A week of long journeys in our MG5 EV
Range anxiety? Not really, you just need to think about motoring differently!
We've owned our MG5 EV since September and up until this month have only used it for mostly short journeys. We charge at Tina's workplace, they have an underground carpark equipped with charging bays and as such it's easy to keep the car topped up at a very low cost. It's for this reason we've had no concerns over range whatsoever, plus our car is the Exclusive long-range version (250 miles WLTP, 215 real-world, Lewis range). We refer to it as our "home charger".
The longest trip we took initally was between our home in Hampshire and North London where my brother and his family live. A distance of 118 miles round-trip, especially when taking the M25 most of the way. Waze running via CarPlay the whole way helped us dodge some nasty traffic and took us on the most economical route possible. We got home later that day with around 30% battery left.
Dorset!
More recently we spent 3 days with my parents in Dorset which in itself is 74 miles from here. We did need to charge twice over the weekend. We had planned to charge the car to 100% on our "home charger" but someone turned the chargers off during the day, no reason given, Tina discovered this as she collected the car with just 50% juice. A hasty charge at a nearby Instavolt outside our local McDonalds helped top it up a bit but we were on a tight schedule and needed to get to my parents for a certain time (anniversary celebration). So we set off with less than an ideal battery charge, nonetheless we got there and didn't consume as much power as predicted. The following morning I nipped into Wimborne to find a charger and it was there that I became acquainted with Mer, a new network and another new app. My advice is, if you can, install apps before travel, it will save time on the spot later. I failed to practice what I preach that day and found it a little bit of a faff. First attempt upon connection failed because my app identified the charger as being one installed elsewhere! Second time lucky and it worked well. Later that day we drove down to Wareham for lunch at "The Priory", which I highly recommend.
We took my parents out for a drive and walk the following day, all on the same charge. I went back to the Mer machine with Dad just before we headed home to demonstrate how the charger worked and to make sure we had enough to get back to Farnborough via Southsea.
Warwick Castle
Later the same week (we took some leave for a few days to use it up) we drove up to Warwick Castle, roughly 100 miles from here. It was a brilliant day out and would love to go back. We needed to charge for our return trip. Using Zap-Map I was able to establish that there was either one on the M40 but it had recently suffered a number of issues or there was an Instavolt outside Stratford-upon-avon at a Ballantyne Spa Resort, so we made a beeline for it (I was worried it might be barriered on arrival, luckily not). The charge was great, Tina and I scoffed a picnic whilst waiting and tried to get into the sports center to have a look but members only of course!
What was interesting though it forced us to choose a different route home than the one we had taken on the way up. We chose to take the A44 rather than the M40 to Oxford. Waze identified it as being quieter, shorter in terms of mileage but a bit longer in terms of time. It was dark b
Later edit this so that draft becomes publishedut it introduced us to some wonderful Cotswold locations such as Woodstock, signs for Broadway, all of which we've noted for future days out. Sometimes it pays to take the slower way.
Northampton
We also nipped up to Northampton last week! My in-laws had their first taste of EV travel. I was interested to see and hear their reaction, as they (like I used to be) are petrol heads through and through, more so than me as they all enjoy buying and selling second hand cars, tinkering with them etc.
My Father-in-law, whose in his 70's said he would never buy one, he loves his old straight-six style cars too much. It will be interesting to see how the switch will go when we ditch our ICE vehicles for EV, lock, stock and barrel.
I made use of BP's Polar network for first time and experienced the awesome power of a 150kw charger, the fastest in the land and it took not much more than 30 minutes to charge to over 90%, so we had enough to get home and potter around for 3 days locally.
Takeaways!
You do need to plan before travel, make sure you are aware of where chargers are at various points of the journey. Earmark those that are working, have been used recently and received good reviews on Zap-map.
Maybe the place you are going to has chargers that you can use whilst you are there. In Wimborne, I didn't need to stay with the car, I popped it on charge whilst Dad and I took a walk around the town.
Stopping somewhere for a wee and a coffee ;-) It always takes 20 minutes, pop the car on charge for a bit, not to necessarily top it right up but just for some extra miles. Worth doing. Though I've not needed to do this yet.