Electric car long distance journeys - real life experience?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

I have to change cars and looking at electric. Having a wobble as a dealer (admittedly one who doesn't sell electric) has been telling me horror stories and suggesting they aren't good for long journeys.

The vast majority of my driving is short distance but I do do a long drive to holiday (2-300 miles) in the summer every year. I thought, with fast chargers at service stations and a bit of forwards planning, this would be doable and not a nightmare.

Are they ok actually, or is it awful? He was talking about journeys that should be 3 hours taking 11, pack of chargers, chargers vandalised or otherwise not working. Was he just trying to put me off so I'd buy a petrol car from him?

A work colleague has put me off electric cars, he has a large Mercedes, which should do about 200+ miles on a charge.

He drove to Harrogate from Essex no issue, quick charge on the way. The hotel charger was broken, so on the morning of his return journey he had to find another charger, it took him nearly 9 hours to get home due to only finding slow chargers that weren't broken. I'd have been stressing out if it were men

Me not men

With young kids getting both out of the to the toilet plus having a quick snack will easily take 30 minutes. Plus probably want a bit of a leg stretch if they've been sat still in the car. Or more frequent shorter charges when someone needs a pee.

In laws live 4.5/5 hours away by ICE (assuming 2 adults, neither pregnant). As a solo adult feeling fresh I can do it in 1 hit, more commonly I will need a pee stop, with the 2 kids now too old for nappies theres always 3 stops including a longer one for food. So not much change to go electric.

Long, non stop journeys have been pants with kids and if it's the car's fault we have to stop it makes certain people less grumpy about it!

If the traffic is slow, the electric cars' range is generally improved.

I hate having to stop on longer journeys - which can be quite last minute decisions. Having to plan stops and where to have them is enough of a put off for me.

We’ve had ev’s for a few years now. Never had an issue with charging. We regularly drive from Oxfordshire to Colchester, (250 mile round trip) we don’t have to charge for the way back but we always pop into the Gridserve charging station in Braintree to top up on the way home. Mainly because it’s so nice! Super quick charging and you can chill in the lovely lounge with a coffee.

Have never found the radio drains the battery! As pp’s say, it’s just learning a different driving style. I cruise along at 65mph now and I get on average 3.6m/kWh which means my car’s range of 330m is pretty accurate.

See I don’t see 45 mins a waste of time either, just normal.

We have a 5 1/2 hour drive to go on holiday in a few months. It’s a 480km trip, and our car does 550km, so on a good day with no traffic we could theoretically do on one go. But we have a 2 year old so that’s not happening anyway. We will drive around 2 1/2 hours, stop a good hour at somewhere Ds can play, run about a while, toilet and lunch. Car won’t be anywhere near empty so will top it up from whatever it’s on to 100% for convenience.
On arrival, our hotel has x2 Tesla and x2 non Tesla chargers, available to guest for free. So we will recharge and use that to refil before return journey.

Well I didnt mention the radio personally but when we drive to Scotland which is just under 500 miles we do 2 hours each, one stop for petrol and another stop which is just the loo/coffee

Its gruelling enough without adding in hours for waiting for fuel or sitting around. We eat in the car when the other person is driving

I agree. On these threads there are always people who say you would do loads of longish stops on a long journey when the answer for us is no we do not. DH and I share driving so we often stop for 10 minutes in total in a 5 - 6 hour car journey.

I have an electric car and honestly, it’s not good.

The advertised range is up to 210 miles, but I actually only get around 100 if I’m motorway driving in the cold (and that’s in eco mode!)

several times I’ve turned up at motorway services and all of the charging bays are in use. I’ve also had to go to 3 separate sites to charge when one site was full and two more were broken!

So I take DHs car on any journey over 50 miles now.

I can recommend a self charging hybrid though - we rented one on holiday and the driving range was enormous!

Well luckily we dont have to work around any of that although my rapidly aging bladder may well cause problems in years to come now!

I absolutely hate stopping. I hate stopping for petrol let alone a charging time

@CanOfPop - you don’t have to stop 45mins though. A Tesla supercharger would add around 200miles (320km) in 10 mins if you preferred.

Ive just realised this post makes no sense at all

I meant that we do 2 hours on, 2 hours off with the driving and our stops are a few minutes a time, one is for petrol and the loo, the second stop for the loo

Google always tells us it takes around 8 hours to drive that distance to Scotland, we have never done it in less than 12 due to the traffic/road works etc etc

Im certainly not adding on another 1.5 hours for charging

@Caspianberg 10 minutes is fine. The 45 minutes is what another electric car driver was saying they need for their car.
It seems to be only the most expensive cars that do a long range and quick charge.

