Day 7 - Back to MK

Car has now been returned to Milton Keynes. It wasn't far from Wellingborough, but I stopped for 30 min on a 7kW charger to give some contingency!

Overall I did over 600 miles in the week and spent quite a lot of money charging on EH (Ecotricity Electric Highway)!  Efficiency dropped a lot later on my trip, due to weather impacting battery and the driver needing heat occasionally. I still used heat sparingly and wore a hat and gloves. I want heated seats in our Zoe and It is a shame that a heated steering wheel isn't available as an option (it is in Leaf).

Clearly a Zoe 22kWh isn't great for long journeys, but I can see it is great as a 2nd car for short journeys. I would like to venture further in the one we get, so will probably order a new 40kWh. Possibly a Signature model as I would also like a better stereo than the standard one!

Day 6 - Wirral to Wellingborough

With a 22kWh Zoe this was always going to be the worst journey as it was 170 miles and zero chance of charging at the destination, so I needed sufficient on arrival to get to a public charger on way back to MK.

As it happened, the snow and sub zero temperature made it even more difficult, but by timing my two charging stops so the SOC (state of charge) was below 20% it did charge a lot quicker and the 45 limit got it almost full.

Day 5 - Back at Wirral

And the efficiency has taken a real nose dive due to the very cold weather (minus 1 when I got back) and even my necessity to use some cabin heat! 

Sorry about fuzzy photo!

Day 5 - Day Trip to North Wales (Abandoned)

The "experience" Zoe made friends with it's Northern cousin overnight and had a full charge, so was ready to head to see family in deepest North Wales. 

I had a brief shopping stop in Chester but couldn't use the polar post as some other Zoe had beaten me there! A parade of Zoe - is that the best collective noun?

Unfortunately, conditions on A55 were bad in the afternoon and with fresh snow falling, I decided to abandon the trip at The Singing Kettle near Holywell.  As range vs return was marginal in cold,  I decided to get some food and use the Electric Highway rapid.  However, charging was slow again and very poor value. Removing the £3 connection fee in January will substantially reduce cost of these 10kWh charges.

Day 4 - Todmorden to Wirral

The EVSE worked fine at my friend's in Todmorden, but their electrics are a lot more modern than the mother in law's!

So, Zoe had a full charge, but it was a very cold day in Todmorden with some snow on the ground and temperature barely above zero. That meant the almost 70 mile journey to my friends on the Wirral was too risky without (once again) a charge on the way, especially as even I was going to need some cabin heat. I reflected again on how much easier this would be with a Zoe 40!

I stopped at Lymm services as there are 3 chargers and despite a busy time (530pm on Friday) two were free when I arrived. However, it wasn't long before another Leaf arrived and all three were in use. The slow traffic on M62 had meant I was over 30% full when I arrived and I assume due to the cold weather (zero degress C) charging was painfully slow. In the 45 minutes I got a total of just 11kWh, so very different from a day or two ago!

At least I now had plenty of charge to make it to the Wirral and put turn the cabin heat up!  Lovely!

My Wirral friends have a Zoe 40 and a wall charger.  They had thoughtfully moved their Zoe, so I was able to plug in as soon as I arrived.

Day 3 - Doncaster to Todmorden

To my friend's in Todmorden it would be about 70 miles, but the weather was getting colder and there was a small risk that the EVSE wouldn't work at my friend's house, so I needed a charge on the way which meant an odd route via a Lidl supermarket!  The reward was the route had some beautiful scenery and I had a nice chat with a Leaf owner at the charger.

Of course, with a 40kWh Zoe I could have driven directly there...

Day 3 - Morning Charge

Thankfully the rapid charger on the retail park in Doncaster was working as I arrived with just 7 miles remaining! 

As I driven there in eco mode the range said a very optimistic 90 miles, but that dropped very quickly as I drove back to the mother in law.

Day 2 - Newbury to Doncaster

Being a 22kWh Zoe this journey was going to need two charges, particularly this time of year. I decided to route via MK as I was 100% sure of a rapid charge there and cost would be low on Polar. It also meant I could collect an item I had left in my car!

The timings worked well as I used a rapid near a Weatherspoon in MK and got a quick lunch while the Zoe charged. The second stop was at Donnington services on M1 where I caught up on email and had a coffee. No issues with Polar or Electric Highway.

Things didn't go so well when I arrived at the mother in law's house. She has a 16A charger we got installed a few years ago (free scheme) which works fine with the Ampera. No such joy with Zoe - it tripped the RCD and plunged a pensioner into darkness.  I had borrowed a portable EVSE so tried that and it tripped too. Clearly some of the Zoe charging stories are true!

Fortunately I hadn't arrived empty and due to a slow M1 achieved good m/kWh for time of year. Tomorrow morning I will go rapid hunting in Doncaster. Just as well I don't have work or any other commitments in the morning...

Day 1 - Charging at Home

Fortunately I had sufficient battery to get home to Newbury and arrived back with 9 miles left!

I had heard that some Zoe can be fussy about which chargers they will work on so had fingers crossed when I plugged in the charging cable. Fortunately this one seems happy with our 7kWh Polar home charger!

Day 1 - First Rapid Charge (Not)

On the way home to Newbury I decided to stop at the new Chargemaster Ultracharger just off the A34 near Milton to get some experience of using one.

Unfortunately, a BMW i3 was plugged in and although it had finished charging, the owner hadn't unplugged it. I called Chargemaster who said there was nothing they could do - I wasn't going to be able to charge. It seems the BMW had been on charge for 1:30 hours, far longer than is necessary or polite. Clearly Chargemaster need to introduce overstay penalties (like some other companies) if people are going to be selfish!

Day 1 - Collecting the Zoe

You now collect the experience week cars from the Chargemaster "EV Experience Center" in Milton Keynes, which is probably more convenient than their HQ in Bedford, especially as I managed to park my Ampera a walkable distance away. I used JustPark to find a space on someone's drive that had charging.

The Zoe on the experience week is a 2013 car with the smaller 22kWh battery, so some parts of the week I have planned are going to be "challenging". Perhaps naively, I had assumed they would have replaced it with a newer, 40kWh model by now!

However, in some ways it may help, as I am unsure if we should get a used 22kWh and keep just 2 years or a new 40kWh with a view to keep longer.  Trying the shorter range one will help me decide if it would be sufficient, bearing in mind we don't need to use it for longer journeys.

No photo of the collection because I forgot!