First long trip in MG4

[ukslim]

I know people have previously reported on their "long trip" experiences, and having had the MG4 a couple of months going no further than 60 miles from home, I was looking forward to seeing what sort of experience taking it on holiday would be.

Warwick to Seaton in Devon. Actually only 160 miles. So the experience was:

• arranged to be at 100% charge before we went
• drove there - stopped for a meal, then later a snack on the way, but didn't charge
• used eco mode, but we always do. Air con on.
• arrived with 80 miles of range to spare

Obvious really, but yeah, perfectly smooth.

---

That's supposed to be the story. "We drove a moderately long distance; it was easy " but, bonus content:

Since I'd told Google Maps we were in an EV, it sent us on an A-road through Evesham, rather than the longer but faster motorway route. Good.

We did a couple of days short journeys only, with the 80 miles of range we still had, plus an hour's worth of of PodPoint charging at the local Tesco - only 7kW to be had.

We had a day in Exeter, where I hoped to fully charge in the car park while we did our sightseeing. PodPoints on the fifth floor of the city centre shopping centre's multistorey car park. Would have been hard to find, if it weren't for a helpful user comment on ZapMap. There were plenty of free chargers, but it only charged at around 3.5kW, so even with 5 hours of sightseeing, we didn't get a huge amount of juice. Expensive choice of car park, too...

Later in the holiday, we stumbled upon rapid chargers a couple of times, which weren't on ZapMap (I think they are now). Always Wenea. Most usefully for us, in the central car park in Beer, the small seaside village next to ours. They seem to have ploughed into Dorset and Devon in preparation for the hordes of tourists who'll hit those places in the school holidays. In Axminster, the Wenea chargers still had bubble-wrap around the cables!

So we were able to charge at 60kW, as a "destination charge". The only problem, these Wenea chargers are 75p/kWh. And that was our main source of juice for the 2 week holiday.

There are lots of very steep hills in these parts. Not having to contend with gear changes or clutch control on the hills of Lyme Regis was a real blessing.

Anyway, long story short - took EV on holiday, it was good.

Next long trip is Warwick to Totley on the outskirts of Sheffield, stay overnight, then come back. It's not looking as straightforward. Just 20 miles too far to be done there-and-back on one charge. Nowhere convenient in Totley to slow-charge overnight. I only really need 10 minutes on a 100kW charger, but there's a real dearth of them on the M1. Going to have to take a detour into uncharted areas of Chesterfield or Hinckley.

 

[Tight Git]

Be careful if you head off to a single BP rapid charger as they tend not to be the most reliable (as are Genie point!).

Looks like there are a couple of Instavolt chargers in Chesterfield which normally seem to be reliable, but I've never used them so can't comment.

 

[ukslim]

Looks like there are a couple of Instavolt chargers in Chesterfield which normally seem to be reliable, but I've never used them so can't comment.

Thanks. I'm looking at the InstaVolt at Chesterfield Tennis Club. It seems surreal that I can't rapid charge in the car park of an arbitrary M1 motorway services - or that I have to plan ahead to this extent at all.

I'll be really disappointed if this time next year that's still how it is.

 

[Rolfe]

There are banks of chargers springing up at motorway service stations all over the place, but it's a bit random, hit and miss. I haven't come across one that doesn't have anything, apart from Tebay southbound which only has Tesla chargers (but apparently others are under construction). Gretna and Abington have sprouted multiple 350-volt Applegreen chargers.

 

[KH11]

I know people have previously reported on their "long trip" experiences, and having had the MG4 a couple of months going no further than 60 miles from home, I was looking forward to seeing what sort of experience taking it on holiday would be.

Warwick to Seaton in Devon. Actually only 160 miles. So the experience was:

• arranged to be at 100% charge before we went
• drove there - stopped for a meal, then later a snack on the way, but didn't charge
• used eco mode, but we always do. Air con on.
• arrived with 80 miles of range to spare

Obvious really, but yeah, perfectly smooth.

---

That's supposed to be the story. "We drove a moderately long distance; it was easy " but, bonus content:

Since I'd told Google Maps we were in an EV, it sent us on an A-road through Evesham, rather than the longer but faster motorway route. Good.

We did a couple of days short journeys only, with the 80 miles of range we still had, plus an hour's worth of of PodPoint charging at the local Tesco - only 7kW to be had.

