapMap)
3. Top up on granny cable over 3 hours lunch at relatives' house
4. Cirencester to Instavolt in Cullompton off M5 (110 miles)
5. Last leg to Padstow (100 miles)
Instead?
1. Pod Point totally dead at Lidl (called and it went offline that morning)
2. Ancient CYC unit elsewhere in Cirencester (the only other rapid in town) wouldn't start charging session
3. Gave up, went for lunch, then half an hour west to Stroud for a very fast £8 charge on Instavolt in a very cramped multi-storey car park (one false start, got two £5 pre-authorisations)
4. Hammered it to Cullompton for a 40 minute rapidgate experience on Instavolt (free 😁because the contactless reader was dead and their phone support authorised a free charge remotely)
5. Arrived in Padstow with 16 miles left on the GOM after some range anxiety climbing hills in heavy mist. Hang granny cable out of window to avoid leaving battery so low.
There's no long stop planned on the way home, so what do I do? Shorter legs (averaging 4.5 miles/kWh) and seek out Instavolt even when they're miles off the motorway? Try Ecotricity every 50 miles and assume half of them are broken?
I knew things were bad with the charging infrastructure but hadn't really appreciated how bad until the first experience! Still, we got here and the rest of the family had already got in the beers and pizza 😁
It was all planned out from 100% charge, not exceeding 65 mph:
1. Cambridge to Cirencester (116 miles)
2. Rapid up to 80% back on Pod Point at Lidl Cirencester (checked the day before on ZapMap)
3. Top up on granny cable over 3 hours lunch at relatives' house
4. Cirencester to Instavolt in Cullompton off M5 (110 miles)
5. Last leg to Padstow (100 miles)
Instead?
1. Pod Point totally dead at Lidl (called and it went offline that morning)
2. Ancient CYC unit elsewhere in Cirencester (the only other rapid in town) wouldn't start charging session
3. Gave up, went for lunch, then half an hour west to Stroud for a very fast £8 charge on Instavolt in a very cramped multi-storey car park (one false start, got two £5 pre-authorisations)
4. Hammered it to Cullompton for a 40 minute rapidgate experience on Instavolt (free 😁because the contactless reader was dead and their phone support authorised a free charge remotely)
5. Arrived in Padstow with 16 miles left on the GOM after some range anxiety climbing hills in heavy mist. Hang granny cable out of window to avoid leaving battery so low.
There's no long stop planned on the way home, so what do I do? Shorter legs (averaging 4.5 miles/kWh) and seek out Instavolt even when they're miles off the motorway? Try Ecotricity every 50 miles and assume half of them are broken?
I knew things were bad with the charging infrastructure but hadn't really appreciated how bad until the first experience! Still, we got here and the rest of the family had already got in the beers and pizza 😁