How to plan a long journey in an MG EV using zap map

[Stuart Wright]

Planning a long journey in an electric car is important to ensure an efficient, stress-free drive. In this video, we show how to plan where to stop and charge your car.
I use 150 miles range in the example, and you should enter your specific car's real world motorway range to get more accurate results out of Zap Map.

To plan the chargers to use along the route, I use

Map of electric charging points for electric cars UK: Zapmap

UK-wide map of electric car charging points allowing EV drivers to find EV charge points and plan electric journeys to the nearest charging point.

www.zap-map.com

To be clear, although in the video, I plan the journey using Zap Map, I use Waze as my sat nav. I use Zap Map only to plan which chargers to use along the route I already planned.

 

[Villanbee]

Hi Stuart,
Very informative, but a little depressing at the same time.
I know it didn't take you too long, but really it shouldn't be that difficult.
On a predominantly motorway based trip it should be as simple as simply deciding which motorway service stations to stop at, knowing you were assured of a reliable, readily available charge at a fair price.
You wouldn't expect to have to check that a motorway service station has petrol/diesel available, it should be no different with electric.
Having to constantly check the chargers are working, and which should be the backup charger, is a sad state of affairs.
Nevertheless, that's no reflection on your very informative video, it's just where we are at the moment. Let's hope that we're not needing to produce videos like this for much longer, but I won't hold my breath.

 

[WalkingBootWeather]

Thanks Stuart,

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to recommend A better route planner as an alternative.

The problem with all these types of app is they plan from 'tee to green' rather than 'back from the pin', meaning they generally suggest hitting your 'biggest club' for each shot when any decent golfer will tell you you are better off playing more conservatively and leaving a nice approach. So if I was faced with 300 yards to the green I wouldn't hit my biggest club (because I couldn't get there), I'd pick maybe a long iron or fairway wood that would leave me about 100 -120 yards to the green because then I could hit a full pitching wedge.

What has all that got to do with planning a route for an EV you ask? Well in your example of driving from London to Edinburgh I'd decide what SoC I'd need on arrival. Then I'd look to plan my last stop to give me that power, then work back in legs of roughly 80-90 miles.. Don't get fixated on having to do equal legs or having to charge for 40 mins or stop at 80% (though on a ZS I'd rarely rapid charge beyond 85% because rate slows too much). It is better to aim for chargers that you know are going to be reliable and avoid individual chargers than can be broken or blocked.

Nothing wrong with breaking a 410 mile journey into legs of 110 miles, 60 miles, 75 miles, 90 miles, 50 miles and 25 miles (arriving with 50% battery) if you aren't sure of a charge at your destination. Yes there are are more stops but some of them might only be for 15-20 mins which is just long enough to have a wee and grab a takeaway coffee and beats twiddling your thumbs trying to get up to that last few percent.

If you are heading home or to a destination where you have certain charging, another way of looking at it is to take on the power to complete your journey at the earliest opportunity (provided it doesn't mean charging beyond 85%). Imagine you have 180 miles to drive in a car that can maybe manage 130-140 miles; rather than drive 120 miles before looking for a charger (and have few options if there is a problem), make a stop after 75 miles, charge from 45-80% and know you can make it the rest of the way without stopping. If your first charger is unavailable - no sweat, you have plenty of range to play with, carry on and try the next one. Either way you are still only making one stop.

 

[AbuG]

If it's freezing winter driving range would be reduced further to about 115 in ZS.
Also charging may take much longer especially on the first charge.

 

[ARealHuman]

The problem with all these types of app is they plan from 'tee to green' rather than 'back from the pin', meaning they generally suggest hitting your 'biggest club' for each shot when any decent golfer will tell you you are better off playing more conservatively and leaving a nice approach. So if I was faced with 300 yards to the green I wouldn't hit my biggest club (because I couldn't get there), I'd pick maybe a long iron or fairway wood that would leave me about 100 -120 yards to the green because then I could hit a full pitching wedge.

I have no idea what any of that means!

 

[PeteJ]

Thanks Stuart, am just starting to plan my first long trip so the guidance was very helpful. My only concern so far is the number of charging points out of use and a worry that I will find the chargers in use.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Thanks Stuart, am just starting to plan my first long trip so the guidance was very helpful. My only concern so far is the number of charging points out of use and a worry that I will find the chargers in use.

Sometimes it's not the CCS which is out of service, so you need to check. Also the charger may have been fixed since it was reported faulty, so it's worth looking at the date of the report.
This is why it's important to always sign in with Zap Map to report whether you had a successful charge or not once you have finished charging. I encourage everyone to take a minute to update Zap Map.

I like to pick a first choice and then have at least a couple within comfortable range on standby.
Before I set off, I'll check the status of all my primary destination chargers and switch to my secondary if the primaries are reported faulty within 24 hours.
Then when at 10 minutes of arriving at my destination charger, I'll check it on Zap Map. If it's out of service or in use, I'll check the secondary and so on. And I'll drive directly to whichever charger looks good.

Last Autumn I drove from Coventry to Durham to Birmingham to Coventry. I charged 5 times and I used my primaries for all but one charger which was faulty with a couple of people waiting (Leaf and ZS EV), but no worries as I went to my secondary and charged there.

