Warning! This may be my most boring post ever.
We just made our first longish trip in an EV and I thought some of the things I learned may be useful to others.
We travelled from the NW to the Highlands in Scotland, a round trip of about 800 miles.
THINGS TO DO FIRST.
UNDERSTANDING CHARGING CONNECTORS
I naively expected to turn up at a charging point and just pick up a connector and place it into the charging port on the car. It’s a little more complicated, but only because it’s not obvious.
If you want to charge using an Ultra-rapid or fast charger, you will need to have a CCS connector on your car. On my car, there are two ports, one for the CCS and the other for the Type 2 connector (I use this for home). Read your car manual and understand which ports you can use.
I wasn’t aware of this until I did a bit of research, but you may see Type 2 connectors with an advertised speed of 11kW to 43kW. Unless you have an older EV or some kind of onboard AC charger (optional in my case), your car will probably default to 7kW, which is only useful in emergencies. Again, do a bit of reading to find out what your EV can handle.
There are other connectors like CHAdeMO, but that’s specific to some Japanese makes and is being used less frequently in the UK.
PLANNING
We used a combination of the car app/website and the excellent ZapMap. I used ZapMap to plan the journey and then put that route into my car app. Not sure if this applies to all manufacturers, but using the car's sat-nav meant that the battery was warmed up and ready for ultra-fast charging.
ZapMap also has a great little app; it’s great for reading up-to-date comments on charging points and any issues that are specific to the charging point.
Tesla has opened up the charging network in some locations; we didn’t use them, but I’m told if you have the Tesla app, you can find out which ones have been opened up for general use. Something to be aware of is Tesla uses a high-voltage direct current, and unless your car supports this, you won’t get the rapid charging speeds. On my car, it was an optional extra to support the higher voltage.
CHARGING
I charged the car up to 100% before we left and charged at Gretna Green and Glasgow. I also did a top-up at the Green Welly Stop. I could have gotten away with fewer chargers, but I wanted to arrive in the Highlands with a decent amount of range.
We then charged up in Fort Augustus when we needed to during our trip.
IONITY chargers are rapid; 20-30 mins and you are on your way. ChargePlace Scotland mostly worked as expected, but their app is terrible.
WATCH OUT FOR
OVERALL
Charging was really fast in most places, and I felt better for taking a walk while charging. I had to queue once for a charging point, and most people are really friendly and go out of their way to finish up quickly. This may change as more people use EVs, but right now, it seems to be a friendly bunch.
Planning makes a massive difference; the ZapMap app is incredibly useful. Charging points do break down, and contactless payment and RFID are often not supported or just don’t work on that day. So, get to know your apps and have a backup plan if all fails.
Range anxiety was never a problem, and at least our electric car seems to be very accurate. Even when the M6 was closed, and I had to make a massive detour, knowing I would arrive with 50 miles charge wasn’t a problem at all.
Request card - Charge Place Scotland
Map of electric charging points for electric cars UK: Zapmap (zap-map.com)
MAP & STATUS - NETWORK - Home (ionity.eu)
We just made our first longish trip in an EV and I thought some of the things I learned may be useful to others.
We travelled from the NW to the Highlands in Scotland, a round trip of about 800 miles.
THINGS TO DO FIRST.
- Find out if your manufacturer has a partnership with a charging network. We get preferential rates with IONITY; they also have super-fast charging. You may also get an RFID card if you sign up with them, which you can use to authorize and pay at charging points.
- If you are traveling to Scotland, it’s a good idea to download and sign up for the ChargePlace Scotland app. They also have an RFID card; it costs £12 and takes 5-10 days to arrive.
UNDERSTANDING CHARGING CONNECTORS
I naively expected to turn up at a charging point and just pick up a connector and place it into the charging port on the car. It’s a little more complicated, but only because it’s not obvious.
If you want to charge using an Ultra-rapid or fast charger, you will need to have a CCS connector on your car. On my car, there are two ports, one for the CCS and the other for the Type 2 connector (I use this for home). Read your car manual and understand which ports you can use.
