I’ve posted recently about my EV range experience, and I used the public charging network for the first time yesterday. We were going to a family funeral in Wellingborough, Northampton. I calculated the round trip as 243 miles. Because my range at 80% charge is around 210 miles, I decided to switch off the limiter to 80% in the car, and charge to 100%. I failed, but learnt something. There is also a charge limiter in the Skoda app, which seems to override the setting in the car. Consequently, although I discovered that yesterday morning, we set off with 88% charge and a predicted range of 231 miles.
We stopped at Cherwell Valley Services to meet Claire’s sister and her partner. There were plenty of chargers free, so I parked in one of the charging bays. Claire pointed out that I’d be better off reversing in, because the cable didn’t look long enough. She was right, of course, so I turned the car around while she went into the services to use the facilities. There was another schoolboy error to come, as I chose the nearest cable, only to find that I’d selected the wrong type of cable. The correct one was on the other side of the machine, but it did just reach. So I followed the instructions, tapped my credit card, locked the car, and set off to join Claire.
When I first checked the app, we were charging at 27kW. I’d expected a faster charge to be honest. Then when I checked the app again, it had gone up to 47kW, and 134mph. I hadn’t thought about charging in miles per hour terms, but that’s a perfectly reasonable way to think about it. By the time we’d finished our coffees we were at 100%. I don’t yet know how much it cost me, the only transaction on my credit card so far is £1.
So my first experience of the public charging network was great. Certainly there was a predictable learning curve, there always is. We got home with 89 miles range remaining. The drive was a mixture of motorway, A roads, and country lanes. The temperature varied between 1degree C and 9 deg C. It was raining heavily most of the time. My long term miles per kWh is now 2.8, but my consumption yesterday was 3.0 miles /kWh. When I first got the car it was 2.0. I’m looking forward to seeing what it will be in warmer weather.