First long trip in MG4

[ukslim]

What do you think?

I note that those are long charge stops, e.g. 56 minutes at McDonald's Warwick, going 10% to 97%. That's not an especially fun place to linger either - it's a motorway-junction McDonalds with nothing interesting in easy walking distance.

On an ultra-rapid, you should be able to charge 20%-80% in 20 minutes, but it slows right down for the last 20% because of battery management. It's not recommended to rapid-charge past 80%, at least, not often. Partly because of battery health. Partly because for that last 20% you're paying rapid-charge prices but not charging as fast. Partly because someone else could be getting rapid-charge out of it, while you're not getting the full rate.

So if it was me, I'd ask ABRP for more, shorter stops.

Also, consider when you want lunch, and get some juice then.

 

[Rolfe]

These are meant to be the eating stops, although I take your point about McDonald's. One of the problems is that there isn't a suitable ultra-rapid charger anywhere near Forton/Leicester area. 50 Kw installations seems to be the lot.

The other plan, and the one I'm tending to favour, is the three-stop one which has its first stop at Killington Lake, which has a nice Roadchef for lunch.

However, I was curious when @MG4London said that he was stopping less frequently than that, and wondering how he manages it.

 

[Tight Git]

I'm off down to Berkshire tomorrow and my first proposed stop will be Ionity at Peterborough which is 145 miles. I'm going to set the ACC at 70 and see if I can get there. If not I will charge at about 100 miles.

Car is at 100% with 255 mile range (SE SR) but I know it won't get anywhere near that as I have been pootling locally at about 50mph!

 

[ukslim]

These are meant to be the eating stops, although I take your point about McDonald's. One of the problems is that there isn't a suitable ultra-rapid charger anywhere near Forton/Leicester area. 50 Kw installations seems to be the lot.

Mm, but the thing is, if you spend an 40-60 minutes having lunch, 50kW is fine. Ideal, even.

Whereas 150kW is what you want if you just want to be out of there ASAP.

 

[Rolfe]

It would be nice to have the choice! Ultra-rapids aren't common in the north of England, it seems.

I hope I get on a charger at Killington Lake, because there are only a few - although the day I drove in for a look there was only one Tesla actually charging. I've often stopped there for lunch and it's nice. But if I can't get a charge there it's looking like a Booth's car park further south, and their café.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm off down to Berkshire tomorrow and my first proposed stop will be Ionity at Peterborough which is 145 miles. I'm going to set the ACC at 70 and see if I can get there. If not I will charge at about 100 miles.

Car is at 100% with 255 mile range (SE SR) but I know it won't get anywhere near that as I have been pootling locally at about 50mph!

I think the most I've ever seen on my GOM is the fabled 218 miles! It's sitting at 200 at the moment.

I suppose if I got to Killington Lake on a lot more than 23% (which is what ABRP predicts) then I could switch to the other plan and head on for Forton. But then that's an hour and a half at Forton and it's not nearly such a nice stop as Killington Lake.

 

[Tight Git]

I think the most I've ever seen on my GOM is the fabled 218 miles! It's sitting at 200 at the moment.

I suppose if I got to Killington Lake on a lot more than 23% (which is what ABRP predicts) then I could switch to the other plan and head on for Forton. But then that's an hour and a half at Forton and it's not nearly such a nice stop as Killington Lake.

You could stop at Lancaster park and ride which is a bit further on than Killington but again isn't as nice.

 

[Tonych]

I know people have previously reported on their "long trip" experiences, and having had the MG4 a couple of months going no further than 60 miles from home, I was looking forward to seeing what sort of experience taking it on holiday would be.

Warwick to Seaton in Devon. Actually only 160 miles. So the experience was:

• arranged to be at 100% charge before we went
• drove there - stopped for a meal, then later a snack on the way, but didn't charge
• used eco mode, but we always do. Air con on.
• arrived with 80 miles of range to spare

Obvious really, but yeah, perfectly smooth.

---

That's supposed to be the story. "We drove a moderately long distance; it was easy " but, bonus content:

Since I'd told Google Maps we were in an EV, it sent us on an A-road through Evesham, rather than the longer but faster motorway route. Good.

We did a couple of days short journeys only, with the 80 miles of range we still had, plus an hour's worth of of PodPoint charging at the local Tesco - only 7kW to be had.

