I sailed across overnight to Caen in my Vauxhall Combo -e Wheelhome camper at the end of June. I was heading to the Dordogne and then to Nuremberg in Germany (not really the route most people would choose!)
My Combo e-Life is now coming up to 2 years old and has done nearly 30,000 miles (including the 2068 miles of EU travel). I have found that it has lost about 12% battery capacity now, which didn't bother me at all on my hols, because I never planned to drive more than 100 miles between charges in any case, and it was all daylight summer travel. It is now more a problem for my UK social life, where evenings out present the capacity problem, even before we get to the dark, cold winter.
The camping and charging in France and Germany is a doddle. Electricity in France is cheaper and they seem to be well geared up for motorhome and camper overnight stops. Germany was a bit more expensive on the charging, but all the chargepoints worked wherever I went and there was no shortage of them. The total charging cost, including my UK journey to Portsmouth was under ÂŁ250. (NB I sailed back from the Netherlands to Harwich, pretty close to my home base.)
The only other significant cost was the motorway tolls in France for which I bought in advance a Sanef Emovis Tag, total cost ÂŁ94. That was a dream to have so that, travelling solo, I didn't have to worry about getting out to pay the tolls, and in any case, some motorways don't have barriers and you have to pay afterwards somehow!
All in all, my Combo-based Wheelhome worked really well. The solar panel on the roof allowed me to park up overnight pretty much anywhere (legally, that is.)
My worry is the deteriorating battery. I had a battery failure at South Mimms on my way to Portsmouth, which a friend on Speak EV suggested might have been a traction/12V start-up battery blip. I just carried on to Portsmouth anyway, once it decided to play again, and I had no other problem at all throughout my trip. Vauxhall have since confirmed that this was the likely problem, though they offered no advice about it!
The battery capacity is likely to continue to deteriorate at the rate of 10% every 25,000 miles and that is going to present a problem for me as I use my camper also as a daily car. Vauxhall have said that a replacement battery pack would be ÂŁ20,000!! So I shall be considering a small run-around for a lot less than that! Where does that leave the second-hand market for EVs, I wonder??
Is there any advice that other high-mileage users have in the face of falling capacity? I don't want to be forced give up my Wheelhome - next year is the Orkneys for me - and I do want to use my tight piggybank wisely.
My Combo e-Life is now coming up to 2 years old and has done nearly 30,000 miles (including the 2068 miles of EU travel). I have found that it has lost about 12% battery capacity now, which didn't bother me at all on my hols, because I never planned to drive more than 100 miles between charges in any case, and it was all daylight summer travel. It is now more a problem for my UK social life, where evenings out present the capacity problem, even before we get to the dark, cold winter.
The camping and charging in France and Germany is a doddle. Electricity in France is cheaper and they seem to be well geared up for motorhome and camper overnight stops. Germany was a bit more expensive on the charging, but all the chargepoints worked wherever I went and there was no shortage of them. The total charging cost, including my UK journey to Portsmouth was under ÂŁ250. (NB I sailed back from the Netherlands to Harwich, pretty close to my home base.)
The only other significant cost was the motorway tolls in France for which I bought in advance a Sanef Emovis Tag, total cost ÂŁ94. That was a dream to have so that, travelling solo, I didn't have to worry about getting out to pay the tolls, and in any case, some motorways don't have barriers and you have to pay afterwards somehow!
All in all, my Combo-based Wheelhome worked really well. The solar panel on the roof allowed me to park up overnight pretty much anywhere (legally, that is.)
My worry is the deteriorating battery. I had a battery failure at South Mimms on my way to Portsmouth, which a friend on Speak EV suggested might have been a traction/12V start-up battery blip. I just carried on to Portsmouth anyway, once it decided to play again, and I had no other problem at all throughout my trip. Vauxhall have since confirmed that this was the likely problem, though they offered no advice about it!
The battery capacity is likely to continue to deteriorate at the rate of 10% every 25,000 miles and that is going to present a problem for me as I use my camper also as a daily car. Vauxhall have said that a replacement battery pack would be ÂŁ20,000!! So I shall be considering a small run-around for a lot less than that! Where does that leave the second-hand market for EVs, I wonder??
Is there any advice that other high-mileage users have in the face of falling capacity? I don't want to be forced give up my Wheelhome - next year is the Orkneys for me - and I do want to use my tight piggybank wisely.