Is range anxiety finally defeated in England?

[Gadget Geek]

Being a Gastro Pub, the prices for food were as you would expect,

A gastro labelled food establishment over here, is similar to the "Chew and Spew" label and "Diarrhoea Diner" as labelled by the truckers after someone gets a bad reaction to a meal, if it gets another call from another trucker, the place might as well shut up shop, they a black listed.
Experienced highway travellers know to eat where the trucker eat, no trucks, keep driving .....

T1 Terry

That's a "greasy spoon" diner over here.

 

[T1 Terry]

That's actually the name of quite a well known and up market restaurant over here .....
Also, just about every city in Australia has an eatery with the head egg and bacon flippers name preceding the "Greasy Spoon" as the title across the entry door ....

T1 Terry

 

[aardvark5]

Last Sunday driving back home from Christmas break I discovered that Leicester Forest services has finally installed a decent number of working rapid chargers... and they worked without a hitch!

What a coincidence.
The only time in 15 months I wanted to charge I stopped off at Leicester East. I'd taken a wrong turning which put me 60 miles out.
No worries I'll stop at Leicester East and ask somebody what to do
There were no chargers so for the first time ever range anxiety set in.
I had 60 miles to go with around 72 on the clock and I'd been watching it get shorter.
I figured if we made or way to Uttoxeter I could see chargers there so decided I'd put the car in ECO and put it on Cruise Control at 60 so hopefully I never touch my accelerator (so exactly what I'd do in my ICE).
By the time I got to Uttoxeter the 12 miles difference was on around 22 and when I got home it was about 35 miles, I'd got plenty as long as I slowed down and didn't use the accelerator.
That was a really good lesson learnt about battery saving.

 

[Data]

3sheds, I live in North Essex & do not have any range anxiety. I've travelled a bit on long trips to the midlands & down to Farnborough but had no issues finding charging hubs. Have never actually stopped 'just to charge'. Usually it's a case of needing a cuppa & a wee! So I take advantage of plugging in for a top up at the same time. My ZS EV LR usually takes enough juice on a mild day to get 140 miles in the tank in around 20mins. I'm happy. Glad you are too.

 

[Gomev]

What a coincidence.
The only time in 15 months I wanted to charge I stopped off at Leicester East. I'd taken a wrong turning which put me 60 miles out.
No worries I'll stop at Leicester East and ask somebody what to do
There were no chargers so for the first time ever range anxiety set in.
I had 60 miles to go with around 72 on the clock and I'd been watching it get shorter.
I figured if we made or way to Uttoxeter I could see chargers there so decided I'd put the car in ECO and put it on Cruise Control at 60 so hopefully I never touch my accelerator (so exactly what I'd do in my ICE).
By the time I got to Uttoxeter the 12 miles difference was on around 22 and when I got home it was about 35 miles, I'd got plenty as long as I slowed down and didn't use the accelerator.
That was a really good lesson learnt about battery saving.

The only thing that amazes me about that story is that you managed to get 60 miles out of your way before noticing and that you thought you'd stop at Leicester East and ask for directions !
Did I read that right ? Do you not have Satnav or a map in the car ?

 

[LenEV2016]

Wrong turn and as for help using the chargers is how I read it

 

[tsedge]

Far from range anxiety, I now want the option in my next EV to set a minimum charge time on Rapid DC charging, so it doesn't charge too quickly for my stops.

 

[Data]

Far from range anxiety, I now want the option in my next EV to set a minimum charge time on Rapid DC charging, so it doesn't charge too quickly for my stops.

I see where you are coming from on this. I actually look for 'slow' 50kw chargers at motorway services so I don't have to get up from my coffee & bacon roll & go outside to move my car when charging stops!

 

[aardvark5]

The only thing that amazes me about that story is that you managed to get 60 miles out of your way before noticing and that you thought you'd stop at Leicester East and ask for directions !
Did I read that right ? Do you not have Satnav or a map in the car ?

Without reading Google Maps I thought I knew exactly where I was going 70 miles away.
As I got closer I looked at the map and it told me to turn off which I thought was strange but I obeyed and followed my destination point.
About a mile from Leicester East I saw a sign for it and then realised what had happened, I had put my toilet break in the wrong order on my journey
I rang the bloke up I was meeting and told him I was 30 miles away but after seeing him I now had to make my way back to Leicester East for the toilet and to fill up where I would ask a nice EV owner to advise me since I've never done it.
From Leicester East it was 60 miles to my home and it would be pushing it so I put in ECO, put on cruise control at 60 and only touched my accelerator a couple of times all the way home.

A screenshot to explain.
I couldn't go the top way because there had been an accident on the M1 Southbound but it was OK to go that way home.

 

[jonesmz]

As

Last Sunday driving back home from Christmas break I discovered that Leicester Forest services has finally installed a decent number of working rapid chargers... and they worked without a hitch!

We regularly make a 130 mile trip from Cambridgeshire to Derbyshire to visit family. Its west along A14, north along M1 and then West on A50. When we first got our MG 5 in 2022 there was only one possible charging stop along the route at Donnington Services, with only 2 rapid chargers. You had to be lucky to find one free! Consequently I had to make sure I had 100% charge before setting off, which is sometimes a hassle as we can't charge at home. There were also numerous times we got caught short of range on other motorway trips when we couldn't find a charger, or one wasn't working, or all chargers were occupied. Other times we could only find a working charger at an isolated lorry park on with no toilets or cafe which was no fun at 10pm with small children.

Over the years more and more reliable rapid charging locations have sprung up along the route, and at most other services I've visited in England. I have now realised that there are at least five locations along the 130 mile route where they have mulitiple chargers and usually toilets, convenience stores and dining options. Cambridge Services now has 20+ chargers with at least 10 more installed over the last year. There's around 10 rapid chargers next to a nice drive-in Costa Cafe on Kettering bypass. Most of the services along the A50 have multiple rapid chargers and Donnington now has more than 10 rapid chargers. The whole experience of long motorway and dual carriageway trips in Enlgand in an EV has transformed in 4 short years... and now I realise that any range anxiety I had about my regular trip has disappeared. The installation of chargers at Leicester Forest East was the final piece in the charging puzzle. There are now no charging deserts along the route. On average there is a decent rapid charging location every 25 miles along the route. So I no longer need to plan breaks. Just break whenever is convenient for us, or when someone needs the toilet. I don't really even need to check how much range is left in the car before setting off. As long as the remaining range is above 25% I'll still have 50 miles of range so can always stop at Cambridge services along the way. No problem! No longer do I even have to worry if one of the services has had a freak power cut! I will almost always have enough range to just drive on to the next stop.

So it got me wondering whether other people have been aware of this massive improvement of our charging experience over the last few years? Have you also noticed that we're now so much better served in English services for rapid chargers? Do you still have any range anxiety? Or has it disappeared like mine?

I used to overplan any long trips but I've stopped trying to work out the stations en route, and just check once I reach 25%. However, the southwest beyond Bristol proved hard. we ended up using the train and I discovered that if you drive at 10mph the car barely uses any charge. We managed 14 miles at 4% to find the closest station.