I drove an EV from Scotland to England in winter…..here’s how it went.
I don’t know whether it’s just me or whether you feel the same but I think these past 12 months electric cars seem to have taken a bit of a bashing in the mainstream media now a few weeks ago I was a little bit bored and I was
Flicking through YouTube as you do and I stumbled across a video of a chap who was hellbent on telling us how rubbish EVS are and driving them long distances just don’t work and to prove his point he was driving a Porsche tyon from leads to London which is not a particularly
Long journey in my book but anyway I watched his video and all it seemed to really say to me is that he was complaining about the food that he was having to eat on his journey and how busy London was for traffic I sort of wanted to redress the
Balance I sort of wanted to give you s like the other side of the coin so what I thought I’d do is I would diiz my journey from Scotland from my mom’s house in Scotland back down to my house in egum in suudi now that’s a distance of round about 340
Mi now I regularly do this trip in EVs and if you’re a regular viewer of Auto EV you might seen the fact that we do road test a lot of the cars up in Scotland but I’ve never actually dized the journey you know been there taking
You with me when I’ve stopped to charge and how long it’s actually taken me and such like so I thought well why not do it I’m up there I may as well do this on the way back now I could have gone boook myself something like Mercedes-Benz eqs
Which would have probably done the journey in one charge or I could have used the Tesla because obviously they’ve got the Tesla supercharging network but I thought no let’s do this properly so I used this which is my Renault Manan e tech which doesn’t do the mileage that Renault claimed that it
Does so how stressful can it be time to find out welcome to this week’s extra Christmas episode welcome to my journey from Scotland to England in the new Rena mean eek and as always welcome to Auto EV Now before you settle down to enjoy this joury if you will it is of course that time where I tell you to make sure that you are subscribed to the auto EV Channel then once you’ve done that make sure you press the little bell button down below because then that way you’ll
Be notified if our next video is uploaded and is gone live once you’ve watched it if you have enjoyed it make sure you give it a thumbs up and don’t forget leave me your comments down below do you regularly partake in long trips in your electric vehicle are you
Concerned about buying an electric vehicle because you regularly do long Journeys and you want to know what it was like let me have your thoughts and questions down below anyway you will join me one morning at the beginning of December in lockerby right leaving a little bit later than anticipated so
Just brought my mom back dropped to our house so I’m just going to leave lockerby now car’s now saying this is the thing I don’t know if you’ve watched my longterm introduction to the the mean um bit disappointed with the range that it’s it predicts but then it changes as
It kind of goes down the road so it’s now saying 93% so it’s used 78% in the last I don’t know six oh 8 Miles which seems like a lot to me and the range has dropped to 161 Mi okay right so the journey what we doing right so
Lockerby to aun so it’s saying 300 36 mil it should take me without charging 5 and 1/2 hours so that’s a Non-Stop drive that would be nonstop and as I said to you if I was in my Jeep Grand Cherokee um taking a like a 40 minute 45
Minute stoping account for maybe a spot to lunch at a service station or something what is that I on so that’s six and a 6 and 1/4 hours plus allow for maybe I don’t know a little bit hold up of traffic maybe 15 20 minutes so yes
It’s usually 6 and 1/2 hours is probably that’s sort like a a respectable joury time in that sense uh temperature 3° so it’s popped up a degree now the route I can plan you’ve got various different ways you can do this so the one nice
Thing with the mean is uh it has it uses a Google operating system so it uses Google Maps as it’s sattin have and I really like that poar do the same and I like Google Maps I think it’s a you know a really good uh a good sort like
Navigation system but a lot of people I know we’ll use ways and things but you could also use uh something like a better root planner cuz there are a couple of apps that will you can use to plan out your Journeys and they’ll program in charging stops you you put
Your car in that you’re using and it gives you quite an accurate kind of prediction of where you should be now Rod has used that my colleague Rod has used that um because we’ve done a trip like this before when he took our last long-term test car the CER born he went
From Chester to dorf in Germany I me this dos the most glamorous of places um then neither’s eggum there you go so our locker be so there we are um see yeah so I’m not going to talk to you oh risk of collision why is it saying
