Anyone driving down in electric cars?

Any advice on chargers? Only done long runs to Scotland and it was a breeze, last run was 6 months ago and a lot of services were building new charging stations.

 

What car have you got?

Ive got a Tesla and only use the network which is significantly faster and cheaper than the others.

I know pretty much every charge point in the U.K. as I’m all over the country at the moment

 

How much does it cost to charge these days?

 

Don’t think it’s much cheaper the petrol and diesel

 

Merc. You get eco driving points that convert into vouchers to use at the mercedes me chargers, I've got £20, coupled with a free charger at work so I've charged to 100% yesterday. Merc me chargers are ionity, BP pulse - none of these at the services but there's ionity at MK coach park.

Planning on charging there going down but if full I'd need to use the services, Watford Gap or the next one, they don't seem to have more than 6 chargers.

 

Ranges, really gone up recently but services are the most expensive 40p - 70p a KW. I do 250 miles a week for work and my fuel costs have halved since going with electric and that's with the increased costs. 33p KW at home. £22 to fully charge and it gets me to Thursday before l recharge, don't use it much over the weekend. £50 petrol l was putting in every Sunday

 

Always do, 36 mins fully charged.

 

Cheers. I've wondered for a while what the real cost is but it's hard to work out when you don't have one obviously

 

Yes, I am. But I have booked the geezers charger at the house in Stanmore that I am parking at, so should be fine to do both legs without a public charge.

On a day where the roads are going to be very busy, you need to be picking out the big charging hubs to be confident of not being held up too long. Depends which way you are going and what your car is, I.e. how far there and back you'll get before needing to charge but the key ones for me are

a. If doing the M40 route then the Instavolt hub at Banbury is a no brainer. It has recently been extended and there are now 32 rapids of various speeds there. Must be the biggest hub currently in the country. If by some freak you find them all in use, there are a number of Ospreys just a bit further down the road.

b. If doing the M1, then a small detour to Rugby Services at M6 J1 is a good option. 12 Gridserves. Depends if you can manage to get that far back north on the way back though - it would probably be a bit early to charge on the way down.

c. Milton Keynes is well blessed for chargers although a lot of them are BP Pulse, so not my favourite.

d. Again on the M40 route, Beaconsfield Services has a number of Ionity units but they are very popular and get busy. There are 4 Gridserves on the same site though as well.

 

Good info thank you.

Yes the worry is the amount of traffic that day that could be looking for chargers

 

As above, the cost of public charging these days is on a par with petrol costs. Maybe slightly more to be honest. Many rapids are around 75p per kwh although there are a myriad of ways to get that cost down through different apps, schemes etc. That's the rock up and pay cost. But at 75p, with a car typically doing 3.5 - 4 miles per kwh, its getting on for 20p per mile.

Fortunately, most people only need to use the public network when travelling outside the range of the car. I charge at home and only rarely use the public network. Charging overnight on a duel rate tariff, I pay 7.5p per kwh which is less than 2p a mile.

Swings and roundabouts.

 

What a complicated life it is running an EV! Bit like about ten years ago when my work car was a Jaguar running on petrol and LPG. Finding LPG was very difficult.

 

Nah, modicum of planning needed, that's all. It's fun.

 

I am sure you'll get all the way down without charging. So if there is any doubt or worry, take the M40 back and stop at Banbury. There are so many chargers there, you could never be waiting more than a couple of minutes for one of them to finish.

 

About 10p a mile from a Tesla Supercharger.

About 7p a mile with home charge.

 

I heard journeys take longer though. I suppose it depends on the model you are driving. I’ve got a hybrid now and that will do for me. 60-70 mpg on a good run

 

It’s the 30 mins waiting around that puts me off. I’m not hanging around a charging place alone for half an hour, possibly longer if having to wait for one to become free too. Especially when I couldn’t leave if needed as that’s why I’m there in the first place.

 

Into the next door Costa. Coffee and a pee. Jobs a good un.

There's no need to be hanging around dismal lonely car parks on your own waiting to charge these days. Those days are gone.