How easy is it to recharge an electric car from south to north?

[ToughTimeLately]

I need to go back to my home town up north quite a few times over the next few months as I have a sick elderly parent. I live down south.

I have an electric car, but I’ve only ever used it locally. I always recharge it at home.

I need to drive up the M6, and I’ll need to recharge on the way. I’m really worried about this. We drove round a European country this summer in an electric, and it was a piece of cake, but I’ll be on my own this time.

Anyone schlep up and down the country in an electric car? I’m just worried about getting to refuel and the chargers being broken or a big queue which is not what I need on a dark night in the middle of nowhere.

Its really easy. every motorway service station and most mcdonalds have a charger.

If you’re driving up the m6 can you just recharge at the services? Then you don’t need to worry about being in the middle of nowhere.

Yes of course, sorry I’m being a massive snowflake. I’ll be going to services. I hate being in an electric long distance 😂

I’ve never done this before. I just plug in at home and it’s done.

We've done it a few times without too much trouble.

How far are your driving and what's the range of your car? Can you plan your charging stops ahead of time to make you feel more confident.

Are there superchargers?

I don’t want to be hanging around for 45 mins. Just want to get to my home town ASAP.

I do that journey to visit relatives in an electric car. It’s extremely easy to get charging points. There are a lot of Apps which will show you were every charging point is. Also our car shows us all local charging points when it’s on maps/navigation. Maybe your car has this?

My car actually says it can do the whole journey, but I don’t think it will. I will need to stop once. I agree that I’d like to stop and top it up to feel safer.

Download the Zapmap app and it will tell you where all the chargers are en route.

Of course there are! You’re coming across as quite niave. Do you think “the North” is some desolate area which is behind the times?

But if it’s a long journey you’ll need to stop anyway for rest breaks.

So you only need to stop once really then. That's easy. Pick a service station maybe 2/3 of the way along your journey and top up. Have a coffee or something to eat. It won't take long.

Do you have somewhere to charge for the journey home when you get where you're going?

And don't worry about sounding nervous. I'm always a bit anxious too when needing to charge on my journey and I've been driving electric for 10 years. It's the slight uncertainty of chargers being available, working and easy to use. There always seems to be one on a different network or something that throws me.

Motorway services have fast charging, 20 minutes charge while we pop in to the toilet works well for us. Someone in the family always need the loo well before the car is running low.

If you're wanting a longer break then it's worth planning stops ahead of time, we've usually found there's somewhere with fast charging and something for the kids to do just off the motorway somewhere along the journey. Might be a supermarket with a play park but makes a nice lunch stop.

Only time we've had an issue changing on the go was one Christmas eve, services and at two we stopped at a lot of the chargers weren't working. Had to add in an extra stop and a third services.

I live in the north. What is this electric of which you speak?

The only services I've found without chargers is Leicester Forest East. Everywhere else has been fine, plenty of fast chargers. I've never had to wait more than a few moments.

I had to do this journey 2-3 x per month recently in an EV. i got all hung up to begin with planning charge stops etc.

After a couple of trips i realised that as i set off with a full charge at 0.07p/kw it was only costing me £5 to do the first trip which similar to you i could just about do in one charge. Once i got my head around it i couldnt give a stuff how much the return journey charge cost as it was still as cheap as any diesel car for the 'round trip'.

After that realisation i just kept an eye on my charge indicator on the way down and when it got to about 30% i stopped for a 20 minute coffee & pee break and whacked it on fast charge at the nearest services. By the time i got back it had about 65-70% in (Its charging at its fastest rate below 80%) which was enough to get to the destination with about 30-40% spare. That then gave me a simple journey back where again i would let it get down to 20-30% and have a coffee/pee break and put enough in to get all the way back. Round trip probably cost me £50 and i spent about 40 mins at services which was mostly spent having a pee and buying a coffee.

😅

I am from the north so I know what it’s like.

It’s not a pop at the north, I’d be faving the same conversation if I was going to Wales or the south coast.

I’ve always been told that we don’t have the infrastructure set up to support EV in this country, and that there are often queues at services.

If that’s incorrect - great!

Download an app like octopus or zapmap and plan your journey around fast chargers.

Easy enough but stupidly expensive. There's a charger near me that's not even on a motorway that costs 65 p a unit, so 3 times the cost of charging at home, but likely more than that as that's without the special cheaper tariff. I dont know if other chargers are cheaper. Will you be able to charge it at your parents house?

We've had an electric car for 3.5 years.
The infrastructure has improved massively in the past couple of years.

Only time we've had to queue was at East Mids airport and they've got 12 chargers now.

Where are you going to and from? M1? M6?

I have driven on my own (with the kids) in our electric car from N Ireland to London. Was absolutely fine. Stopped twice to charge in services with no problems at all and we all needed the break anyway as it is a long drive. As long as it’s not bank holiday weekend when the chargers are pretty full you’ll be fine. As a previous poster said the infrastructure has improved so much and almost all services have plenty of chargers.
Once a couple of years ago we were making this journey at the end of summer so the roads were really busy and there were queues for chargers. So we turned off the motorway and drove about 8 mins where we found a huge supermarket and three empty chargers. good luck, you’ll be fine

I have done it from Scotland to various places in England a few times. Even Cornwall but that was over 2 days.

Use Zapmap and you will be fine. Even over bank holidays in the summer I only had to wait 30 mins to get on a fast charger.

I do this journey quite a lot and it’s improved massively over the 2.5 years since I got the car. There’s a couple of super fast chargers I use just off the motorway…one at Lancaster J34 (Caton Road) next to McDonald’s, and one by J27 at Standish with a Pret. Less likely to have to queue, and cheaper…plus faster.

I would stop at Rugby Services J1 M6. Plesnty of fast chargers and it’s nice inside for a quick break. Middle of the country so good for South to North journey.

I have been commuting weekly up the M6 and back. There are loads of multi-charger stations with coffee shops or they are available at standard service stations. Stop for the loo and a coffee/ 20 min top up. Most I’ve ever had to wait for a charger is 10 mins. Though if your car says it will make the distance, it will likely make the distance!