Attempting Summer Break in Scotland

[SULLY111]

Hi
Had my Trophy for about 3 weeks now but never tried a very long journey , this Summer I will be attempting a run to Scotland from Crawley ( West Sussex ) a bit worried about the distance and the availability of charging points on my way there , its roughly 450 miles to my destination via M23 , M25 , M40 , M42 , M6 and the M8 , got no idea which software to use to identified charging points on my way there , if any of you guys are familiar with this route please advise any suggestion would be apricated , Many Thanks
Sully

 

[siteguru]

Gretna Green services (M6/M74) has GridServe, Applegreen and Ionity chargers. I've not used the Ionity but the others take contactless payments.

Try A Better Route Planner (ABRP) and/or Zap Map apps to look for charge points on your intended route.

 

[AndyL61]

Hi
Had my Trophy for about 3 weeks now but never tried a very long journey , this Summer I will be attempting a run to Scotland from Crawley ( West Sussex ) a bit worried about the distance and the availability of charging points on my way there , its roughly 450 miles to my destination via M23 , M25 , M40 , M42 , M6 and the M8 , got no idea which software to use to identified charging points on my way there , if any of you guys are familiar with this route please advise any suggestion would be apricated , Many Thanks
Sully

Everyone has their favourite apps for charging. Mine is Wattsup , closely followed by Zapmap. The motorway services seem to be mostly gridserve , some ionity also . They all have their own apps also. Don't rule out Tesla as some of their superchargers can now be used by everyone. TBH , I went down to Cornwall a month after I got my car and was very nervous about charging but we managed fine in the end. Just download all the apps plan your route on the apps and take it from there. Planning is ok but always leave room for contingencies as anything can happen. Most of all enjoy the trip.

 

[SULLY111]

Thank you , very solid advise .
Sully

Gretna Green services (M6/M74) has GridServe, Applegreen and Ionity chargers. I've not used the Ionity but the others take contactless payments.

Try A Better Route Planner (ABRP) and/or Zap Map apps to look for charge points on your intended route.

Thank you , Gretna Green , one of my favourite , I will bear all this in mind .
Sully

 

[siteguru]

The Ionity chargers are over by the BP garage ... the others are near the facilities at the bottom of the main car park.

 

[SULLY111]

The Ionity chargers are over by the BP garage ... the others are near the facilities at the bottom of the main car park.

Thank you for the info .
Sully

 

[Rolfe]

Hi. I used to do Southwater to Wishaw in Lanarkshire in a Peugeot GTi6 in about six hours on a good night. We won't be doing that in our MG4s.

I did Edinburgh to Halifax and back including a lot of M74 and M6 last month, and went into a number of service stations on the way just to check, even when I didn't need a charge. I went on a weekday just following a bank holiday, and everywhere I went there were chargers available. I had no trouble except that I couldn't get the AppleGreen charger at Gretna to talk to my car and had to move to a Gridserve.

Annandale Water is a really nice place to stop but only has a couple of chargers (I think more are being installed). Loads of chargers at Gretna and Abington.

Another wrinkle is that, if you've passed the service station at Burton-in-Kendal and aren't sure you want to go all the way to Tebay, there are very good Instavolt chargers at Booth's supermarket in Kirkby Lonsdale, six miles east of the motorway on the A65.

Going south, be aware that at the last count there were no chargers for us plebs at Tebay southbound, only for Teslas (although more chargers are allegedly being installed). However Southwaite (north of Tebay) has Gridserves although it's an uninspiring place to stop. Killington Lake has a nice restaurant and also I think two Gridserves. And again if you're at all struggling, detour to Kirkby Lonsdale.

If you're not going at a really busy time you should be absolutely fine. Welcome to Scotland and enjoy.

 

[greentangerine]

I'd recommend getting a ChargePlace Scotland card before your trip.

 

[Rolfe]

I'd recommend getting a ChargePlace Scotland card before your trip.

I forgot that bit! Absolutely. It can even get you free electricity at some tourist destinations.

