My annual circumnavigation of mainland Britain and Northern Ireland presented the perfect opportunity to try to prove that it was not only possible, but, ideally, a breeze to complete a four-week road trip in an electric van. Volkswagen thought so too, lending me an all-electric ID Buzz…
It was raining when I followed Electroverse’s guidance to a Shell Recharge station in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The charger was a massive 300kW monster that made me wonder if I actually had time for a cup of coffee and a bun from the petrol station’s food counter. I did, as it happens. I had time, in theory, for a two-bottle lunch, a chapter of Ulysses and a long kip, because a 300kW charger does not necessarily charge at 300kW…
And then another mystery arose. Because of the temperature, or some long-forgotten curse or because the moon was in Leo, the range at the recommended 80 per cent charge was now 233 miles, or 187 with the safety margin, meaning I would have to recharge twice in one day to cover the 274 miles and 18 beaches I was planning on inspecting between Woodbridge and Margate…
Unless you’re a student of urban decline or a fan of post-apocalyptic horror, you’ll find three hours is too long to be in Eastbourne. I sat in a café one street back from the ruins of the seafront, watching as zombies lurched past. It gave me time to think…
So I admitted defeat, called VW and asked if it had anything that ran on diesel. It brought me a California camper van. It took five minutes to fill, had a range of 550 miles, an electric pop-up roof and a fridge that looked great when I loaded it with beer.
It’s generally painful to hear these stories - not because of the difficulties - but because they’re true.
Underwhelmed.
The mismatch between actual experience and expectations is the issue. If only we could be certain of the outcome on a trip - or at a charge - we could plan better and be more prepared with the itinerary.
We hope recharging choices are improving. More being installed all the time. Better this year than last year. And we hope adequate for most needs by 2030.
I just returned from a trip to Colorado. Spent 3 nights in Grand Lake and 4 nights in Estes Park. As I posted in another thread, I made an effort to look for charging stations. I know there are apps that will tell you where they are, but I wanted to find them without a guide.
My first stop for fuel was Hays Kansas. I didn’t see any. Next fuel stop was Colby. I didn’t see any there either. Limon Colorado, didn’t see any. Winter Park Colorado, didn’t see any. Grand Lake had 3 or 4 charging stations. And somewhat noteworthy, they only had 2 fuel pumps.
We offloaded the motorcycle at Grand Lake and rode over to Steamboat Springs. We drove US 40. We didn’t see any at Steamboat Springs, but I would be really surprised if they didn’t have several. We returned to Grand Lake on Colorado highway 14 up to Walden. There’s barely any services there, let alone a charging station. We also rode back down to Winter Park and Granby. Still didn’t see any. On our trip to Estes Park we went the long route, back to Walden then over to Fort Collins. Traffic was heavy for this country boy, so I didn’t have any time to look for charging stations in Fort Collins.
Estes Park has several charging stations at the visitor’s center. We have seen them there for several years now.
My point to all of this is this. I don’t worry about finding a fueling station for my ice vehicles. They are everywhere. I want charging stations to be as plentiful before I seriously consider an electric vehicle.
There are multiple charging stations in all of the towns you listed, even in Walden!
The challenge is that in a lot of places, charging stations aren’t located at gas stations, or even obvious locations. You have to search them out at hotels, government buildings, other rando businesses, and of course Walmart. Some are not open to the public, you have to stay at a campground or RV park to use them. People who need them, know how to find them. Many require an app to be able to use them.
I agree with your overall sentiment regarding buying an EV as my sole vehicle. Might be good for a commuter, but when I’m camping up in the boonies, I want the peace of mind knowing that I won’t run out of juice.
My family now has two plug-in-hybrid vehicles, a Honda Clarity and a Toyota RAV 4. Their electric ranges are generally sufficient for daily commuting/local weekend events/local errands, and their gas costs while traveling tend to be competitive with or even possibly cheaper than what I’d have to pay at a non-free public charger for the same amount of range.
When I first started looking for electrified cars, it was apparent to me that for the type of driving we do, I’d need either an affordable car with a 500+ mile all-electric range or we’d need a far better charging infrastructure for all-electric to make sense for my family. I continue to hold out hope that such a future will come, but as of now, we’ve got two plug-in hybrids that give most of the benefits of electrified driving without the range anxiety headaches.
He wanted to charge to 233 miles (80%) but only use 187 miles to keep a safety margin of 25%. Seriously? I can understand if it was the middle of winter…but he was going to visit beaches. It is pretty simple to use an app to see the spacing between chargers so if you are going to come up short you can stop and do a short charge…or charge up a bit more than 80% to give a little more margin if the distance between chargers is too big.
