200 miles in my EV
It’s not uncommon for people to talk about range anxiety, that’s the worry that an electric vehicle battery might run flat mid-journey. The reality is that range anxiety is something that non-ev drivers believe we EV driver suffer from, in fact this is not really true, mainly because we have a very different mindset, we think about range, how to maximise range, and on long journeys, journey planning. That is, plan for a refreshment stop every two hours or so and if necessary, do a top up charge.
I’d like to tell you about a journey I recently made, from my home is Cheadle Staffordshire to Exeter, a total distance of just over 200 miles, the bulk of it being M6 and M5.
Firstly, a bit of background about my vehicle. It’s a BMW iX3, fully electric, I’m averaging 260 miles on a full charge, however, for most of the time I cap the charge at 80%, to speed up charging and preserve battery health, most manufacturers saying the battery has a sweet spot, between 20% and 80%. The first 20% and the last 20% taking the longest to charge and to be honest, this fits in nicely with my mileage patterns and thinking about it, if I was driving a diesel, would I keep my tank always topped up to full, no, of course I wouldn’t.
So, one of the EV mindsets is to plan a journey, and to do this I use Zap Map, it allows me to view all the charge locations, find out if they are working and what they cost, as well as whether I can pay with my debit card or whether I need a pre-registered card.
It just so happened that the halfway point was at my favourite Motorway Services, Gloucester Services on the M5, they have a small bank of Instavolt chargers, they tend to be the more reliable ones. By the way, if you are on the M5, definitely worth a stop at Gloucester Services, lovely place, excellent food.
Another of an EV driver’s mindset is to maximise range, we do this my being gentle on the accelerator, adopting a slow-to-flow approach wherever we can, which means trying to avoid complete stops, better to maintain a rolling motion rather than continual stop-starts. Then I disabled the aircon after conditioning my vehicle pre-departure while it was connected to my home charger.
I also employed a whole host of other range-extending techniques, I cover these in my online EV course if you are interested, and shock horror, after a 20 minute top up at Gloucester my car predicted the range was 336, it’s maximum range is supposed to be 286 – so employing the right techniques with the right mindset and some EV know-how, we got a massive extension to the range.
Suitably refreshed via a lovely latte and freshly made sandwich, my car app told be my vehicle was topped up and ready to go. On my way back to the charge point I noticed a chap tugging at his charge lead, getting somewhat frustrated. I asked if he was having trouble, after a few expletives I deduced he couldn’t remove the charging cable from his charge port. I suggested he locked and unlocked his car, he said “really”, but much to his amazement, it worked. He didn’t realise that the locking mechanism wouldn’t release unless his vehicle was locked, he’d been charging with his car door open! He only picked his EV up that morning.
Having done my good deed for the day I set off on the second leg of my journey, suspicious that my range would drop like a lead weight and the 336 miles was a blip, but no, it was indeed telling the truth.
Incidentally, another EV mindset with regards to planning is to have a plan A, B, and C. This means planning a second and third location as a charge top-up, just in case of problems with your chosen first destination, another way we EV drivers eliminate range anxiety.
The return journey was much like the outbound leg but in reverse. I planned my A, B, and C charge stop, even though my home was well within the range of my car, however, as a road safety professional it would be remiss of me if I were to not put into practice what I tell all my clients, that is that the Highway Code stipulates a 15 minute stop in ever two-hours worth of driving, this is a good way to combat fatigue, and take advantage of a charge top-up if you need it.
I just thought I’d share this journey with you given that today, 9th September, is ‘World EV Day’, I’d love it if you would share your positive EV journey too, we do hear far too many negative stories about how rubbish the charging infrastructure is and that an EV’s range is too limiting, usually by non-EV drivers I might add. I’m not saying everything is perfect, far from it, but, with the right mindset, driving an EV is an amazing thing to do.
