Anyone taken an electric car down to Penzance for a week

[Springsnowdrops]

Booked in over Easter
No chargers at property
Can only see 4 rapid chargers in whole area on zap map
The rest are 6 hour chargers ,but in supermarket car parks ,where if it's anything like home ,you can only stay for 2 hours ..
Starting to think this is going to be a disaster
Anyone successfully done a week in Penzance in an electric car

not sure of your range but if you need to charge in the Bristol area there’s lots of charging infrastructure near the marina in Portishead, plenty of scope to while away time without costing money as you can go for a walk, also there’s Lidl or Waitrose.

We always use the chargers at Cornwall College, Camborne (they’re tucked away at the back of some buildings) - it’s not too far in to Penzance from there.
alternatively, on the Devon/Cornwall border the Arundell Arms Hotel has rapid chargers too and a nice coffee shop too!

That is very difficult then

Someone elses car perhaps?

I’ve gone from £200 petrol to £25 electric a month. Can’t fault my decision at all.

though I am due to due a long journey in summer and do worry about chargers on the go, hopefully only worrying cause haven’t had to charge outside the home EVER!!!!

please do come back and let us know how you get on x

With no charger I have done the plug through the window thing at holiday cottages many times. Ideally ask first.

@Notstrongandstable
Also driven quite happily with ours all over France, Holland, England and Wales. It’s easy.

you don’t know what you’re talking about, unless you think stopping for 15 minutes every 300 miles is a big hardship.

Honestly, we weren’t sure how our first long trip would go, but having done it once we soon got the hang of it! Zapmap is good, and remember you always know exactly what miles you’ve got left. You can see how many miles to your next stop, and what you’ll have left when you get there. Don’t let it get too low just in case, but it’s actually really good !!

Their(Gloucester services) new chargers are up and running and there are plenty of them 👍

Brilliant !! Thank you

Getting used to an EV is just a bit different. Like having a toddler needing snacks - just top up wherever you are, whenever you see a charger, for as long as you’re in that area doing an activity.

Not a ‘fill up from empty’ - lots of little ‘top ups’ wherever you are.

We charged in Bristol

Gloucester to Penzance is fine but it’s the Cornwall bit that’s an issue. No chargers take 15 mins unless they are rapid and loads are not. There’s lots of breezy talk about how easy it is, but often cars in winter don’t do 300 miles and it can be very awkward if there’s nowhere where you are staying. All the planning is a faff but it had to be done. If you are going to Cornwall from Oxford, I don’t go near Gloucester! A34, M4, M5 to Exeter then into Cornwall.

We have done Northumbria, we managed to find a hotel within walking distance of where we were staying with a slow charger and just left it there over night
We did little and often rather than the almost to full charging we normally do

There are far more chargers than petrol stations in the country and it takes 20 mins to charge. It’s extremely easy owning an electric car

Plymouth is not on the way. Cornwall services on the a30 is around 75 mins or so from Exeter though.

Oh yeah, or Strawberry fields at lifton. No idea if they're fast charging but they definitely have them and it's a nice place to visit :)

We have been as far down south as Hampshire and north to Northumbria in our electric car, never had an issue charging.
We queued once in 2 years and that was for 10 minutes
We mostly charge at home but last month alone I saved £170 vs diesel, plus I like my car

Haven't read thread but just to say we regularly have weekends in Cornwall and it's a non issue with our Zoe. Loads of chargers in Cornwall, including at a number of the main attractions and town carparks so if you're going somewhere for the day just plug in. On the way down dartfarm and Cornwall services. Honestly Cornwall is one of the easiest places to drive electric.

I live in Cornwall and have an electric car with my partner, no charging at my house. Charge at work and Aldi. We regularly drive to London without any problems too.

We used the Bodmin/Cornwall services. We also found a country pub that had chargers tucked around the back. Will need to ask husband where that was.

About 4 years ago we drove from South Yorkshire to,Cornwall, spending a fortnight down there in various places.
We did have one hotel chargers but the rest we did at supermarkets, car parks etc. using the fast chargers. As the were fast chargers the time limits didn’t matter. They are dearer to use than slow chargers, but still cheaper than patrol ime.

We used Zap Map to plan where to park and charge, and just fir it into our plans as an when required.

I assume you have no real knowledge of owning an EV.
I’ve had EVs for the past 7 or 8 years; dh has had EVs for the past 5 years.
Have absolutely no issues with them and have driven all over the country in them, as well as taking them into Europe.
We have always stopped after driving for long distances anyway - 20 minutes fast chargers whilst we stretch our legs, get a drink and nip to the toilets. Safer all round anyway - it’s advised that you should have a break every couple of hours when driving long distances,

Most parts of the country now have ample charging options in our experience.

@oddandelsewhere
same as @Longma

as long as you have offstreet parking for charging it’s a game changer and saves us loads of money- long term it’s cheaper than an ICE car. We only use public chargers a handful of times a year as the vast majority of charging is right outside the house while we sleep. I must have saved hundreds of hours not queueing at petrol stations.

I do acknowledge though that if you can’t charge at home or at work it’s (slightly) less convenient and probably not such a cost saving measure. But chargers are everywhere now it’s far less of an issue than it was.

Penzance? No. However, I have taken my EV to Cornwall a few times and used a wall socket to charge overnight - is that an option?

Unfortunately, most of the EV chargers seem to be from Truro upwards. The further south you go, the less infrastructure there is.

@LondonPapa I agree that lack of chargers in some areas in Cornwall is a challenge. Our large village has two but only in one car park. The new car park has none. Wrong phase of electricity. I think people renting places with no charging facility will begin to find it very difficult in peak times.