EV Tales #7: Optimising Charging (West Cumbria - Leith)
Trapped
from: mike@thinkingclassroom.co.uk
to: info@on.to
Hi Onto
I'm based in West Cumbria for 4 days. I'm struggling to find any Onto partner chargers nearby. They're all 90 minutes away. So by the time I get home I'll need to turn round and go back to charge again. This might go on forever. I'll be in a constant charging loop. There will be no escape. Please help.
Many thanks,
Mike
from: info@on.to
to: mike@thinkingclassroom.co.uk
Hi Mike
So in regards to finding charging partners of ours that are close to you no matter where you travel to we highly recommend for customers to use ZAP map as this will let you know where the closest charging points to you are and if they are working or not working which makes life easier for yourself.
Kind regards
Zara
from: mike@thinkingclassroom.co.uk
to: info@on.to
Hi Zara
Yes, that's exactly what I did and came to the conclusion previously stated. which surprised me. I do not want to get trapped in the aforementioned loop. Forever and ever. I really don't. Have I missed anything?
Many thanks,
Mike
We potter around, run errands, visit the seaside, leaking charge all the time. Only on our last day do we discover three chargers in the next town that we could have used. GeniePoint were in the system - a Shell partner - but not yet listed by Onto. I am pleased to not become trapped in the infinite charging loop.
We have one (charge) for the road at Lucy's mums then we're on our way to Scotland.
The Perfect Charging Station
We're discovering the strategic thinking required to select the right charging point during a long, multi-stage journey. It's a mathematical optimisation problem where many variables jostle for status then settle into a meaningful outcome:
- The car's current charge
- Which supermarket/spar hotel/quaint village is next to the charge station
- Charging station locations en route
- Whether the charge station is included in the Onto subscription
- Journey stage length
- Charge station location at destination
- Time prepared to spend charging at destination
- Next journey stage length
- Charge station locations on next stage
- Risk tolerance i.e. how low will you go? 20%? 10%? 5%?
- The car’s real world, historic, proven range (a number very different to anything you’ve read)
The when and where and how long of the next charge is influenced by the needs of the next but one journey stage. Like chess. But on roads.
Our daughter is now travelling with us. So is her luggage; increasing the load, reducing our range. I've not ventured to sketch out this scenario yet or engage the family in estimating by how many miles we’re down. This is, potentially, a more academically fulfilling way to pass the time on a long journey than I Spy or sibling-elbow-death-match (difficult with my son not in the car, she'd have to elbow herself). I’m sure her mass is having an effect though I’ve no hard data to support my gut feel. I keep quiet.
Desire Paths
My daughter has a master's degree in mathematics. Specialising in optimisation. Together, under her tutelage, and manipulation of the variables above, we select Gretna Green for our Edinburgh-bound charge.
Romanticised by a disproportionate number of annual weddings, caused by the significant, historical diversity between Scottish and English marriage laws, Gretna is also home to a disproportionate number of EV chargers. We take our pick and bag the last spot of four at Gretna services, just over from the old-school fossil fuel pumps.
We’ve an hour to kill so head to the food outlets. There’s no path between charging station and service station, so we cut across the grass behind Day’s Inn, under a large Yew tree, past a huge rabbit hole (with real rabbits going in), across the service station entry road, weaving through the car park and eventually arrive at KFC.
This is a walk that a maximum of four car loads of people will make each hour and a sign of how quickly the charging infrastructure has been built. Fast enough to not yet include an official pathway from charge to chicken nuggets. There’s not even a desire path. (Efficient, evolved routes that humans make in their environment to cut the corners off planned pathways. You’ll see them where grass is worn away, shortcuts that make more sense than the routes designed on a drawing board).
An Orange Warning Light
40 miles from Edinburgh an orange warning message appears on the dashboard. With a tone. A tone that signals mild concern rather than impending disaster. Apparently there’s an ‘imbalance in tyre inflation’. Might this be otherwise known as a ‘flat’? I try to cancel the euphemistically smug message but apparently it’s not going anywhere until I attend to the cause.
We pull up at a BP Petrol Station. I check the tyres: 36, 36, 36, 35. Not exactly a flat. I kick the tyres to cast the illusion that I know what I’m doing, inflate one to the expected 36, and turn the car back on. Apparently I now need to reinitialise it. I navigate through dashboard screen options and just before pressing ‘yes’ consider whether ‘reinitialise’ is the EV equivalent of Restart or Reboot or Factory Reset - a sliding scale of implication, the last of which concerns me. Will I need to reinstall the car’s operating system? Or download a series of security patches before I can continue? What if the firewall won’t let it through? What if there’s a Windows update?
I press yes. The warning comes back on. We continue to Edinburgh.
It's late. We decide to get a charge while we can. This is the bohemian opposite of mathematical optimisation. The charger is next to a 24 hr Waitrose, 2 miles from our destination. We’ll need breakfast provisions too. I drive into the forecourt and pull up right next to one of those car hoovers by mistake. I mean look at the pictures. They're practically identical. There's a knack to getting back into the car confidently as if you meant to pull up to a hoover all along.
The 24 hour Waitrose is shut. Late night shoppers and taxi drivers mill around outside swearing and grumbling in a variety of ways at this unexpected turn of events.
Apparently you can ask at the night kiosk and they’ll get your shopping for you.
I ask for 2 pints of semi-skimmed milk, a carton of Soya Alpro and some peanut butter. I’m offered 4 pints of full fat, almond Alpro, and chocolate spread.
We arrive at our accommodation and do what any EV driver does at the end of a journey. Check the apps for the nearest charger.
Find out in EV Tales #8 what the chargers are like in Aldi and how to get cheap parking in Edinburgh city centre.