And he never says was he actually getting about the rated miles/kwh based on the weather and his driving style…the car has a range of about 290 miles and he chose to use only 187 miles. If he already decided this was his limit why did he even start the trip? Can he not read a map or use a phone app with a map and charger locations?
We’re living in a world where people enjoy being victims to the point they would rather ruin their own vacation than exercise the tiniest bit of common sense.
You can charge the vehicle to 100% no problem. That puts him within his self-imposed (but reasonably prudent) safety margin. Of course then the story goes away.
That said, an EV might not be the best choice for a long road trip through remot-ish areas in the first place. Again, a bit of common sense and the story goes away.
Yeah, I probably fall into the laggard’s category.
I was thinking about the difference between gas stations and charging stations. Gas stations are easy to find because almost all of them have large signs by the road with fuel prices posted. Maybe that’s what charging station owners should do. Have on their sign the kwh cost. Maybe also post how many stations are currently available.
Gas stations were invented before SmartPhones and Google maps. EVs can find charging stations without looking for giant billboards.
I finally gave in and bought a SmartPhone when I arrived in Madrid Airport in 2019. One can hold out only so long. Germans have a good name for them, “Handy!” Portuguese not so much, “TeleMobil.”
Nah. I think his “story” was predictable. He got to “criticize” EVs, cause he set the trip up to fail. And, he gets eyeballs for stupid. IMO of course.
I’m with @gcr2016 n @syke6 … I’ll get an EV when the charger infrastructure is more available in those places where I go.
Even though I KNOW that 95% (99%?) of my driving is easily covered by home charging.
I do not know of any charging stations in the small towns around me.
I live less than 50 miles from giga Texas. As if that makes any difference.
ralph reserves the right to change his mind and impulse buy a Tesla at any moment.
Exactly. This guy regularly takes a month long trip to to explore the coasts. Apparently some of these areas are remote. A certain amount of planning is required for a trip like that, So it would seem reasonable to spend less than a minute and ask ChatGPT to propose an itinerary based on his charging and range requirements. If it can’t come up with a reasonable itinerary, then you skip the EV.
The fact even that level of effort was too much for him (not to mention his self-imposed 80% rule) one can only conclude he was determined to fail. And comes across looking like an imbecile.
Why, when clearly fewer are needed. See any point in having charging stations of different brands on each corner of a cross roads? What about all the people charging at home or work? Do you see anything funny about insisting on finding it visually when driving an EV?
This is nonsense. Every EV made comes with an automatic “app” that will tell you how many chargers there are and where they are located, how many individual chargers at the location and even if they are busy or not. You don’t need “an app”, it’s right there on the dashboard.
But more to the point, there will never be “as many” as gas stations because they won’t be needed. Probably 90% of charging will be done in people’s garages, whereas 100% of gas fillups need to be done somewhere on a public street You see the difference?
Here. Here’s the difference: Hayes Kansas where “you didn’t see any”
I count a dozen charging locations, (a few beyond the borders of this map) which means at least 50 individual charging stations.
There are only a couple in Colby, Kansas, but that’s hardly a surprise. They are probably little used, but there in case someone needs one who is randomly driving through Colby. Anyone in Colby with an EV has a charger in the garage (or at least an outlet which will work at 110v).
Generally speaking you won’t “see” them. They don’t need to be big and gaudy with signs flashing, they take up 1/4 the space of a gas station, and (as I noted) your car will lead you there. They also don’t need pricey real estate and may be 1/2 block off the main drag instead of a busy corner. PS: I count more than a dozen in Steamboat Springs.
Then you will be the last person on earth to drive an EV, because that will never happen. It doesn’t need to happen. It’s different. It’s like saying “I will never use a ballpoint pen because it might run out of ink; I’ll stick the the quill and feather which I can dip in the inkwell over and over.”
Good luck on your journey through modern society though
Personal anecdote: we own an ID.4. It’s great. Yes, you have to charge it every 250 miles (give or take). We’ve taken it to San Diego, L.A., Sedona, Prescott, and Flagstaff. You have to know where the chargers are, and plan on using them.
I don’t know about Britain, but the chargers here never take more than about 35-45 minutes (at least the ones we used on those trips). A Tesla is ideal because of their charger network (say what you want about Musk, but his building-out of the charger network was brilliant). There are fewer chargers for non-Teslas, but they are out there. As you say, 99% of our driving is handled by home charging. That extra 1% you have to plan for, and it’s possible there are some places you can’t go**.
**A few years ago I tried to map out Phoenix to Glacier NP, and couldn’t make it work with a non-Tesla. Haven’t tried that exercise recently. Going to either San Diego or L.A. requires one stop on the way, and one stop when you get there, each ~40 minutes. Enough time to get a “bun” (or whatever).
