You CAN road trip an SE SR

[Rolfe]

I don't really do "sedate pace"!

 

[Joules]

?

 

[mg4mc]

It must have been a glitch, because the website doesn't have so many open to all sites.

I see the same in the app after Tesla opened up that raft of chargers.

 

[Rolfe]

OK, getting set to leave about ten tomorrow morning. Taking the cat to the cattery might add a couple of miles to the journey at the very beginning (have to make a small detour) but I hope to make Forton which is a maximum of 150 miles away. The car is fully charged and balanced (on my shiny new Zappi) and the range is showing as 174 miles. Bottle-out plan is a quick stop at Porsche South Lakes just to get enough to get to Forton (as far as I know there's nothing in the way of refreshments at the Porsche Centre bar a complimentary cup of coffee, and you might not even get that if you're not driving a Porsche).

The first 60 miles or so is A701 which isn't that fast, then 90 miles of motorway. I should be fine, and if it's looking tight it would probably be quicker to ease off on the motorway speed than make that stop. If I can restrain myself!

I must remember to zero the accumulated total and see how it all pans out. I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[Bam Bam]

OK, getting set to leave about ten tomorrow morning. Taking the cat to the cattery might add a couple of miles to the journey at the very beginning (have to make a small detour) but I hope to make Forton which is a maximum of 150 miles away. The car is fully charged and balanced (on my shiny new Zappi) and the range is showing as 174 miles. Bottle-out plan is a quick stop at Porsche South Lakes just to get enough to get to Forton (as far as I know there's nothing in the way of refreshments at the Porsche Centre bar a complimentary cup of coffee, and you might not even get that if you're not driving a Porsche).

The first 60 miles or so is A701 which isn't that fast, then 90 miles of motorway. I should be fine, and if it's looking tight it would probably be quicker to ease off on the motorway speed than make that stop. If I can restrain myself!

I must remember to zero the accumulated total and see how it all pans out. I'll let you know how I get on.

Sounds like a plan.

I thought the Porsche places were Porsche only but perhaps that is just the ones along the M4.

 

[Rolfe]

The South Lakes one is certainly anybody. It's right next to the Carnforth turnoff on the M6 and ABRP keeps trying to send me there because it's a handy distance from home on one charge in the SR. And I keep telling it not to, because it's a wasteland and I want lunch. In warm weather I'll go on to Forton and if it's cold I'll stop at Tebay.

 

[Tight Git]

Some possibly cheapish charging on route for you there?

 

[Rolfe]

I have no idea who they are. I have Gridserve, Tesla and Ionity marked out for tomorrow, for their reliability (at least in my experience).

Seven car wash locations? What are the chances I'll be anywhere near any of them at the time I need a charge? It's the thought that counts, but I'm not THAT tight.

Some possibly cheapish charging on route for you there?

I stand corrected. One of the sites is in Carlisle, and might be a viable alternative to the Carlisle Ionity site I was thinking of charging at on the way home. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Archev]

Some possibly cheapish charging on route for you there?

I’m really liking the idea of offers on charging. Things like 5p off a litre of diesel/petrol at the supermarkets etc. Ten watts free with each weeks shopping ?

 

[Tig170]

There is a hidden gem, M6 MFG @J27 (Shevington Interchange, Nr Wigan) - 8 bays, always has space, always works, and charges as fast as the car will allow. Downside, 80p? / kWh

Sounds like a plan.

I thought the Porsche places were Porsche only but perhaps that is just the ones along the M4.

... I think thats right, but they allow some RFID cards, I know that the shell one works at the Lakeland Porsche centre, and I think Electroverse also works, the main problem is capacity, as there are only 2 chargers.

 

[Rolfe]

Well, here I am at Forton, sitting outside in the sun, eating a toastie from the Costa. I got here dead on time at 12.15, but on 10% (17 miles) rather than the 17% forecast by ABRP - for 18°C, which it wasn't.

My own calculations said, to get in on 10% I need to average 3.3 miles/kwh, and that's how I did it. On the motorway I set the ACC to 75 and just let the car get on with it. There was a point where the reading dropped to 3.2 miles/ kwh, in retrospect not only had it got colder (it was down to only 13°C) but I was climbing up to the Shap summit. Anyway, I toggled the ACC down to 65 and tucked in behind a lorry for a bit. Once on the downhill stretch it all sorted itself out. Although at one point the GOM was suggesting I only had 10 miles in hand, once out of the hills and with the afternoon warming up this improved.

There are six 350 kw Gridserves and when I got here there were two spaces excluding the one with the disabled bay, which I haven't seen anyone use. By the time I had connected someone else had also pulled in, but by the time I'd been to the loo and bought lunch there were empty spaces again. There was also a car or two using the old units.

As I've been having lunch there has been coming and going but there has usually been at least one space free, the disabled bay has always been free, and the old units have nobody using them now. So I don't have a conscience about staying to over 90%.

Now I just have to do the same sums about getting to the Solihull Tesla superchargers.

 

[Rolfe]

By the time I'd typed that Caliban was on 88%!

 

[Deleted member 11291]

By the time I'd typed that Caliban was on 88%!

Well it was like reading War and Peace……..????

 

[Archev]

Well it was like reading War and Peace……..

Well I enjoyed Caliban’s travels.

 

[Rolfe]

Here we are at the Tesla showroom in Solihull, feeling a bit like a cat in a dog suit. My miles/kwh calculation must have been up a gum tree because the car was only reading about 3.1 and I had thought it needed to be more like 3.4, but I had some miles to spare on the GOM so I just carried on. I think at worst I was seeing ten miles more range than I needed and I got in on maybe 9%.

The chargers are hard to find, tucked in down the side of the building, and Android Auto got slightly wandered, but we got there. They're these mahoosive new units. Again, a couple of spare stalls and people coming and going. No pressure. Someone even suggested coffee.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm running about 20 minutes late according to ABRP, I think because I arrived at Forton lower than its estimate and left higher, and it didn't account for the long stretches of road works on the M6 limited to 50 mph. But I'm doing fine. 66% already. The Teslas sure are cool.

 

[fshuk1]

I'm running about 20 minutes late according to ABRP, I think because I arrived at Forton lower than its estimate and left higher, and it didn't account for the long stretches of road works on the M6 limited to 50 mph. But I'm doing fine. 66% already. The Teslas sure are cool.

No Cybertruck !!!!

 

[Tig170]

I'd say you could pretty much use the Tesla network from now on over the next week, without too much trouble.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm actually at the Cobham Ionitys, no pictures right now because it's raining. I'm sitting in the Pizza Express being quite pleased that Caliban doesn't charge super-fast. Millions of chargers, plenty free. And for a first, the charger refused Electroverse and Shell Recharge and insisted on seeing my debit card.

I think I was on about 12% when I arrived. All I did was walk into the restaurant and order a pizza and Caliban is on 46%.

I'm about an hour late now, mainly because the M25 was jammed up. Ah, sitting in traffic jams in an EV and just watching your margin of error get better and better. Well, at least there's no pressure on chargers and no idle fees here.

 

[Rolfe]

I arrived at my friends' house at eight, about an hour later than the ABRP estimate, mainly due to traffic. Everywhere I went there was a vacant ultra-rapid charger and the car charged quickly. Yes, it's the SR, you're not going to be doing a pony express across country, but if that was your priority you'd buy a different car.

The point is that if you have an SR, long trips are very much not out of the question. Ten hours door to door to cover 450 miles is not that bad, and two of the stops were meal breaks. I pretty much had to choke the pizza down, and the car was still at 85% by the time I got back.

Sitting next to a new face-lift Taycan.