Electric Car Diary

Update: First major trip last weekend. 100 miles to the airport. Was not fully charged when leaving as I had underestimated how long it would take to charge to 100%. Anyway, delightful drive, mostly motorway and parked up at the airport for a few days. Knowing it would need charging to get home, I had sussed out a nearby free charger on the EasyGo app. Found it but the app and charger would not sync. Drove part of the way home, quite concerned, but located an ESB pay charger. Worked first time, fair play ESB, and we grabbed a bite to eat and passed about 90 minutes to give it a decent charge. Headed home but it would be tight. Didn't want to stop again but had a plan in case. As it happened, I limped in the gate at home with 5% left in the battery. Overall, a stressful drive. Lesson learned is that all future trips will require planning around charger locations.
Am I reading correctly that you stopped for ninety minutes for the car to charge on a 160km drive which would have taken c. 90 minutes to do in any type of vehicle, thereby effectively doubling your journey time?? And this after having to faff about with different chargers in different locations coming off and on the motorway?

Sounds like hell to me.
 
No, not correct at all,
looks like a 320km roundtrip,(100 miles each way) and user was only at 80 % charge before departure. The full journey could have been done without any charging, if the EV was at 100 % on departure.

User also unfamiliar with fast charge location points, hence, the faffying around, to find one.
 
Am I reading correctly that you stopped for ninety minutes for the car to charge on a 160km drive which would have taken c. 90 minutes to do in any type of vehicle, thereby effectively doubling your journey time?? And this after having to faff about with different chargers in different locations coming off and on the motorway?

Sounds like hell to me.
I dont think anyone, the OP included, is taking this as a well planned trip. If they were charged fully before leaving, no stop, or if they planned the trip correctly to stop off at a high capacity charger its a 10-15 min stop.
 
Have to say thanks Slim I'm really enjoying this thread and your experiences and the advise from other posters here
We have two cars at the moment an 07 and a 131 so at some stage we're probably gonna have to change one and most probably it will have to be to an EV so its good to hear the good the bad and the ugly of EV ownership compared to ICE
The one thing I'm picking up on is that with EV ownership at this moment in time there needs to be a small mindset change with regard to battery level in that it is better to start each day with a full battery, where as with an ICE car it's not something I would worry about if an unexpected long journey should arise
 
My first car was for commuting. But it was because going cross city in Dublin at the time on public transport was taking up to 2hrs each way. The majority of my driving life has always been in cities.
 
Agreed

Interesting the question raised. I am guessing OP is not an Electrical engineer.
So more informative for most I would say.

The trip hazard thing is something to note, mix of charging point on the wall and location of the charging on the car.
Interesting the change to add the separate connection straight from the meter box.

I had a work day last week 170km to a site where I could not have plugged in then 170 km back.
So possibly pushing the bounds of the range
I stopped for 5 mins to fill with diesel, didn't stop for a lunch as I had an option to burst on and get home.
Admittedly no big deal to stop for a bit of food, but it was nice to have the option not to.

Again good to see some real timelines, real ranges on real driving rather than the ideals in a lab.

The charging at work option is something that could be good.
Does anyone charging from work have experience
How much are they charging ?
Is it free?
Would that be seen as a BIK?
 
Agreed

Interesting the question raised. I am guessing OP is not an Electrical engineer.
So more informative for most I would say.

The trip hazard thing is something to note, mix of charging point on the wall and location of the charging on the car.
Interesting the change to add the separate connection straight from the meter box.

I had a work day last week 170km to a site where I could not have plugged in then 170 km back.
So possibly pushing the bounds of the range
I stopped for 5 mins to fill with diesel, didn't stop for a lunch as I had an option to burst on and get home.
Admittedly no big deal to stop for a bit of food, but it was nice to have the option not to.

Again good to see some real timelines, real ranges on real driving rather than the ideals in a lab.

The charging at work option is something that could be good.
Does anyone charging from work have experience
How much are they charging ?
Is it free?
Would that be seen as a BIK?
The reality is that a 10 min charge at an ionity fast charger would have added enough range for you to get home if you were borderline on range, so only adding an extra 5 min over your diesel stop.
 
.....
The charging at work option is something that could be good.
Does anyone charging from work have experience
How much are they charging ?
Is it free?
Would that be seen as a BIK?
Friend of mine works for an employer that has installed work chargers as a perk. They're available to all employees, first come first served, and there's no record of who uses them. So, to him, it's free and he doesn't pay BIK. As far as I know, it's specifically excluded from the BIK regime as a policy.

But apparently there's been hints dropped lately that a small charge might be deducted from salaries!
 
Update: Decided to charge to 100% this week in preparation for a round trip to Dublin this weekend. Disconnected at 93% and was pleased to see range showing at over 430km. Next morning, it was very frosty and the range showing had dropped below 400km. Looking forward to the long run this weekend.
PS: definitely not an electrical engineer!
 
baby boomer "first come first served, " is this going to cause friction . john plugs in and goes to all day meeting cannot be disturbed or is too lazy to come back and move car , car left at recharging station , jimmy therefore cannot access charging station and left with empty battery
 
Update: In preparation for tomorrow's big trip, I set the car to charge to 100%. It's 6° outside at the moment and the car reads a range of 411km. Tomorrow's return trip will be about 480km so a recharge on the return will be required. I will report back on Monday.
 
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baby boomer "first come first served, " is this going to cause friction . john plugs in and goes to all day meeting cannot be disturbed or is too lazy to come back and move car , car left at recharging station , jimmy therefore cannot access charging station and left with empty battery
Remarkably, it's actually been friction free. It's a small employer and everyone knows everyone else and relationships are good. There are four (I think) charging points, but they're configured in such as way as to be accessible from multiple parking spaces. The implicit deal is that if people start acting the maggot, the freebie will disappear.
 
Overnight, plugged in via the 3 pin plug in the garage, from 38% to 82% between 4.20pm and 8.45am. Range is showing 293km on the app. I have capped it at 90% for this charge. The app is great. It can pre-heat the car interior to a selected temperature in the morning and you can start/stop the charging as long as the cable is plugged in.
I have an ID4. I find it annoying that only one person can use the app. We have two drivers in the house.
 
Update: In preparation for tomorrow's big trip, I set the car to charge to 100%. It's 6° outside at the moment and the car reads a range of 411km. Tomorrow's return trip will be about 480km so a recharge on the return will be required. I will report back on Monday.
Which charging location are you planning to stop at?
 
I have an ID4. I find it annoying that only one person can use the app. We have two drivers in the house.
Can you not both have the app with the same logon ? It worked for me with the Audi and Mercedes’ app assume its the same for vw.
 
Update: In preparation for tomorrow's big trip, I set the car to charge to 100%. It's 6° outside at the moment and the car reads a range of 411km. Tomorrow's return trip will be about 480km so a recharge on the return will be required. I will report back on Monday.
Please tell me you put the journey into a better route planner
 
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