I haven't had my Roadster that long and last week was the first time I've needed to do a long journey right on the range limit of the car, as well as use any kind of public charge-up point. So I've decided to write it up for anyone that might be interested - even though this doesn’t compare to Kevin Sharpes epic UK-Geneva-UK trip going on at the same time !
The journey came about because of a friend whos Solar PV company was exhibiting at a Renewable Energy show and he asked if I would lend the car for the day to park under a prototype solar parking canopy they are developing.
So I set about planning a route intending to print off a back-up map with 32A or 70A charge points dotted along the way. Turns out I could only find 3 or 4 that were anywhere near to the intended route - which is a bit worrying.
Prior to setting off on the outward 170 mile trip I did a full range-charge, and started taking photos with my cellphone - shown sequentially below. Initially the car had 163 Est Miles, and 230 Ideal Miles in range-mode. I took a scenic cross country route, avoiding all motorways and resisted the urge to overtake anything - I merely moved with the traffic flow. As is typical with UK roads my average speed by the end of the 4 hr journey was just under 50mph, and I arrived with about 30 miles of est range left in range mode, but only 9 miles when I switched to normal-mode.
That initial trip proved to me that a Roadster really can do 180+ miles …. just so long as I avoid using warp factor 9 acceleration at every opportunity - which is damn difficult in a Roadster.
The Renewables show itself was interesting, and throughout the day a few other EV's turned up. One of the photos below shows a Leaf that pulled in for a charge, and Renault were there with a Fluence (which is dangerously close to 'effluence', but hey). If only they brought along a Zoe - that looks seriously appealing. Just as well they didn’t as my credit card might had got stretched beyond its snapping point.
The return journey had to be done at night and I didn’t fancy taking the same cross-country route back home since the headlights are a bit, well, crap, basically ! So I chose a faster / longer motorway route taking advantage of an HPC 1/3rd the way into the journey. This was located at the Castle Hotel, Taunton, and must be the most remote HPC anywhere in England. After that top up I knew I had to make the remaining 143 miles with little chance of finding any other charge points so late at night, with the last 60 miles of the journey being cross-country.
I managed to get back home with just 5 miles range showing in normal mode, and 23 est miles left in max-range mode. The car was plugged straight in on standard charge, and the subsequent charge log showed that somehow 65kwh (yup, 65) of energy was used to charge it. ( Perhaps additional energy was used heating/cooling. Can anyone comment if this is to be expected ? )
The trip meter showed that the entire journey was 367 miles. The cost of the electricity used worked out at about £ 5.80 (night time rates) which is a whopping £140 less than my ICE car would have cost for the same trip…
The journey came about because of a friend whos Solar PV company was exhibiting at a Renewable Energy show and he asked if I would lend the car for the day to park under a prototype solar parking canopy they are developing.
So I set about planning a route intending to print off a back-up map with 32A or 70A charge points dotted along the way. Turns out I could only find 3 or 4 that were anywhere near to the intended route - which is a bit worrying.
Prior to setting off on the outward 170 mile trip I did a full range-charge, and started taking photos with my cellphone - shown sequentially below. Initially the car had 163 Est Miles, and 230 Ideal Miles in range-mode. I took a scenic cross country route, avoiding all motorways and resisted the urge to overtake anything - I merely moved with the traffic flow. As is typical with UK roads my average speed by the end of the 4 hr journey was just under 50mph, and I arrived with about 30 miles of est range left in range mode, but only 9 miles when I switched to normal-mode.
That initial trip proved to me that a Roadster really can do 180+ miles …. just so long as I avoid using warp factor 9 acceleration at every opportunity - which is damn difficult in a Roadster.
The Renewables show itself was interesting, and throughout the day a few other EV's turned up. One of the photos below shows a Leaf that pulled in for a charge, and Renault were there with a Fluence (which is dangerously close to 'effluence', but hey). If only they brought along a Zoe - that looks seriously appealing. Just as well they didn’t as my credit card might had got stretched beyond its snapping point.
The return journey had to be done at night and I didn’t fancy taking the same cross-country route back home since the headlights are a bit, well, crap, basically ! So I chose a faster / longer motorway route taking advantage of an HPC 1/3rd the way into the journey. This was located at the Castle Hotel, Taunton, and must be the most remote HPC anywhere in England. After that top up I knew I had to make the remaining 143 miles with little chance of finding any other charge points so late at night, with the last 60 miles of the journey being cross-country.
I managed to get back home with just 5 miles range showing in normal mode, and 23 est miles left in max-range mode. The car was plugged straight in on standard charge, and the subsequent charge log showed that somehow 65kwh (yup, 65) of energy was used to charge it. ( Perhaps additional energy was used heating/cooling. Can anyone comment if this is to be expected ? )
The trip meter showed that the entire journey was 367 miles. The cost of the electricity used worked out at about £ 5.80 (night time rates) which is a whopping £140 less than my ICE car would have cost for the same trip…
