Took the EV to the Netherlands for a week, carrying our bikes, then cycled around before driving back yesterday. It was our first proper trip away in an EV and I thought I'd share the experience here.
We left home in Bristol with 100% charge. We have a home charge point. The OH wanted a wee at Reading services and I took the opportunity for a quick 10 min blast on a public charger there. Our Electroverse card worked fine.
The plan was to charge up after the channel tunnel in Calais for a cheaper rate, but there were delays at the Folkestone end when we arrived and I figured that while we were waiting we might as well charge the car there, rather than another wait on the other side.
The Electroverse app was showing 1 free charge point that was operational. All the others were taken, but that was understandable as it was heaving due to the delays. A Merc parked in a normal space next to the charging bays had pulled round a charge cable serving the spaces on the opposite side to charge their Merc. Next to the Merc was a Nissan van who was using their own cable hooked up to the same machine via a socket under a little flap. I took the remaining space with a charging machine and cable free. The Electroverse app worked fine again and we left the car charging and went for a walk. About 30m away I turned to get my bearings for when we returned and saw a VW ID pull up in the remaining space, but of course there was no charger available because of the Merc. The ID driver mistook the Nissan van cable plugged into the machine for the machine's charging cable, unplugged it from the machine and tried to plug it into their own car! I felt sorry for the Nissan driver because I doubt charging resumed after the disconnection, but I'm a newbie so might be wrong about that.
Anyway, we left Folkestone via the tunnel with 100% and about halfway across Belgium did a 30 min blast on a public charger at a motorway services.
We arrived at Veenendaal in the Netherlands on 43%, parked in a multistorey, removed the bikes and panniers and spent 6 days cycling. If anyone is interested, we stayed at B&Bs and did a loop: Doesburg, Goor, Hardenburg, Zwolle, Apeldoor and back to Veenendaal. The OH checked in on the car once or twice via her car app and during the week the battery did drop from 43% to 42%. I expected some loss because the car periodically uses a bit of the big battery to top up the little 12v battery.
Back at the multistorey, we loaded up the bikes and the plan was to get checked into our final B&B and go out for a meal and worry about charging the next morning. But, after cycling in 37c on the hottest ever June day in Holland, and having just drank the last of our sun-warmed water, I wanted an ice cold Coke and so we drove to a nearby Mcdonalds that we had rode past on the way into town. The Electroverse app was showing a rank of chargers there with 6/6 available and so I hooked up the car and we went in for a cold drink. The machines said 75kw chargers, not super fast but our car charges at 74kw max anyway so I figured it would be fine. Once seated, the app was showing a charge speed of 15kwh and was not speeding up. I then noticed in the opposite corner of the car park another charging machine, just room for two cars but this machine was saying 250kw. Both were free and this machine was also showing on the Electroverse app. So I went out and moved the car to the faster charge points. As I walked out a BMW parked up and connected. When I drove over, the remaining space was still free so I was able to connect. The charging speed went straight up to 50kwh and over the course of another Coke went up to 74kwh. We left for our final nearby B&B with 80% charge, plenty to start the drive home the next day.
So for the drive home we did a couple of hundred miles before pulling in at a services at about 30%. There were x2 75kwh machines and x6 250kwh machines. I opted for the faster machines even though I think they were dearer. After about 25 mins and a coffee we were up to 80% and this was plenty to get us to Calais. At Calais I had bookmarked a chargepoint at Lidl which was the cheapest in town, but neither of these were working, even though it did not say so on the Electroverse app. So we went to the next closest chargers in Carrfour, which I think were 300kwh, and after a wander round the store we arrived at the channel tunnel in Calais on 98% charge.
More delays at the tunnel. All the charge points were rammed with the same jostling for position as the Folkestone side and I was glad we'd charged beforehand. It was still boiling outside so the air con took us to 94% by the time we boarded the tunnel train.
After some experience of doing a few miles in an EV and using public charging I had confidence in knowing that the 200 miles from Folkestone to home would be no bother starting at 94%. I didn't even bother plugging into a charger for a quick blast at the services when we stopped for a wee. We got home with 20% charge left.
So after our first proper trip away in an EV I've no problems with using this type of car for long journeys and charging was ok. Not nearly as straightforward as a petrol pump, but we got enough power to get where we needed to go.
Some charge points were very busy and some machines did not charge anywhere near their stated speed.
Another thing I found was that some chargers were labelled up better than others. Quite often each machine was labelled with a number but then each cable had its own code, so I had to identify which working charger was where by looking at the code which was usually in tiny writing and not immediately obvious. If there are say 8 physical cables, they should each be labelled up 1 to 8 rather than just the machines being labelled up.
I also noticed some people take ages to get set up. I observed one guy literally get in and out of his car 8 times while setting up his car at a machine to charge. I counted. Others just pull up, plug in and walk off. I'm somewhere between the two at the moment
