First long road trip

[securespark]

We are planning our first long trip down South to various locations in Surrey, the South coast, South London and Hants. We will be away 6 days and will cover in excess of 750 miles.

Mrs S is well miffed today. We are on day one of a 700 mile multi-family visit trip. Went to Warwick services South. Never seen Applegreen chargers before. Applegreen offers a discount (if you download the app). So she downloads it. Then after installing it and entering all her details, the app tells her the nearest charger is Warwick services South.

Yes, I know, she grumbles, but how do I start charging?

Took ages and meanwhile, there was a sign that said if you are here not charging for longer than 10 minutes, you will be fined 100 nicker....

She moaned that petrol stations have the prices displayed so you know what you're paying before you dispense and they have a roof over your head.

(She) Hated that it took ages to charge. We have charged away from home before, I'm not sure why she was so cross this time, but she swears she's never buying another EV again.



Edited for clarity.

 

[securespark]

I'll let you know if we get an invoice for £100.00....

It took ages because, once the app was downloaded, it then showed a screen which displayed that the nearest charger was where we were.

But there was no obvious button saying "Tap here to charge" or whatever, so we asked a couple of other people if they knew how to do it. Luckily, one bloke had worked it out.

Where it said Warwick Services South was our nearest charger, we needed to tap on that and then we were able to start the charging process.

But it was absolutely not intuitive at all. Quite the opposite.
It would have been better if we had just ignored the 5p discount and tapped the debit card on the reader...

There's no point signing up for a 5p discount if it's going to cost us £100 more....

 

[Anon70]

she's never buying another EV again.

This really has nothing to do with the car and everything to do with the infrastructure. At the moment it makes sense to pre plan all charging stops with contingencies for any long trip. We are still not at the point where you can randomly choose any fuel stop as you can with ICE cars and expect them to work in a similar or the same way.

This is where and why Tesla owners have a much smoother charging experience, with everything being just plug and go at EVERY Tesla charging point (of which there are enough to cover a majority of trips)

 

[securespark]

No, I agree. It's everything to do with the infrastructure and in particular, this motorway service station setup where you have a camera watching your every move under the threat of a massive fine.

But, I have to admit, Mrs S is a bit impatient, and that doesn't help.

 

[securespark]

Left Woking for Southampton today. Searched for "high speed EV charger" online.

Found rapid charger at Lidl in S.hampton. Only one proper rapid one there and it's in use. Wait till it's free. Charge to 50 pc, then set off for Beaulieu.

Some nice motors there, but my OCD twitches at an Allegro which, while it strictly has a correct "1970s" label, as it is the Allegro 3, it squeaked in right at the end of 1979.

Disappointed there were no EV chargers at Beaulieu.
Also disappointed there was no separate display of electric vehicles, from the early ones 1899 onwards to the milk floats, Enfield's etc to the current day.

Edit: there was a hacked open Tesla, showing all the HV stuff, but it was kind of on its own, with no context.

Mrs S took some pics of some MGs. I shall post them soon. Spent some time in the New Forest (always a thrill with the wildlife) and tomorrow we are off to see a relative of Mrs S in Worthing.