Finding the chase and cutting to it

It’s definitely Autumnal at the moment, so naturally, I am planning a reasonably long journey with the Leaf.

116 miles in the South of England is not a treck across the Himalayas!

No it is not.  But it is the first long journey I have done in the Electric Car on my own.

It will also be the first time I have used the Leaf for business (albeit training) and to be absolutely fair, I could do this journey in our diesel.  Which would probably be much more sensible on so many levels.

One of the reasons we have the Leaf is to help with air quality: that’s why the UK government is still subsiding this technology.  So, having done the preparation with routes etc, I am looking to do this in the Leaf.

On your head be it! So, what’s the plan?

First leg: Ipswich to Thurrock Service Centre, M25 (that’s just before the Dartford crossing to you and me).

Then on to Chertsey.  Charge that evening at Cobham services.

Return: Leave the hotel and charge again at Thurrock via Ecotricity point.

This time though, I’ll be travelling during rush hour and will take the time to enjoy tea at Ikea, which also has an Ecotricity point, before completing the journey.

Sounds reasonable, how was it in practice?

When you learn Prince 2, you are taught to anticipate what risks can de-rail your plan.  In my case, every charge point has some options in case one doesn’t work.  Where possible, the plan has two points available at each stop or a fast charger within 12 miles.  All I need to ensure is that I have at least 12 miles on the clock.

The exception is Cobham, the nearest one to there is 40 miles away.

So I left Ipswich at 5:40am on Tuesday and headed to Thurrock.  It has to be said, Lakeside’s turning is amazingly quiet at 7am as I turn in to Gray’s services and quickly find the charge points.

It’s the first time I have used the Ecotricity card but the fast charger had the same user interface as the ones hosted in Glyn Hopkins’ Colchester and Romford branches, so I started the process.  I found that with the first charger, my card wasn’t accepted at all.  As this was something I wasn’t expecting, I got in touch with the help number on the card.

Marcus, from Ecotricity, answered my call.  He asked me the try the 2nd charger and this time my card was accepted.  It has to be said that the fast chargers are not the most trivial pieces of equipment I have ever used and it took a couple of goes to get the cable seated and ready to go.  Only to find it had a fault.  Blast.

“How much charge do you have?” Marcus asked.

“11%, around 11miles.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Oh, the only one I can guarantee you can get to is 12 miles away and I am not happy to recommend that.  Ikea has a working point but I don’t know if it will be accessible before they open at 9am.”

Marcus very kindly texted over the postcode for Ikea and I headed over.

I knew from my previous research that Ikea opened at 10am and the one at Thurrock has a serious number of gates which are locked while the shop is closed.  I also knew this was probably my best option, so I drove the extra 1.7miles to find the gate I encountered was closed and the deserted car park did have 4 cars parked.  Did that mean a gate somewhere was open?  I headed towards the parked cars and turned towards Ikea as I ran out of road to find an open exit 🙂

The point is really obvious and within 2 minutes of parking, I was recharging with enough to get me to Chertsey and back to Cobham.  Time was now the big worry.  As was keeping warm – I had remembered my mobile so set the heater on while I charged and dealt with my planned toilet break thanks to B&Q and bought a planned item as a thank you.

Did you make the meeting?

Absolutely, with 20 minutes to spare.  The experience did mean I made the effort to charge the car that evening.  Cobham worked beautifully (well, one did!) and that meant I could return to Chertsey for the remainder of my course and get back to Thurrock the next day.

And home again?

Again, I returned to Chertsey and spent 12 minutes getting the charge up so I could make Thurrock and travel at an average of 60mph (traffic permitting).

As per plan, I headed to Ikea.  While one space was occupied by a petrol driven Merc’ the other was available and I started the charge and headed for food.

I had a comfortable meal, toilet break and wondered around and return to find the car ready to go and a 2nd Leaf driver ready to start their charge.  I found they were heading to Peterborough and would get a 2nd charge from Cambridge.

This stop enabled me to get back home easily.  The entire journey took just under 4 hours including the queue for the Dartford crossing.

Would you do it again?

Yes, not least because this allowed me to claim expenses and the company has not caught on to the fact that EVs do not cost as much to run as ICE’s.  The single claim more than covers the electricity for the quarter we have bought for the car and the charge for the SourceEast card.