I've gone and done it now (road trip)

[tonybridge]

Well, Glyndebourne has 32 connectors. 16 actual chargers. 7 Kw reduces to 3 Kw if both connectors are in use. And at 39p per KWh it's not charity - they'll be washing their face on it. I'll aim to take what I can get there (I'll probably be there for at least six hours), and fill up on the Blink charger at Portslade in the morning.

I think that McDonald's looks like a much better bet than Warwick services for anyone in an EV. I'd be very surprised if I didn't get charged up there.

When you say the M6 Toll booths take cards, do you mean ordinary bank cards? That's fine with me. At first I had to make sure I had a bunch of £1 coins on me or I was a bit screwed. Although I think there were actual human beings who could give change. Tapping a bank card is ideal really.

Ah, I've seen elsewhere on this Forum (sorry don't remember where!) that Warwick actually has three, plus several Tesla points. I've not really been aware of this, though I have now ordered a 4Trophy, so taking a whole lot more notice now!

 

[Rolfe]

Not sure that an accumulated total is all that relevant, as the type of driving is so different, but I'll take a look. When I charge the car to 100% it's usually telling me I have over 190 miles of range.

I'm beginning to think that having a couple of rough game plans, but a list of good charging locations to choose from depending on how fuel consumption goes and how fast the car charges might be the trick.

ABRP is not telling me how fast it expects me to drive, or what miles/KWh it thinks I'll be getting. (Everything is in km anyway, which is a pain.) Given that I could get there no trouble if I set the ACC to 60, not being able to vary that is awkward. It also won't let me specify that I want a longer break at lunch-time and a longer break at tea-time, and that other breaks should be short. It's determined that I should take three breaks of around 30 minutes each, and that's that.

 

[siteguru]

In my ABRP app I can click on the icon (top left) and access a Settings screen. One of the options is mi/kWh @ 65 mph. Further down there's also a Speed section where you can set a maximum speed. (Not really sure what this bit does though - I think it's for people with a premium sub who use the route guidance and real-time updates).

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, I thought you probably had to pay them to get the functionality. But I quite like working it out for myself!

 

[EVsince2016]

Background. Way back in the post-war years, before she married, my mother was an opera singer, and she sang at the Glyndebourne Festival in (at least) 1949. She was a member of Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group and in the original cast of Albert Herring.

I've been to various music festivals, including driving to Bayreuth in Bavaria on more than one occasion. However, when I lived in Sussex I was never able to go the Glyndebourne Festival because as far as I could make out you practically had to put your name down for tickets at birth - something my mother unaccountably failed to do. I did go with Mum and a friend to an evening autumn performance once - the friend got tickets because she lived in East Sussex, us West Sussex plebs had no chance even of these. But when I enquired about tickets for the summer festival, the only response I got was a pitying laugh.

I don't know if it's covid or what, but this evening, browsing the currently-falling-apart Twitter platform, I picked up a tweet from the Glyndebourne Festival flogging still-unsold tickets. So I bought one. A Midsummer Night's Dream (appropriately another opera by Benjamin Britten) on 17th August.

I no longer live in Sussex so I have to get there. I suppose I could chicken out and book plane tickets to Gatwick, but right now I feel moved to get in the MG4 and head south. If I can drive an ICE solo to Bavaria, I can drive an EV to the place where I used to live. Why does it feel like such an adventure? Maybe after being so constrained by covid? Well, the ticket was expensive and it's non-refundable, so I'm going to do it. I'll keep you posted when it happens.

I thought at first you were driving to Bavaria, then realised you're only going down the road

 

[Tight Git]

There's a Costa right next to the Stafford Ionity chargers, or there was a couple of months back when I used the chargers

 

[Rolfe]

I thought at first you were driving to Bavaria, then realised you're only going down the road

This year, Sussex. Next year, who knows?

There's a Costa right next to the Stafford Ionity chargers, or there was a couple of months back when I used the chargers

Handy to know. You guys are a mine of information.

 

[Rolfe]

I've managed to beat ABRP into some degree of submission. It's terribly unintuitive. But anyway. It seems you have to find the proper address for the charger sites that ABRP recognises as being a charger site. If you just select the address that pops up as you type, it won't know there are chargers there - probably.