I wasn’t aware of this until I did a bit of research, but you may see Type 2 connectors with an advertised speed of 11kW to 43kW. Unless you have an older EV or some kind of onboard AC charger (optional in my case), your car will probably default to 7kW, which is only useful in emergencies. Again, do a bit of reading to find out what your EV can handle.
There are other connectors like CHAdeMO, but that’s specific to some Japanese makes and is being used less frequently in the UK.
PLANNING
We used a combination of the car app/website and the excellent ZapMap. I used ZapMap to plan the journey and then put that route into my car app. Not sure if this applies to all manufacturers, but using the car's sat-nav meant that the battery was warmed up and ready for ultra-fast charging.
ZapMap also has a great little app; it’s great for reading up-to-date comments on charging points and any issues that are specific to the charging point.
Tesla has opened up the charging network in some locations; we didn’t use them, but I’m told if you have the Tesla app, you can find out which ones have been opened up for general use. Something to be aware of is Tesla uses a high-voltage direct current, and unless your car supports this, you won’t get the rapid charging speeds. On my car, it was an optional extra to support the higher voltage.
CHARGING
I charged the car up to 100% before we left and charged at Gretna Green and Glasgow. I also did a top-up at the Green Welly Stop. I could have gotten away with fewer chargers, but I wanted to arrive in the Highlands with a decent amount of range.
We then charged up in Fort Augustus when we needed to during our trip.
IONITY chargers are rapid; 20-30 mins and you are on your way. ChargePlace Scotland mostly worked as expected, but their app is terrible.
WATCH OUT FOR
- Overstay fees. ChargePlace Scotland clearly marked their points with the fees for overstaying. They can vary between different charging connectors on the same charging point. But it’s not always so clear; sometimes there is a tiny sticker hidden somewhere not obvious, or they point you to a website. Believe me, searching around a terrible website with a slow connection just to find out how long you are allowed to charge for is not a good experience.
- Parking. IONITY and some others like Tesla seem fine, but others seem to place the charging points in some of the most difficult places to park. ChargePlace Scotland needs to have a word with themselves. For example, the Green Welly Stop; the cables are so short that unless you have two small cars with the ports in the same place, you have no chance of charging. If they reconfigured it, you could easily charge 3 cars.
- Learn to park. Kind of related to the last point, but I’ve always reversed into spots. Now my car has charging points at the front of the car and cables are short; I’ve had to learn how to park frontways. Even with a ton of sensors, it feels unnatural.
- Contactless Payment. Don’t rely on this; it’s not always supported or working. You often have to rely on the app.
- RFID card. Don’t rely on this. Even with IONITY, two machines next to each other, one would accept it, the other would not.
- ChargePlace Scotland app. It won’t let you finish a charge via the app; I ended up turning the charging off via the button on my car. It did seem to know I had done this though and didn’t charge me an overstay fee. Note: I ordered this RFID card 9 days before I left, and it hadn’t arrived, so I couldn’t use that to terminate the charging.
- Breakdowns. Charging places seem to break down often; don’t rely on just one charge place on a long journey. Use ZapMap to check before you set out.
- Charging Rates. Sometimes it’s obvious how much you will be charged; other times, I didn’t have a clue. ZapMap has some details but often mentions to check with the charging network.
OVERALL
Charging was really fast in most places, and I felt better for taking a walk while charging. I had to queue once for a charging point, and most people are really friendly and go out of their way to finish up quickly. This may change as more people use EVs, but right now, it seems to be a friendly bunch.
Planning makes a massive difference; the ZapMap app is incredibly useful. Charging points do break down, and contactless payment and RFID are often not supported or just don’t work on that day. So, get to know your apps and have a backup plan if all fails.
Range anxiety was never a problem, and at least our electric car seems to be very accurate. Even when the M6 was closed, and I had to make a massive detour, knowing I would arrive with 50 miles charge wasn’t a problem at all.
Request card - Charge Place Scotland
Map of electric charging points for electric cars UK: Zapmap (zap-map.com)
MAP & STATUS - NETWORK - Home (ionity.eu)
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