We had a day in Exeter, where I hoped to fully charge in the car park while we did our sightseeing. PodPoints on the fifth floor of the city centre shopping centre's multistorey car park. Would have been hard to find, if it weren't for a helpful user comment on ZapMap. There were plenty of free chargers, but it only charged at around 3.5kW, so even with 5 hours of sightseeing, we didn't get a huge amount of juice. Expensive choice of car park, too...

Later in the holiday, we stumbled upon rapid chargers a couple of times, which weren't on ZapMap (I think they are now). Always Wenea. Most usefully for us, in the central car park in Beer, the small seaside village next to ours. They seem to have ploughed into Dorset and Devon in preparation for the hordes of tourists who'll hit those places in the school holidays. In Axminster, the Wenea chargers still had bubble-wrap around the cables!

So we were able to charge at 60kW, as a "destination charge". The only problem, these Wenea chargers are 75p/kWh. And that was our main source of juice for the 2 week holiday.

There are lots of very steep hills in these parts. Not having to contend with gear changes or clutch control on the hills of Lyme Regis was a real blessing.

Anyway, long story short - took EV on holiday, it was good.

Next long trip is Warwick to Totley on the outskirts of Sheffield, stay overnight, then come back. It's not looking as straightforward. Just 20 miles too far to be done there-and-back on one charge. Nowhere convenient in Totley to slow-charge overnight. I only really need 10 minutes on a 100kW charger, but there's a real dearth of them on the M1. Going to have to take a detour into uncharted areas of Chesterfield or Hinckley.

There are some IONITY ones at the Costa at Catcliffe

 

[Ian Key]

Thanks. I'm looking at the InstaVolt at Chesterfield Tennis Club. It seems surreal that I can't rapid charge in the car park of an arbitrary M1 motorway services - or that I have to plan ahead to this extent at all.

I'll be really disappointed if this time next year that's still how it is.

According to Google Maps there are Instavolt chargers at Somercotes

Put your route into Google Maps (might be easier on a laptop) and then click the EV Charging option at the top of then screen.

 

[Tight Git]

There are some IONITY ones at the Costa at Catcliffe

Do you mean Instavolt?

 

[ukslim]

There are some IONITY ones at the Costa at Catcliffe

Thank you. Wrong side of Sheffield for me though, unfortunately.

Setting the filter on ZapMap, there are 4 locations with 100kW or more in the whole of Sheffield. None inside the ring-road. None in the south-west quadrant from the centre to the moors.

It's quite a shock to me, having in the last few months got used to the density of chargers in Coventry, Warwick and Leamington.

Thank you. Wrong side of Sheffield for me though, unfortunately.

Setting the filter on ZapMap, there are 4 locations with 100kW or more in the whole of Sheffield. None inside the ring-road. None in the south-west quadrant from the centre to the moors.

It's quite a shock to me, having in the last few months got used to the density of chargers in Coventry, Warwick and Leamington.

Actually, this is unfair and irrational of me. It's no better locally. It's just that locally, 50kW is plenty for me, so my perception is clouded.

 

[KH11]

Do you mean Instavolt?

Yes I stand corrected lol

 

[dsimpkins]

I know people have previously reported on their "long trip" experiences, and having had the MG4 a couple of months going no further than 60 miles from home, I was looking forward to seeing what sort of experience taking it on holiday would be.

Warwick to Seaton in Devon. Actually only 160 miles. So the experience was:

• arranged to be at 100% charge before we went
• drove there - stopped for a meal, then later a snack on the way, but didn't charge
• used eco mode, but we always do. Air con on.
• arrived with 80 miles of range to spare

Obvious really, but yeah, perfectly smooth.

---

That's supposed to be the story. "We drove a moderately long distance; it was easy " but, bonus content:

Since I'd told Google Maps we were in an EV, it sent us on an A-road through Evesham, rather than the longer but faster motorway route. Good.

We did a couple of days short journeys only, with the 80 miles of range we still had, plus an hour's worth of of PodPoint charging at the local Tesco - only 7kW to be had.