I finally made it look at the two-stop option and the result was interesting. It offered me a 53-minute stop at Knutsford to get to 80%, but in order to do that it insisted I stop at Southwaite on the way - for five minutes to take on 6% charge! Even though, doing that, I'd arrive at Forton on 15% charge. I would have thought simply moderating the speed slightly would allow all that charging to happen at Forton, but it's a slight concern that the app really isn't keen on me trying to get all the way to Forton on one charge. Maybe I should take their advice, as they certainly seem to be indicating that if there's any problem with charging at Forton then I wouldn't be able to make it to Fulwood.

The second leg, Forton to Longbridge, is more problematic. It schedules me for another 59 minutes at Longbridge to get to 99%, which again is fine, but in order to get there (leaving Forton at 80%) it wants me to spend 21 minutes at Knutsford to pick up 26% charge and get to Longbridge at 11%. The message seems to be that staying at Forton to get to a higher charge isn't worth it, presumably because the chargers are only 50 Kw.

However, it seems to think it's perfectly possible to charge to 99% at Longbridge and get all the way to Portslade, arriving at 6%. Presumably because the Longbridge chargers are 100Kw. Except ABRP thinks they're 125 Kw. (It rates the 50 Kw ones at 60 Kw too.)

The message really seems to be that legs of 145-149 miles are too long for comfort. It does allow the 145 mile leg on one charge, but goes down from 99% to only 6%. I wouldn't have thought it would assume that I'd be going over 70 mph, although I note it is assuming 45 minutes less driving time than the AA estimates for the same journey. I probably need to look again at the three-stop options, although not their three stops, thankyouverymuch. I am not going to that Porsche showroom.

 

[PeteC]

I wouldn't have thought it would assume that I'd be going over 70 mph,

Have you set your maximum speed in the settings?

 

[Rolfe]

Have you set your maximum speed in the settings?

I didn't see that possibility. I suspect there are functions you have to register to use, though. Anyway, I can't see me holding down below 70 on a trip of that length unless pressure of traffic forces it. Let's not be unrealistic here.

Anyway, the three-stop plan is working out pretty well now I've figured out how to make it do what I want rather than what it wants.

 

[PeteC]

I didn't see that possibility. I suspect there are functions you have to register to use, though. Anyway, I can't see me holding down below 70 on a trip of that length unless pressure of traffic forces it. Let's not be unrealistic here.

Anyway, the three-stop plan is working out pretty well now I've figured out how to make it do what I want rather than what it wants.

The speed setting is there in the free version if you ever feel the urge to use it.

 

[Rolfe]

The speed setting is there in the free version if you ever feel the urge to use it.

Thanks, I'll have a look. But in fact the three-stop option is looking better than holding back to get enough range for only two stops.

Three stops is working better and it is probably a lot safer in terms of not getting to close to the wire.

Killington Lake, arrive at 25% and take 50 minutes to get to 85%. That more or less squares with how I know the car charges on a 50 Kw charger too, so that's reassuring. And it leaves Kirkby Lonsdale as the backup plan if I can't get charged at Killington Lake for any reason. It's long enough to have a decent lunch at either location, and if I take an extra 10 or even 20 minutes the car can just fill up even more.

Stafford (the Ionity chargers at the Premier Inn I think), arrive at 11% and take 25 minutes to get to 67%. In fact this is the stop I want to be the short one, but if I've picked up a bit more than 85% at Killington Lake I might shave a bit of time off. I really should go to 65% at least though, because even 67% has me arriving at the next stop at 11% again. (There are certainly eating possibilities, but this will be mid-afternoon. Maybe a cup of tea.) There are quite a lot of rapid chargers in and around Stafford if I can't get a charge at these ones.

Cherwell Valley, arrive at 11% and take 39 minutes to get to 84%. I might want to stay a bit longer to get something to eat though, and it wouldn't hurt to let the car go up nearer to 90% so as to get to my destination with more than the predicted 11%. There's a McDonald's nearby with some Instavolts as a back-up, though this stop seems to have a lot of ultra-rapids.

This actually looks like a plan. Total time just under nine hours. If I leave at 10.30 I should be at Killington Lake at 12.30 and Cherwell Valley about five. I'd get to my destination about 7.30. In time to be fed vegetarian food, maybe I shouldn't tuck in too much at Cherwell Valley.

I probably need to modify the plan a bit for the return journey, but so far it's looking good.

Killington Lake and Cherwell Valley are Gridserve and take bank cards.
I already have the Blink app (Portslade) from a previous trip.
So I need to figure out how to pay for Ionity (Stafford) and Pod Point (Glyndebourne). Although if the Blink chargers are working OK then the type 2 ones at Glyndebourne are probably optional.

