PHEV to EV - First Proper Long Journey
Discussion
My wife's had an EV for over a year, and I ran a PHEV for 3 years before getting an ID.7 earlier this year.
The PHEV was perfect for my usage as most of my miles were electric, and we could load up with kids, dog, roof box etc and head off to Cornwall or Cumbria without worrying about charging.
When the lease was up, the only decent deals were full EVs so we ended up being a 2 EV household. I knew the day to day would be no problem, but was a bit nervous about the longer trips and had visions of being stranded without charge with an angry family.
We've just done our first proper trip and I'm happy to report it was an absolute breeze and probably actually saved time compared to ICE/PHEV as all of our stops were as they would have been anyway, but we saved a petrol fill up.
Route was Milton Keynes to West Cumbria and I wasn't confident about having any destination charging.
The car planned the route initially with a 5 min charge at Burton in Kendal, which I knew wouldn't work for a couple of reasons:
There was no way I was getting to Burton in Kendal without stopping.
I wanted more charge at my destination to allow some local use and getting back to the M6.
First stop (as the kids needed the toilet) was Norton Canes on the M6 toll. I went to the chargers to try and get a "comfort charge" but they were all in use so didn't bother (they're building more by the looks of it, but the current provision is very poor).
Next stop was Charnock Richard northbound where we arrived with about 30% SoC. Plugged in and got charging very quickly (thanks Octopus and Apple green!) and pretty much exactly when we got back to the car after having lunch etc, it got to 100% and clicked off. About 40 mins overall.
We then continued on, reaching our destination with about 60% SoC. While there, I did mess around with a granny charger and my dad's solar panels but more out of curiosity than necessity and only added something like 7% back in.
Return journey I was aiming for Lancaster (Forton) Southbound (Charnock Richard Southbound doesn't have decent chargers like Northbound does). Lots of spangly new Gridserve units available but the first one I tried had an issue with the payment terminal. Lots of the others seemed to have the same problem (blank screen on the terminal) but I moved to one that looked alive and it worked. Timing was pretty much exactly the same as the northbound stop so coincided perfectly with lunch and toilet breaks. Didn't think much of the ABB units (touch screen was very unresponsive) or the fact that Gridserve don't support Octopus, but did get the juice needed.
Didn't need any other charging and got home (after a detour through Cheshire to see other family) with 20% SoC.
Overall the journey was way easier than expected but did highlight a few things...
There's huge variation in charging provision at motorway services and it's not always that quick to work out which sites are good and bad.
It's ridiculously expensive to use motorway rapids. Glad I only need to do it occasionally as you may as well run a V8 petrol for the price you pay!
The roof box didn't affect range/efficiency too badly. It seemed to settle on 3.6 miles/kWh which I think is about a 10% hit. I drove normally at 70-75, overtaking on country roads etc, not aiming for economy at all.
Little features like leaving the AC running while parked up are great on a road trip (my PHEV had this too in fairness).
The ID.7 is a great long distance car. Packed up with kids, luggage, Labrador, pram, scooters etc. Lovely and refined (even with the added noise of the roof box) with massage seats.
Both of my charging locations had loads of chargers and very few cars so getting plugged in was easy, but the sites with only 3-4 already seem oversubscribed. It will be interesting to see what happens as EV adoption increases. If EVERY car at a typical services wanted to charge it would look very different!
The PHEV was perfect for my usage as most of my miles were electric, and we could load up with kids, dog, roof box etc and head off to Cornwall or Cumbria without worrying about charging.
When the lease was up, the only decent deals were full EVs so we ended up being a 2 EV household. I knew the day to day would be no problem, but was a bit nervous about the longer trips and had visions of being stranded without charge with an angry family.
We've just done our first proper trip and I'm happy to report it was an absolute breeze and probably actually saved time compared to ICE/PHEV as all of our stops were as they would have been anyway, but we saved a petrol fill up.
Route was Milton Keynes to West Cumbria and I wasn't confident about having any destination charging.
The car planned the route initially with a 5 min charge at Burton in Kendal, which I knew wouldn't work for a couple of reasons:
There was no way I was getting to Burton in Kendal without stopping.
I wanted more charge at my destination to allow some local use and getting back to the M6.
First stop (as the kids needed the toilet) was Norton Canes on the M6 toll. I went to the chargers to try and get a "comfort charge" but they were all in use so didn't bother (they're building more by the looks of it, but the current provision is very poor).
