sjs73
Standard Member
Hi all,
I took my MG5 SR for its first very long drive yesterday, from Guildford to just north of Glasgow (around 440 miles). It would also be the first experience of using a rapid charger (other than based on a quick test at our local Shell garage charger). Suffice to say I was very anxious given the various stories of the car getting bricked by chargers, so tried to be careful. It all went fine.
To cut a longer story short, it went as follows. Set off from Guildford with 100% home charge. First stop 85 miles in at Banbury Instavolt charging station. What a fantastic place this is: 32 very modern chargers and Costa nearby. Charged for 25 mins from 63% and stopped it at 88% (that was as high as I wanted to go given stories about pushing it beyond 90%). Paid using the Instavolt app. Left with 178 miles on the GOM. Nice coffee too. Decided to do another stop after another 90 miles later and stopped at the Instavolt chargers at Stafford Rangers. Only 3 miles off the M6 and in a nice quiet spot with two modern chargers. Went from 55% to 88% again in 29 mins. Paid using the Instavolt app.171 miles on the GOM and off again. Lots of traffic and rain then followed but decided to push a bit further and after 113 miles stopped at Burton-in Kendall Services with 41% charge. I decided to use one of the high power GridServe chargers as they looked the most modern. There were four of them there with only one in use. Again charged to 88% in 34 mins which gave me a chance to stretch my legs and get some food. Left with 170 miles on the GOM. Paid using contactless. I decided to make one final (4th) stop at Gretna services just to make the remainder of the journey comfortable. Decided to use the Applegreen Electric chargers as they looked modern (180kW units). Charged from 59% to 85% in 20 mins and left with 183 miles on the GOM. Paid with Contactless. Noticeably busier there although there are lots of chargers and more than one charging company operating there. Arrived at the destination just north of Glasgow with a very comfortable 40% charge and happy that the 441 mile journey was trouble-free. It did take 11 hours although that included 1hr45 mins ish of charging and a fair bit of waiting in traffic around the Midlands and Manchester areas. It could have been quicker had I chosen more optimised charging locations and timings, but I based it on peace of mind. I was also keeping to 60-65 mph when the roads were clear. It was much slower in the holiday traffic congestion. I drove in Eco on KERS 1 apart from in traffic when I used KERS 2 or 3. Average journey efficiency was 4.3miles/kWh in temperature ranging from 17-22C. I had the a/c on (in Eco) most of the way. I was happy with that.
Overall, it was a long but generally pleasant journey. Instavolt are certainly my favourite charging firm. The units are good and the app works well. The other chargers were all fine. In terms of process, for each charging stop, I would switch off the car, wait at least 20 seconds or so to let the car shutdown its various systems before plugging in the charger. The charging rates were generally 60kW max reducing to around 40kW above 75% ish charge and around 20kW above 80% (entirely expected). There were never any queues for the chargers.
To locate chargers, I found the WattsUp ap to be excellent and I could easily switch between Waze and that on screen (via ApplePlay) to keep track of available chargers. I used the InstaVolt app but the other chargers were all contactless.
A pleasantly uneventful experience!
I took my MG5 SR for its first very long drive yesterday, from Guildford to just north of Glasgow (around 440 miles). It would also be the first experience of using a rapid charger (other than based on a quick test at our local Shell garage charger). Suffice to say I was very anxious given the various stories of the car getting bricked by chargers, so tried to be careful. It all went fine.
To cut a longer story short, it went as follows. Set off from Guildford with 100% home charge. First stop 85 miles in at Banbury Instavolt charging station. What a fantastic place this is: 32 very modern chargers and Costa nearby. Charged for 25 mins from 63% and stopped it at 88% (that was as high as I wanted to go given stories about pushing it beyond 90%). Paid using the Instavolt app. Left with 178 miles on the GOM. Nice coffee too. Decided to do another stop after another 90 miles later and stopped at the Instavolt chargers at Stafford Rangers. Only 3 miles off the M6 and in a nice quiet spot with two modern chargers. Went from 55% to 88% again in 29 mins. Paid using the Instavolt app.171 miles on the GOM and off again. Lots of traffic and rain then followed but decided to push a bit further and after 113 miles stopped at Burton-in Kendall Services with 41% charge. I decided to use one of the high power GridServe chargers as they looked the most modern. There were four of them there with only one in use. Again charged to 88% in 34 mins which gave me a chance to stretch my legs and get some food. Left with 170 miles on the GOM. Paid using contactless. I decided to make one final (4th) stop at Gretna services just to make the remainder of the journey comfortable. Decided to use the Applegreen Electric chargers as they looked modern (180kW units). Charged from 59% to 85% in 20 mins and left with 183 miles on the GOM. Paid with Contactless. Noticeably busier there although there are lots of chargers and more than one charging company operating there. Arrived at the destination just north of Glasgow with a very comfortable 40% charge and happy that the 441 mile journey was trouble-free. It did take 11 hours although that included 1hr45 mins ish of charging and a fair bit of waiting in traffic around the Midlands and Manchester areas. It could have been quicker had I chosen more optimised charging locations and timings, but I based it on peace of mind. I was also keeping to 60-65 mph when the roads were clear. It was much slower in the holiday traffic congestion. I drove in Eco on KERS 1 apart from in traffic when I used KERS 2 or 3. Average journey efficiency was 4.3miles/kWh in temperature ranging from 17-22C. I had the a/c on (in Eco) most of the way. I was happy with that.
Overall, it was a long but generally pleasant journey. Instavolt are certainly my favourite charging firm. The units are good and the app works well. The other chargers were all fine. In terms of process, for each charging stop, I would switch off the car, wait at least 20 seconds or so to let the car shutdown its various systems before plugging in the charger. The charging rates were generally 60kW max reducing to around 40kW above 75% ish charge and around 20kW above 80% (entirely expected). There were never any queues for the chargers.
To locate chargers, I found the WattsUp ap to be excellent and I could easily switch between Waze and that on screen (via ApplePlay) to keep track of available chargers. I used the InstaVolt app but the other chargers were all contactless.
A pleasantly uneventful experience!
