Long distance trips

[greertops]

Hi guys. I live in Belfast but in laws are in Sheffield. A few times a year we drive over Belfast > Stranraer > Sheffield. It’s about 340 miles.

Usually we take the petrol car but I’m keen to try out a long trip with my MG5.

I can normally get around 180 miles on a full charge so will have at least one but probably two stops.

Anyone done big trips like this in the MG5 with any advice?

 

[Prof1967]

Furthest I've gone in my MG5 SR is 156 miles from Newport to Nottingham. It was at the beginning of October so still reasonably mild weather. Left with 100% charge and arrived with 26% with remaining range showing as 54 miles.

If I were doing your journey I would probably plan on a couple stops maybe 120 miles apart. This gives you a bit of wiggle room if you find a charger is out of action and you need to fin an alternative.

 

[MattEdinburgh]

We did a road trip from Edinburgh to Woking (near London) and back at Christmas. It was a journey of just less than 500 miles each way.

We used the Zap-Map app to plan our journey and build in stops to charge the car. The rapid chargers are amazing, and will make your journey feasible.

But it’s worth identifying plan B and plan C Chargers in case your first choice is occupied when you get close to it.

We discovered that though each box/unit has two charging cables, some can only charge one car at a time (for the rapid chargers). If you go to zap-Map and then click on the charger you want to use, it has a ‘chat’ tab where you can see other users’ comments. This will give you an indication of how reliable the charging point is and if it can charge more than one vehicle at a time.

If it gives you any reassurance, our trip from Edinburgh to Woking was hassle-free. We generally didn’t let the car get much below a 20% charge before we plugged it in.

 

[biffo]

I’ve done 275 miles trip from Glasgow to Wales - just make sure you plan charging stops, choosing a few alternatives and try opting for those with multiple units - not always easy. ABRP and ZapMap are both good. As mentioned, don’t allow charge to go too low in case option A & B are busy or broken and need to travel a little further to option C.

 

[jared]

Drove Birmingham to Cardiff on Boxing Day. Around 120 miles but 99% motorway, night, rain and cold. Didn't start with a full charge either - can't remember the % but less than 75%.

From what I've found the electrocity chargers at the service stations are quick and cheaper than some of the local public chargers. However on this trip the first charger wasn't working (circuit breaker fault) - there were around 10 completely unused Tesla chargers there too (). Next service station - no chargers at all (this was a surprise). With less than 10% battery left arrived at the next services. Looked great but failed at the step to actually start the charge, also couldn't release the cable. This was almost 1am. Called the number and actually got through to someone. She went through a lot of things including restarting the charger - nothing worked. Luckily there was another machine there - that one worked fine.

From what I've seen the service station charger network is good but always have a 2nd option just in case.

 

[greertops]

Thanks for the help guys. I may be stuck. The nearest rapid charger on the journey is around 180 miles from the start! That would probably be cutting it a bit close

 

[biffo]

Thanks for the help guys. I may be stuck. The nearest rapid charger on the journey is around 180 miles from the start! That would probably be cutting it a bit close

I assume you're not starting in Belfast, just sailing from there? From Belfast, first rapid looks to be Newton Stewart at 88 miles - if that's not available, the next realistic are a couple of Instavolts at Dumfries at 135 miles from Belfast, which might be a stretch if you live 90 miles or so from Belfast. Are there any AC adapters before the ferry? Get then an hour or two early and try and get 7kWh into the car?

 

[greertops]

Weirdly these don’t pop up on my zap map app! Maybe I need to update it. But that would be perfect. I will be Belfast - larne - Stranraer- Dumfries - Carlisle then down to Sheffield.

So if I could stop in Newtownstewart then Carlisle then once further in England that would be perfect

 

[biffo]

Weirdly these don’t pop up on my zap map app! Maybe I need to update it. But that would be perfect. I will be Belfast - larne - Stranraer- Dumfries - Carlisle then down to Sheffield.

So if I could stop in Newtownstewart then Carlisle then once further in England that would be perfect

Check in case you're filtering on specific networks

 

[Dino]

Thanks for the help guys. I may be stuck. The nearest rapid charger on the journey is around 180 miles from the start! That would probably be cutting it a bit close

Presuming you take the ferry to Cairnryan, then Zap-Map shows Gretna Green as best option at 160miles, but there are loads along the A75 before you get to Gretna. Any 50kw CCS will get you on your way in less than an hour

 

[greertops]

Check in case you're filtering on specific networks

Amazing thanks Biffo. God knows what filter I had on but loads more have showed up now! This is helpful for planning my trip.

 

[watdub]

Some of the ferries working out of Dublin are offering EV chargers on their ships now (for a fee). Maybe the Belfast ones are offering similar. Then you'd land in Scotland with 100% charge?

 

[biffo]

Amazing thanks Biffo. God knows what filter I had on but loads more have showed up now! This is helpful for planning my trip.

If you don’t already have one, might be worth getting a ChargePlace Scotland RFID card. It’s £10 but more reliable than the App (sometimes) if travelling through Scotland often. At a minimum, download their app and register an account

 

[greertops]

Some of the ferries working out of Dublin are offering EV chargers on their ships now (for a fee). Maybe the Belfast ones are offering similar. Then you'd land in Scotland with 100% charge?

That would be cool! I’ve checked and no good but thanks to the previous replies I have a great route planned out and it should be pretty straightforward. This long drive was something I was worried about when I bought the car so it’s great to have some reassurance!

 

[greertops]

If you don’t already have one, might be worth getting a ChargePlace Scotland RFID card. It’s £10 but more reliable than the App (sometimes) if travelling through Scotland often.

Nice one. I make the trip two or three times a year so might be worth getting. I’m going to stop in Dumfries and then scotch corner

 

[biffo]

Dumfries looks like a good plan - two different ChargePlace Scotland sites as well as two Instavolts - which seems to be a good network.

As for Scotch Corner, two Gridserve units there so worth having a backup plan - looks to be plenty nearby even if a mile or two detour.

Apps like WattsUp can be useful to show real-time availability.

 

[Frank]

Dumfries looks like a good plan - two different ChargePlace Scotland sites as well as two Instavolts - which seems to be a good network.

As for Scotch Corner, two Gridserve units there so worth having a backup plan - looks to be plenty nearby even if a mile or two detour.

Apps like WattsUp can be useful to show real-time availability.

Hi, I live in Dumfries, there are four Instavolts in Dumfries, two at Bannatynes health club on Edinburgh Road and another two next to KFC at the Cuckoo bridge retail park. There is also about 3 or 4 newly installed Charge place Scotland Rapid chargers in Broom St car park.

Frank

 

[greertops]

Hi, I live in Dumfries, there are four Instavolts in Dumfries, two at Bannatynes health club on Edinburgh Road and another two next to KFC at the Cuckoo bridge retail park. There is also about 3 or 4 newly installed Charge place Scotland Rapid chargers in Broom St car park.

Frank

Thanks frank! Looks like that will be my natural stopping point. On an MG5 roughly how long will it take on a CCS to get back to 100 do you know? I have a type 2 charger installed at home and I have never used the rapid ones!

 

[Ozzie1989]

You should plan to go to 80% only on a rapid charger, anything after that the charging rates will slow and you'll be waiting forever. Also try not to go over 90% as a few people have found that charging stops and occasionally the car doesn't want to get going again for 10 mins.

If you set up Zap Map with your vehicle details and then when using route planner set your charge details as follows:



With it being winter I'd even say change the real EV range to 180 to be sure

 

[greertops]

Fantastic thanks Ozzie.