No diesel to refill, accidentally EV 380 miles long journey

[Ding]

Last Saturday I accidentally drove my ev for a 380 miles round trip from Shropshire to Reading then Orpington. This was because there was no diesel at all my local filling stations including Tesco, Shell and Sainsbury. I was planned to travel with my vw diesel car however the car need to refill. My wife also needed her petrol car to take kid to club. So there was no choice but to test the real range of the zs ev after top up to 100% 270 miles

In brief, I've been driving carefully at 65mph speed in eco mode on M6/M5/M40. Also had 20 minutes break at Oxford service but decided not to charge the car due to high cost (48p per kwh). There were at least 10 tesla charging at their fancy supercharging station though. When I arrived at Orpington in the afternoon I have 12% 33 miles range left. This works out motorway range around 230 miles.

On the return journey, I recharged on a 50kw charger at Sidcup Tesco for 1 hour which costs 27p per kwh. With the remaining range around 230mile left after 80% top up, I went back to home in the evening with 20 miles left on the clock. This 380miles trip took me about 6 hours plus 1 hour charging at Tesco in cold temperature between 2 to 8 degrees without charging at motorway service station.

 

[neilp7865]

230 mile real-world range on motorway seems pretty good to me. I was banking on c200.

 

[Gadget Geek]

230 mile real-world range on motorway seems pretty good to me. I was banking on c200.

I think it was the 65 mph that did it. Seems to be the sweet spot for many EVs.

 

[neilp7865]

I think it was the 65 mph that did it. Seems to be the sweet spot for many EVs.

About 10y ago I had a daily commute of 120miles on the M1 and found that the sweet spot in my diesel Fiesta too. Plus it conveniently means you’re passing the lorries and trucks.

 

[BarryH]

About 15 years ago i used to commit roughly 100 miles each way mainly on M25 and M3. I drove a 1500cc Diesel Renault Grand-Scenic seven seater and found if I picked my time of day to avoid Stop-Start and cruised at 10mph below any speed limit I could get 70+ mpg out of a brick of a people-carrier. I found the same 10 mph below worked for 65 mpg on the motorway with my Honda CR-V and gives great range on my MG EV EV too

 

[Eclectic]

About 15 years ago i used to commit roughly 100 miles each way mainly on M25 and M3. I drove a 1500cc Diesel Renault Grand-Scenic seven seater and found if I picked my time of day to avoid Stop-Start and cruised at 10mph below any speed limit I could get 70+ mpg out of a brick of a people-carrier. I found the same 10 mph below worked for 65 mpg on the motorway with my Honda CR-V and gives great range on my MG EV EV too

I've increasingly noticed a lot more people traveling at about 60-65mph on the motorways, it seems that people are taking the right measures to offset the cost of fuel!

 

[hmadsen]

I've increasingly noticed a lot more people traveling at about 60-65mph on the motorways, it seems that people are taking the right measures to offset the cost of fuel!

In Denmark the politicians (Useless bunch) actually, seriously considered lowering the speed limit on the motorways from 80 to 70 to save on fuel.

As one of the few reasonable people in our parliament then said....How about we do a survey to check if people are not themselves slowing down. This way we do not need to make a law about it, and if someone has the need to do 80, he/she is able to do so without being a criminal.

My current diesel does 20 kpl when i do 115 kph, if i increase to 130 it goes down to 18 kpl, so when i am not in a hurry, i only do 115, all by myself and all without some politician dictating my speed to be slower.

 

[BarryH]

Incidentally, we EV owners get a lot of flack about lower rang in winter but when I had a diesel I discovered that diesel mpg is tuned for test conditions of 25 Deg C and below air temperatures of around 20 / 25 deg C or thereabouts a diesel will burn a richer mixture losing up to 25% economy. Now when you consider how much of the year here in the UK average temperatures are below 20 / 25 deg C you can see it isn't only EV drivers who experience loss of range.