1st long drive

[Sparky72]

Hi all,
I’m planning a trip from Sussex up to Perth in Scotland in a couple of weeks and would appreciate any advice you guys can offer with regards to charging.
I have a few questions, but more could follow.

How often to charge?
At what percentage to stop and charge?
What percentage to charge up to?

[comment23]

I plan all my long drives on ABRP (A Better Route Planner app). I don’t follow its recommendations religiously but it does give a good idea what to expect in terms of duration of each leg and each charge, as well as options for charge points from companies you’re comfortable with.

[Lorttrol]

I took a trip from essex to scotland over christmas last year. I used several route maps and they were all pretty similar. My advice is to follow the guidance they give. I sailed past one of my charge stops as i still had 40% battery left which was a mistake. By the time i was down to 8% i couldnt find a 135kw charger only a 50kw charger. So i had to stop for nearly 3 times as long to charge up. Stopping at the higher charger the maps suggested would have meant i could have made it to the next fast charger and reduced my overall trip time.

[ricky10]

That’s like a 500mile trip so you probably just need 2-3 charge sessions to get to the destination. And depend on your destination charging facilities you may or may not be able to live with the car having only 20-30% charge remaining.

Generally true to find a charging hub with multiple rapid chargers to avoid queues, inoperable charger or just inadequate facilities. I have seen Outland PHEVs plugged into 50kw chargers at service stations with 7kw next door left open for pure EVs. You rarely get ICEd charging spot in service stations but PHEV can literally cock block you if you only got the option of 7kw and 50kw. I mean outlander can’t even charge at 50kw - so it makes no sense for the owner to be plugged into that socket

But avoid stops with only 1/2 chargers.

[Sparky72]

Thanks for the advice. I have been looking at ABRP and trying to figure out how use it and to set it up for my trip

[xioxyx]

If you’ve got a Powerpass card, try and find an ionity charging point if possible. We got our car last week and did London-Liverpool-Cheshire-London yesterday - nearly 450 miles. Set off with about 75% battery (determined not to stress about this ) - stopped at Stafford on about 14% - it pretty much straight away went to 133kw which I was very happy with as max is only 135 anyway - charged to 80% while having a coffee. Stopped back at Stafford on the way back - a little bit slower at 125kw as we were on about about 30% but still pretty quick.

So in short, plan in advance with ABRP and don’t stress too much. Don’t be afraid to run it “a bit low” and don’t sweat on topping it up to the max - 80% is fine. When my wife was driving I checked up on the number of free chargers - we had to wait on the way back, but I doubt it was 5 minutes and nobody else was waiting with us. Another car turned up just before we left and took our stall when we moved out.

For us it was a pretty good intro to EV - I’m sure it won’t always be this plain sailing. Whole journey cost about £40 which is a lot cheaper than petrol.

[Goaty]

So last Sept / Oct (whatever day it was the Queen died coincidentally), I drove from Guildford starting with 100% to Edinburgh and charged twice on the way up (as shown). I didn’t need to charge in Edinburgh and came back the same way and used the same chargers on the way down.

[Sparky72]

If you’ve got a Powerpass card, try and find an ionity charging point if possible. We got our car last week and did London-Liverpool-Cheshire-London yesterday - nearly 450 miles. Set off with about 75% battery (determined not to stress about this ) - stopped at Stafford on about 14% - it pretty much straight away went to 133kw which I was very happy with as max is only 135 anyway - charged to 80% while having a coffee. Stopped back at Stafford on the way back - a little bit slower at 125kw as we were on about about 30% but still pretty quick.

So in short, plan in advance with ABRP and don’t stress too much. Don’t be afraid to run it “a bit low” and don’t sweat on topping it up to the max - 80% is fine. When my wife was driving I checked up on the number of free chargers - we had to wait on the way back, but I doubt it was 5 minutes and nobody else was waiting with us. Another car turned up just before we left and took our stall when we moved out.

For us it was a pretty good intro to EV - I’m sure it won’t always be this plain sailing. Whole journey cost about £40 which is a lot cheaper than petrol.

If you don’t mind me asking, what tariff do you have with your Powerpass? I set it up when I first got the car and have the Charge Free subscription.

[Goaty]

/\ I think I pay 28p or 30p per kW at Ionity, but I have the full PowerPass option which costs about £120 a year. I ‘think’ Charge Free might still cost 69p per kW at Ionity, but someone else will be able to confirm.

[snalbansed]

Unless you get the top subscription, Ionity is 69p/kWh. Slightly cheaper at 62p/kWh if you use the Bonnet light boost instead!

On Powerpass Simply Charge, DC is 48p for the non-Ionity chargers that are part of the scheme. Mainly BP Pulse but also some of the Shell ones and others