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First 250+ mile trip - Avoid Ecotricity?

7.4K views 50 replies 17 participants last post by  Richard Gledhill  
#1 ·
Dear all,

this is my first post so please go easy on me if I've already broken any forum rules!

We've had our 64KWh Kona for a few days now and IT IS BRILLIANT!

My better half is embarking on a 260 mile trip from Cornwall to Birmingham on Saturday to watch a matinee show with a 4 year old and her Mum (what could already be quite a stressful trip!). Having heard all the horror stories of ecotricity chargers should i plan her trip to avoid them or are they generally working now? If so has anyone used one on the M5 recently or is there anything i should know to get them to work and make the trip hassle free?

Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
Hi,
I've been on two or three long trips from the Midlands to the West Country and frankly, I've pretty much given up on Ecotricity chargers. a shame really because I absolutely like the company ethics and very much support what they do in other areas, but the Chargers suck.
The good news is that there are reliable alternatives. My favourite being Instavolt, if only because of the "contactless card" ease of use.
Quite a few of these are located at interesting places like Bannatyne gyms, where you can have a nice cappuccino while you are waiting for the car to charge. Recently I used the one at Shepton Mallet and it was still on free vend, so I suppose you could say that Instavolt gave me a free coffee :).
If you haven't already, I would strongly advise getting the Zap map app on your phone and familiarising yourself with those charges that may be on or near your proposed route.
If you do find yourself wanting to navigate to a charger in unfamiliar territory, the Zapmap app does a good job of helping you with that too.
 
#14 ·
My favourite being Instavolt
I agree the Instavolt chargers are really good and I have not had an issue with them and my Kona Electric. I purposely now avoid Electric Highway chargers after being let down repeatedly by them and Ecotricity’s complete head in the sand approach to the issues with the Kona.
While I like the Debit card instant payment feature on the Instavolts, I actually use the ChargePoint app on my iPhone with my debit card linked to that to start the charge. Using the ChargePoint app means you can see the state of charge whilst you are away shopping or having a meal etc. Doesn’t cost anymore and gives you remote charging view and also shows you what it would have cost (as Instavolt are on free vend at the moment).
 
#7 ·
260 miles will be possible on one charge if you don't drive at 70 all the way, so much easier with bigger batteries. If there's destination charging need by then a rapid before Birmingham then a couple of hours on a 7kW destination charger would minimise the charging time.

I would be avoiding the EH. @stageshoot will be able to update you on the charging but I haven't seen any mention of the chargers being fixed to work with the Kona. In fact I don't think most of them can be fixed.

Welcome to the forum, great choice of car.
 
#8 ·
I think someone said they had tried a couple on the M5 and they had worked I have not been that way for a while so can’t update

If in central Birmingham the on street 7kw posts are now free and give free parking and work with any rfid card to activate (oyster bank etc) as they are only used to pick in the cable but the bays have a strict 3 hour limit which may be abit tight if you are at a show (wardens are hot at ticketing)
 
#9 ·
This reminds me of my first outing a week after gettng the car and before my home charger was installed. Coventry to Portsmouth and return in a day trip, What couod possibly go wrong? Located a car park at destnation with a charger which would recharge the car whilst I enjoyed a Solent Cruise.

Disaster, heavy traffic on the way made me late. So the alternatives were charge the car and miss the trip or run to catch the boat.so I ran.

I had a nightmare trip home with 5 Ecotricity chargers failing to charge the car. Found a 7kw charger at Oxford P&R which got me enough charge. I was so naive. I am now an older and wiser person.

Got home with 5 miles left! I was slipstreamng lorries on the M40, trying to follow the slowest lorry!

After all that doom though I have enjoyed long trips to Anglesey and Chester Zoo. Your trip is doable, so just take note of the good advce on the forum and plan better than I did. Use Zap Map and sign up for all the possible networks on route. I am on about 6 networks now which ensures coverage wherever I go. Roll on the day when all you need is a contactless credit or debit card. Also if possible find somehere with chargers at the destnation car park. The best tme to charge the car is durng the downtime when you are doing something else.
However as nothing is guaranteed be prepared for any charger to be in use/blocked/notworking.
 
#12 ·
Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated. It looks as if the Bannatyne Gym in Bristol is a go'er for the Mrs on Saturday. It only adds 10 miles to the journey so not too bad. I phoned them and they said there's a cafe too so thanks to DrivePV for mentioning that. I don't want to give the Mother-in-Law any reason to grumble! With me not being with them i don't want them to start faffing about with apps and failed chargers. I'll let you know how it goes. Cheers.
 
#13 ·
The EH seems to go through phases, one day its appalling and then others its great, the best thing about it at the moment is that most people seem to have abandoned it so the chargers are always vacant when you get there, then a lot seem to be on free vend, for CCS users its always going to be a lottery until they have at least two separate chargers, at the moment your luck if they have one as roughly 30% of MSAs don't have CCS at all.
 
#19 ·
Thanks again for all the info.It's been really useful. The good news is i'm now embarking on this trip too which takes the pressure of my other half as she hasn't even found time to plug it in at home let alone at a public charger. The down side is the range i'm experiencing with the cruise set to 70mph. Most of my 24 mile commute is dual carriageway and i lose 30 miles according to the GOM. If my maths is correct that's a 25% difference.
With that in mind should i stick to sub 200 miles when planning charging stops?
 
#22 ·
If those are repeated 24 mile journeys from cold, then you're losing the range due to initial cabin heating. I would expect a single, longer journey wouldn't lose 25% like that.
 
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#36 · (Edited)
Resolution of it can be seen in this video
Thanks, doesn't seem like there was much of an issue, just car not reporting the correct charge time remaining? I wondered if it was more than that as we had missed charges and things like that with the e-Golf. As I have a Niro on order I thought I should find out if I will need to change anything.
I guess if you are new to the car and unsure of what it is reporting it could be concerning. I rarely look at charge remaining at home now and once I have a bigger battery I can't imagine a time when I would need to charge during the day. Now I just plug in and expect everything to work.
 
#37 ·
Journey passed perfectly. So thanks for all your advise.

Travelled mostly at 75mph on dual carriage way or M5.
Stopped at Culm Valley Sports Centre and used the Instavolt. Nice location and charged from approx 30% to 80% in 50 mins. Then on to central B’ham and out again towards Stafford where I’m at another fuss free Instavolt charging at 46kW. For FREE!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#38 ·
Journey passed perfectly. So thanks for all your advise.

Travelled mostly at 75mph on dual carriage way or M5.
Stopped at Culm Valley Sports Centre and used the Instavolt. Nice location and charged from approx 30% to 80% in 50 mins. Then on to central B’ham and out again towards Stafford where I’m at another fuss free Instavolt charging at 46kW. For FREE!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sounds very good for your first long journey. Will be interested in your miles/kWh for the whole trip...