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

I watched these thanks, but there's very little overlap. They start at about Carlisle and go up to Aberdeen and beyond. (And much of the south of Scotland was done in the dark.) I'm only starting to get interested in charging by Killington Lake at the earliest, 122 miles south of my starting point in the Scottish Borders - and I actually know the road very well as far as the A65.

Conversely it's a very long time since I've driven further south than that, other than a single trip to Bristol in 2019. I used to do it all the time, practically wore a groove, but the last scrape of the groove was my return home in 2006 and I think I've only driven back to the south-east once since then, about 15 years ago.
 
When I charged at Stafford Ionity I put in 36.29kWh in just under 40 minutes - equates to 70%, can't remember what I arrived with but probably less than 10%. If you are happy to run it to below 10% it's much quicker charging than at over 80%.

If you are up to do some number crunching have a look at paying for one month on an Elli subscription to see if you can make it work!
 
Which battery do you have?

I think I'm getting my head around the best way to charge. What is seriously confusing me is the variation in the total cost of the 442-mile journey that ABRP is reporting. It doesn't seem to make sense in the context of the prices ZapMap reports for the chargers being used.

Outward, three stops, using 136.9 KWh.
Killington Lake, Gridserve, 69p, 63% of battery
Stafford, Ionity, 74p, 57% of battery
Cherwell Valley, Gridserve, 69p, 74% of battery
Total price according to ABRP £66

Outward, two stops, using 129.3 KWh (slower speed)
Forton, Gridserve, 69p, 91% of battery
Warwick, Instavolt, 75p, 87% of battery
Total price according to ABRP £30.40

Return, three stops, using 137.6 KWh
Warwick, Instavolt, 75p, 45% of battery
Stafford, Ionity, 74p, 69% of battery
Burton-in-Kendal, Gridserve, 69p, 87% of battery
Total price according to ABRP £53.30

None of this makes coherent sense to me. I let the app suggest different chargers instead of the Ionity one, in both directions, but the price leaped around apparently at random, regardless of the actual price posted on ZapMap for the chargers concerned.

The prices of the chargers don't vary enormously, and the total amount of charge used even at the slower speed is only 5.5% less than at the faster speed, but the cost is 54% less. Is ABRP simply unable to calculate costs accurately? Why wouldn't it, when it must know the amount of charge drawn and the cost of the charger? What am I missing?
 
A quick calculation suggests they have the SR (51kWh) battery ... 36.29 / 50.8 = 71.4%
 
Mine is the SR same as yours.

Using a 50kW charger as opposed to anything faster will add maybe 5 minutes onto the time taken.

I wouldn't trust ABRP or any other one like Zapmap to have the prices correct.

If you paid £13.99 for the Elli Drive Highway month you get Ionity at 44p/kWh and others (Osprey, Fastned, Shell, BP etc) at 66p/kWh. So 107kWh on Osprey (as an example) would pay for the £13.99 sub, or less kWh using Ionity. I'm fortunate that my sub gives me 27p at Ionity and 35p at the others as it's an old one from November 😎.
 
OK, just to prove I can do sums, I worked out a quick back-of-the-envelope cost for the three routes detailed above. (% battery fill achieved, divided by 2, multiplied by the price per unit.) This may not be bang on, but it's at least consistent between the three examples.

Outward, three stops: £67.42
Outward, two stops: £64.02
Return, three stops: £72.42

The second one is cheaper because the lower speed means less electricity is used. The third one is more expensive because it uses two chargers that are dearer than average. Makes perfect sense.

I have no idea at all what ABRP is playing at. Unless it's assuming I have some great discount card, but only sometimes.
 
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Lancaster - there are 5 BP 50kW pulse chargers at the Park & Ride just off J34 (Lancaster North Junction). Apart from a host of 7kW chargers there is nothing else - no loos, no coffee, no food. But conversely there is no-one else charging. 3 visits, only seen 1 other EV. More of a fall back than a preferred option.
 
