A short vacation in an i3ReX covering 451 miles in a five da

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janner

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A short vacation in an i3ReX covering 451 miles in a five days.

One of the areas in the UK worst served by electric car charging is Devon but this is where we ventured in our i3Rex last week. When we bought the i3 it was after some considerable time spent thinking about whether this could be our only car: last week, maybe, reinforced our decision.

We had planned a short holiday in the South Hams not so far from Plymouth, in Devon, to the South West of England - we regularly travel to Plymouth from just North-East of Bristol. From there it’s a 94 mile journey to Exeter, which we can do on electric at 50mph or faster with a short burst of the Rex, and then it’s another 44 miles to Plymouth.

The first challenge for our holiday was that the Exeter rapid charger was out of action, had been for ten days and didn’t have a date for being fixed: Devon seems to be a desert when it comes to electric car chargers. The alternative was Sedgemoor which was only 50 miles from home but that left 90 miles required to where we were staying in South Hams. We decided to charge at Sedgemoor but then to stop at a Cafe on the beach at Teignmouth which had a 32A Zero Carbon Charger (as well as brewing their own beer and generating their own electricity); this meant we needed at least two-hours at Teignmouth, preferably three, so we had to set out a little earlier than originally planned. All went well and the food and beer at the Cafe was great.

We arrived at the holiday cottage in South Hams with a little under 50% charge. We had asked about charging at the cottage but had had no reply; we trailed a 13A lead out of the door and managed to pick up three hours of charge that evening and two hours the next morning. In the UK a 13A charge is fine for an overnight provided you can charge all night: in our case we had to close the door when we turned in so five-hours was the best we were likely to get (5 x 3kW = about 50 miles).

The next day we head to Plymouth (about 30 miles - so we had enough to get there and back that day) but decided to check out the new rapid charger deep in the city centre. Charges for the Chargepoint Genie rapid is £1.80 to initiate the charge and £0.30 per kWhr so together with the parking charge of £1.20 made a 60p per kWhr charge which by any standards is really quite expensive. Instead we used the 32A PodPoint, which was free but incurs a two hour parking charge of £2.40 - equivalent to a more credible 24p/kWhr (although the two-hour lunch cost us a bit more!).

Back at the cottage we charged up again on 13A and the next day was sightseeing but only 20 or so miles.

The following day involved 42 miles each way (84miles total) with no opportunity to charge and so we had to run the ReX for about 5-miles to get home.

Only five hours of overnight charging meant we set out on the way home with just enough to get us to Exeter’s CCS charger which was by now back up and running, followed by a quick boost at Sedgemoor CCS and home in time for tea.

All-in-all 451 miles with only 5 miles on the Rex - total cost £0.05p for the 5-mile ReX.

Some takeaways from the trip:

Without the ReX we wouldn’t have attempted it and I’m not sure what electric range we would have needed before we attempted it without the ReX - maybe 120 or 150 miles(?) but this is more an issue with the charging infrastructure (and available holiday-cottage charging) than with the car.

Motorway service station chargers need to be fixed quickly; fifteen days out of action is no good!

Expensive rapid chargers deep in a city centre car park is not an attractive proposition; if you’re going to battle the city traffic then you had just as well take the 32A option and enjoy the town. Car parking charges and rapid chargers don’t mix: you have to stay with the car for 30-mins otherwise you get a £10 surcharge every 30 minutes so you’re only parking to charge.

We spoke to the car parking attendants about the chargers and they didn’t speak very kindly about the rapid but they also said that the problem with the 32A chargers (2-3hrs) was getting people to disconnect after they were charged: once you disconnected then you couldn’t find a parking space. So 32A works for shoppers but not for workers who need eight-hours plugged in and parked: City centre car parks need more 13A plugs for workers and 32A chargers for shoppers.

Holiday cottages don’t necessarily need 32A chargers provided the plug is outside and is sheltered from the rain: this isn’t an expensive installation.

Our conclusion - we don’t need a second car!
 
Our conclusion - we don’t need a second car!
We endorse that 100%. :D But we weren't sure until we had the car that we could do so.
But we don't bother with the hassle (and cost) of finding chargers en route, but do charge when we get there.
We have found that hotels are ridiculously keen to help find an outside 13A socket for us and refuse to charge us for any electricity. That's a benefit of being early adopters. ;) I daresay in a few years everyone will see offering charging is a possible extra revenue stream, but so far...
 
Nice write up. We also travel to Devon for our Summer vacations but from Liverpool, unfortunately the i3 will not be suited for this, not because of the range mind but the lack of space for all the crap that comes with a toddler. The 27mpg (motorway cruising) Mazda does the job fine but at cost...the i3 will only be used for the Mrs commute (25 miles) and for nipping around town after work and at weekends to which I'm more than happy with as it will save us money as my car around town is horrendous (<20 mpg) :oops:
 
Thanks for this lovely report and the update on some of the EVSE along your way. I spotted Exeter had been out of action for a while, as we were planning a trip down to Cornwall at one point. Our REx is a second car and we tend to use the family Diesel for holidays as it has more storage space for a family of 4. However I do hope we can make a trip to Wales early next year for a long weekend; the i3's storage should be sufficient for that.
 
While there are some areas in the USA that have CCS units, that is not true most places, and compared to the UK, the distances many people travel in their cars is often much greater. This makes having the i3 as an only car less likely to be satisfactory. For example, one of my main trips I make several times a year is a bit over 400-miles one-way along an interstate that has NO CCS or EVSE's installed at the service areas. That would mean getting off the highway regularly to try to recharge, or stopping at almost every service station along the way to refuel the i3 assuming I had a REx. Not a very time efficient way to travel. My ICE can make the trip one-way without stopping (but I generally can't!). Even with a 200-mile battery pack, since there's no place to recharge (and recharging would still probably take at least an hour, if not longer), it still wouldn't be particularly convenient. There certainly are places and people that could make the i3 their only vehicle, but that is less likely in the USA than places like say Europe.
 
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