Just back from a week or so in the Lake District, 201 mile journey each way, M5, M6, A590..
+'s and -'s from an EV perspective:
Journey Up (Plan was to stop and charge to 75% en-route so we'd arrive with plenty of charge at the cottage).
- Stopped at some services with 4 EV bays, of which only 2 can be used at a time, 1 was Chademo Only and 1 numpty in an ID.4 was overstaying in his spot for over 2 hours, so basically 1 charger between 3 of us trying to do a splash 'n' dash..
+ The cameradery at the services was great, 3 of us all worked together, giving each 15-20 mins to get enough charge. despite all that, we still managed to charge before the family had finished their lunch (being busy it took 30+ mins to get food let alone eat it).
+ Travel Assist on the ID.3 on the M6 was a god send, it really takes the hassle out of stop/start/slow moving motorway traffic.
+ We got 4 m/kwh average with a very full car (4 + dog + weeks luggage), the temperature was 20 degrees, so ideal for longer battery life.. (not too much air con needed, battery chemistry loving 20+ degrees!)
Out and about
+ Despite a total drought of chargers, we had no issues, I used £15 bonnet credit + the first month free subscription to charge @ 0.45p at a Genie point in Ulverston that was always empty. That and using the £5 instavolt credit at the local Booths (they have 4 fast chargers per supermarket site) which invariably only had 1 or 2 max charging at any time so actually never waited once for a charge and using £20 of credit and remaning charge @0.45p/kwh meant we didn't spend much at all on fuel.
- Managed to find a pothole/missing edge of the road at the wrong point and ripped both inside tyres, slightly bending the alloys at the same time
+ The local VW dealer (some 1.5 miles from the pothole!) had 2 spare tyres and managed to get us underway with the caution of getting the alloys changed as soon as.
- the windy/undulating roads with a heavily sprung EV does not lead to a nice ride for passengers, getting a bit car sick in the back after 30 minutes.. I found winding DCC to max (stiffest) stopped the issue, setting it to softest definitely had a bit too much 'bounce'.
Journey Back:
+ Travel Assist once more was so helpful on the usual M6 congestion
- Whilst we did a splash and dash at the Ionity at Stafford, one charger was out, and the one I ended up with wouldn't read my WeCharge card (giving us 0.45p/kwh), I initially started charging using the IONITY app @ 0.69p/kwh until I realised you can initiate a charge using the ID Connect app so taking advantage of the We Charge discounted rates, so stopped after 10kwh's of juice and restarted using the cheaper method. this just shows the faff it still can be.. enough chargers here, but RFID not working, then having to figure out what app allowed what..
Overall it cements that whilst we are very happy with an EV, it only works with a bit of knowledge and prior thought, if traffic conditions change and you need to re-route, it can be luck if you can find anywhere quickly to charge without getting someone else in the car to trawl through ABRP / Plugshare or Zap Maps and there is always a percentage of chargers not working, or some numpties overstaying by hours hogging a spot..
It's fine for us since 98% of the time we charge at home, so it's just the odd long journey we have to endure the aggro, but if I was having to use public charging daily, it'd put me off a bit, especially if I was travelling to different places all the time, I'd only consider an EV if it was a Tesla just for the charging network.
