Driving to Cornwall

[tonybridge]

I’m driving to Cornwall on Friday, from Maidenhead, in Berkshire in my Trophy LR, which I’ll charge up to 100% before leaving home. So, about 4 hours, via either the M4/M5, or M3/A303 to Exeter, then A38 to Plymouth, and on to Looe.

Does anyone have any hints/tips to share about charging points along the way? There are chargers at the destination…

 

[fnegroni]

I would use my favourite app (Electroverse or Fastned) and set a filter for chargers that have at least 6 charging bays and speeds of 100 or above.
Save a few on the way as favourites so they load up quickly on the map.
Design a route that goes past at least a couple of them
I would plan to charge at around 40% charge but would not stop if there’s a queue
this can be an example

 

[Tight Git]

Launceston is 200 miles from Maidenhead and there is an open to all Tesla site there so you should be able to make that without too much problem. You will use a lot less electric by avoiding motorways and sticking to 60mph.

Keep an eye on remaining range on the car and distance to go on the sat nav and slow down a bit if it's getting tight!

I'm heading for Penzance in June from North Yorkshire in my SE SR so twice as far as yours. Wife's mother lives down the Altwood Road so I'm in Maidenhead frequently.

 

[Rolfe]

Here's what ABRP has to say about that, assuming you're happy to get in with just 20% charge.

It doesn't seem to want you to go all the way to Exeter on a single charge and prefers Cullompton on that basis. I suspect if you increase the % you want to get in with it will just increase your charging time at Cullompton.

(I accidentally asked it to get you in at only 8% the first time I tried it and again it said charge at Cullompton, but for a shorter time. I suspect the answer is aim to charge there, and just take on as much as you need to be comfortable with your % on arrival.)

I can't see any reason at all why you would need or want to plan for more than one charging stop.

 

[Loveclose]

A303 at Stonehenge is always a lottery traffic wise.....although I've yet to pass it in my electric vehicle!

 

[tonybridge]

Launceston is 200 miles from Maidenhead and there is an open to all Tesla site there so you should be able to make that without too much problem. You will use a lot less electric by avoiding motorways and sticking to 60mph.

Keep an eye on remaining range on the car and distance to go on the sat nav and slow down a bit if it's getting tight!

I'm heading for Penzance in June from North Yorkshire in my SE SR so twice as far as yours. Wife's mother lives down the Altwood Road so I'm in Maidenhead frequently.

I live in Altwood Road

Thanks for the replies, and thanks for doing my work in the apps for me

I’m minded to not go down the M-ways, as I find it physically impossible for me to drive at 60 , so I’m going to use A-roads.

 

[DaevM]

Exeter services should be fine.
I've been heading to Midlands on a 520+ round trip from pointy end of Cornwall every 6 weeks on a 30kwh soul, charging at Bodmin, Exeter, Bristol.
.Exeter has lots and lots of chargers and I'm looking forward to 1 charge stop at Exeter each way from now on after buying 4 se lr

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Last week, Moto tweeted that they now have over 150 rapids along the M4

 

[tsedge]

Salmon's Leap at Buckfastleigh is just off the A38 and has 16 high power chargers and a farm shop and cafe. I prefer it to stopping at Exeter.

 

[Ejaydee]

You should easily be able to go from home to Exeter along the A303 (which will help keep your top speed down ) and the bank of chargers at Exeter are great……or Salmons Leap suggested by @tsedge

 

[Rolfe]

It looks as if you're absolutely spoiled for choice on that route. Which makes "The MacMaster's" brain-dead antics on the way to/from Land's End look even more contrived and unnecessary. It's basically performance art.

I suspect you could get to Exeter on one charge on the A roads - when I ran ABRP I had the motorway speed set pretty high. I also suspect that we're getting close to the point, around there, where you can simply say "Oh I'm on 10%, better find a charger" and simply get one within a few miles.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

It looks as if you're absolutely spoiled for choice on that route. Which makes "The MacMaster's" brain-dead antics on the way to/from Land's End look even more contrived and unnecessary. It's basically performance art.

"Everything went swimmingly" just doesn't get the clicks.

 

[Tig170]

My Choice would be:-

Tesla Reading, UK
Moto Reading Westbound Services
M4
RG30 3UQ Reading

or

Tesla Lifton (Devon and Cornwall border) 16 x V4 (opened 14/12/23)
Arundell Arms Hotel
1 Fore Street
PL16 0AA Lifton
United Kingdom

Google Maps link to all UK Open to non-Tesla sites. V4 sites in purple, V2/V3 sites in blue, V4 in construction in orange

 

[Rolfe]

"Everything went swimmingly" just doesn't get the clicks.

Exactly. It seems to have been wearing a bit thin after his antics at St Davids, when he insisted the nearest chargers were seven or eight miles away, so he couldn't charge overnight and had to set off in the morning on about 30% charge. (That meant that he had to do two charges to get home, so doubled his opportunity for manufacturing drama.)