@CanOfPop - we have a vw id4. Has a decent range

We also have 2 drivers if going as a family - the driver is basically never the reason for a stop, it's always one of the kids needing toilet or food. I expect when they're older (currently 4 and 7) we'll let them eat on the way but at the moment the level of mess plus fidget levels put a hard limit of 3 hours before a decent stop - and tbh we're usually happier with a stop after 2 because it limits the bickering from the back seats!

If we've got to stop there's no reason not to charge the car - I'd prefer to visit stuff on the way with the kids rather than make the journey a period of misery to be endured before a holiday...

I love driving long distances. It is never something to endure.

Thanks for all replies. I need a 7 seater - which are few and far between. I have settled on either a Citroen e-berlingo or Vauxhall Combi e-life (which are basically the same car)

Advertised range is 170m, so nowhere near the range some of you have - but it's a bigger car and I don't have the budget for a premium brand car.

My current car is a diesel, which has gradually cost more and more each service (£1000s every year) and need several £1000s work to pass its MOT this year so no longer economical. I do not want another diesel and am thinking petrol replacement would be a false economy as it would likely begin to need lots of work too fairly quickly.

I've tried the Prius+ hybrid 7 seater and hated it.

I'm not sure there are any plug in hybrid 7seaters in my price bracket that give the space I need for children etc.

I will get a charging point at home, so would only need to charge away from home for the long holiday trip.

I do go up to London (taking kids to dads - not business) once or twice a month, which is 50miles so I hoped that would be achieved within a home charge.

Obv the long summer trip is not in the cold, though would possibly need air con.

Gosh - it's so hard. I'm not in a financial position to be able to buy something for now, and replace in a few years. Current car has been going over 11yrs, now worth next to nothing. I'm not so bothered about depreciation as long as the car meets my needs I want to keep it long term.

I do always have multiple stops on long journeys due to me crappy bladder and kids needing multiple snack/toilet breaks. Stopping for 30mins odd is not a problem for me.

It really depends on a few things, your day, weekly average miles, ( uk average, is under 10 miles per trip ) I commute 12 miles a day for work, with once or twice 42 miles to work, can you charge at home, can you get a EV tariff 10p per KWH, how often do you make return journeys over 200 miles, do you want to do your bit to cut petroleum usage.

I have one, also do 90/95% short journeys and it is fantastic for this, sooo cheap to run and I charge it overnight at home. The few times I’ve done longer journeys it has needed more planning/taken longer but for me as that’s rare I can live with the inconvenience. Also, on long journeys, the cost is so much lower than my old petrol car so I don’t mind!

I suspect you may have to be more careful when you drive. There was a number of comments about people travelling before Christmas and getting stuck in queues for charge points at the services. So maybe holidays and busy periods are times to be avoided.

I’ve had a Nissan leaf for 18 months and I’m really pleased with it!

The advertised range is 239 miles, but I’ve found it closer to 200, apart from during the spring/early autumn. I’ve got a charger at home, and I’m on an octopus EV tariff so I pay 7.5p/kWh, which this month so far means I’m paying ~ £2.75 per 100 miles.

I’ve done over 22,000 miles including regular trips from Essex - Hampshire, as well as to Scotland and to Devon. Ironically, Devon/Cornwall were the absolutely worst in terms of chargers and availability.

As electric cars have boomed in popularity, I’ve noticed this summer there were some queues at rapid chargers, but that was occasional. I can also charge at up to 100kWh, which means I can charge from 10% battery to 90% in about 45 minutes, if there is a fast enough charger.

However, the infrastructure is improving all the time, and more and more are coming in (thanks Gridserve!). Also, don’t be a cheapskate and always get heat pump heating, it’s uses a fraction of the electricity that conventional heaters use and means you won’t have to sit there with the heating off!

Oh, and the very best thing? It’s linked to my Alexa so in the morning I just have to ask her to warm up my leaf, and I come out to a toasty warm and fully de-iced car 😁

We have an electric car and the benefits are more than just the electric side of things, it practically drives itself!

yuck.

Oh yes, I have pro-pilot too which is really great, it makes driving so much easier and less stressful!

@BewareTheBeardedDragon however, I’ve read your further post, and I think you might be best off leaving it for another few years; I just don’t think there are the electric cars in your budget to do what you want.

My husband drives a city car with a small battery and usually charges at home each evening because his commute is more than half the battery capacity.

He has also done South East to North West, stopping twice to charge, it's about 30 minutes a time.

Park up at a charger, set it going. Go into services, have a wee, once round the shop, grab a coffee, come back, chat with another EV driver about how good the cars are, and you're at 80% (optimal for most cars) and off you go.

His longest journey, easily four hours in our internal combustion engined car, is maybe six hours in the EV.

On the other hand yesterday, I stopped for fuel and he stopped to charge, and we only got home 20 minutes apart.

It's really easy to live with and better for the planet. I say go for it.