We had a day in Exeter, where I hoped to fully charge in the car park while we did our sightseeing. PodPoints on the fifth floor of the city centre shopping centre's multistorey car park. Would have been hard to find, if it weren't for a helpful user comment on ZapMap. There were plenty of free chargers, but it only charged at around 3.5kW, so even with 5 hours of sightseeing, we didn't get a huge amount of juice. Expensive choice of car park, too...

Later in the holiday, we stumbled upon rapid chargers a couple of times, which weren't on ZapMap (I think they are now). Always Wenea. Most usefully for us, in the central car park in Beer, the small seaside village next to ours. They seem to have ploughed into Dorset and Devon in preparation for the hordes of tourists who'll hit those places in the school holidays. In Axminster, the Wenea chargers still had bubble-wrap around the cables!

So we were able to charge at 60kW, as a "destination charge". The only problem, these Wenea chargers are 75p/kWh. And that was our main source of juice for the 2 week holiday.

There are lots of very steep hills in these parts. Not having to contend with gear changes or clutch control on the hills of Lyme Regis was a real blessing.

Anyway, long story short - took EV on holiday, it was good.

Next long trip is Warwick to Totley on the outskirts of Sheffield, stay overnight, then come back. It's not looking as straightforward. Just 20 miles too far to be done there-and-back on one charge. Nowhere convenient in Totley to slow-charge overnight. I only really need 10 minutes on a 100kW charger, but there's a real dearth of them on the M1. Going to have to take a detour into uncharted areas of Chesterfield or Hinckley.

Didnt know there was a google maps option to say "EV"! Thank you!

 

[Rolfe]

You could stop at Lancaster park and ride which is a bit further on than Killington but again isn't as nice.

I did look at that one, but there are problems. First, this is the lunch stop and the park-and-ride doesn't look like the right place. Second, if I stop as early as Lancaster then the rest of the journey becomes a lot more problematic with only one more stop, so I'm looking at a three-stop plan anyway. Better to do Killington Lake and be done with it.

 

[ukslim]

I did look at that one, but there are problems. First, this is the lunch stop and the park-and-ride doesn't look like the right place. Second, if I stop as early as Lancaster then the rest of the journey becomes a lot more problematic with only one more stop, so I'm looking at a three-stop plan anyway. Better to do Killington Lake and be done with it.

I had a play with your journey in ABRP, and it looks like 2-stop options take the same amount of time overall as 3-stop options (within 1 minute).

I think the mindset change here, is to see more stops as an advantage, especially if they don't cost you time overall. Enjoy two 20 minute leg-stretches, instead of one 40-minute one, for example.

 

[ukslim]

I had a play with your journey in ABRP, and it looks like 2-stop options take the same amount of time overall as 3-stop options (within 1 minute).

I think the mindset change here, is to see more stops as an advantage, especially if they don't cost you time overall. Enjoy two 20 minute leg-stretches, instead of one 40-minute one, for example.

I once did Warwick to Inverness in one go, in an ICE. We did swap drivers, but it was 8 hours stopping only for the briefest toilet breaks, and to grab food we ate on the move. Exceptional circumstances had delayed our start, and our B&B had a strict arrival deadline...

It was absolutely exhausting, and given the opportunity, I'd take at least 4 breaks. Indeed, if we'd been in an EV it would have been a negotiating chip for further extending that B&B deadline. (They had been awfully nice extending it for us already, though)

 

[Rolfe]

I had a play with your journey in ABRP, and it looks like 2-stop options take the same amount of time overall as 3-stop options (within 1 minute).

I think the mindset change here, is to see more stops as an advantage, especially if they don't cost you time overall. Enjoy two 20 minute leg-stretches, instead of one 40-minute one, for example.

The thing is, I want a long stop so I can have lunch and relax. Twenty minutes is long enough to be boring and too short to do anything much. But I think that I should probably go for the three-stop plan the first time I try this, because it's safer. Based on how that goes, I'll get a better idea how it could be varied. Even on the way back.

 

[Rolfe]

I once did Warwick to Inverness in one go, in an ICE. We did swap drivers, but it was 8 hours stopping only for the briefest toilet breaks, and to grab food we ate on the move. Exceptional circumstances had delayed our start, and our B&B had a strict arrival deadline...