Risk of collision what am I doing nothing um rather than talk to you all the way down which obviously would be a very very boring episode I’m going to switch off and you will join me much f down the road but you’ll join me when I
Get to my first charging stop but just for a little a little bit of a uh like synopsis where we are it’s 8 minutes past 10 in the morning it’s 3° and this is me just passing locy for those of you who do want to know and I
Know I want to be morbid but I’m just past the sight of their disaster which I unfortunately W well not witness but I lived close by with that night and uh lost some school friends in so much respect 35 years this year there we go
Not to be morid about it um but there we are uh right you’ll join me further down the road and I’ll bring you up to speed with how we’re getting On Um where are we wa we’re in well we’re just coming across top of shap now which shap summit’s coming up which is one of the highest uh passes uh in England and it’s obviously the top of the it’s like Lake District area um how are we doing right the
Stupid thing is I forgot to set the Tre meter on the car and I should have taken a note of the mileage that I’ve done so far but anyway I I’ve done I don’t know uh let me think loc to car is R about 30 mil at pen another 2050 just
South pen so I’m probably on about 60 miles that I’ve done um car is showing 91 M of range and 54% Battery I’m currently doing 74 mph I’ve set the cruise control that now don’t know whether I should admit that on a on a video or not um the car is currently doing
3.1 what it’s varying actually so just around a bit three let’s call it 3 m to the kilowatt hour um which is all right I suppose you expect maybe a little bit better it’s very pretty up here um there a lot of snow here at the weekend I just
Made it past in some respects on Saturday um before the m6 became quite uh very very snowy in other words but yeah um coming up to TB Services I’m not going to stop here because still got plenty of battery left I’m going to head down to my first charge stop uh which is
In the South Lakes so you’ll join me there all right everyone I am just dropped into Lancashire now uh Southbound on the m6 and I’m just about to come off and do my first charge now I don’t really need to charge here um I’ve got 40% battery left the cars tell me
I’ve still got 75 miles to go but as we know that it fluctuates obviously depending obviously on you know the sort like speed I’m going at and I suppose weather conditions and all sorts of things I’ve kept the cruise control on so I’ve kept my my average speed up the
Cars like fluctuating depending obviously between on what it’s you where the road’s going whether it’s uphill or downhill um but it seems to be kind of around about um the 3 m per kilow tower now there’s a very very simple reason why I’m coming off and doing this um
This one here this is the Porsche Center South Lakes I always stop here for various reasons first of all um I H you can use these Chargers if you have a Porsche or if I think I think might be through ionity but also as well if you
Have shell recharge which is what I have so I have a shell recharge card and I can use these Chargers they’re really powerful ones I think they’re 300 or 350 Kow Chargers so they’re really Ultra rapid Chargers and I’ve always been using these ones uh coming up purely
Because of the speed of them um and I was going to say the reliability of them but one of them isn’t working or it certainly wasn’t working the other day and it wasn’t working the day I come up there’s two of them and they’re out with um the actual dealership itself so if
You’re coming in here you know out of their office hours you can still use these Chargers cuz they’re actually um on the public side of of their um security barriers which is excellent and you just use your your RFID Card for my shell recharge so I’m going to in also
The other reason I like coming here is they’re just bloody nice people every time I go in they stand and chat to me and I get a cup of coffee right there’s a car charging so I have a funny feeling it’s using the it’s using the one that was
Working let me see if I can get the one that wasn’t working and see if it is now working if not I’m going to have to wait so I’ll talk to you in a minute or two right success this one is actually working now cuz it wasn’t working the
Other day today I’ve been up here for what 13 minutes now it’s delivered 12 Kow hour if you’ve got a shell recharge car like one of these you can use these Porsche Chargers and what’s nice about here up at the South Lakes Porsche Center is the two Chargers the public
Ones are actually on the outside of the security barriers so if you’re using them at night or over the weekend when the dealership’s closed you can still get access to them plus as well it’s probably the nicest car dealership I’ve ever been in in my life the stuff are so
Pleasant and so friendly if you’re ever looking to buy a Porsche in the UK these are the the guys I would recommend you buy it from cuz they’ve been superb every time I’ve been up here anyway I’m going to go inside and see if I can grab
