Dutch Road Trip

Assuming I can make it through the Channel Tunnel no problem, I will be bringing the Roadster to the Netherlands tomorrow.

My plan is to use the HPC at nSolar in Bruges, before heading to a meeting in Sint Niklaas where I can get a 16A top up for a few hours.

My main concern (apart from being hugely delayed by the tunnel) is that the nSolar guys are on holiday so I'm on my own if there is a problem. I have a The New Motion card, which I think should work on charge points in Belgium, but this would probably be a long wait. Are there any other HPCs in the Antwerp area?

I'm currently sitting at nSolar charging so luckily I haven't needed the plan B (yet).

One thing I have noticed though is that when I charged at 70A the voltage sag is really bad. I got the "extension cord detected" warning and it was at 208V when at 0A it is at 236V. After an hour the charge stopped (just as I'd walked off to find coffee - lucky I have OVMS). I dialled the charge back to 55A and this gave me a more reasonable 220V.

These guys are using a three phase to single phase converter and claiming this is a 90A charger but really its just 3x30A into a normal HPC. I suggest it is not powerful enough to sustain 16kW over a few hours.

This is a Tesla HPC so it wouldn't normally give up. What was fluctuating I think was the converter.

Anyway, I made it to Leiden so everything worked out fine.

So my trip went pretty well in fact.

After loading up cables, adapters, fire extinguishers and not to forget, my suitcase, the car was pretty well packed.




First stop was a meeting at the new European Space Agency place near Oxford.




In the evening I headed to the Ashford International Hotel near the Channel Tunnel where I used their HPC but stayed overnight.





Then it was an early start to check in at the Channel Tunnel at 5:15 AM!







Then on to N.Solar in Bruges. Everyone there was on holiday, but they said the HPC would be available to use. It just pokes through a hole in the wall. This is the key link between the UK and mainland European networks, but as I said above, be careful about taking 70 Amps from it for too long. 55 was about the most it would sustain at a sensible voltage.




655 km later I was at my friend's place in Leiden in Holland where I am staying for this assignment.


Then today it was on to the European Space Agency technical centre at Noordwijk. Here we are well catered for with charging, but still 18 EVs attempt to use this, so it can get quite busy.




And finally a quick check of a FastNed station on the way home from work