Hi
@greeiig
Here you go, some thoughts
Your timing is fortunate, I'm at home recouperating from Covid so had the time to write this all down at last!
1. Use a charging spot where there is more than one charging unit installed. This is not so much to avoid queuing but to have a backup in case a unit is not working. We had multiple charge stops where a nuit was not working. Thankfully we mostly chose sites with more than one charger, but on two occassions we had to drive off to find another location, which leads me to my next point...
2. Your car won't go as far as you're used to. Don't forget that at the rapid chargers you'll only be topping up to 80-85% (some won't charge past that, and if they do the charge rate drops significantly). We found arriving at a charge station with less than 10% charge remaining very uncomfortable, your views may vary on that. However, I'd recommend trying to schedule stops for when your car reaches 15-20%
3. Your car will use a lot more enegry going up the mountains, and a lot less coming down. We thankfully 'overcharged' on the way there (at our last charge before getting to our destination) based on the distance we had to travel, and we are glad we did because the height gain used up the 'overcharge'. On the way down we used far less charge so we changed our charging pattern a bit - we missed out the first charge stop as it was really unnecessary, but we wouldn't have reached the next one we had planned. We stopped for 5 mins to look for a mid-point and did a small top up at that one to get us to the 2nd charge point we'd already planned.
4. The stretch northbound between Laon and Calais has very few motorway charge points. Be wary of that. This is wehere we came unstuck. We left Laon (where we stayed overnight) with a full charge. We wer unlucky in that we were battling the Storm Eunice (Feb 2022) winds which would have affected our range, so we arrived in Calais with much less charge than anticipated. We realised we were going to be cutting it fine, but couldn't find a convenient chargepoint en route.
5. ChargeMap doesn't offer a simple way (that I found) to send the co-ordinates of a chargepoint to Google Maps. On one occassion I typed in the location as written in the app, but Google took me a mile away and this location required a significant re-route to get back round to the chargepoint.
6. ChargeMap shows chargepoints that aren't in use yet. It shows them once construction has started.
7. Many of the French motorway signs show if electric charging is available at a service station (but not all), but a lot of the stops are for Tesla drivers only. So don't rely on the motorway signs alone.
8. You may find the attached range calculator useful. I made it after our trip to France. You mention you are using a roof box, and from my experience last summer with ours fitted, whilst it affected the range it wasn't as significant as driving in lower temperatures. Cold weather (6degC or lower) really is brutal on battery efficiency.
NOTE: the figures for roof box use are entirely estimates by me, the % reduction in range is purely a guess by me at this stage.
NOTE: the figures for non-roof bix use are accurate imo. And I've now shared this spreadsheet with others and a few people have reported back it has been (mostly) accurate for them too (obviously driving styles, load carried and condtions will always be viariables).
9. Don't use the EvBox chargepoint at the Calais Eurotunnel terminal! 3 people I know of (myself included) have now had car problems after using it.
10. Pack an adjustable spanner just in case (read these threads)
Hi All, First of all Happy Christmas. Now for the warning.... BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE THINKING OF USING THE FREE RAPID CHARGER AT EUROTUNNEL I live in France and my wife and I decided to come back to the UK for the holidays. I am the proud owner of a 6 month old MG ZS EV and I have...
www.mgevs.com
Hi all, Today we were at the Calais Euro Tunnel terminal and needed a small charge before boarding the train. Upon connecting the charger, no charge was made and after disconnecting the cable the car would not start. We have a MG 5 standard range. We get the following messages. Autohold fail...
www.mgevs.com
Hope that all helps in some capacity
