Advice regarding driving to France and Switzerland

[BTB 500]

Between the M54 junction you’ve shown and Ellesmere Port is a distance of just 56 miles, so you could just top up before, or after the stretch.

The last fast chargers before the M54/A41 junction are at Corley services on the M6 ... 44 miles away. So now you're up to 100 miles, and it will be somewhat further to the next public fast charger at the far end of the A41 (depending on which way you're heading). Remember this?

Realistically, in France you'll probably need to pull into a charging point every 120 miles or so, and then charge for around 15 minutes, if you want to avoid range anxiety.

Not everybody drives a high spec. Tesla. 100 miles at fast A road / motorway speeds is close to maximum range for many electric vans.

or in your case, you’d start from home with 200+ miles in the ‘tank’…

I simply highlighted the A41 as being part of a major route ... nothing to do with me starting from home.

This is literally a non-issue, 54 miles is nothing… and as you said yourself there are still some rapids half way if absolutely desperate, but any decent car would just route you to a charger before or after.

As above it's not 54 miles. A 100+ mile gap between petrol/diesel forecourts would be unheard of on any major route, and the suggestion that traffic should divert off to search for a top-up elsewhere would rightly be ridiculed IMO.

 

[BTB 500]

You should try driving on Britain’s motorways.

At least 75% of my mileage is on UK motorways.

 

[Dippo]

I know facts are not always popular, but in the first quarter of 2024, sales of BEVs in Europe, EFTA, and the UK rose by 3.5% compared with 2023. The total car market increased by 4.9%. The YTD figures are on page 4 of this document.

https://www.acea.auto/files/Press_release_car_registrations_March_2024.pdf

 

[clk320x]

The last fast chargers before the M54/A41 junction are at Corley services on the M6 ... 44 miles away. So now you're up to 100 miles, and it will be somewhat further to the next public fast charger at the far end of the A41 (depending on which way you're heading). Remember this?

Blimey, where on earth are you getting this information from? You’ve got Gridserve/Tesla at Hilton Park on the M6, 11 miles from M54/A41 junction, and also plenty of fast chargers in Telford 8 miles in the opposite direction.

Again you’re massively overthinking this as if coming a long way away the car has already planned the entire route and any stops needed.

I simply highlighted the A41 as being part of a major route ... nothing to do with me starting from home

Which is still very doable in any half decent EV. I still don’t see the point you’re making here though, people shouldn’t buy an EV because a very specific A road between near Telford & Ellesmere Port only has a few chargers along its 54 mile stretch?

Is it even a popular route? Apart from people who live specifically nearby, I can’t see why you’d use this route? Rather than staying on the M6 and taking the M56 later, or sticking to the A5.

As above it's not 54 miles. A 100+ mile gap between petrol/diesel forecourts would be unheard of on any major route, and the suggestion that traffic should divert off to search for a top-up elsewhere would rightly be ridiculed IMO.

Answered above, and only EVs with a sub 60 mile range will have to divert off, which in 2024 isn’t many.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Perhaps this is because most anti-EV folk tend to live rurally? Driving up and down the M1 regularly I see so many EVs nowadays.

More likely that new cars “inevitably” are sold into the affluent urban areas where people do high commuting and business mileage, whereas rural folk do - rightly - run around in old vehicles.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

At least 75% of my mileage is on UK motorways.

Should have gone to Specsavers?

Can you recognise an EV ?



A £12k EV estate?



Or a £12k EV MINI ?

 

[BTB 500]

Blimey, where on earth are you getting this information from? You’ve got Gridserve/Tesla at Hilton Park on the M6, 11 miles from M54/A41 junction, and also plenty of fast chargers in Telford 8 miles in the opposite direction.

Zapmap, but I was looking at fast chargers that are actually on the route - not ones requiring a 20 minute diversion (plus charging time on top of that of course)

Again you’re massively overthinking this as if coming a long way away the car has already planned the entire route and any stops needed.

So you have to divert away from the fastest route (possibly multiple times) in order to reach your destination without running out of charge, but this is fine because the satnav tells you where to go?

I still don’t see the point you’re making here though, people shouldn’t buy an EV because a very specific A road between near Telford & Ellesmere Port only has a few chargers along its 54 mile stretch?

Funnily enough no, it was just a local example. With only 780 or so public fast charge sites covering the entire UK road network I'm sure there are plenty of other major routes that aren't well served either ... as mentioned by others previously.

 

[BTB 500]

More likely that new cars “inevitably” are sold into the affluent urban areas where people do high commuting and business mileage, whereas rural folk do - rightly - run around in old vehicles.

