Week in Devon

[Dt99idr]

Just back from our holiday in Devon:

Firstly as a car - fantastic, did everything we'd want it to. Nice and comfortable for a family of 4, good luggage space. Wife could charge her phone as I used mine on Android Auto. Efficiency is great.

The one big issue is obviously the charging... If I'd done this in my Ibiza I'd have stopped once or twice for diesel and done so on route somewhere else. Not quite the same here.

Day1: Started well left with 100% stopped off at Otter Garden Center to a 7Kw top up whilst we had some lunch and looked around. Perfect sort of charging - got some extra miles for no cost with no hindrance to what we would have done any way. ~75miles
Day2: Trip to Rosemoor gardens ~48 miles
Day3: Drove to do a walk on Dartmoor ~33miles
So far all going well, all happy with the car!
Day4: Visited Dartmorr Otter Sanctuary. Running low on electric so decided to do a rapid at the Red Lion pub in the evening. Arrived to find someone else charging I thought I'd used the 7Kw whilst waiting for them to finish... It seems doing so switched them off (though looking on the swarco website suggests this should be ok, certainly nothing to tell me it wouldn't - and why have 2 car parking spaces if only one can be used?) Slightly embarrassing. 3 others turned up whilst whilst I was waiting (15mins?) (one a ZS) - only 1 waited. I charged to 75% without issue whilst having a nice drink in the sun. ~72miles
Day5: Babbacombe Model Village and Brixham for tea - lovely to watch the seals playing in the harbour. On the way home stopped off at Lidl Glampton for a pod point rapid. All worked fine - but took longer than I expected - at this point I realised that all the chargers are 50Kw, so not much point in having at 80Kw capable car... ~69miles
Day6: Eden project - the day things started to turn... All the Destination chargers at Eden taken. Looked like I should have enough charge to get to back to the caravan, so decided not to use the charger that was sat in the car park not being used when I left. Big mistake... Stopped off at Strawberry Fields farm show where they have a bp rapid. There was a polestar pulling trailer with cattle in and several others waiting. Wife finished in the shop at cars were still waiting. Still I have enought charge so left. Pulled in to a geniepoint with 1% showing and a very uptight wife. Charger said 'out of order' - after a short panic realised this was on the ac side and managed to get the DC going. Got up to 20% and went back to the van for tea,. That evening had a visit to the pub (no one was using the charger) to find a merc had just pulled in expected to be about a hour - so left to pop to the nearest instravolt. 2 chargers felt like a safe bet. Got there to find one charger showing 'fault'. Thankfully the other worked. 45mins later I left with 93%.... Was not a fun day! ~147miles
Day7: Visit to Dartmoor zoo. Planed to 'fill up' again at Strawberry fields on the way back - but again lots of waiting cars. Based on my average of 2miles per % I had enough to get back to van and then home next day, so left. ~89 miles
Day8: Wife wants to pop into IKEA for lunch which fits in well with a charge stop on the rapids at Exeter. GridServe web site states all stations available, but get there to find only one CCS free. Can't get it to work. Finish shopping in IKEA all stations are now free, so try again with same result. Connector won't lock and can't get a charge. Very frustrated now so decided I have a 8mile buffer and that'll do. Arrive home with 3% showing ~73miles

What have I learnt?
1) Charge if you can
2) Who cares how long it takes to charge from 20 to 80% if only 50Kw chargers are available
3) Waiting for a car to charge whilst having a meal etc. if great in theory - but easily ruined by someone else with the right idea.

As wife says - UK isn't ready for it - the charging infrastructure isn't there.
We have a trip to north wales next weekend. Not sure I'll be allowed to take my car...

 

[Jomarkh]

Great report.
The charger situation is a real issue, it's ok havall the apps but until you get there who knows who has justvturned up before you and taken the last one.
Like you say charge when you can.
Apart from the charging was the holiday ok?

 

[Dt99idr]

Great report.
The charger situation is a real issue, it's ok havall the apps but until you get there who knows who has justvturned up before you and taken the last one.
Like you say charge when you can.
Apart from the charging was the holiday ok?

Holiday was good thanks. I wasn't too phased by the charging even, always used to run my cars on fumes before filling up. Adds to the excitement. Children enjoyed telling all they're friends at the camp site!

Off to thruxton tomorrow for the BTCC!

 

[5teep]

Just back from our holiday in Devon:
~~
As wife says - UK isn't ready for it - the charging infrastructure isn't there.
We have a trip to north wales next weekend. Not sure I'll be allowed to take my car...