A coffee off them and then I’ll be on my way very soon so there we go 35 minutes have been here and it’s gone up to 86% which is more than enough that I need um so all I need to do now is stop charge there we go that’s just
Stopping please wait and it’ll just ask me to disconnect from the car there we go job done I really cannot recommend this Porsche dealership enough if you’re in the UK and thinking about buying a Porsche you need to buy it from these guys uh Porsche Center South Lakes family run
Business South Lakes uh just off the m6 M6 is over there stunning view over there and the nicest staff in the world right it’s 12:00 back on the road um I will be discussing pricing um but we’ll do that later on at the end of the video
Once I’ve kind of collated them cuz some I get invoiced for some I pay directly so we’ll talk about that when we get to the end of the video but anyway let’s get head back down south problem is when you get a dealership that’s as nice as that on
Start the car I make M helpful um the problem is when you go into a place that genuinely as nice as that you spend more time there I go in there and I standing there chatting and gassing and the coffee is fantastic right yes as I say we’ll discuss pricing
And things later in the um later in the video because I say some stuff gets I get invoiced for some you paying it on the road and that does depend obviously on what you want to do whether or not you um you know contactless uh payment
Is so much easier um you get some places now my next plan stop is going to be Stafford um there’s a big Bank of ion um places at Stafford and uh ionity Chargers sorry at Stafford and uh there’s a Starbuck there where I’ll probably go in and have a
Sandwich so that’s lunchtime I should get down there there so again look I appreciate this is going to take longer than as I say if I’d just been blasting down in my Jeep I’d be half an hour ahead if I was in my Jeep but then
As I say I’d be stopping later on to have a coffee and a sandwich anyway so once we sort of like get back down to London area it’ll be interesting to see what the actual time difference really is because as I say you sto and have a sandwich anyway and while you’re
Stopping to have your lunch the car charging so to me that just kind of makes sense anyway I’m going to stick some music back on which means I’m going to have to go now cuz otherwise we’ll get thingy for copyright and uh I will catch up with you Later All right folks so now I’ve arrived at my second charging stop which is Stafford north um just off the a34 so the m6 Motorway is just about I don’t know half a mile that way so you just come off and pull in here I got in here
There’s an ionity Bank there six charg here two of them were freed and after to wa it pulled straight in I’ve got the app for a onity so I just make a direct payment off my credit card and that’s it um it’s currently I got here with 30%
Left which was just under 60 Mi of range so I could have gone further but I want to stop here because I know it and as say the quick charger so I know I don’t have to stop for long it’s currently already at 42% after 6 minutes so the
Time I’ve set the camera up and got ready it’s at 42% I wanted to show you the drive-in but unfortunately my GoPro is run out of battery so I need to change the battery in it but yeah easy as this there’s a Starbucks here I’m
Just going to go and have a coffee and a sandwich uh what time did I leave Locker be this morning so that was 10 10 I left lock about and it’s quarter to two now so three just over 3 and 1/ half hours to get down here I don’t think I’m doing
Too badly actually yeah time for coffee and a sandwich see you later one thing I haven’t quite mentioned yet um in this journey is the fact that while the car’s charging I can keep an eye on it with the app so I’ve got the Rena my Rena app on on my my
Phone obviously I can’t show you it cuz I’m using the phone to record this with um but I can use the my Ren app so while I’m sitting here having my my love the coffee and my sandwich I know I’m actually how much charge the
Car has and I can stop and start um charging from the app as well plus the onity app so yeah it’s pretty stress free really so far you know as I say I’ve been on the road for a bit hours and you know got a little bit to go but
I feel fresh the traffic’s been kind I’ve been sitting at 70 M hour my coffee in hand and my Spotify on yeah not exactly stressed am I let’s be honest that coffe is not bad either for Starbucks right 35 minutes later I’ve had 35.9 36 Kow delivered sorry 35.6 9 Kow
Delivered it’s currently charging 36 Kow but I’m at 85% that’s what I need to get to my next stop so that’s going to be well over 100 Mil Ranger left on the car and again I could go further and further down but I know where my next Stop’s going to be
