Cheaper holidays EV charging

Planning is definitely key, but the 150 miles of towing per charge is almost here. 

As I say, I can manage 130 to 140 already on my 78kWh (75kWh usable) battery. The new version of the Polestar 2 (2024) has an upgraded battery to 82kWh and a more efficient drive train. My guess is that the combination of those two things would mean the ability to get to about 150 miles in a single charge. The forthcoming P4 has a 102kWh battery that should easily see 170 to 180 miles towing. Thats a comfortable 150 with buffer to get to a local rapid charger ready for the next day. 

And charging times are dropping too. On our return journey on Saturday, we chose to break at 94 miles in with about 86 miles to go. That stop took 37 mins of charging while we used the loo and had a coffee. Actual wait time - about 3 mins, and about 6 mins of un-hitch / hitch.  But my car tops out at 155kW charging speed. The new P2 is 200kW, and the P3 and P4 250kW. That would bring the charge time down to around 20 - 25 mins.

Its also interesting to see the proliferation of ultra-rapid chargers. The first map (from Octopus Electroverse) shows the current 150+kW ultra rapid chargers. Extend that to 50kW+ and the map gets a bit busy. 

Now - granted - Spain is not quite so well supplied with ultrafast chargers, but even there the situation has improved dramatically over that last couple of years. 

AD - I am not trying to change your mind - everyone needs to make their own choice. But from where I sit, the future is looking pretty bright. Just 2 short years ago, using an EV to tow a caravan was all but unheard of. Now sites are installing fast (not rapid) chargers for overnight charging, and rapid charging companies are learning and installing towing bays to allow for rapid recharging without unhitching. 

Osprey Buckfastleigh

There was (and maybe still is) a pot of money available to councils to fund charging schemes, many of which were deployed pre-covid. Unfortunately, a lot of councils made there deployments with little or no guidance as to how charging is used, where it is suitable and where it is not. In my town we have 34 council installed "fast" chargers in 3 different car-parks. In the parking that is unlimited time the chargers are very well used, often all full. In the car parks with a 4 hour limit, far less so. It seems that employees in the town will come and plug in before going to work, and then un-plug at the end of the day. In the 4 hour parking, only shoppers and visitors to the town use them, but we are not a 2 to 3 hour destination town, more like 30 to 90 mins. And for that time span, slower chargers are less useful. 

As with running an EV, when installing EV infrastructure, planning is important. 

It’s not an issue👍🏻😊

Nothing whatsoever👍🏻😊

+1 ChocT, once the distance numbers are up to an acceptable level(to me) I expect within 1yr plus I’ll be looking forwards not backwards. Right now? not so much🤷🏻‍♂️

John

I would imagine there are all sorts of incentives for local councils to take up grants to install EV charging points. It often depends on how forward thinking the councils are. Here in MK the council have really grasped the nettle and I don't know if its still the same but we had the greatest number of charging points outside of London. As far as finding them you just use an App which will take you to the nearest point. OK not so clever if you have a caravan in tow but solo its easy enough.

David

Charge points are being developed by various companies. We signed up for this one in Wales to get access by easy payments on our card. This is just one example of what's happening.

https://www.dragoncharging.co.uk/

If you read the "about us" bit you can see multiple agencies are involved. 

Go for it, Rocky. I’ve never met a driving experience like it. The superb smoothness and power has to be tried to be believed 👍

I guess the more advances in battery distance & efficiency the cheaper the EV becomes. I’ve been in one but not driven yet. I guess it’s a bit freaky at first😊

I’m sure they will become cheaper in time just as all modern tech has.  

It is a bit freaky at first but I soon got used to driving it to the extent that when I get in our other car I wonder why it’s got stonking great handbrake and auto gear change levers instead of small switches. I find myself looking for flappy paddles too😂