Anyone driven from South Wales to Manchester Airport MG 5 LR?

[maskull]

Hi I'll be driving up to Manchester Airport on Saturday . Any advice for the best route for charging . It's about 200 miles or 170 miles if I drive up through Mid Wales , so I should only need to stop once ( depending on my old man bladder )

 

[Gomev]

You could do that without stopping/charging if you want to, but I doubt that is what what you would like to do.
So the question is what SOC do you want to arrive with ? Do you want if filled ready for your return journey etc. or will you be travelling locally.
Since you mention Manchester airport you may be holidaying so want to leave it with reasonable charge to begin the return but not too much....etc. etc.

 

[maskull]

Yep, I probably could do it in one but I'm too chicken to try it . There's an SF connect a couple of miles from the Hotel , so I was thinking of stopping there to top up to 80ish% ready for the trip back .If I go through Mid Wales, there's a BP Pulse rapid in Llandrindod Wells so I was thinking of stopping there ( about 50 miles from me ) . Trouble with the Mid Wales route is September is tractor season so it could be painful .
If I go via M50,M5,M6 it's mostly Gridserve which I haven't used before . If there are some good charging stations close to the motorway junctions , I wouldn't be averse to doing that

 

[Gomev]

Yep, I probably could do it in one but I'm too chicken to try it . There's an SF connect a couple of miles from the Hotel , so I was thinking of stopping there to top up to 80ish% ready for the trip back .If I go through Mid Wales, there's a BP Pulse rapid in Llandrindod Wells so I was thinking of stopping there ( about 50 miles from me ) . Trouble with the Mid Wales route is September is tractor season so it could be painful .
If I go via M50,M5,M6 it's mostly Gridserve which I haven't used before . If there are some good charging stations close to the motorway junctions , I wouldn't be averse to doing that

I wouldn't bother with the Llandrindod Wells one on the way out, you'll have barely used enough electrons to replace in 50 miles (probably still at about 75% SOC assuming departing at 100%) but possibly as a tiny top up on the way home if you are feeling nervous.
If you haven't already got the WattsUp app get that and put your journey in, then look at the 'overview'. This will list all rapids en-route. Find a distance somewhere short of Manchester, say at around 140-150 miles where there are lots of Rapids and take it from there.

PS if you can wave a contactless card you can use a Gridserve.

 

[maskull]

The only concern I had about Gridserve is some reports say that they be a bit flaky , broken or occupied .
You're right about Llandod . I drove to Cardiff and back today ( with some detours) , 50 miles and got back with 83% SOC
So probably will take the Motorway charge at Strensham services and should be good to get to Manchester

 

[maskull]

So I decided to take the motorway route . I got to Frankley services with 58% topped it up to 80% ,no problems with using or the speed of the charger ( except there's only one there ) . Arrived in Manchester with 58% and topped it up to 82% with the BP charger , again no problems . Overall consumption was 4.9M/Kwh pretty pleased .
On the return journey I decided to travel through Wales ( Wrexham /Welshpool etc) . Left Manchester with 82% , topped up in Llandrindod Wells ( BP chargers in the Metropole ) which was painfully slow . 12 Kw in 25 minutes . Left Llandod with 49% got home with 23% . Overall consumption was 4.1 M/Kw .
Guess I'll probably use the motorway in future

 

[Gomev]

So I decided to take the motorway route . I got to Frankley services with 58% topped it up to 80% ,no problems with using or the speed of the charger ( except there's only one there ) . Arrived in Manchester with 58% and topped it up to 82% with the BP charger , again no problems . Overall consumption was 4.9M/Kwh pretty pleased .
On the return journey I decided to travel through Wales ( Wrexham /Welshpool etc) . Left Manchester with 82% , topped up in Llandrindod Wells ( BP chargers in the Metropole ) which was painfully slow . 12 Kw in 25 minutes . Left Llandod with 49% got home with 23% . Overall consumption was 4.1 M/Kw .
Guess I'll probably use the motorway in future

Sounds like a good trip. Good to know for the future that you could no doubt have made it to Manchester without charging halfway at all, still 58% left and only about 100 miles to go.
I travelled back from Hereford to Leeds last week 183 miles starting with 100% and got home with 17%.