EV Tales #9: Fast Food Slow Charge (Leith to the North East then Home)
An Argument
We have our first charge point argument when the return journey begins. I want a sneaky top up at an unproven location, heading east on our planned route homeward. Lucy favours a return north to our trusted Aldi which is in the opposite direction. A bit.
I prevail and before long we find ourselves in the Restalrig estate heading for a slow 7Kwh charger by a community center. Restalrig presents as a feisty Edinburgh suburb, tenements and semis painted a subtle off-white.
In 1784, the first British manned hot air balloon landed in Restalrig after taking off from nearby Abbeyhill. Over the centuries it's clearly maintained a reputation for the early adoption of new technology .
We pass the tiny entrance a couple of times before discovering the station right next to the community castle.
A council vehicle is plugged in one one side and I hook up to the other. This is a Charge Place Scotland machine. Partnered with BP Pulse. I tap the card and find that Charge Place Scotland is not partnered with BP Pulse.
I concede defeat about my choice and Lucy settles comfortably onto her moral high ground until we reach a 'proper one' at Morpeth. This one comes with a service station attached, a very well-stocked one that appears to be a local hub for village charging. I buy some pease pudding remembering that I very much enjoyed some a mere 45 years ago on a family holiday. Eating it in the car a while later, cold from the tub, I marvel at how time distorts memory.
The Art of Charging
We're staying the night near my dad's. We'll use the Bannatynes charger in the morning.
The following day we run a few errands, charge, and leave around midday. I feel we've got the hang of this now, enough to linger a bit and enjoy this last stage.
Looking back to my charging questions at the start of the trip, they're all answered now. I came to this EV tryout with a spirit of unbiased curiosity - I wanted to learn, to find out for myself. Not to rely on the opinions of advocates or critics. I'll decide in a few days whether to renew the Onto subscription. It gave me a cost effective solution to a tricky problem. But is it time to switch to electric?
There's a skill and an art to choosing new chargers on a longer trip: Let Lucy do it. All being well, we'll need just 2 top ups to reach Winchester. She's located them, as well as a leisure stop.
To celebrate our mastery of range anxiety, charge anxiety and any other EV-related anxiety, we're doing the leisure stop first - Harlow Carr RHS gardens near Harrogate. It provides a silver service Betty's restaurant, a meticulously curated bookshop skewed towards popular nature writing (lino print/woodcut, stylised cover art, 'My year Living in a Hedge', kind of thing), and of course lots of plants. In a big garden.
All of a sudden it's 5pm and Winchester is 265 miles away.
KFC and McDonald's
It's ironic that charge stations cluster around fast food chains. As if the speedy delivery of Kcals sets an expectation for KWhs. I can get a meal in under 5 minutes and a charge in under 60. Which gives me 55 minutes to eat my fast food slowly.
Our first charge is by a KFC, our second a McDonalds. It's now 10pm. How did it get so late? Oh yes, complacency. The McDonald's dining area is closed but they're taking drive thru orders. I explain through the glass door that the charge cable's not long enough to support such a transaction. When I ask if I'm allowed to walk through the drive thru without a car, the door opens and we're permitted to tap an order into the huge mobile phones in the lounge area.
Midnight approaches. There's a constant ad hoc calculation I'm making with 3 numbers:
- Miles of charge left
- Miles to destination
- Speed
Up to 60 mph, each mile travelled equates to a charge mile used up. Over 60 and each mile travelled eats up more than a charge mile. So the difference between the two numbers decreases over time. Meaning that eventually there'll be no charge left and still some miles to go. This scenario should be avoided.
But travelling faster gets you there quicker. Though it also means you'll need to charge sooner and for longer. Which will slow you down. There is an equation for this. Normally I'd do it but I'm tired and bloated from the McFlurry and chicken wrap.
Home
The final few miles to Winchester are foggy. Conditions force most drivers to match my optimum speed for charge conservation.
We arrive home at 0115. We've travelled 1324 miles in 10 days.
There’s the old diesel, waiting for us like a stoic donkey with attachment issues. It knows its days are numbered. Its MOT was booked last month and is due today.
We sleep in and miss the 8am MOT booking. Lucy risks driving it to our local garage and I follow at a distance in the Corsa. Andrew, who has valiantly tolerated our requests for car maintenance over the last 10 years wants a look under the Corsa bonnet. He’s recently trained for EVs to a level where he can work on anything but the battery.
I ask what he thinks about them...
Look out for Hydrogen Car Tales #1 which I'll be posting here in 2032 or earlier.
Did I renew the EV subscription? Would we commit to an EV? Yes, for one more month and no, not yet. It's perfect for short local trips; struggles to come close to petrol on longer ones. Less damage to our precious earth while you own it, but at what cost during manufacture and disposal? EV pence per mile is slightly less that petrol. But that electricity has to come from somewhere.
My advice is not to take my word for it. Have a go, if you can, for yourselves. Get past the polarized press ('Horror! Only 1 charger for every 15 electric vehicles in the UK! Travesty!' - A 5 minute web search reveals a rough estimate of 1 fossil fuel pump per 400 petrol cars. But EVs take longer to charge. But you can't fill up on unleaded at home...etc etc.. so goes the debate). Think for yourself. Think with others. Listen, debate, disagree, think again. And EVs are the perfect subject matter for that.
Hope you've enjoyed these reflections. Get back to me with any EV thoughts of your own.