It was absolutely exhausting, and given the opportunity, I'd take at least 4 breaks. Indeed, if we'd been in an EV it would have been a negotiating chip for further extending that B&B deadline. (They had been awfully nice extending it for us already, though)

I used to drive 430 miles to get home for a long weekend from Sussex. Left after work, got in around midnight. One five-minute stop to fill the tank, maybe buy a bag of crisps while I was paying.

 

[MG4London]

Well, you can see from the map that my original plan was to do it in three legs of just under 150 miles each, so not going to drive for 200 miles straight, even if the car could do it. (Although back in the day I used to do 430 miles with only one stop for petrol, just fill the tank up, pay and get back on the road, five minutes!)

What sort of speed are you driving to get actual 200 miles range from your SR? I see that on the GOM sometimes, but if I'm driving at motorway speeds that soon gets revised downwards. ABRP seems to think that even 150-mile legs is too ambitious, and that I need three charging stops, or else to limit my speed to 65 mph for most of the journey.

What do you think?

I’ve never actually done more than 150-160 miles without stopping to charge, even if it says I could have done over 200


I doubt anyone does that distance without wanting to stop for a break anyway

 

[Rolfe]

I used to do whatever my petrol tank would allow. A 430 mile journey, regularly, stopping once for five minutes to fill the tank. Sometimes the stop wouldn't be anywhere near the middle. Often I drove for 300 miles. (I had a 60 litre tank in my Peugeot, but I never bothered to start off full, so I never did it in a single run, although it would have been possible.)

Obviously I don't want to do that now. I'm developing a relaxed attitude to enjoying a break. But I haven't figured out the best way to handle it. I don't particularly like 20-30 minute breaks because there isn't really time to go and have a meal. I'd rather do fewer but longer stops. However that isn't as good for overall time, if you have to wait to charge the top 20% of your battery.

I was a bit confused by the way ABRP was so reluctant to let me plan driving legs of 145-148 miles in an SR. Your experience suggests that's an entirely reasonable plan for the car, but ABRP wants me to restrict my speed to 65 mph for large chunks of the journey to achieve it. So I was wondering what sort of speed you were doing to get your figures.

I think I'm going to do the three-stop plan, but keep an eye on how the car's actual range compares to the ABRP predictions. It's the safe option, it allows leeway in case I can't get on a charger where I want to, and the stops are quite decently spaced anyway. An hour for lunch at Killington Lake is fine.

 

[Tight Git]

145 miles done with ACC set at 70mph with Aircon turned off for about half of the trip used 84% of the SR battery. Slight headwind and some rain, temperature about 17°C so quite cool for summer.

Arrived with 16%/29 miles range - 35kWh put in in 39 minutes took it from 16% to about 85% started at 70kW and down to just over 20kW when I stopped. Charger was Peterborough Ionity 6 X 350kW and there were available chargers all the time I was there, which is unusual.

Total journey of 240 miles at 3.6kW/mile now have the return to do tomorrow!

 

[ukslim]

I don't have the experience yet, but I'm coming to think that for my journeys "the plan" is going to be a fallback plan. On the ground - perhaps using ABRP on the car screen - I'll be thinking "I'm ready for a break now, where's the next 50kW+ charger? Plug in, use the loo, leave whenever I like with a bit more charge, and a new plan for the rest of the journey.

 

[Rolfe]

145 miles done with ACC set at 70mph with Aircon turned off for about half of the trip used 84% of the SR battery. Slight headwind and some rain, temperature about 17°C so quite cool for summer.

Arrived with 16%/29 miles range - 35kWh put in in 39 minutes took it from 16% to about 85% started at 70kW and down to just over 20kW when I stopped. Charger was Peterborough Ionity 6 X 350kW and there were available chargers all the time I was there, which is unusual.

Total journey of 240 miles at 3.6kW/mile now have the return to do tomorrow!

ABRP has me down to only 8% after 147 miles. Hmm. I suppose I just have to set off and see how it goes.

 

[Tight Git]

I was in normal mode and regen on adaptive. Switching to Eco will add a bit more range and if you really need a few extra miles back off to 60-65 and range increases significantly.

I tend to set the ACC to 65 as that's enough to overtake wagons but I wanted to see what difference 70mph makes.

 

[Rolfe]

I can't hold back that much on a clear motorway. It feels like I'm crawling.