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

Definitely we don't have a Tesla .
it worked out we literally had to recharge every 2 hours of driving .
So we just had to take whatever charger was free ,we planned our stops at the services that had the most chargers , without letting our range get below 40.
But then when chargers are closed or not working and the zap map doesn't tell you in advance,it's very stressful driving to a different charger not know if the car will make it

OP Zap Map isn’t always up to date on all the chargers. If you download the gazillions of apps for the different charging companies they tell you more.

The government should have been on this earlier. It’s been such a mess. It’s getting much better now. Unless you are on a DC slow charger it will be fine I reckon. Most places we go now there is loads of choice. Don’t know that area though. Sorry.

Again, you’re going off the stated mileage. You’re giving zero practical details as to the size of the battery, the car itself, driving style etc. completely useless. So I’m going to bow out as it is clear you don’t want any actual help for future long trips.

Zap map will often have info if it’s down but its users who report. Look at the feedback bit.

Also zap map will tell who the provider is and their own map on the app will tell you where other chargers are and if they are working or busy.

I haven't meant to be negative towards EV vehicles
I'm just telling it , exactly how it was for us
I'm really glad other people have more positive stories to tell
Our mistake was thinking we could afford an EV vehicle
Because we clearly obviously needed one with more range ,but didn't have the extra money for that .
So that was entirely our mistake, thinking we could afford an EV
Had we of bought one with a long range for an extra £4000 ,we would not of had a fraction of these problems.
But you live and learn

We had an older EV with a short range (130 miles) and a charge every couple of hours was the norm but newer models are much better. If you have an older car with a DC hook up that only takes 22Kwph then it’s a lot harder but sounds like you have more options. I’m sure it will be fine. We took our old EV to France and it was fine.

I don't use zap map so no advice there. I use plugshare, it seems to get a lot of input from users which is useful. We use electroverse through Octopus for when there is not Tesla charger available and users can input if one is not working. I went to one in Sicily which was not working and the app updated straight away when I put that in.
Of course, it relies on people doing this and I'm sure it had been broken for some time - it looked like it had been vandalised.
I agree, it's very frustrating if you go to one and can't use it.

I've given to much personal information already,so that's why I've not said what the car is and I don't know the size of the battery

Never say never. Our old EV was similar but newest one is soooooo easy. By the time you trade in you’ll have a much much longer range. And it’s so cheap!

I don't think you've been negative about evs at all. You've highlighted an issue which made your trip difficult.
Manufacturers aren't very clear about the 'real' range of these cars. Our is supposed to do 350 but we rarely get above 300. I can understand your frustration if you bought one thinking it would do 170 and you lose a bit chunk of that.

The car is only 3 years old ,and a decent size to fit 4 adults 2 dogs and a roof box..and it handled amazingly on the Cornish hills ,it's really lovely to drive as well .we just needed further range ..

I've not read all replies, but all yours.

We went to Devon in a 214 range car. About a 400 mile journey from home. We planned it like this...

Stop over half way, overnight with free charger at hotel
Stayed at accommodation in Devon with free charging
Did top up at service stations and supermarket networks, which are generally better serviced.

I love driving an electric car, but like you have found it works seamlessly for journeys around the home charger. There needs to be some serious improvements to the charging network to convince me to go on long distance holiday in one again. Just because you have no control over who will be parked in the bay or if it's working- so it's a stress - and that's not what a holiday should be about.

I suspect we will try a train next time.

That's a brilliant idea to stop over night
Two yappy dogs make that difficult for us
My husband also said train next time ,he has said he's never taking it on a long journey again 😭

We have an vw id4 pro. 77kw battery.
It has a range of up to 550kw. Which is about 5hrs driving.

It’s really good. Even where we live in frozen snow for half the winter the range is excellent.

Dh will drive to airport 170km later, drop friends, turn around and drive back. He won’t need to stop to charge anywhere. Just charge when home again

Yes no doubt about it, a good affordable high range electric car is going to be the game changer. That and improved charging infrastructure.