I realise this is baby stuff for people who have had EVs for a while and been all over the place in them, but it's a learning curve for me. This year, Sussex. Next year, Bavaria. If only they would reinstate the Rosyth-to-Zeebrugge car ferry.

The speed setting is there in the free version if you ever feel the urge to use it.

Hmm. I found the speed option, and it's set itself at 130 km/h. That is about 81 mph. Which would explain why the AA app had the driving time as 45 minutes longer. Maybe I need to fiddle a bit more with this tomorrow. I just assumed they would set the max speed at the actual speed limit, as the AA does.

I see it had assumed 5% battery degradation, but my car is new so probably not. I brought the speed down to 75 mph and managed to change the units to miles too. It hasn't changed the plan significantly, just altered the times at the chargers by a couple of minutes up or down. (Looking at it, I think it does actually factor in speed limits regardless of the maximum speed actually set.)

 

[PeteC]

Hmm. I found the speed option, and it's set itself at 130 km/h. That is about 81 mph. Which would explain why the AA app had the driving time as 45 minutes longer. Maybe I need to fiddle a bit more with this tomorrow. I just assumed they would set the max speed at the actual speed limit, as the AA does.

Just so you know, you can also set the units to miles. It's tucked away in the User interface section.

 

[Rolfe]

Yeah, I edited that in!

The app did some really daft things at first, and it fixated on a charger I wouldn't use except in a dire emergency, but I'm finding that if I start by telling it what I want to do and then modifying that as necessary, I'm getting useful output.

 

[siteguru]

Anecdotally ... ABRP is known for erring on the side of caution.

 

[Rolfe]

I thought it was probably doing that, but at this stage that's probably wise for me. The three-stop option on the outward leg seems likely to work as the middle stop can probably be pared down to 15 minutes. I haven't really looked at the return journey yet.

I thought I would see what it said about the two-stop option if I put in maximum speed 60 mph, but let's face it, there is no chance at all that I will drive the length of the M6 at 60.

 

[Martinonline]

I used IONITY at MK Coachway. My Octopus Electrocard did not work so I used the displayed QR code and then had to enter my credit card details. All went smoothly but the chap at the next charger had to phone up the helpline. I've now downloaded the IONITY app as I expect to need them again.

 

[Rolfe]

I used IONITY at MK Coachway. My Octopus Electrocard did not work so I used the displayed QR code and then had to enter my credit card details. All went smoothly but the chap at the next charger had to phone up the helpline. I've now downloaded the IONITY app as I expect to need them again.

Thanks. I'll definitely get an app or a card for Ionity before I set off on this one.

 

[Rolfe]

ABRP actually lets me do the two-stop option at 65 mph. It puts the total driving time at 7 hours 2 min, which is still 20 minutes quicker than the AA estimate. Total charging time is 2 hours 13 min, which is OK, although it still makes the total journey time nearly half an hour longer than the three-stop plan with the ACC set at 75 mph.

Interestingly, if I move the speed up to 70 (or even 75) it still offers me the two-stop option, but with the proviso that the second two legs (past Forton) have to be driven at 65 mph.

So yes, the two-stop option is feasible, but I think it's driving too close to the wire considering my usual motorway speeds. I don't see me holding down to that speed in practice, and in any case it wouldn't allow enough leeway to find an alternative if I couldn't get a charge at Forton for some reason. Maybe ABRP is being conservative, but I ought to be conservative too at this stage of my EV experience. Also, the stop at Forton is timed at 1 hr 24 min, which actually isn't at all bad to get an SR from 8% to 99% on a bog-standard Gridserve, but I'll probably have eaten all I want to after an hour or so, and I might as well hang around for a bit at Stafford as hold on for 99% at Forton given the advantages.

Another wrinkle though. The three-stop option suggests I will be paying £65.80 for 136.8 KWh of electicity. The two-stop option suggests I would be paying only £30.40 for 129.4 KWh. That is a massive difference in price for only a small difference in consumption. I don't know how they are working it out, because the charger prices on ZapMap aren't all that different. The two-stop plan is all on Gridserve at 69p, whereas the three-stop one is Gridserve 69p, Ionity 74p and Instavolt 75p. That can't account for a more-than-doubling of the cost. What am I missing here?

 

[PristDean]

Close to your trip... but in reverse: