[Problemchild]

Ah but what we are used to as the right tool for the job and what we actually need are 2 different things

I have a dewalt rechargeable £150 drill - for 90% of the time I just need a £2 screwdriver.

The other times I only need a £15 Lidl mains drill.

(Both of these are in my garage too)

Same with cars or houses or bikes or TVs or anything - we pick what we want to own not what we actually need.

Do we need a 500mile range car?
Do we need to charge that 500miles in 5mins?

We like life to be easy these days

JJ

 

[paulBzoe]

I've made a couple of very long multi-day Leaf journeys this year, one of which was 1600 miles right around the UK in 12 days. I've had a few days of some 350 miles in under 12 hours, and never run out of power: so here are some thoughts on keeping it easy and getting from A>B quickly. Some of these are probably old hat to experienced EV drivers, but we do get lots of newbies, so this is for them.

1) never rapid charge above 80% - 90% when on the move unless you really need to or simply have loads of time. The last 20% takes ages.
2) phone ahead (on a weekday, working hours) to get the latest info on the electric highway, don't rely on zapmap service status - or any other online information - as it is often out of date
3) When using single or unknown rapids - try to charge every 40-50 miles on average - always keep a decent reserve for Plan B (which is either the next rapid or a Type 2)
4) Figure out a speed that gives you a 20% remaining margin of error for your car - conditions can change. On motorways 55 mph seems about optimum cruising speed, but when you have a reliable charger ahead then 65 mph is fine.
5) In rural and remote areas, aim to stop overnight at friends houses, youth hostels or B&Bs - they are much more laid back than hotels about charging your car. Use the brick overnight, and carry a ten metre extension lead to drape through windows or whatever.
6) If you don't get a charge from any charger, be persistent and methodical, it can often take a few tries. One common and puzzling error is to leave the charging timer on: always switch it off on any long trip.
Carry three main cards: CYC, Ecotricity electric highway, and Polar - plus any regional network cards required - such as the SSE card in Hampshire.
7) Don't panic when going up long hills like Beattock summit or Shap fell - you will lose a lot of power but gain much of it back downhill.

i sat at 90% for ages before, when i first got zoe...will not be doing that again.

 

[lne]

How’s your advice changed since 2015? We’ve got bigger batteries, better cars, and more chargers now. Are you less paranoid about running out?

 

[Sussex Trug]

Things have changed since the early days of EVs. Whilst there are cars with bigger batteries out there many of the earlier cars are now struggling with batteries losing capacity. In 2015 I drove a 24Kwh from Brighton to Edinburgh. It was a challenge but I planned for it. Last year I drove the same Leaf from Brighton to York. The route stops I had used three and a half years earlier did not work as the battery had lost some capacity.

The big problem was getting around the M25. Although there are chargers at Cobham the increased demand from more cars on the road and broken chargers meant that delays were likely.

It's true we have so many more chargers but there are still gaps and we have to rely on some old hardware in the motorway services.

I am shortly going to retrace my route back to York with a new car and will report back how it went. I have never been paranoid about long runs. Just cautious. Hopefully my report back will not be sent from the passenger seat of a flatbed.

 

[Soupdragon]

I am shortly going to retrace my route back to York with a new car and will report back how it went. I have never been paranoid about long runs. Just cautious. Hopefully my report back will not be sent from the passenger seat of a flatbed.

There's a load of new chargers these days handy for the M1. I travel between York and Birmingham regularly and, once on the M1, seldom need to use EH chargers.

 

[Wowbagger]

Crikey! I remember this thread when it first started.

I've done quite a few >200 mile trips in my Nissan Leafs (24kWh to Sept 2016, 30kWh since). Tomorrow I'm changing to an e-Golf. First long drive ill be Southend to Burnley on Friday. Really looking forward to it! I reckon I will need to charge 3 times.

 

[KenB]

I assume you are talking about the latest E-Golf. Southend to Burnley 270mls -why would you need to charge 3 x Assume 100% charge to start and available destination charging then i would only need to charge once, so i think 2 max.

 

[Sussex Trug]

Just returned from 550 mile round trip to York (with a few days relaxation in the middle. The Kona 64 has made the journey much less stressful and easily capable of working around issues like occupied or broken chargers.

In the years driving a leaf I appreciated the fact that Chademo on Electric Highway usually worked and many locations had multiple chargers with Chademo but usually only one AC or CCS. Now I am finding the limitations that CCS users complained of on Electric Highway. As @Soupdragon mentioned, there are now plenty of options near the main routes. Often these provide a respite from the chaos and cost of the Motorway Service Areas.

You also appreciate the difference when ending your charges at 80% to keep the charging time down and battery temperature happy. 80% of 64KWh is a much better that 80% of 24Kwh. Having said that, I would still have done the trip even if I still had the old 2014 Leaf but would have allowed for a longer time for the trip.

The newer cars cannot insulate you from the combination of heavier traffic and more frequent queues on the motorways On my trip around the M1 and M25 on Tuesday much of the time was spent stationary or crawling. A glance around at alternative routes on the sat-nav rendered diverting futile as they were all snarled up.This extended the predicted range from 280 miles to 354.

 

[Scally]

hang on...

 

[Scally]

How’s your advice changed since 2015? We’ve got bigger batteries, better cars, and more chargers now. Are you less paranoid about running out?

My apologies for my late reply.
I now have a 30 kWh Leaf and a 64 kWh Kona, and I really miss the old pioneer days. Driving an EV around the UK is now getting too everyday.
I'm thinking of driving the Kona from Scotland to Athens, to try to rediscover that feeling of adventure.
Apparently there are only four rapid chargers in Greece: one is broken, one is permanently ICED by a large broken down truck with Mesopotamian number plates, one is pure Greek/ EU Myth, (stolen by metal thieves) and nobody has ever found the other one because it is hidden in an olive grove on a small island with a seasonal passenger ferry service, put in by a Greek shipping Billionaire for his personal Tesla five years ago and never switched on.

 

[[email protected]]

I'm glad some of this advice isn't quite needed anymore. If I had to tell my non EV driving friends to manage a long journey in an EV by driving at sub 65mph, they would tell me exactly where to shove my charging cable!

Very glad we had pioneers such as you guys on this forum to help pave the way.

 

[Arlington]

We want to visit Iceland next year. There are lots of chargers along its "ring-road" and a car ferry will take us there from Denmark. I have been looking at routes to the north end of Denmark and chargers thereon, using various zapmap-type websites. In particular the Ionity one [curiously grey mapping], Electromaps and Plugshare.
Would I be right in thinking that I should load more than one of these apps to have sufficiently comprehensive and reliable coverage, and does anyone have any recommendations for ones that they have found to work well in northern Europe?