We had a day in Exeter, where I hoped to fully charge in the car park while we did our sightseeing. PodPoints on the fifth floor of the city centre shopping centre's multistorey car park. Would have been hard to find, if it weren't for a helpful user comment on ZapMap. There were plenty of free chargers, but it only charged at around 3.5kW, so even with 5 hours of sightseeing, we didn't get a huge amount of juice. Expensive choice of car park, too...

Later in the holiday, we stumbled upon rapid chargers a couple of times, which weren't on ZapMap (I think they are now). Always Wenea. Most usefully for us, in the central car park in Beer, the small seaside village next to ours. They seem to have ploughed into Dorset and Devon in preparation for the hordes of tourists who'll hit those places in the school holidays. In Axminster, the Wenea chargers still had bubble-wrap around the cables!

So we were able to charge at 60kW, as a "destination charge". The only problem, these Wenea chargers are 75p/kWh. And that was our main source of juice for the 2 week holiday.

There are lots of very steep hills in these parts. Not having to contend with gear changes or clutch control on the hills of Lyme Regis was a real blessing.

Anyway, long story short - took EV on holiday, it was good.

Next long trip is Warwick to Totley on the outskirts of Sheffield, stay overnight, then come back. It's not looking as straightforward. Just 20 miles too far to be done there-and-back on one charge. Nowhere convenient in Totley to slow-charge overnight. I only really need 10 minutes on a 100kW charger, but there's a real dearth of them on the M1. Going to have to take a detour into uncharted areas of Chesterfield or Hinckley.

I'm pleased to hear about your charging experiences around Seaton and Beer. I used to holiday there with my family as a kid, and was thinking of taking my family there. Thanks for the info. Reassuring to know we could go on holiday there and not have trouble finding somewhere to charge.

I also went on my longest trip so far in the MG4, which was around 85 miles from South Gloucestershire to Hampshire. I was really pleased with the range. Didn't drive particulary differently to how I normally do, and was hot so aircon on all the way. Car in Eco mode as usual. Managed to use 29% battery on way down, and 27% on way back. Easily within the capacity of our SE LR but I did top up while there on an Instavolt in Costa. In the time it took to drink our coffees we had put 30% back in. Then down to the beach for icecreams

I've used Instavolt a couple of times and had no problem with them. They aren't cheap to use, but as I can charge at work for free then I'm not concerned.

 

[ukslim]

I'm pleased to hear about your charging experiences around Seaton and Beer. I used to holiday there with my family as a kid, and was thinking of taking my family there. Thanks for the info. Reassuring to know we could go on holiday there and not have trouble finding somewhere to charge.

I'd only caution that I understand those places are absolutely rammed during the school holidays. So maybe 6 sockets in Beer (four Wenea rapids, two Scottish Power 7kW) will suffer lots of contention.

 

[dsimpkins]

Same may also apply to Christchurch in Dorset where I charged last week. However on the same road that had two Instavolts in Costa, there was also 2 in McDonalds, 1 in KFC, and Costa also had 4x 7kW chargers. ZapMap shows a good amount of chargers in that Christchurch, but also in Bournemouth. A lot of the public car parks also have Merlin chargers.

 

[Tinz33]

I know people have previously reported on their "long trip" experiences, and having had the MG4 a couple of months going no further than 60 miles from home, I was looking forward to seeing what sort of experience taking it on holiday would be.

Warwick to Seaton in Devon. Actually only 160 miles. So the experience was:

• arranged to be at 100% charge before we went
• drove there - stopped for a meal, then later a snack on the way, but didn't charge
• used eco mode, but we always do. Air con on.
• arrived with 80 miles of range to spare

Obvious really, but yeah, perfectly smooth.

---

That's supposed to be the story. "We drove a moderately long distance; it was easy " but, bonus content:

Since I'd told Google Maps we were in an EV, it sent us on an A-road through Evesham, rather than the longer but faster motorway route. Good.

We did a couple of days short journeys only, with the 80 miles of range we still had, plus an hour's worth of of PodPoint charging at the local Tesco - only 7kW to be had.

We had a day in Exeter, where I hoped to fully charge in the car park while we did our sightseeing. PodPoints on the fifth floor of the city centre shopping centre's multistorey car park. Would have been hard to find, if it weren't for a helpful user comment on ZapMap. There were plenty of free chargers, but it only charged at around 3.5kW, so even with 5 hours of sightseeing, we didn't get a huge amount of juice. Expensive choice of car park, too...