I see that now - the symbol is hidden by a type 2 symbol right in front of it until you really zoom in. Actually, ZapMap says six chargers. But it also notes "restrictions" without saying what these are. As you say, it could be a fall-back if there was a problem at Killington Lake, but that's the stop where I want to have lunch so probably Kirkby Lonsdale would still be better even though it's a 12-mile detour off the motorway, because there are cafés and takeaways nearby.

It would be really nice to find some ultra-rapid chargers beside a nice eatery somewhere in the Lancaster area, but there's nothing southbound. Northbound, Burton-in-Kendal (I really have history with that service station!) is now a no-brainer.

According to ABRP I'm taking a risk if I head to Forton services from home with a full battery. It's 147 miles. I reckon I could get there, but if there was a problem there, then there's a good chance I'd be in trouble trying to get to Fulwood. Well, maybe I'd get there, but crawling down the M6 with a turtle showing is not how I want to manage this trip!
 
Rolfe said:
It would be really nice to find some ultra-rapid chargers beside a nice eatery somewhere in the Lancaster area, but there's nothing southbound. Northbound, Burton-in-Kendal (I really have history with that service station!) is now a no-brainer.
Click to expand...
Booths in Carnforth has a cafe and a couple of 50kW Instavolts, 5 minutes from J35.
 
Oh, there's no shortage of 50 Kw chargers, and the Booth's shops are an excellent stop, but I'm looking for something faster around there and the only thing there is is that damn Porsche Centre with the insane prices in the middle of a load of wet fields.

You have a point though that the Carnforth shop is less of a detour off the motorway than the Kirkby Lonsdale shop (which doesn't have a café, but there are cafés round the corner). Might well be a better back-stop for Killington Lake, even though it's slightly further. I just went for the Kirkby Lonsdale option because I've used it before when I was heading across the Pennines on the A65.
 
The question of where to stop in Lancashire got more complicated when I asked ABRP to recalculate my route. I had planned Killington Lake for just under an hour, because although that's only 50 Kw, I'll be wanting lunch. On the recalculation ABRP reported I'd have to stay for over 2 hours to get the required charge. When I looked more closely it transpired that they were now reporting the Gridserves there as delivering only 40 Kw. That's no good at all. Scrap Killington Lake.

Recalculate. Oh, that looks good. A BP pulse 150 Kw charger at Garstang SF Connect. Only 25 minutes. Excellent. Except that according to ZapMap the charger is out of service and has been for at least a week. It's not even shown on the BP pulse app. This is not a good risk as I'd be down to 10% by then.

ABRP has offered an alternative, a 160 Kw Instavolt at a farm-shop complex a couple of miles off the motorway. I'd need 39 minutes there, that's OK, and there is a café in the farm shop. Except, according to ZapMap and PlugShare, that charger does not exist. It does exist in the Instavolt app though, which is reassuring, and since I'd be on 19% when I got there, I've got more room for manoeuvre if there's a problem. (I'm hoping it might be new and not yet on ZapMap/PlugShare, which might mean it's less likely to be busy.)

Even the SR will charge faster on a faster charger, I've seen up to 88 Kw claimed. For a journey like this that makes a difference. It's a shame so many of the rapid chargers on or near the motorway are only 50 Kw. I might have to go for one of these if I can't get on one of the very elusive faster ones though.

In better news, I had an email from Glyndebourne asking if I wanted dibs on an electric car charging spot in the car park. PodPoint, sort out your own payment at 35p/KWh, no charge for booking or parking. So that's quite a relief. More venues should do this.
 
Good luck Rolfe. There is a shell recharge near glydbourne if you need one…

https://maps.app.******/NsNHj96M2Ae8En2m8?g_st=ic

Alternative is gridserve at pease pottage services on M23, junction 11
 
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I'll be fine! I'm only stressing a bit about the outward journey because I'm going to stay with friends and really really don't want to be trailing in at midnight.

On the way back it doesn't matter so much, the only complainant is likely to be my cat because the automatic cat feeder has run out of food.
 
If you get stuck the local charge points here (12 in the town car park) have a MG4 EV to rent as well, in fact I think that is true for a few of the councils car parks in Oxfordshire, it does block one of the bays but I have never seen any more than 3 cars charging at one time.
EV car hire
 
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