Get used to the 50kw scenario, maybe 100kw tops in the years to come. It doesn't take that much longer on 50 as you'll only ever hit the high end charge rate for a few mins mid charge anyway.
Anything over 100kw and the cables are getting too big for normal people to cope with and they'll end up damaged all the time.

Not very helpful to suggest the entire UK infrastructure is lacking from a trip round a Southern county, though I agree the state of repair of many needs sorting. From what I saw on a quick search there are half a dozen rapid chargers within 10 miles of those you had issues with.

 

[RoadUser]

It's a challenging issue, to do long distance EV trips during busy period, not enough chargers to go around and due to its peaky nature not worthwhile for someone to invest in a rapid charge, which would be underused during other times.

Now if someone could come up with portable rapid charges, where it could be moved around depending on demand that would be the ideal solution.

 

[Deleted member 823]

Glad you seemed to have enjoyed your visit to my neck of the woods, apart from the charger malarkey! Thank for sharing your experiences

 

[Kithmo]

Now if someone could come up with portable rapid charges, where it could be moved around depending on demand that would be the ideal solution.

Drones with huge batteries ?

 

[PaulR]

Just back from our holiday in Devon:
View attachment 4613

Firstly as a car - fantastic, did everything we'd want it to. Nice and comfortable for a family of 4, good luggage space. Wife could charge her phone as I used mine on Android Auto. Efficiency is great.

The one big issue is obviously the charging... If I'd done this in my Ibiza I'd have stopped once or twice for diesel and done so on route somewhere else. Not quite the same here.

Day1: Started well left with 100% stopped off at Otter Garden Center to a 7Kw top up whilst we had some lunch and looked around. Perfect sort of charging - got some extra miles for no cost with no hindrance to what we would have done any way. ~75miles
Day2: Trip to Rosemoor gardens ~48 miles
Day3: Drove to do a walk on Dartmoor ~33miles
So far all going well, all happy with the car!
Day4: Visited Dartmorr Otter Sanctuary. Running low on electric so decided to do a rapid at the Red Lion pub in the evening. Arrived to find someone else charging I thought I'd used the 7Kw whilst waiting for them to finish... It seems doing so switched them off (though looking on the swarco website suggests this should be ok, certainly nothing to tell me it wouldn't - and why have 2 car parking spaces if only one can be used?) Slightly embarrassing. 3 others turned up whilst whilst I was waiting (15mins?) (one a ZS) - only 1 waited. I charged to 75% without issue whilst having a nice drink in the sun. ~72miles
Day5: Babbacombe Model Village and Brixham for tea - lovely to watch the seals playing in the harbour. On the way home stopped off at Lidl Glampton for a pod point rapid. All worked fine - but took longer than I expected - at this point I realised that all the chargers are 50Kw, so not much point in having at 80Kw capable car... ~69miles
Day6: Eden project - the day things started to turn... All the Destination chargers at Eden taken. Looked like I should have enough charge to get to back to the caravan, so decided not to use the charger that was sat in the car park not being used when I left. Big mistake... Stopped off at Strawberry Fields farm show where they have a bp rapid. There was a polestar pulling trailer with cattle in and several others waiting. Wife finished in the shop at cars were still waiting. Still I have enought charge so left. Pulled in to a geniepoint with 1% showing and a very uptight wife. Charger said 'out of order' - after a short panic realised this was on the ac side and managed to get the DC going. Got up to 20% and went back to the van for tea,. That evening had a visit to the pub (no one was using the charger) to find a merc had just pulled in expected to be about a hour - so left to pop to the nearest instravolt. 2 chargers felt like a safe bet. Got there to find one charger showing 'fault'. Thankfully the other worked. 45mins later I left with 93%.... Was not a fun day! ~147miles
Day7: Visit to Dartmoor zoo. Planed to 'fill up' again at Strawberry fields on the way back - but again lots of waiting cars. Based on my average of 2miles per % I had enough to get back to van and then home next day, so left. ~89 miles
Day8: Wife wants to pop into IKEA for lunch which fits in well with a charge stop on the rapids at Exeter. GridServe web site states all stations available, but get there to find only one CCS free. Can't get it to work. Finish shopping in IKEA all stations are now free, so try again with same result. Connector won't lock and can't get a charge. Very frustrated now so decided I have a 8mile buffer and that'll do. Arrive home with 3% showing ~73miles

What have I learnt?
1) Charge if you can
2) Who cares how long it takes to charge from 20 to 80% if only 50Kw chargers are available
3) Waiting for a car to charge whilst having a meal etc. if great in theory - but easily ruined by someone else with the right idea.

As wife says - UK isn't ready for it - the charging infrastructure isn't there.
We have a trip to north wales next weekend. Not sure I'll be allowed to take my car...

Was there no way to charge at the caravan, I have a caravan and regularly charge from it using the granny charger. A few hours here and there on the granny when you are not using the car can make all the difference.

 

[fishbee]

What sort of place were you staying at? We've now taken our MG5 to 3 long weekends away (and another one coming up), and I've had a 100% success rate so far asking for permission to charge the car with the granny charger. Usually from a socket in a garage, or an outdoor one. The key seems to be to offer £20 in cash for the additional electric usage. This works out to about the same as motorway service station charger prices (so at least £10 profit for the owners of the accomodation), and is definitely worth it for the convenience of not having to go somewhere just to charge.

It does depend on off-street parking being available though, which won't be everywhere.

 

[SimonomiS]

Very good idea! Worth travelling with a decent 25m extension reel in those cases.

 

[Barney]

We have an AirB&B and offer granny charging at £5 per night - but no takers yet. I'm not sure how to handle it when I get my charger installed - Zappi and Hypervolt are the front runners; I understand that both will allow me to monitor usage. Maybe pitch it at 25p/kWh ?

 

[Cocijo]

I think it depends on if you think having EV charging will get you more customers. Offering it FOC might be worth it if on balance it gets you a good rate hire and more customers.

 

[BarryH]

We have an AirB&B and offer granny charging at £5 per night - but no takers yet. I'm not sure how to handle it when I get my charger installed - Zappi and Hypervolt are the front runners; I understand that both will allow me to monitor usage. Maybe pitch it at 25p/kWh ?

Sign up your Charger with CoCharger then guests can pay you via the App. If I didn't have a problem with my home driveway making it unsafe to park in the obvious parking place near my Home Charger, I'd sign sign up my home charger, but there again, There are 4 7kW PodPoint at Sainsburys within 5 minutes walk from my home and 2 "bp Plus" 150 kW chargers awaiting commissioning a 150 m further on so I doubt I'd get the business myself. Very different if I operated an AirBnB though.

 

[Barney]

Sign up your Charger with CoCharger then guests can pay you via the App.

I have looked as CoCharger, but it seems to be only for EV owners who live in the neighbourhood. I have asked the company whether they can cater for anyone else and am awaiting a reply.

 

[Dt99idr]

Get used to the 50kw scenario, maybe 100kw tops in the years to come. It doesn't take that much longer on 50 as you'll only ever hit the high end charge rate for a few mins mid charge anyway.
Anything over 100kw and the cables are getting too big for normal people to cope with and they'll end up damaged all the time.

Not very helpful to suggest the entire UK infrastructure is lacking from a trip round a Southern county, though I agree the state of repair of many needs sorting. From what I saw on a quick search there are half a dozen rapid chargers within 10 miles of those you had issues with.

Not quite half a dozen within 10 miles:

As some one above stated, I could have used the caravan electrics - but wasn't sure if they're be up to the job - and being my parents van, didn't want to risk it.

As for 'suggesting the entire UK infrastructure is lacking' - may be a bit harsh, but I think I'll be lucky to persuade the wife to take the car on a 500+ mile trip this weekend which will be a shame.

 

[nmhampson]

We have an AirB&B and offer granny charging at £5 per night - but no takers yet. I'm not sure how to handle it when I get my charger installed - Zappi and Hypervolt are the front runners; I understand that both will allow me to monitor usage. Maybe pitch it at 25p/kWh ?

First ever post, have a 5 on order and collect this friday!

We havea hotel and went through the "what charger to get" malarky. Ended up going with GeniePoint as you can lock the charger and there is an app that shows the exact amount of energy used for those who charge. The lock is so that my guests dont find our car park full of EVs from other hotels or those using it for free/cheap parking rather than the car park nearby.

We also looked about and thought 20p was about right but depends on who will complain.

 

[Jomarkh]

Is that 20p a day or kWh ?

 

[nmhampson]

sadly kWh

 

[JCFlippen]

I have looked as CoCharger, but it seems to be only for EV owners who live in the neighbourhood. I have asked the company whether they can cater for anyone else and am awaiting a reply.

Why not add £10 to the daily room charge and then no need to think about it. Would bring in more business.

 

[Jomarkh]

If you charged that much then I would leave mine connected all night so how would the owners car get charged?