Do you feel that you can't go EV because it won't work for those longer journeys? Well I hope that this blog post helps quash those doubts!
As those who know us here at Zoom EV, we're all about EVs but we completely understand that there is a hesitation from some who are worried about longer journeys in these cars. History possibly suggests that this reason is valid and as a first generation Renault Zoe driver myself (and my family!), I can hand on heart say that I understand this worry, only though if you're talking about doing journeys in a car that has such limited range.
Once again, due to the amazing partnership we have with the Jardine Motors Group Jaguar Land-Rover team, who heard about our travel packed August, we were offered a Jaguar iPace.
Below is a list of the long journeys that we completed throughout August:
Milton Keynes to Farnborough = 75 miles(for Fully Charged Live)
Farnborough to Cheshire = 195 miles
Cheshire to Northampton = 232 miles (return)
Cheshire to Loch Lomond = 512 miles (return)
Cheshire to Christchurch, Salisbury, Southampton = 500 (return)
As you can see there are some VERY long journeys in there. Had we been making these trips in our 2015 Renault Zoe we might still be travelling back from Loch Lomond! However, in the Jaguar iPace we were in a car that when 100% fully charged has a range of ~250 miles. 250 miles is still probably about 60% of the miles that you would get from an iPace's petrol / diesel counterpart, so you might think that's its still not a great range to be doing longer journeys.
We're a young family, we have an 11 month old and therefore stopping is very much a requirement! We would always ensure that we had the iPace fully charged when we left home on long trips (using electricity on our home energy tariff making it cheaper per mile than using a public charger). On our way to Northampton, we stopped once on the way down and topped up via an Osprey unit (which we save money on) and the three of us all needed a pitstop anyway. This is one of the things that I always tell people who are thinking of going EV and are worried about charging on long journeys, the likelihood is you will need a break and it's much better for you to stretch your legs! We stopped at the charger for all of 25 minutes, had a coffee, did some work, let the little man run around and then carried on our journey.
Our trip up to Loch Lomond was slightly more eventful, albeit this was generally down to the Charge Place Scotland network. We travelled up from Cheshire and planned to stop at Tebay Services, which we did, however, of the 2 Ecotricity units, one didn't work and the other had an Audi Q4 Sportback plugged in to it (pumping out a whopping 4kWh!). However, we'd still got plenty of range so on we went to Gretna Green. We managed to charge at Gretna before making tracks to Glasgow. Scotland has done a great job from an EV perspective, Dundee is probably the most forward thinking council in the UK and the charging network has been free up until recently. This has been great for incentivising people to go electric as well as additional car and home charging grants (oh to live in Scotland!). It isn't free anymore unfortunately! The web experience for CPS is horrendous, however, we couldn't fault the customer support when we phoned the team. The network is now managed by Swarco and their support in helping us getting charged was exceptional, they answered the phones quickly, remotely accessed and started charging for us and more.
Following our drive back from Loch Lomond, I then travelled to Christchurch the following week. The fully charged iPace got me from home to Cherwell Valley Services and from there i topped up for 25 minutes before heading down past Oxford to Christchurch. I stopped twice and only charged the once, and again the fact is I had to stop anyway, so the car charging during that period was a much needed break. I then got all the way to the JLR site at Hendy Group and still had ~80 miles on the car still. As the above shows, if you are being put off from going electric because of longer journeys that are more sporadic in nature, if you are looking at cars that have around the ~250 miles range, you really needn't worry, we can honestly say you would likely need to stop long before your car does to recharge!
I think one of the key considerations having done all of these trips in the past couple of months is actually around charger reliability and availability. As shown when travelling to Loch Lomond, if you arrive and the charger isn't working or there is another car using it, it's a bit problematic and can cause a slight delay to your journey. It's just a feeling of inconvenience, but with the above being said, charging rapid charging networks on arterial routes are growing significantly and therefore addressing this problem for us EV drivers (who aren't Tesla drivers!).
If you've been on a staycation and have had a long journey this summer, we'd love to hear where you travelled to, how far it was and let us know how you found the journey. If you also want to share a picture with your car and tag us in via social media please do so!
Greg and the Zoom EV Team.
Written by Greg Fairbotham
16/12/21