 

[Cocijo]

Planning a long journey in an electric car is important to ensure an efficient, stress-free drive. In this video, we show how to plan where to stop and charge your car.
I use 150 miles range in the example, and you should enter your specific car's real world motorway range to get more accurate results out of Zap Map.

To plan the route, I use

Map of electric charging points for electric cars UK: Zapmap

UK-wide map of electric car charging points allowing EV drivers to find EV charge points and plan electric journeys to the nearest charging point.

www.zap-map.com

Sometimes it's not the CCS which is out of service, so you need to check. Also the charger may have been fixed since it was reported faulty, so it's worth looking at the date of the report.
This is why it's important to always sign in with Zap Map to report whether you had a successful charge or not once you have finished charging. I encourage everyone to take a minute to update Zap Map.

I like to pick a first choice and then have at least a couple within comfortable range on standby.
Before I set off, I'll check the status of all my primary destination chargers and switch to my secondary if the primaries are reported faulty within 24 hours.
Then when at 10 minutes of arriving at my destination charger, I'll check it on Zap Map. If it's out of service or in use, I'll check the secondary and so on. And I'll drive directly to whichever charger looks good.

Last Autumn I drove from Coventry to Durham to Birmingham to Coventry. I charged 5 times and I used my primaries for all but one charger which was faulty with a couple of people waiting (Leaf and ZS EV), but no worries as I went to my secondary and charged there.

It would be good if ZapMap created a tag in their software that only selected chargers in service based on reported info. Still wouldn’t be perfect but it would save searching through each charger to find the status. They could also create a backup charger option That could automatically suggest an alternative fall-back charger

 

[Jake]

Hi Stuart. Great video. After watching I had a play around with route planning. It's so much easier and improved since the last time I tried which admittedly is quite some time ago. I will definitely go back to using it for my next trips planned when Boris permits.

Thank you for taking the time to produce it.

 

[ARealHuman]

Just signed up for a ZapMap account and going through the above video by @Stuart Wright Interestingly, during the sign-up process they also list several electric bikes too. Oh, and I wish they'd make their app Carplay compatible.

On a side note this isn't a million miles away from routes I used to plan for my bike using Garmin Basecamp, then transferring it to my bike's satnav. Happy days

 

[ARealHuman]

Just tinkering with ZapMap a bit as I might have a longer journey coming up. How on earth do you change the average speed of your EV in the planner? Can't see it anywhere, so for a motorway trip it has me at 55mph when I'd like to plan at 65mph.

Thanks

 

[Gomev]

Just tinkering with ZapMap a bit as I might have a longer journey coming up. How on earth do you change the average speed of your EV in the planner? Can't see it anywhere, so for a motorway trip it has me at 55mph when I'd like to plan at 65mph.

Thanks

I wouldn't bother with that, efficiency varies as you know depending on so many factors as well as speed. You won't average 65mph anyway, so 55 is probably closer to reality.
Just know how far you can go and find multiple chargers thereabouts.

 

[slmorgan42]

I tend to find ABRP is good for planning then I user Apple Map for actual driving.

 

[Gomev]

I tend to find ABRP is good for planning then I user Apple Map for actual driving.

Funny how we all have our own different preferences. For me I find ABRP to be the absolute worst for planning. Even though I have it set for fewest but longer stops it always seems to suggest 1 stop more than necessary. It completely overestimates the rate at which my electrons will disappear.
For example a trip last year Leeds to Southampton it wanted me to stop twice reckoning I would only have 21% left after 139 miles at the first stop. In reality I went further 155 miles and had 34% left.
Again for a future trip this year to the Suffolk coast, just over 200 miles it wants me to stop twice again !! I have played with the settings but it still doesn't reflect what the car does.

I do totally agree about using a proper satnav for the journey after having planned the trip elsewhere.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Funny how we all have our own different preferences. For me I find ABRP to be the absolute worst for planning. Even though I have it set for fewest but longer stops it always seems to suggest 1 stop more than necessary. It completely overestimates the rate at which my electrons will disappear.
For example a trip last year Leeds to Southampton it wanted me to stop twice reckoning I would only have 21% left after 139 miles at the first stop. In reality I went further 155 miles and had 34% left.
Again for a future trip this year to the Suffolk coast, just over 200 miles it wants me to stop twice again !! I have played with the settings but it still doesn't reflect what the car does.

I do totally agree about using a proper satnav for the journey after having planned the trip elsewhere.

Can you tweak ABRP so that it knows about your car's capabilities more?

 

[slmorgan42]

Can you tweak ABRP so that it knows about your car's capabilities more?

Hey yea you can. I also mess around with settings like how much charge I want to have when I arrive.

It is not perfect for sure but as I say I use it more for rough planning to show me what chargers are at the rough points I will need to stop.

 

[Gomev]

Can you tweak ABRP so that it knows about your car's capabilities more?

You can, and I have, but it doesn't seem to make sufficient difference to bring it to the real world.

 

[Martin]

I find plugshare show a lot more CCS chargers than zap-map. I can think of half a dozen chargers where I live that aren't on zap-map, but are shown on plugshare.

 

[tsedge]

I find plugshare show a lot more CCS chargers than zap-map. I can think of half a dozen chargers where I live that aren't on zap-map, but are shown on plugshare.

Thanks for the tip.