I’m going to be stopping at the instav volt Hub at banbery cuz again it’s fast chargers there’s never a problem getting a charge there and that’s on the M40 now I’ve changed the GoPro camera cuz I want you to understand that I haven’t driven miles off the motorway to get to this
Place so you’ll follow me as I go out um onto the the m6 again but yeah I’m ready to get on the go I’ve had a coffee sandwich as I say 36 minutes coffee sandwich pee ready to go let’s go um I’m just uh I’ve not long left
Stafford uh Stafford North the onity bank sorry the onity charges at the Stafford North Junction and I am now oh hang on just coming into a 50 mph speed limit let me just slow down sugar um I’m at the m62 I mean it’s literally minutes I’m on the m6 tool now the m6
Tool um I use this all the time when I’m coming up and down because it just avoids a really crap bit of Birmingham to be honest with you I think this is a much clearer Road you got to watch obviously it’s you know it’s not a freefor all
It’s not an auto ban um but you know you just stick the cruise control on now it costs I don’t know what it cost now actually 575 something like that so that’s an additional cost but I’m not fact that in because I’d been using this whether or not I was using an
EV or not but again it just it takes away the stress I don’t have to sit in all that heavy traffic going down around Birmingham it tells me in the signs that it’s clear 13 Mi till the toll plaza and then you basically then got about I
Think 7 or 8 miles to the top of the M40 and that’s it it’s dead simple I don’t know what this guy’s going on about why he gets so stressed anyway I thought I’d give you a little rund out of the car so I don’t know if you’ve watched my
Uh introduction to my long-term mean uh hope you have if you haven’t go and watch it after this this is a really nice car so as I say it had been very easy for me to to to booked you know like a Mercedes-Benz eqs or something
That you know it’s capable of doing the whole journey in one charge but this is my everyday car you know not all of us have the ability to spend hundred and whatever it is ,000 on a you know top range Mercedes eqs this is 372 Grand
This car so not cheap you know I’m not going to try and trivialize it it’s not a cheap car but what it is is a really nice car it’s a fiveo family hatchback it’s very quiet it’s very refined it’s sitting here at like 70 mph with the
Cruise control on I’ve got my airor on at 20° I don’t need my heated seat now the outside temp up at 7° got my wireless Spotify Wireless Apple carplay so I’m setting this on my Spotify I’ve got the map in front of me here I’ve got
A really nice big arm race so I can sit back and just be realiz the seats are really good in this car the one thing I will say about this Manan the seats they first of all look quite flat when you first get in the car or you first see it
But now having done hang on what have I done in this car now total miles I’m went to get my trip computer 1,755 miles in this car over the last month I can tell you now the seats are super the only cars get better seats than this
That I think really I’ve done this trip in is like lights of the BMW i7 and the pole star they’re very good but yeah I’m just not stressed I’m really not it’s what time is it halfast 2 in the afternoon um yeah so 10 10 I left my
Mom’s house 10 12 10 2 4 hours 20 minutes and I’m nearly at Birmingham and for two charges two half a charges I think the whole journey is going to be done with an hour and a half of charging and it’s how I predicted it right at the
Start that’s probably 45 minutes longer then it would take me as if I’d say brought my Jeep cuz I’m going to stop somewhere for a coffee and a sandwich and a pee that just you just do that’s just you know I’m of an age now where I
I can’t drive um 6 hours nonstop I just can’t I I can’t do it um and I don’t think people should do it that’s the one thing that I will say about driving an EV in a long distance it does force you to take regular breakes and by doing
That what that then does is make it a much nicer Journey um because you just don’t get stressed out you know I’m not blatting down here at 80 odd M hour you know it’s like risking my license I’m sitting with a cruise control at 70 mph listening to my music just feeling quite
Kind of chilled out and I’m still going to be home in time for dinner to have dinner with my daughter tonight I’m still going to be home in time to sit and have dinner with her so actually I I think you know there’s an element of what you have to do is you
Just have to like it forces you to change your driving I think EVS um in a good way because as I say you feel less stressed you feel less pent up that you’ve got to get someone things you know that you plan your journey you know
You’re going to be doing this now all right I’ve been quite lucky um you know sort like touch with these these two charging stops the first charger which I thought wasn’t going to be working so I thought I’d have to wait for the other one although In fairness the guy was