Later in the holiday, we stumbled upon rapid chargers a couple of times, which weren't on ZapMap (I think they are now). Always Wenea. Most usefully for us, in the central car park in Beer, the small seaside village next to ours. They seem to have ploughed into Dorset and Devon in preparation for the hordes of tourists who'll hit those places in the school holidays. In Axminster, the Wenea chargers still had bubble-wrap around the cables!

So we were able to charge at 60kW, as a "destination charge". The only problem, these Wenea chargers are 75p/kWh. And that was our main source of juice for the 2 week holiday.

There are lots of very steep hills in these parts. Not having to contend with gear changes or clutch control on the hills of Lyme Regis was a real blessing.

Anyway, long story short - took EV on holiday, it was good.

Next long trip is Warwick to Totley on the outskirts of Sheffield, stay overnight, then come back. It's not looking as straightforward. Just 20 miles too far to be done there-and-back on one charge. Nowhere convenient in Totley to slow-charge overnight. I only really need 10 minutes on a 100kW charger, but there's a real dearth of them on the M1. Going to have to take a detour into uncharted areas of Chesterfield or Hinckley.

This is possibly a dumb question but how do you tell google maps that you’re driving an electric car?

 

[ukslim]

This is possibly a dumb question but how do you tell google maps that you’re driving an electric car?

In the Android app,
Settings -> Navigation settings.
Engine type: Electric, and "prefer fuel-efficient routes"

There's also Settings -> Electric Vehicle Settings, where you can tell it what plugs you support - but so far it's not doing anything useful for me about chargers. I bet it will eventually though.

 

[Tinz33]

In the Android app,
Settings -> Navigation settings.
Engine type: Electric, and "prefer fuel-efficient routes"

There's also Settings -> Electric Vehicle Settings, where you can tell it what plugs you support - but so far it's not doing anything useful for me about chargers. I bet it will eventually though.

Thanks so much for that- never knew that setting existed.

 

[Martinonline]

Have you looked at MFG Desford Crossroads Service Station Hinckley Road, LE9 9JE. It has 14 chargers at 150KW. Would only be a slight detour from M69 if that's where you are using.

 

[MG4London]

I have done a few long trips in my SE SR, it’s a pleasure to drive on motorway at about 70mph. There is plenty of power there for overtaking quickly if needed.

We charge every 150 miles or so. After about 100 miles a tea cup warning sign starts flashing telling me to have a cup of tea.

We always found a gridserve or something fast charging about 40mins or thereabouts point cost about £10 to get back upto 100%.

Then when I get to final destination with a low battery I put it in charge overnight

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks for that. I thought 150 miles was reasonable in summer, but I had a lot of trouble persuading ABRP to give me a route for a journey of just under 450 miles with only two stops. In the end I got this out of it, telling me I had to limit my speed to 65 mph for the second two legs, beyond Forton.

I was considering revising that to three stops, and indeed maybe it would be quicker in the long run, and then again it might be more prudent for my first attempt at a journey of this length, but what is your opinion of this suggeston?

One concern is back-stop plans if for some reason I can't get on a charger at Forton (especially). Would I have enough charge to find something else if necessary? Also, you're saying that a Gridserve will get you back to 100% in 45 minutes, but ABRP is predicting almost double that for the Gridserves at Forton. (In my experience with my SR, a 50 Kw charger will give me about 60% charge in 45 minutes, starting low.)

 

[MG4London]

I don’t think anyone will drive more than 200 miles without stopping for a wee and a cuppa


My SR will do over 200 miles on one charge but even if it did twice that I would still stop for a fast charge about every 200 miles or so

 

[Rolfe]

Well, you can see from the map that my original plan was to do it in three legs of just under 150 miles each, so not going to drive for 200 miles straight, even if the car could do it. (Although back in the day I used to do 430 miles with only one stop for petrol, just fill the tank up, pay and get back on the road, five minutes!)

What sort of speed are you driving to get actual 200 miles range from your SR? I see that on the GOM sometimes, but if I'm driving at motorway speeds that soon gets revised downwards. ABRP seems to think that even 150-mile legs is too ambitious, and that I need three charging stops, or else to limit my speed to 65 mph for most of the journey.

What do you think?