Hi, I am hoping to pick up my 19 eNiro (ex-demo) soon. However, I have to visit family 160miles away along the motorway (M5/M6 Bristol to Knutsford). I am a bit wary about picking it up and going straight on a long run where I will need to charge it before I have had a chance to practice charging at different points. From people’s experience is it possible that I could need to recharge on a 160mile motorway journey. I would plan to stay about 70-75mph (traffic allowing!) and have the regen-breaking on Auto. I am not known for having a heavy right foot either. I have not used cruise control before so am not sure how I will get on with it so don’t want to rely on that. I have ZappMap and it says I won’t need to charge and have downloaded apps for Ecotricity (which I gather is notoriously unreliable!) and other providers. If we stop on the motorway for a break, I will recharge anyway. Does this sound mad? I am fairly relaxed about it but am not sure the rest of the family will cope with a panic if we need to charge and the charging point is out of order or busy! Thanks, Becky
Longish journey -am I mad?
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It depends of course on how much charge is on it when you pick it up from the dealers! Motorway at 60 - 65 will surely give you better economy too.
I THINK it should be fine. It seems real world range is at leat 250miles but I haven’t driven one on a motorway for any distance to check miles kWh. I know range depends on driving style, temperature etc and just didn’t want to get caught out. Do you have one? What range do you get on a motorway run?
I would bring it home to check it’s charged on the Granny cable overnight but won’t have time to arse around with trying out away from home chargers. Yes, had realised that if I slowed down it would be better economy. Thanks.
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Don’t worry about it. If you want a simple and reliable charging experience for your first trip use the Instavolt charge station at West Bromwich. Four chargers so hopefully no queue (perhaps someone more local could confirm how busy these tend to be?). Contactless payment, no app or special card required.
Thanks, really helpful! I will stop worrying😀
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I took my new Kona out for a drive on Saturday: Abingdon to Stourhead and back, mostly A34/A303 dual carriageway with cruise control set to 72mph (but some slower roads especially as on the way down we went through Salisbury to avoid Stonehenge). Heavy rain all the time so that will have dragged the range down somewhat.
When I set out the car estimated available range at 295 mile. The round trip was 171 miles and when I got home I had 94 miles of range remaining.
Your eNiro has basically the same drive system as the Kona. You won't have any problem doing a 160 mile trip without charging during the trip.
Plugging in when you can is the right thing to do, just don't make the rookie mistake: on a rapid charger you need the CCS connector, not the AC one. The AC connector will fit but will charge very slowly compared to CCS. And not all Ecotricity chargers have CCS, usually at most one per site, so check all the chargers to find the correct one.
When I set out the car estimated available range at 295 mile. The round trip was 171 miles and when I got home I had 94 miles of range remaining.
Your eNiro has basically the same drive system as the Kona. You won't have any problem doing a 160 mile trip without charging during the trip.
Plugging in when you can is the right thing to do, just don't make the rookie mistake: on a rapid charger you need the CCS connector, not the AC one. The AC connector will fit but will charge very slowly compared to CCS. And not all Ecotricity chargers have CCS, usually at most one per site, so check all the chargers to find the correct one.
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Watch granny cables from empty to full on a granny is 30 odd hours, i would ask the garage you are collecting the car from to make sure its fully charged you will get there if it is without an issue, when you are there find a rapid to practice with. Welcome to electric vehicles after the first voyage into the unknown it becomes second nature. Its just a car
You can always do the first miles at 65 rather than 70 and see how the range alters. If it always at least 40 more than the remaining journey distance there's little to worry about.
Make sure you can charge it in Bristol as i don't think it's good enough to go there and back on one charge
Make sure you can charge it in Bristol as i don't think it's good enough to go there and back on one charge
@Ian McVey, thanks for the warning. I had realised it would take ages on the granny cable. Will ask them to charge it up😀
You probably know that the car predicted range on the GOM is based on some sort of average of the previous driving style - since its ex-demo that could mean that the initial predicted range when you get the car might be pessimistic. It will learn from your driving style / journeys over time and accordingly will adjust the predicted range.
Warm weather always gives improved range so the ambient temperature will affect the prediction - consequently don't be too alarmed as Autumn draws nearer, if the predicted range decreases.
Warm weather always gives improved range so the ambient temperature will affect the prediction - consequently don't be too alarmed as Autumn draws nearer, if the predicted range decreases.
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I've just had my e-Niro for a weekend, but we've been driving an MG ZS EV for 6 months and 7000 miles now (my wife's car). It has a max range of 160 miles (on a warm day) so we've learned about public chargers over the last few months. As others have said, first thing to do is download a good charging nav app like zap-map (we both have Android phones and this works really well on those). Second, set the settings on Zap-map to filter only RAPID chargers - CCS. You probably know this, but the nomenclature is "slow" for the grannie charger - charges at about 8 miles per hour; "fast" for AC chargers, sometimes called Type2 - this is the charger you'll have at your house, or at the car dealer. There are a lot of "fast" chargers at public points such as council car parks, supermarkets etc. AC chargers are much cheaper to install than CCS, so there are a lot more of them. However they charge at about 22mph, so no good for rapidly re-filling on a long journey. Then you have "rapid" - labelled CCS or DC - 50kw plus. These charge at around 150mph, so you can put 100 miles on the car in around 40 minutes or so. Again, use the Zap-map filtering to only show those CCS chargers which use contactless bank card payment (polar, instavolt have worked best for me). Avoid Ecotricity, as their reliability record is terrible! (as well as requiring a fiddly and buggy smartphone app to operate). Stick to Instavolt or Polar (the newer ones with contactless) and you'll be fine with your first trip straight out of the showroom. All the best in your new electric adventure! as others have said, it quickly becomes second nature and you'll never look back
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One point about "rapid" chargers (CCS - DC) - the car will only allow them to charge at full speed up 'till around 80% full; after which the charging rate slows right down (this is to protect the battery). So plan your journey such that each rapid charge leaves the car 80% full.
Enjoy
Enjoy
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From experience of several trips between Hereford and Aberdeen I can say you have no worries. Cruising at legal speeds on the motorway (indicated 75mph) you will get around 3.7-3.8 miles/kWh (at this time of year), so you would do 160 miles on an 80% charge even, with some to spare. There is very little regen at motorway speeds, even downhill. In any case, the drive mode and regen level you use make no difference - it's all down to how fast you go, or lots of hills to climb, as long as you keep it smooth. The adaptive ('smart') cruise control works very well indeed, as does the lane follow assist. (Lane Keep Assist does not have to be on for LFA to work with SCC. Adjust regen/drive mode to whatever you find you like best. I'd get the garage to charge it to 100%, then you can experiment with public charging later without any pressure. Instavolt is a good one.
I also recommend Instavolt. To my knowledge, they are always Chademo and CCS. There's usually two chargers and they are very easy to use. In slower time you might try Ecotricity. You never know, you might get a free vend, but should learn how to use them anyway.
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