EV road trip

[dan_b]

Just back from a week in SW France, travelling via Tesla.

1106 miles covered, 324kWh consumed, at an average efficiency of 293Wh/mile. Somewhat higher than my normal efficiency, but then I confess to the use of a somewhat heavy right foot on those long empty Autoroutes. The Model 3 Long Range is ridiculously good for long distance driving.

Yes, I got stuck in the Brexit Border Chaos at Dover on my outbound journey - so getting from SW London to the shores of Calais ended up taking me almost 12 hours. Just so I could get a stamp in my black passport. What a waste of time and energy.

I got an Octopus Electric Juice card before I left as that seems to work with most of the charging networks in France, but actually only ended up using it at Ionity in Folkestone on the way back as the place I was staying allowed me to charge up using the granny cable which kept me in good charge for the week.

Anyway, I'll post a view pictures/ videos in a bit once I've worked out how to get them off my iPhone!

[Mr Gus]

Not being your first long range EV rodeo Dan, how did it compare to last time, queues at peak times & increasing beg / hybrid uptake (this side of the channel) ?

How did those jams treat people (I'm thinking lots of engines on & air-con) !?

[dan_b]

To be honest, I got complacent a bit this time about preparing for the journey properly but part of that was working around the ridiculous delays at Dover, and trying to rush back for the Eurotunnel on the way back.

I had planned to set off at 6am for my 9am sailing. Ended up leaving at 4.30am and ended up on the 11.45am sailing.
Unfortunately because of the earlier departure, it meant I didn't have a 100% charge when I left London because I'd left it all too late the night before, couldn't find any on-street public charge points to top up with overnight, and then was chasing my tail a bit after that.

Arrived with barely 1% at the first charging stop with the car nagging me about keeping the speed down.

Likewise on the way home, although I left with 100%, my first stop to recharge was "too early" as far as maximising the range of the battery/speed charging session - I'd just assumed that after 2.5 hours of driving, it was the right place to re-charge because we needed a break anyway. But that then meant I had to stop earlier for the 2nd stop, where there was a queue, and as we were rushing to make it to the Eurotunnel, didn't have time to charge up enough to make it back to London so ended up having to do a 3-stop strategy with a splash and dash at Ionity Folkestone!

Ultimately it was still all fine - and again having a Tesla just gives you the luxury of the entire Supercharger network, AND all the other providers. But I almost caught myself out this time.

[dan_b]

Early morning splash and dash at Shell Recharge which only got me to 88% SoC - first of my many failures to plan correctly! First time using this charger with the Octopus Electric Juice Card.


Then we hit the traffic jam into Dover. Such a colossal waste of time to achieve what, some stamps in a black Passport? Urgh.

[dan_b]

First stop at Bailles de Sommes.



This charging station is serving both the South-, and North-bound traffic on the Autoroute here, so I guess is always going to be busy. But I couldn't help but feel sorry for the non-Tesla EVs here. Especially as the owner of the Ioniq5 was for some reason charging to 100% and had disappeared to the cafe (presumably to avoid people shouting at him). The Taycan in the queue was able to pull about 280kW when it plugged in, rather impressive.

Second stop outbound was at the new Supercharger site at Le Mans. Solar canopies, 20 stalls, and also open access.

[dan_b]

Heres' the return journey.

First stop was again at Le Mans - too early in retrospect, arrived with over 50% SoC. But nice to see other non-Teslas charging up happily at the Supercharger facility. I do think this is the right way to go - MG, Polestar, Peugeot, Volvo all happily pulling down the Tesla electrons.



Second stop was at Rouen. A site I'd been to before but forgotten. It's busy - I had to queue behind 3 other Teslas before I could connect, and then even though on the Car UI it says it's V3 - it's a Frankenstein mix of V2 and V3 and there was a lot of power sharing going on.



Which meant I ended up having to make a 3rd stop on the way home - grabbing a charge at Ionity on the M20 heading away from Folkestone. Again I used my Octopus Electric Juice card (which apparently gives a 5% tariff discount). I think the relatively low charging rate initially would have been because the batteries had cooled down with all the waiting and travel time on the Eurotunnel?



Worth noting, of the 4 Ionity chargers here, 1 was out of order. But speeds did pick up once SoC and presumably battery temperature incresed. As I was leaving, a Kia e-Niro and a Polestar 2 rocked up to charge too.

[dan_b]

Quite noticeable how many people were sitting in the queues with their engines idling to keep the aircon running

How did those jams treat people (I'm thinking lots of engines on & air-con) !?

[Joeboy]

You've done well there Dan, sorry to hear about Dover. Weather's looks great. I might just have to get myself a Tesla charging card. Apologies for the Ioniq 5 driver. As a side note on Ioniq 5 charging. We charged at Ionity Perth the other week. 2 vehicles on and three bays empty and we were all the way up into the 90%+ soc before the car throttled back. No excuse for the guy if there was a Q though....

[Mr Gus]

Thanks dan, very interesting contextual video shorts that give good insight to progress across the unknown driving areas beyond blighty(ed)

Who were you documenting all this for?

The packing logic from the likes of the AA/ RAC & govt surely ought be, ladies, take a she-wee, & everyone else pack an easily accessed sunbrella & ground blanket to get out of a car (if it's not moving) to leave Windows open & engines off whilst traffic jammed in order to sit off tarmac out of the Sun with basic protection that can be grabbed, ..sitting with a hot idling engine cannot help matters, just add to the tension as the fuel guage drops & ice range anxiety kicks in, wonder what is burnt on average from a typical ice tank over that duration percentage wise.

Our first & only BEV traffic jam on a country road lasted several hours (height of summer) ..we were pretty relaxed, our concern was for the boxers stuck in a day pen at home who were hungry & "full" at the same time ,

However the dover route is a different scenario entirely.

[dan_b]

I did post it on Twitter where I have a small following of EV nerds, so I was documenting it for greater good, and for my own amusement.