There less than 10 minutes when I had to leave excuse me a big pardon um he was he was there for less than 10 minutes before I had to leave um but the other one was working so that’s fine I got to the onity station I’ve been to that ionity bit
Literally every time this year on my way back and set it’s eight eight visits this year I think that’s been um I’ve waited once for a charger and when I say I waited I mean I’ve waited again five maybe 10 minutes at the most so you could do it in less than three
Charges with this car I could probably do it in two probably um but again why why stress myself out and why get home when next to nothing on it I don’t have a wall box at home so I’m going to have to go tomorrow and charge the car anyway so actually
This work works out really well for me three charges half an hour each and I’m home anyway I’m going to shut up there I’m going to start listening to Steve Windwood again and I’ll talk to you when I get down to uh instal at Bany Oh So yeah so I’ve arrived at Banbury I’ve arrived at the big instol Hub at Banbury I had 41% left battery which was 70 odd miles potentially like could have done it I could have got home if I’d really pushed my lock in the car but I don’t feel that
I want to and as I say I could have gone all the way down to the bottom of the M40 and gone to the ionity Chargers at beckfield services but there’s only six there and they’re usually quite busy whereas here there’s what is there there’s two 4 68
16 32 Chargers here that you can get access to I’ve never come here and had a problem so yeah so I’ve got half an hour here to take it up to 80% if I really wanted to which is more than enough to get home and then probably enough for
Doing my bits and pieces tomorrow and so in terms of time what is it well I’ve just been stood talking to um a guy from byd funny enough the Press guy from byd it is now4 to 4: in the afternoon I’ve been on the road since just after 10:00
This morning so that’s yeah so it’s coming up for 6 hours and as I say already I’ve been stopped for an hour with another half hour to go if I really want to so it’s not bad really is it Anyway as I say you’ll probably catch up
With me when when I get home later right um I’m at 80% uh I’ve got 140 mil um of charge and I don’t need anywhere close to that but I ended up standing talking to um mark from um byd is the the marketing manager and press
Guy from byd so ended up sing chat to him for ages it’s downside with running EVS you bump into people that you know or they all want to come over and chat about your car or whatever and you do end spending longer than possible uh so
Right so 10 4 so that is 6 hours since I left Local 6 hours since I left locer B um but that’s an hour and a half charging so cuz it’s been 30 minutes I’ve been here so 6 hours hour and a half charging that’s five 4 and a half
Hours and I’ve got probably an hour’s Drive ahead of me to get home with the m25s kind so yeah five five and a bit hours drive 5 hours driving that’s been it so actually to do the trip I mean I’ll catch up with you when I’m down
Home but it’s been no different and as I say I could really have done it in two if I really pushed my luck but I didn’t want to anyway I’m going to stop gasing now and get back on the Road Oh All right how is today being well look 7 and 1 half hours um from loer to to my house in Su 340 something miles and an hour and a half of that was charging and as I said to you before In fairness I probably did overcharge in the sense of that I
Probably could have got with two charges but I just thought why stress myself out now let’s play devil’s advocate here if I taken a turbo diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee I probably would have stopped for 45 minutes which would have included maybe a fuel stop um you know some lunch
Topping up a coffee and going for a pee or something like that so in reality it took 45 minutes longer to do it with an electric car but as I say you could some respects maybe cut out one of those charg chares which then brings the
Margin down a little bit how much did it cost well I’ve yet to get the all the final can invoices in because I pay for the different you know there was the Porsche one through the shell recharge which comes in at a later date the ionity and the instav Vol ones uh send
Me an email after I’ve already paid for them um so they were around about 50 just over50 um so let’s say it’s going to cost R about 75 quid let’s see the shell recharge let’s say it’s another £25 on top of that so £75 that’s probably a
Tank of fuel in a mediumsized car you know like a golf or autof Focus or something so you know and which kind is about right just under the 400 miles to a tank maybe you could see that obviously with diesel you get more so you’d argue then well where’s the
Advantage then because it’s it’s taking you longer and it’s cost the same well it has but then as I say it’s forcing me to make those stops so I feel it’s been a more relaxed Journey and then you’ve got to also take into account the wear and tear or D suggest