 

[Derek25]

I'd recommend getting a ChargePlace Scotland card before your trip.

I'd go further and say don't go to Scotland without getting a Chargeplace Scotland card. It dominates charging in Scotland and relying on the app is inviting problems with poor communications.

 

[Daveap]

Hi
Had my Trophy for about 3 weeks now but never tried a very long journey , this Summer I will be attempting a run to Scotland from Crawley ( West Sussex ) a bit worried about the distance and the availability of charging points on my way there , its roughly 450 miles to my destination via M23 , M25 , M40 , M42 , M6 and the M8 , got no idea which software to use to identified charging points on my way there , if any of you guys are familiar with this route please advise any suggestion would be apricated , Many Thanks
Sully

I have made the journey a number of times in a ZS gen 1 - just don’t try it on a bank holiday weekend! Once in Scotland I use the excellent ChargePlace Scotland chargers- worth splashing out £10 for a proximity card as weak phone signal can affect app access. M6 Grid serve works well until you reach M74.

Dave

 

[Rolfe]

It's £12 now. But yes.

Gridserve still works on the M74 too. There are also banks of new Applegreen chargers at Gretna and Abington, thought some people (including me) have reported difficulty getting their cars to connect to these. (One suggestion is to power down the car from the infotainment screen before starting.)

 

[kelloggs]

We’ve just been up to Edinburgh from Lincolnshire to see my son. I stopped at leeming bar services gridserve, new bank of chargers round the back by the macdonalds. Uninspiring stop but chargers were new and very good.. also found the Gretna green gridserve services problematic on the Tesla chargers facing side but the other side were fine. A few had problems on one side, MG4 and Tesla model 3 for example, but the other side facing the car park were all ok. I used the IONITY at Edinburgh ikea as it’s near my sons place and it’s been fine every time. Zapmap and ABRP are my go to apps

 

[Rolfe]

Did you try the Applegreen ones at all, or did you see anyone else using them or appearing to have trouble with them?

The Gridserve one I tried was beside the Tesla chargers. It charged me up to 66%, enough to get home, then broke down. And didn't charge me. Every cloud, and all that...

 

[bear1]

Another view for wattsapp, I like the interface and the information can be more up to date than zapmap (people tend to report faults, but not always update on repaired chargers).

 

[siteguru]

WattsUp

 

[kelloggs]

I’ve used apple green with no problem before. We had 2 problems on this trip to Edinburgh , the gridserve at Gretna which I had to button to release the car and a ChargePlace Scotland on the way back from Loch Lomond which ended up on a call to helpline. Turned out that because I’d set up an account then hadn’t used it computer locked the account. One to bear in mind if you’ve done similar.

 

[Rolfe]

That's slightly odd. My friend who has a Leaf, and whom I'd been asking about EV matters, turned the tables on me last month by saying that he'd never used a public charger in the several years he'd had the car, and any suggestions? The first thing I suggested was to go to the village charger and just get used to using it. He then started scrabbling around in his desk for the ChargePlace Scotland card he'd acquired when he got the car and hadn't used. (Keep it in the car, Murray!!) Nevertheless a week ot two later he told me he'd charged on the village charger with the card without any trouble.

I've only phoned ChargePlace Scotland once, when I found the rapid charger in Moffat to be malfunctioning. The guy was really helpful, asking where I was going, how much charge I had, and assuring me that the next charger up was working. He also said if I thought I was getting into trouble to ring him back. (In fact I knew where the chargers were and I knew I had enough to get home on - albeit at 4% - but it was nice of him to help.)

 

[kelloggs]

I don’t have a card, just set up the account about 6 months ago then added the direct debit a few weeks ago. I didn’t pay for the card as we don’t get up there very often. The guy was very helpful and started the charge remotely after unlocking the account.

 

[Rolfe]

They suggest the card in case the mobile reception is dodgy, but obviously you can do the app thing or even pay by bank card on most of the chargers I think.