@ThatHazelGuide Those cars will be imported Chinese ones.

All this talk about hotel stays! How much do they cost to get “free” charging? It’s ludicrous. Just have way more charging points and make sure non EVs are not in them. Musks have their own chargers I think. It’s not easy to take a EV on a long journey and too much planning and anxiety isn’t fun.

It’s grossly unfair to keep quoting battery size, make of car and driving style at the OP as well. Most of us just drive. I’ve no idea what my battery size is. I just need a charger available when I need it. On my route and no hotel stays! That assumes you have all the time in the world. I just want to charge when I stop for a coffee.

This is a very interesting thread OP as we are planning on getting an electric car. I would love to know what kind of car you have but I respect that you don't want to say.

Would you at least be able to tell me, this 170 mile range you mention - is that the "official" advertised range for the car, or is it the real approximate range you are experiencing day to day?

Because many EVs that advertise an official range of around 250 miles, are often only achieving around 170 miles in the wost case conditions (motorway, cold weather, heating, stereo etc). I was thinking of getting one of these, but might now go for a bigger battery if it's the same as your car!

Thanks.

Range cold is different from hot, and how you drive and how loaded up the car is.

The problem is the vast majority of car journeys undertaken in the UK are under 20 miles. So in adding extra long range you are paying significant amounts of money for a facility you might not use much.

For example if you lay out £5K on a battery but only need the extra battery for 2 weeks holiday a year, you would probably be far better off in simple cost terms just hiring a car for the 2 weeks each year you need it than splashing out £5K on a massive extra battery to give range you hardly ever use. It would probably take you 10 years + to recover that extra battery cost.

Also bear in mind, that if you have a 175 mile range car, and do not let it go below 40 miles without charging, then you effectively have a 135 mile range car. Which is part of the issue in this thread.

We have a Tesla that has an advertised top range of 330 miles.
We have never pushed it to that and usually only charge to a max of 80/90% but I reckon we can get 275 plus

This is interesting
And I'd not considered this untill you just typed it .
But your quite right
On a day to day basis car is saving us £80 a month in petrol,as I was paying £25 a week ,doing the same journeys weekly,I now do in the electric car
And yes one long journey a year ,that I think we needed a longer range for ,would of cost £4000; more for the same car ,that we would of only used once .
You have given me plenty to think about thankyou

I pm ed you

Honestly, is an electric car worth the extra planning and trouble? I truly can't see them as a substitute for a family car at the moment. You say you save £17 a week (£8 electricity against £25 petrol) and I suppose that's the attraction, but if you have to hire a car at £300 a week even for three weeks a year so that you don't need to take the annoying car on holiday then you've completely used up all the money you've saved.
Also, the last time I had a hire car when mine was being repaired I had to sign a form to say I wouldn't carry a dog in it.
Still can't see them as anything but shopping and school run cars.

Depends whether you get BIK as a company car driver. You pay reduced tax and the saving can be substantial.
Car tax can be much reduced compared to ICE which can be very large on registration.
Maintenance costs are generally lower than ICE.
Whether or not you can go for zero rate charging tarfifs.

It's not a simple calculation to do.

We have taken ours all over the country so i am not sure why someone would need to hire an alternative for 3 weeks.
I bought it as a company purchase so it reduced my VAT bill by quite a lot that qtr and it costs me very little to run.
No extra planning or trouble and its great to drive.
I do appreciate that they are not for everyone, I leased for 6 months first to try it and never looked back

@Springsnowdrops as a reference point for your future travels in your EV, I have just driven back from Cornwall. The EV I used has a 50kWh useable battery with manufacturers range of 200 miles (I’ve actually looked it up). I left Truro with 100%, stopped once at Exeter with 50% remaining, charged to 100%, and drove all the way to London, with 15% charge remaining. I averaged 3.8 miles per kWh with sat nav, music, and AC on. And the car was packed to the rafters!

I suspect you’d have a similar experience if you planned your stops correctly. I believe for your journey, you could do it in 2-stops, if you really wanted to.