D
Deleted member 2439
Guest
Hi,
We have just got back home after a long weekend away. We travelled from our home near Lincoln upto Lindisfarne. Roughly 200 miles each way and another 300 in running around whilst we were up there.
All paid for charging was done using InstaVolt - which was consistent & reliable. I found a free rapid charger in Berwick upon Tweed, which we took full advantage of on several occasions. Had a couple of pleasant conversations with other EV users whilst waiting to use it and whilst they waited for me. The timing was great on each occcasion & nobody had to wait for more than 10 mins or so. I’ve also learned that there seems to be a courtesy in place which is that someone else is waiting then just charge to 90% - which is all very civilised really.
The one thing that has sunk into me from this trip is that although rapid chargers are great, the slowdown in charge rate past 80% can really prolong your charge time. So I adopted a tactic of stopping at that point & the dashing off to the next one for another charge to 80%. Whilst keeping a bit in reserve “just in case” the charger isn’t working (to get to an alternate one) essentially means a useful range of 100 miles per charge. A bit of a mixed blessing as although this gives the quickest charge time (I.e no charging past the 80% mark) it is a bit of a faff having to stop more times, essentially trading the number of stops vs total times stopped. Still, it allows time for coffee & then a loo break at the next stop I suppose. I noted that on our first stop on Saturday we spent about £7.90 on a charge, plus another £13 in the adjacent Starbucks!
So, all in all, a good break & useful EV experience, subsidised by the rate payers of Berwick ?. Total spend with InstaVolt was about £23, which is £100 less than I would have spent on petrol if I’d taken the Mondeo. It’s artificially lowered of course by the free charges in Berwick - which I fully accept will end at some point, in fact there was a sign on the charger saying it would be switching to contactless from the 1st April, but technical difficulties meant this was delayed - hence the free bit is on borrowed time. We did venture upto Scotland, but I got totally confused by the chargers up there - so didn’t even attempt to charge.
Hopefully these observations are of interest.
Cheers - Rob
We have just got back home after a long weekend away. We travelled from our home near Lincoln upto Lindisfarne. Roughly 200 miles each way and another 300 in running around whilst we were up there.
All paid for charging was done using InstaVolt - which was consistent & reliable. I found a free rapid charger in Berwick upon Tweed, which we took full advantage of on several occasions. Had a couple of pleasant conversations with other EV users whilst waiting to use it and whilst they waited for me. The timing was great on each occcasion & nobody had to wait for more than 10 mins or so. I’ve also learned that there seems to be a courtesy in place which is that someone else is waiting then just charge to 90% - which is all very civilised really.
The one thing that has sunk into me from this trip is that although rapid chargers are great, the slowdown in charge rate past 80% can really prolong your charge time. So I adopted a tactic of stopping at that point & the dashing off to the next one for another charge to 80%. Whilst keeping a bit in reserve “just in case” the charger isn’t working (to get to an alternate one) essentially means a useful range of 100 miles per charge. A bit of a mixed blessing as although this gives the quickest charge time (I.e no charging past the 80% mark) it is a bit of a faff having to stop more times, essentially trading the number of stops vs total times stopped. Still, it allows time for coffee & then a loo break at the next stop I suppose. I noted that on our first stop on Saturday we spent about £7.90 on a charge, plus another £13 in the adjacent Starbucks!
So, all in all, a good break & useful EV experience, subsidised by the rate payers of Berwick ?. Total spend with InstaVolt was about £23, which is £100 less than I would have spent on petrol if I’d taken the Mondeo. It’s artificially lowered of course by the free charges in Berwick - which I fully accept will end at some point, in fact there was a sign on the charger saying it would be switching to contactless from the 1st April, but technical difficulties meant this was delayed - hence the free bit is on borrowed time. We did venture upto Scotland, but I got totally confused by the chargers up there - so didn’t even attempt to charge.
Hopefully these observations are of interest.
Cheers - Rob
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