The lack of wear and tear um by using the EV um you know obviously you’re not using an engine internal combustion engine so you’re not piling a miles on to it and obviously don’t all filter changes and obviously there’s the braking system which is done through uh the motor regeneration rather than the
Friction brakes so it all kind of balances out now we’re not EV evangelists as as this particular Gentleman on YouTube points out anybody who drives an EV is an EV evangelist we’re not Auto EV we we were Road testers we road test cars but I was interested I mean I’ve been doing this
Trip for quite some time now with electric cars and I was interested to give a balanced opinion and that’s why I wanted to do it I’m not sitting here saying that the electric car is going to save the world of course it’s not but we
Know it’s going to help and I think by doing the trip today and by vlogging it by dizinga little bit more and I’m not suggesting really really planning I’m not sitting for an hour before you leave you know writing out everything I’m just saying just having it in the back of
Your mind right I know I need to stop there and I can charge up there and I can charge up there and of course I was fortunate today I didn’t have to wait anywhere you know there was no cues at any of the Chargers today I just drove
Straight in plugged in off a wi again that’s not going to be the case every time but it’s been a good drive you know I’m home I was home in time to sit and have dinner with my family I’m now like home in time to luk smug and put myself aside
And sit here and just reflect on the day and I just feel a bit more relaxed it was just a more relaxing Drive which brings me neatly onto the car uh Manan um love it absolutely love it it’s a really good car it’s very refined it’s very comfortable um yes I’d
Like it to do more miles I’d like the range to be bigger on it I think that’s something that R need to look at um certainly as they move forward and I’m surprised that R given the experience that they’ve got with EVS especially the the um the Zoe uh and their other cars
You know they’ve been doing C EVS now for over 10 years so I’m a bit surprised that it hasn’t performed as well as I felt it should in terms of efficiency and range however in terms of the way the car drives and it performs on the
Road I can’t fault to I really can’t and as I said I think that’s Parton uh I that’s parted uh in the way that I feel when I’ve got home now feeling quite relaxed and feeling quite kind of not chilled out you know what I mean I’m not
Exactly stressed out about the whole drive because it is such a nice car to drive and it is so relaxing and I say those speeds you know 70 no no higher than 74 at times on the motor Bay with the cruise control on heating on it wasn’t doing an economy run it was
Sitting in Comfort driving mode all the time um so yeah it’s just it works all I’m just going to say is that this don’t listen to the naysayers it can be done and it can be done really really well and actually it’s quite Pleasant thanks for watching another
Slightly different episode of a EV um and obviously I hope you you enjoyed it and if you have enjoyed it then make sure you give it a thumbs up down below and also make sure that you subscribed as well you know like comment subscribe that kind of thing comment on it do you
Do regular long runs in your EV how do you find it what’s your experiences do you take them Brad is see I haven’t taken one abroad but Rod did our CA born abroad let me know what your thoughts are on the like the charging infrastructure in Europe pricing what’s
It like let me know um social media remember we’re across all of the social media platforms as well so Instagram x Facebook LinkedIn uh Tik Tok all of that kind of stuff so make sure you’re following us there where as well because that does help us and if you’ve clicked on this video
Because it is a little bit different and you think this is the first time I visited Auto auto what are these guys about stick on the YouTube channel there’s loads of videos on there just car reviews uh Ed car buying advice uh Twi test electric icon series Vans
There’s some motorbikes on there as well all it remains for me to say is thank you once again for watching thank you thank you thank you for continuing to support the channel I’m going to enjoy a well-deserved side now and I’ll see you again next time see you I
Whilst we don’t normally believe everything we see or read about how electric cars can’t do long trips, we did feel it was time to redress the balance a little. As many people might have guessed from his indecipherable accent, Bryan originally hails from Scotland. Yet for the past 25 years he has lived in the South of England and regularly makes the trip north to visit his family. In this extra bonus Christmas episode, he set out to see just how easy (or not) it is to drive an EV over 300 miles in winter from Scotland to the south of England to try and dispel a few myths. How did he get on? Time to find out…..
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