I’ve had my EV (Skoda Enyaq iV60) for 6 weeks and so far, so good. Recently I had the chance to put my EV and the public charging network to the test. I had an overnight trip to Manchester on Saturday and returning Sunday afternoon followed by a day trip to Watford on the Monday. With no access to a home charger, I was going to be relying on the public charging network.
Friday evening, driving home from work I was excited at the prospect of trying out different chargers, but also slightly anxious, as I’m a big advocate for going electric. I was worried about the added stress of finding chargers and the potential embarrassment of getting to a chargepoint and it either being out of service or in use.
Within this blog I want to share my experiences, the pros and cons of using the motorway/public network and how much it cost me.
I started the weekend with my EV on 90% charge (190 miles) for this time of year.
My schedule for the two days were as follows:
Market Rasen – Harpurhey, Manchester – Market Rasen – Watford – Market Rasen
Total route= 530 miles
My car has a real range of 220 miles, therefore I knew I would be relying on the public charging network.
Saturday 12th November
We set off Saturday morning to our Air BNB destination. With 190 miles on the clock and a 110 mile journey there was no need to worry about needing to find a charger on route.
By the time we got to Manchester, I had 30 miles left. My driving habits and attitude didn’t change driving my EV. I don’t speed anyway, but I wasn’t exactly shy on the accelerator going between speed limits. I also had the radio on the whole time and climate control on. I also didn’t bother with any cruise control settings for this journey, knowing I had ample amount of charge to get me to my destination.
Before returning home, I knew I would need a charge Sunday, and after we had spent the afternoon in Manchester City Centre, I spent a bit of time on zap-map, Saturday evening having a look at what rapid chargers were available. It’s important to note that if you want to get a charge quickly into your car you need to look for something 50kW and upwards. Although 7 and 22kW units are ideal for charging, this won’t add miles in a short space of time. Having spent 10 minutes on zap-map.com (a very useful app, that is a must for EV drivers) I found a 50kW CCS Pod Point charger at a Lidl, 6 miles from our Air BNB and on the route home, perfect place to stop before heading home.
Sunday 13th November
Having just watched a thrilling T20 World Cup final and in high spirits, seeing England lift the World Cup I arrived at Lidl with 22 miles left. We charged for 34 minutes, adding the 100 miles needed to get home. It cost me £8.34 and, in the time, it took to charge the car we had grabbed some lunch from the Lidl store, stood and ate it ready for the journey home.
Monday 14th November
Started the day with 18 miles on the clock, knowing full well I would need to charge early into the journey, especially with 155 miles to travel to our destination. Luckily, Sunday evening after some research on zap-map I found an Instavolt at Caenby Corner roundabout, which is 10 miles from my house. I charged at this 50KW charger for 27 minutes at a cost of £12.67 which gave me 100 miles.
Shortly before halfway into the journey some of my passengers needed to stop for a toilet break. I pulled in at Colsterworth Services which had four 120kW Instavolt chargers. These were perfect as I needed a little over 40 miles to ensure I would comfortably get down to Watford with enough charge. I pulled up for 15 minutes and in that time, I added 82 miles at a cost of £14.16.
Once we got to our destination and having done a bit of research beforehand, I plugged in to one of the 40 7kW Pod Point chargers available. As I would be parked up for 3-4 hours, this charger would add me enough mileage to get me halfway home, where I planned to stop anyway for some tea. Sure enough, whilst going round the Harry Potter Studio tour, I got a further 54 miles at a cost of £5.89 which meant I had 79 miles to get me part the way home.
Unfortunately, due to an accident on the M1 what was suppose to be a tea time stop, turned into supper thanks to an hour’s delay stuck in traffic. But this didn’t affect the battery in the EV which was pleasing to see. I finally got to Northampton services around 7:30pm and charged for 45 minutes. Adding a further 85 miles at a cost of £18.21. This then got me home safe and sound by 9:15pm with 24 miles left.
Each of the stops would have been carried out if I was driving an ICE vehicle. Agreed the combined total of 106 minutes waiting for the car to be charged wouldn’t take me as long when filling up a petrol station but nonetheless it would have been highly likely we would have stopped at each point, just as we did in the EV.
Again, some of the charging fees were a little steeper than others, but you get that at service stations and garages anyway when filling up with petrol and diesel.
In total I got 421 miles for a cost of £59.77, which considering I used chargers at motorway services where some are nearly £1 per kWh, it wasn’t too bad, although it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. This brings me onto the pros and cons of my experience.
Pros
Using zap-map, it was really easy to find suitable chargers along the routes.
You can tell the app what range you have when starting a route, which enables it to calculate the best chargers for you, with the range you have left.
Each different charger used, was accessible and easy to park at.
The step-by-step guides at each unit were very easy to follow.
Each charger could be started either using the touch screen display at the unit or through their own app.
There was clear signage to direct you to the EV charging bays at each service station.
Cons
It wasn’t as cheap as I had originally thought it would be. I had anticipated spending £35-40. In hindsight I could have maybe pushed the range more to find a cheaper charger, but I weighed this up with the embarrassment of calling for help, and thought better of it.
The stops made to charge the vehicle take longer than filling up at a petrol station.
Luck of the draw with ensuring the charger is available when you got there. Thankfully I got lucky but there is the possibility that all chargers could be in use when you pull up.
If you want to pay for charging through the app, you will need to download, lots of different apps for each of the types of chargers out there. To some people this could be annoying.
In conclusion
I found the whole experience of finding a charger when I needed one very easy, it could have been even easier though! And it is well documented that certain areas of the country are easier to find a charger than others.
It's clear there is a real need for more local authorities to fit chargers in their car parks. I realised this on the two days I was in Manchester. Whilst watching the T20 World Cup final in Sixes Cricket Bar, I could have been charging my EV. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a car park within walking distance that would allow me to do this.
There are many different chargers available on the motorway networks. You do need to do some research before setting off as to which chargepoints are where and the cost of them. Zap-map is an app that every EV driver should download... it’s a god send!
The journeys I made over the three days aren’t journeys I make regularly, therefore the cost of running my EV would reduce dramatically. My advice to anyone looking into getting an EV, is to not mess about getting a hybrid, but to go in feet first and get one. The motorway network is improving day by day, and is only really needed as a last resort. Public charging is still a long way off, but with a home charger installed and/or access to chargers at work you will never have to worry about running out of charge, unless you do over 300 miles a day, each and every day.
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