I used an electric car to drive to my brother’s wedding — and I barely made it
I used an electric car to drive to my brother's wedding — and I barely made information technology
Earlier this year, afterwards several years of living without a car, I took the plunge and bought an electric auto. A 40kWh Nissan Foliage to exist precise, which has an advertised range of 168 miles. It was designed to be a pretty standard "getting around" motorcar, so I didn't have to walk or get public ship everywhere.
During the COVID pandemic, that translated to going to and from the supermarket, or picking upward supplies I couldn't otherwise get delivered. Merely I recently had to make a 250-mile round trip in 1 day so I could attend my brother'southward wedding. I was pretty confident I'd be able to make information technology without much hassle, but things didn't exactly go according to plan.
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Getting to the church on time
At 100% charge, my car displayed an estimated range of 152 miles. Considering the church was simply 125 miles or so abroad, I figured I should be able to make it there quite comfortably. Yet, I figured it was a sensible idea to end somewhere along the way to tiptop upwards my battery.
That way I'd be able to get to the church and have enough power leftover to comfortably go myself to another rapid charger and practice a proper recharge on the way home. Later on all, I was travelling into the Welsh countryside, where the EV charging infrastructure isn't the best.
I picked a service station 74 miles into the journey, and figured half an hr would be more than enough time to give my battery the necessary pick me up. What I didn't count on was the fact the Leaf's range estimate doesn't account for the fact I'd be driving at 70 miles per hour, the speed limit on British motorways.
Needless to say that car sucked upwardly power like the worst gas-guzzler. And it started pretty much straight away. Within about fifteen-10 minutes of driving along the motorway I realised I probably wasn't going to get annihilation close to 150 miles out of the car.
Information technology'southward a skillful thing I'd already planned out my recharge intermission in advance, considering that battery hit the 20% mark a couple of minutes before I reached the station. My machine claimed that would but accept taken me an actress 33 miles, though I imagine information technology would accept been less considering how my power reserves had been depleting.
The half 60 minutes break I'd allocated turned into a full 45-infinitesimal recharge session on the single rapid charger that service station had. Thankfully I'd left home early, so an actress fifteen minutes wasn't going to make much difference. With my Leaf at present showing 90% accuse, I hit the road for the remaining 50 miles of my journey.
Which was pretty uneventful. Aside from some defoliation over where the darn church building was —and half an hour of driving effectually in a very large circumvolve — I managed to get there with a proficient 45 miles left on the meter. It wasn't enough power to get me dorsum to that same service station, but information technology was more enough to travel 5 miles to the nearest compatible charger.
So I got to sit back, relax, and watch my blood brother go married. Well, relax every bit all-time as you can sitting in a hard wooden pew.
EV charging is still losing to the former-fashioned gas tank
While the physical number of chargers is quite impressive, prospective EV drivers volition face up issues depending on where they actually alive. For case, my local expanse has virtually a dozen compatible EV chargers within a v minute bulldoze of my firm. But the Welsh countryside, where I was heading, had very few.
To complicate matters, there are dozens of different charging networks running across the United kingdom — more than70 by my crude count. Those networks take their own charging stations, which in turn generally need to be used by a smartphone app. Naturally each network has its own app, and yous won't be able to use their chargers until you register and hand over your credit carte du jour details.
During my trip I experienced bug with the 2 different apps I needed to employ to recharge. Not only were they both quite slow to load, only, ane of them completely crashed on me. It kept telling me to follow the instructions on the charging station and wouldn't become dorsum to the home screen until I restarted my phone.
It's one of those occasions where gas stations notwithstanding have the advantage. They've been around for so long that the systems they have in identify (usually) run quite smoothly. Plus they have EVs well and truly beaten when it comes to fourth dimension. That's because Lithium batteries can only charge so chop-chop without overheating, and excess rut is admittedly detrimental to the long term health of the battery.
Even if there's a wait to go to a free pump, filling your tank up with gas takes no more than five minutes. It can take up to an hour to top off my Leaf with a compatible 50kW rapid charger.
Nissan claims that you'll go from twenty to eighty percentage in an hour, though in my experience it seems to be a little scrap faster. Regardless you won't be able to striking 100% if you're out on the road, even on a rapid charger. Getting those final few percent points is a very irksome procedure, and the time y'all'd need to invest just isn't worth it.
Plus, even if my Foliage had been able to handle charging speeds above 50kW, I may non take been able to find a charger that would permit me.