Our neighbours have at least a couple of nice cars ... a 2022 Aston Martin DB11 (with the plate "DB11 NEW") and a new-ish Bentley. They have an SUV of some sort as well, but funnily enough no EVs.

We really let the area down with my 27 year old SL, although my tractor is a 71 plate.

 

[BTB 500]

Should have gone to Specsavers?

Funnily enough I do go to specsavers.

Can you recognise an EV ?

I can, I even saw one on Friday that didn't have the green stripe on the numberplate and pointed this out to Mrs BTB.

A £12k EV estate?
Or a £12k EV MINI ?

Ah but their values will have dropped significantly since you posted.

 

[clk320x]

So you have to divert away from the fastest route (possibly multiple times) in order to reach your destination without running out of charge, but this is fine because the satnav tells you where to go?

No you wouldn’t, because no decent EV cannot do 100 miles between charges, so you’d just charge at a station earlier along your route. Not getting it are you?


Seems like you’re trying to find a problem that doesn’t exist? No car routing software would divert you 20 minutes to access a charger, you’d just charge for longer before to get you past the ‘dead zone’ - but these so called ‘dead zones’ don’t really exist on the ‘quickest’ routes anymore.

It’s not even the quickest route to get to Ellesmere Port, so unless you’re particularly travelling to a destination along that A road, you wouldn’t use it? or if you lived along there your car would be topped up at one of the many slow or 50kW chargers anyways.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Ah but their values will have dropped significantly since you posted.

Yes, ICE and EV cars depreciate a lot.

As someone running an SL, you'll be well aware that a £150k SL or DB11 loses value as soon as it leaves the showroom.

 

[markjay]

Not everybody drives a high spec. Tesla. 100 miles at fast A road / motorway speeds is close to maximum range for many electric vans.

I don't drive a Tesla (high spec or otherwise), I drive a 2021 Hyundai IONIQ 5. Being an early model, it has a 72.6 kWh battery, but a few months later the standard long-range battery's capacity was increased to 77.4 kWh.

I would have thought that 120 miles of motorway driving is well within the capability of any modern EV with a battery capacity of around 60 kWh or higher?

 

[markjay]

...So you have to divert away from the fastest route (possibly multiple times) in order to reach your destination without running out of charge, but this is fine because the satnav tells you where to go?...

Traditional navigation software gave you the option of choosing either the fastest route or the shortest route, and the two weren't always the same.

With EV-aware navigation software, you have similar options, because the longer route might have faster chargers, and so might be faster overall.

If the idea that you should take a longer route in your ICE car because you'll get to your destination sooner doesn't sound odd to you, then so should the idea that you'll take a longer route with the EV in order to take advantage of faster chargers and get to your destination sooner.

 

[markjay]

And you can also optimise the charging stops along the route:

This is from ABRP:

 

[BTB 500]

Seems like you’re trying to find a problem that doesn’t exist?

As mentioned it was a comment from an EV owner about the lack of fast chargers on main routes in the UK that 'sparked' this discussion.

 

[BTB 500]

With EV-aware navigation software, you have similar options, because the longer route might have faster chargers, and so might be faster overall.

The point is that if there were more public fast chargers (as there are in France) you wouldn't have to take that longer route in the first place.

 

[markjay]

As mentioned it was a comment from an EV owner about the lack of fast chargers on main routes in the UK that 'sparked' this discussion.

I made that comment, but I also said that it was based purely on what I read online and on this forum, I have no first-hand experience with long range EV driving in the UK.

 

[markjay]

The point is that if there were more public fast chargers (as there are in France) you wouldn't have to take that longer route in the first place.

True, but not sure it's relevant... equally, with an ICE car, you could argue that if there were more dual carriageway A roads then you wouldn't need to take the longer motorway route to get to your destination sooner.

"If" is fine, but navigation software optimise the route based on the existing infrastructure, to include motorways where available and (in the case of EV) fast chargers where available.

I really don't see the difference....

 

[BTB 500]

I made that comment, but I also said that it was based purely on what I read online and on this forum, I have no first-hand experience with long range EV driving in the UK.

It was somebody else quoting a friend.

 

[BTB 500]

I really don't see the difference....

It's probably an ICE versus EV thing. If you're used to taking the most direct / fastest route from A to B with no question of ever running out of 'fuel' then taking a less direct route and having to stop periodically when you wouldn't have done so previously doesn't exactly seem like progress.

Perhaps if you're taking a leisurely drive (off on holiday etc.) it's no big deal, but Mrs BTB was out from 05:30 till 22:00 yesterday (and had another early start today) so the last thing she'd have wanted was to add an extra hour or two to her day in diversions plus charging time.

At least if you have fast chargers on the direct route (as seemed to be the case for you in France) you minimise the delays.