I have seen several discussions on here lately about the accuracy of ABetterRoutePlanner, and it seems folks always like to bring up the hypothetical "drive to Edinburgh" as an example of how accurate/inaccurate ABRP likely is. Well, last week Scotland finally opened up again, and on a whim I decided to look at hotel prices. I found a nice hotel with free EV charging for less than £100/night, and so I decided to put ABRP to the test!
This was not a perfect test, and I had my family along with me and we were eager to get there, but I did my best to put as much information into ABRP as possible in order to get an accurate estimate of what the journey would look like. For reference, this was in a Volkswagen ID.4, the total trip length was 660 miles, and the weather was fairly mild (10-12 C the whole drive, bit of rain on the way back). I set ACC to 70 while driving, and only exceeded that to pass lorries a few times.
Leg 1 (Peterborough-Leeds):
We stopped to charge earlier than we needed to, mostly because we left home around 4 PM and the kids were getting hungry. ABRP said we'd arrive at the Ionity in Leeds with 39% battery, and that we should be able to make it the rest of the way as long as we charged up to 95% or so.
![144128]()
In actuality we arrived at the Ionity chargers with 49% battery remaining. Average consumption was 2.9 mpkWh, and average speed was 47 mph. There was some traffic on tha A1(M) north, which would account for the lower average speed and some of the difference in battery consumption, but I was still surprised to get to Leeds with 10% more battery than I was expecting. We charged to 97% (still pulling over 40 kW!) and left.
Leg 2 (Leeds - Edinburgh):
This leg was a wash unfortunately - my wife drove for the first hour and a half, and she has quite the lead foot.... (I frequently glanced over to the dash and saw 75-80 indicated). We ended up having to stop in Newcastle for a quick 15-minute top-up (yay Instavolt!), but since both the route and the speeds were so far off what I planned, there is little point in comparing this leg. For reference, however, we arrived at the hotel with 16% battery to find the 7 kW charger occupied by another ID.4. Luckily we had brought our granny cable and the 3-pin was free, so we just plugged into that and slow-charged up to 100% shortly before leaving on Sunday morning.
![144129]()
Leg 3 (Edinburgh - Thirsk):
Other than some occasional rain and a very brief AC charge while grabbing lunch, this leg went according to plan. The numbers won't be exactly right since we we did plug into an Ecotricity AC pump while popping into a Mcdonalds, but we only added 3.7 kWh (5% battery) so that can be accounted for.
![144135]()
ABRP said we'd arrive at the Instavolt with 9% (14% if you include the brief AC charge). In actuality we arrived with 25%, a fairly significant difference. Average speed on this leg was 54 mph, and average consumption was 3.0 mpkWh. ABRP said we'd need at least 85% to get home with 10% remaining, so we charged up to 87% and left.
Leg 4 (Thirsk - Peterborough):
This final leg was to our dog sitter's house just outside Peterborough. It was by far the most representative for "motorway driving", as our average speed was a whopping 66 mph.
![144146]()
ABRP said we'd get there with 13%, actual arrival was 25% remaining (12% difference). Average consumption for this leg was 2.9 mpkWh, which in my opinion is not great, but not terrible for a 2,660 kg family SUV on mostly motorways. 2.9 mpkWh gives a maximum range of 223 miles, though the average consumption for the entire trip was just over 3.0 giving a bit more than 230 mile range.
Final thoughts: ABRP definitely overestimates battery usage on long trips. I'd rather they overestimate than underestimate, but at the same time I wish it was a bit closer to reality given I changed all the underlying numbers to better simulate my actual driving style. ABRP's routing could also use some work - originally the route it gave me from Leeds to Edinburgh was mostly on back roads, which were definitely shorter than driving up the coast on the A1, but would have taken a lot longer.
I hope this helps folks plan longer trips in their EV's in the future!
This was not a perfect test, and I had my family along with me and we were eager to get there, but I did my best to put as much information into ABRP as possible in order to get an accurate estimate of what the journey would look like. For reference, this was in a Volkswagen ID.4, the total trip length was 660 miles, and the weather was fairly mild (10-12 C the whole drive, bit of rain on the way back). I set ACC to 70 while driving, and only exceeded that to pass lorries a few times.
Leg 1 (Peterborough-Leeds):
We stopped to charge earlier than we needed to, mostly because we left home around 4 PM and the kids were getting hungry. ABRP said we'd arrive at the Ionity in Leeds with 39% battery, and that we should be able to make it the rest of the way as long as we charged up to 95% or so.
In actuality we arrived at the Ionity chargers with 49% battery remaining. Average consumption was 2.9 mpkWh, and average speed was 47 mph. There was some traffic on tha A1(M) north, which would account for the lower average speed and some of the difference in battery consumption, but I was still surprised to get to Leeds with 10% more battery than I was expecting. We charged to 97% (still pulling over 40 kW!) and left.
Leg 2 (Leeds - Edinburgh):
This leg was a wash unfortunately - my wife drove for the first hour and a half, and she has quite the lead foot.... (I frequently glanced over to the dash and saw 75-80 indicated). We ended up having to stop in Newcastle for a quick 15-minute top-up (yay Instavolt!), but since both the route and the speeds were so far off what I planned, there is little point in comparing this leg. For reference, however, we arrived at the hotel with 16% battery to find the 7 kW charger occupied by another ID.4. Luckily we had brought our granny cable and the 3-pin was free, so we just plugged into that and slow-charged up to 100% shortly before leaving on Sunday morning.
Leg 3 (Edinburgh - Thirsk):
Other than some occasional rain and a very brief AC charge while grabbing lunch, this leg went according to plan. The numbers won't be exactly right since we we did plug into an Ecotricity AC pump while popping into a Mcdonalds, but we only added 3.7 kWh (5% battery) so that can be accounted for.
ABRP said we'd arrive at the Instavolt with 9% (14% if you include the brief AC charge). In actuality we arrived with 25%, a fairly significant difference. Average speed on this leg was 54 mph, and average consumption was 3.0 mpkWh. ABRP said we'd need at least 85% to get home with 10% remaining, so we charged up to 87% and left.
Leg 4 (Thirsk - Peterborough):
This final leg was to our dog sitter's house just outside Peterborough. It was by far the most representative for "motorway driving", as our average speed was a whopping 66 mph.
ABRP said we'd get there with 13%, actual arrival was 25% remaining (12% difference). Average consumption for this leg was 2.9 mpkWh, which in my opinion is not great, but not terrible for a 2,660 kg family SUV on mostly motorways. 2.9 mpkWh gives a maximum range of 223 miles, though the average consumption for the entire trip was just over 3.0 giving a bit more than 230 mile range.
Final thoughts: ABRP definitely overestimates battery usage on long trips. I'd rather they overestimate than underestimate, but at the same time I wish it was a bit closer to reality given I changed all the underlying numbers to better simulate my actual driving style. ABRP's routing could also use some work - originally the route it gave me from Leeds to Edinburgh was mostly on back roads, which were definitely shorter than driving up the coast on the A1, but would have taken a lot longer.
I hope this helps folks plan longer trips in their EV's in the future!