Take a look at the map above, showing 100kW CHAdeMO charging locations in Wales and South England, and yous'll encounter what I hateful. Not every charger is there, and it doesn't include chargers that utilize a unlike connector, simply it's a good representation of how different the infrastructure is compared to 50kW charging points - which y'all tin can see below:
Getting back habitation
The concept of 'range anxiety' has always been associated with plug-in electric vehicles, and in contempo years there's been some debate on whether it's actually real or not. In my experience it absolutely is.
My return journey didn't take the best start, since I was stuck for about 15 minutes waiting for my turn with the rapid charger. Information technology could have been a lot worse, since I was able to apply a 7kW 'fast' charger while I waited for that Tesla'southward possessor to render.
I probably could have fabricated it the xx miles to the next rapid charger, only I didn't want to hazard it. While that menses didn't last very long, information technology'south one of those feelings EV owners must have to bargain with on a regular footing.
I filled the Foliage up to 80% of my total charge, and while that wasn't plenty to get me all the fashion home, it was plenty to get me back to the original rapid charger I stopped at on my style to Wales.
Route closures also meant Google Maps sent me down a lot of very windy narrow rural roads which aren't suited to high speed driving — no matter what the speed limit, and the impatient drivers backside me, might think.
While that didn't become downwards then well from a time perspective, information technology worked out pretty nicely for my bombardment. I ended up back at my original service station with 50% of my battery left, which the car thought would get me another 80 miles. It was only 74 miles dwelling house, but my new experience told me that it was be very stupid to risk it. Not when I would be back to driving at 70 mph.
I didn't do a total charge this time, because it was almost 7pm and I wanted to become domicile. So I figured I'd meet what would happen after 25 minutes of recharging. Later all, in that location were other chargers forth my road dwelling, and I could terminate if I actually needed to.
I got home with 12% charge remaining. It definitely felt as though my ability efficiency was amend this way round, which I pin on two different facts. The first was that my average speed dropped to betwixt 60 and 65mph as the traffic built up. I as well wasn't lazy, and decided I'd run across how far I got without the Leaf'southward smart prowl control switched on. Perhaps information technology helped, maybe it didn't, but all I know is that I was the one in complete control over my auto's speed — not some reckoner that didn't know how to coast.
Still the closer I got to abode, and the lower range estimate dipped, the more worried I got..
The master source of my anxiety came from passing the signs telling me how far I was from the diverse service stations. It felt similar the scene in a terrible movie where the protagonists ignore a "last gas for 300 miles" sign and finish up getting stranded in the desert.
I really didn't want to have to stop and recharge for a fourth time, even if it wasn't a huge break. But I likewise didn't want to get stranded by the side of the road considering of my own stubbornness. Thankfully information technology worked out, but there were a few times when the mileage was ticking downward a little as well quickly for comfort.
Bottom Line
It wasn't a terrible trip, past whatever ways, only it did prove to me that electric vehicles practice have limitations when it comes to driving long distances. Or at to the lowest degree, driving those long distances at loftier speeds. I completely underestimated how much my range would reject while driving on the motorway. Every bit far as trialling long altitude driving goes, my Leaf did non practice then well. And so information technology's a practiced affair I don't programme on doing it very often.
I got in touch with Nissan to ask them about my trip, and evidently what I experienced tracks with how the 40kWh Nissan Leaf is supposed to bear. The company pointed out that how far you can become on a unmarried charge will depend on driving weather and your own driving behavior. Much as it would with a full tank of gas.
At that place is a range calculator that can requite you an idea on how far y'all volition go based on how your boilerplate speed, what mode the car is in, whether you've got climate control switched on, and so on. According to that, my car would only make information technology 108 miles travelling at 65mph. It's non ideal, only it does seem fairly accurate compared to my ain trip.
I withal honey the Nissan Leaf, and fifty-fifty knowing what I now know about its range, I nonetheless probably wouldn't have picked up a model with the larger 62kWh battery. Frankly I don't need to go long distances very often, and I didn't see much point in paying an extra several yard pounds for the privilege.
It was an gamble either way, and I learned a few more things about the car in the process. Side by side time I'yard off to drive a long manner I'll be a footling scrap better prepared. At to the lowest degree I won't have to travel into the middle of nowhere to see my brother get married once more. Well I certainly promise not, for his sake.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/i-used-an-electric-car-to-drive-to-my-brothers-wedding-and-barely-made-it
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