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

To update
The journey down was no issue
We charged 3 times at services,just drove straight in to charge,no waiting around .
However trying to charge in Penzance is proving difficult
Sainsbury's only have two slow chargers you need your cable for
The harbour car park has one fast charger that is constantly busy
So we've been driving to Hayle where there are 5 fast chargers next to a petrol station and Starbucks,but that's a 20 minute drive each time we need to charge and 20 minutes back ,and the chargers are not as fast as the rapid ones on the way down .so a good 45 minutes charging , compared to 30 minutes each stop driving down
We've been going either early morning or late at night to charge so not to disrupt plans in the day ...need to buy a book to keep In the car

So it's doable,but there's definitely less fast chargers down here than on the way .

Good on you for trying but theres no way Id be putting up with that shit, it sounds like an endurance test rather than a relaxing holiday.

You must be driving a long way each day to need to charge each day? Is there no way you could charge at or near wherever you’re visiting that day? A slow charger is no issue if you’re charging while you’re at a place of interest / having a meal etc - it seems odd that you’re going out, spending the day then coming back specifically to a ‘fast’ charger as a special trip?

I wouldnt want to stop three times for 30 mins a time on the journey either. A full tank all the way and 10 mins for toilet stops.

Thats another 1.5 hours on top of what is usually a nightmare journey down to Cornwall

Tbf, OP does seem to drive a car with an unusually short range. Most PPs seem to suggest nax of 2 charging stops for their EVs to travel that distance

The slow chargers are on land like car parks where you would have to leave the car all day to get a decent charge ,or on shop car parks where they are also slow chargers but your limited to 2 hours parking and slow chargers

Yep
The husband says never again in an EV

175 range ,,the next range up was an extra £4000 just for more range

Yes ,I have to be honest it has added an extra Level of anxiety to the holiday

Well it can only get better, imagine in 5 years time it will probably be completely different

Let's hope so.

According to the Competition and Markets Authority the UK will need between 280,000 and 480,000 public charge points by then (2030).

Currently we have 75,000.

Journey down - we regularly travel down from Hull to Falmouth (just under 400 miles) and generally we only need to stop and charge twice. All the big services have fast chargers, including Cornwall Services. I'd be amazed if you needed four stops.

While in Penzance - if you're self-catering will you be doing a supermarket shop? There is a big (hideously ugly) complex of loads of supermarkets just outside the town where I'm sure there will be chargers. Just plug in as you do the shopping.

Enjoy your holiday, Penzance is lovely! (Apart from the hideous supermarket complex 😄)

It is increasing significantly, and at pace but I don’t believe the infrastructure will be fully in place by 2030 as per CMA requirements. And the CMA is likely underestimating!

Journey back wasn't great.
Cornwall services electric chargers were all down ,
no explanation,no one there trying to fix it
..we didn't have huge amount of range to get elsewhere
,3 other cars there had less range than us ,..that was quite stressful,being new to this .
So drove to Bodmin to an outdoor of town shopping centre with chargers
,that also had cars parked that were not EV , people just using the spaces to go shopping ..
Anyway,45 minutes charging and we were on our way
Then a second charge of an hour at Exeter services,
Then planned the third charge ,and we rolled in to that charging place on 0 miles left .the car went from 9 miles to 0 ,so the last 5 minutes was very stressful..
The services on the way home on the motorway only had 2 or 3 charging points that were all in use so we ended up at a garden centre way of our route home

So we worked out the cost was the same as petrol,but the journey took an extra 2 hours 45 minutes longer with charging and extra driving to find chargers that took us away from our route .
Interestingly ...I like to people watch a bit
And I didn't see any families charging their cars ,seemed to be single people,couples and retired people..
having young children with us today ,would definitely of added an extra layer of stress to the situation

That does sound stressful op. I'm glad you made it back ok (by the skin of your teeth!). You live and you learn!

I hope you had a great holiday and your lasting memories are of beautiful Cornwall, not of car-dramas.

Thank you for the update. The problem with charging points is that so many seem to be broken or any old car can take the space.
Petrol stations are rarely closed and they certainly don't allow random cars to park at the pumps.

Actually it was very frustrating trying to find chargers and seeing none EV vehicles parked in their spaces ,one bloke strolled back to his car next to us ,not a care in the world,nor bothered he had taken a space not meant for him .
And it didn't occur to me that the whole of Cornwall services could be down .we have an app that tells us when chargers are free and working,but it wasn't updating quickly enough and frequently wasn't accurate.
And basically there's nothing you can do if someone is parked in an EV space not actually needing it ...that never occurred to me that people would do that ,,like why ,when you know the space is not meant for you .
It cost us £1000 to have the charger fitted at home ,And for around town it's definitely saving us pounds ..but never will I take an EV on a long journey again.
Which means either having two family cars ( who can afford that ) or we sell the car we have and maybe buy one that's combination of electricity and petrol..but that's another £4000.
Sort of feeling we have made an expensive mistake really

@Springsnowdrops I drove down to Cornwall yesterday. I had zero issues with charging. Plenty of spaces, including a minor top-up charge at Cornwall Services Victoria.

I would suggest your issue is more planning related than anything. Especially as there is a massive InstaVolt charging location in Bodmin at Homebase / Halfords, avoiding the shopping centre experience.

You do know Bodmin is about an hour away from Penzance? Not exactly suitable for a daily charge...

Did you read the post about how they drove to an out of town shopping centre to charge, on the way back?

Yes travelled to Cornwall for work and holidays. Stopped at Exeter moto services on the way and on return. But also topped up at Fraddon which might be out of action now but Summercourt might be an alternative

The drive down was fine ,no issues
The drive back ,there are a lot less chargers ..a lot less

Our car hasn't got a huge range ,so we need three stops each way .
As I said earlier,a longer range was an extra £4000 we didn't have

But, there are loads of chargers and options as you head back up. Once you’re beyond Truro, it gets a lot better. And then from Devon, lots all the way up.

What car do you have?

we’ve done it in a Volkswagen ID, from Wiltshire/Ox border - we fast charge right to the brim on the way down with the fast ones at Darts Farm then we can get away with mini charges of 30/40 mins to add a few miles, then a full charge again on way back.