Next stop was Charnock Richard northbound where we arrived with about 30% SoC. Plugged in and got charging very quickly (thanks Octopus and Apple green!) and pretty much exactly when we got back to the car after having lunch etc, it got to 100% and clicked off. About 40 mins overall.
We then continued on, reaching our destination with about 60% SoC. While there, I did mess around with a granny charger and my dad's solar panels but more out of curiosity than necessity and only added something like 7% back in.
Return journey I was aiming for Lancaster (Forton) Southbound (Charnock Richard Southbound doesn't have decent chargers like Northbound does). Lots of spangly new Gridserve units available but the first one I tried had an issue with the payment terminal. Lots of the others seemed to have the same problem (blank screen on the terminal) but I moved to one that looked alive and it worked. Timing was pretty much exactly the same as the northbound stop so coincided perfectly with lunch and toilet breaks. Didn't think much of the ABB units (touch screen was very unresponsive) or the fact that Gridserve don't support Octopus, but did get the juice needed.
Didn't need any other charging and got home (after a detour through Cheshire to see other family) with 20% SoC.
Overall the journey was way easier than expected but did highlight a few things...
There's huge variation in charging provision at motorway services and it's not always that quick to work out which sites are good and bad.
It's ridiculously expensive to use motorway rapids. Glad I only need to do it occasionally as you may as well run a V8 petrol for the price you pay!
The roof box didn't affect range/efficiency too badly. It seemed to settle on 3.6 miles/kWh which I think is about a 10% hit. I drove normally at 70-75, overtaking on country roads etc, not aiming for economy at all.
Little features like leaving the AC running while parked up are great on a road trip (my PHEV had this too in fairness).
The ID.7 is a great long distance car. Packed up with kids, luggage, Labrador, pram, scooters etc. Lovely and refined (even with the added noise of the roof box) with massage seats.
Both of my charging locations had loads of chargers and very few cars so getting plugged in was easy, but the sites with only 3-4 already seem oversubscribed. It will be interesting to see what happens as EV adoption increases. If EVERY car at a typical services wanted to charge it would look very different!
blank said:
The car planned the route initially with a 5 min charge at Burton in Kendal, which I knew wouldn't work for a couple of reasons:
There was no way I was getting to Burton in Kendal without stopping.
I wanted more charge at my destination to allow some local use and getting back to the M6
If you use ABRP, then you can set what SoC you want to end your journey with and it will plan your route accordingly, you can then send it to Google Maps with a click.There was no way I was getting to Burton in Kendal without stopping.
I wanted more charge at my destination to allow some local use and getting back to the M6
Mammasaid said:
If you use ABRP, then you can set what SoC you want to end your journey with and it will plan your route accordingly, you can then send it to Google Maps with a click.
Thanks - every days a school day! I didn’t know you can open it on maps, can also send to Waze I can use Waze/maps on carplay, saves paying the subscription for ABRP carplay. The ABRP dest charger availability etc is pretty neat though.
Edited by RotorRambler on Wednesday 20th August 09:08
RotorRambler said:
No drama!
I often drive SE to Harrogate in my Skoda.
My nav is only set to look for Tesla ones though as cheaper & the ones I use are just off the motorway (hotel with nice coffee & facilities,,)
Eg could use one MK to Cumbria:-
I toyed with this and got the Tesla app set up just in case but ended up looking for decent sized hubs at services where we knew we had access to toilets, could exercise the dog etc.I often drive SE to Harrogate in my Skoda.
My nav is only set to look for Tesla ones though as cheaper & the ones I use are just off the motorway (hotel with nice coffee & facilities,,)
Eg could use one MK to Cumbria:-
One for the future to try and plan some more pleasant stops!
I use to live in Northampton and often travel to Penrith and Glasgow which the latter is a 5h30m trip on a very good day, even better night and about half that for Penrith. Never been temped by filling up or eat on any motorway as nice stuff from the supermarket before hand. You really need to make sure the kids go to the loo before you set, Birmingham is what 1 hour into the trip?
ashenfie said:
I use to live in Northampton and often travel to Penrith and Glasgow which the latter is a 5h30m trip on a very good day, even better night and about half that for Penrith. Never been temped by filling up or eat on any motorway as nice stuff from the supermarket before hand. You really need to make sure the kids go to the loo before you set, Birmingham is what 1 hour into the trip?
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