Then someone made a video showing the ten destination chargers about 100 yards from the hotel where he was sitting making these claims. St David's is remarkably well supplied with chargers, probably because it gets a lot of tourists in the summer. I doubt there were many on these chargers on the winter solstice though. His post hoc protestations that there was a time limit so he couldn't use them were (a) false and (b) not believed by anyone but his fervent acolytes.

I'll be mildly interested to see if he puts his money where his mouth is when the lease on that Taycan is up, and gets a petrol 911, or whether he uses the YouTube revenue to go for the face-lifted Taycan that does 0-60 in something like 2.8 seconds.

 

[tonybridge]

My Choice would be:-

Tesla Reading, UK
Moto Reading Westbound Services
M4
RG30 3UQ Reading

or

Tesla Lifton (Devon and Cornwall border) 16 x V4 (opened 14/12/23)
Arundell Arms Hotel
1 Fore Street
PL16 0AA Lifton
United Kingdom

Google Maps link to all UK Open to non-Tesla sites. V4 sites in purple, V2/V3 sites in blue, V4 in construction in orange

But I'm leaving Maidenhead, just 14 miles away from the Reading Services, with 100% charge. ..

The Lifton Chargers look interesting, thanks for the info.

 

[DaevM]

But I'm leaving Maidenhead, just 14 miles away from the Reading Services, with 100% charge. ..

The Lifton Chargers look interesting, thanks for the info.

What time are you travelling?
Friday afternoons get a bit busy from Easter onwards but you should be reasonably fine. Not half-term or anything.

 

[tonybridge]

It looks as if you're absolutely spoiled for choice on that route. Which makes "The MacMaster's" brain-dead antics on the way to/from Land's End look even more contrived and unnecessary. It's basically performance art.

I suspect you could get to Exeter on one charge on the A roads - when I ran ABRP I had the motorway speed set pretty high. I also suspect that we're getting close to the point, around there, where you can simply say "Oh I'm on 10%, better find a charger" and simply get one within a few miles.

The MacMaster... oh, my Word, I didn't know about him until your post, Rolfe. Now I've just watched a few minutes of one his anti-EV rants, and I shall never be able to get rid of his awful Channel from my mind! I feel sorry for his neighbours, can you imagine having to listen to his tedious drivel?

Yes, the more I investigate the local chargers, I should be fine...

What time are you travelling?
Friday afternoons get a bit busy from Easter onwards but you should be reasonably fine. Not half-term or anything.

Traveling as soon as I can get up, showered, and load the car... about noon then the Reading stretch of the M4 is very well-known to me.

 

[DaevM]

I haven't watched the MacMaster yet and thought it was someone else who'd done a Tesla vs MG4 to Lands End and back that was somewhat skewiff. I can imagine from your follow-up post though.
For my first couple of years of ev ownership I was evangelical about it, trying to convert anyone and everyone. Then over the last couple of years I've tried to discourage everyone I can at every opportunity. The logic being the faster the uptake, the sooner the VED(?) tax will come in. I failed, but it was fun trying

 

[Rolfe]

The MacMaster... oh, my Word, I didn't know about him until your post, Rolfe. Now I've just watched a few minutes of one his anti-EV rants, and I shall never be able to get rid of his awful Channel from my mind! I feel sorry for his neighbours, can you imagine having to listen to his tedious drivel?

Yes, the more I investigate the local chargers, I should be fine...

Some of it's a bit addictive. You just can't wait to see what stunt he's going to pull next to make EV driving look like something only a demented lunatic would want to do - all the while swanning around the landscape in a Porsche Taycan. I can't quite decide my favourite.

When he pulled in to Southwaite (before the extra chargers were added) rather than go on to the Ionitys at Carlisle.
When he drove straight past the Tesla superchargers at Inverness to martyr himself in the pouring rain on a 50 Kw charger at Skiach.
When he was adamant he was going to get from JoG to Perth on one charge, despite not having been able to get from Perth to JoG the previous day - and drove past the Aviemore superchargers.
When he gallantly refused to use a charger overnight at Killington Lake in case someone else might want it (there is a type 2 plug).
When he spent a couple of hours trying to charge at 38 Kw when there was a 350 Kw charger just 14 miles away (and he had the range to get there).

But really, the prize goes to the time when he

Decided to charge at Great Yarmouth rather than go on to Lowestoft where he was staying the night (and where there were 300 Kw chargers very near his hotel), and went, apparently at random, to an Osprey site that was so new it hadn't been turned on, and declared that all the chargers were out of order.

That's ignoring the times he parks the wrong way round to the charger, or too far from it, and declares that the connector cable won't reach. Or the times he has gone to an AC charger declaring that there was nothing else available. Or his constant habit of waiting with increasing impatience and frustration for the Taycan to get to 100%, when his next charging stop could be reached from 70%. And so on.

Most of his viewers don't realise that the Taycan has a satnav nearly as good as a Tesla, and can identify the best, fastest chargers and navigate him there without him having to do anything but steer the bloody thing following the wee line on the screen.

 

[dsimpkins]

Salmon's Leap at Buckfastleigh is just off the A38 and has 16 high power chargers and a farm shop and cafe. I prefer it to stopping at Exeter.

I've also used these chargers, and the set up is excellent. It's how a charging location should be (except for a cover over the chargers)