5,000 miles and an adventure

Eight months and 5,000 miles on and the electric adventure continues. I’m enjoying the ride even more than I expected. But let me state up front (and I'm probably repeating myself here) that given my circumstances, there is really only one significant drawback to the ownership of my particular electric car; range. Long distance travel is perfectly doable but requires thought and planning – more about that later. In other aspects, it's the perfect city runabout.

Running costs

A common question is how much is it costing to run? By that, people are asking what I am paying for the electricity that goes into it, and that's an impossible question to answer with any accuracy. There are a few ways for me to approach an answer and they all have reasons for being wrong. But by relating them all, I can probably give folk a handle on the money that goes through the charging port.

First is total consumption. Two weeks after I got the car, I signed up to Nissan's Carwings system. Through telematics, Nissan keep a log of the car's daily use and that information is available to me through their website. I harvest this data and keep it on a spreadsheet. According to their figures, they have totted up 4,241.8 miles using a total of 1,103.2 kilowatt-hours (or units) of electricity. This gives an average of 3.84 miles per unit, which isn't bad given that it covers the winter period.

Of more interest here is cost. Ignoring my daily standing charge, I pay £0.1176 per unit which implies a cost of £129.74. Had I done the same miles in my last, very frugal petrol car which averaged 10 pence per mile, the same distance would have cost me £424, a big win!

But wait, I didn't pay for all the electricity that went into the car. For example, we recently made a 600-mile round trip foray to Shropshire and the majority of the power used for that trip (about 170 units) was free from Ecotricity's Electric Highway network. Add to this the other times that I've taken advantage of other public chargers.

Additionally, except for deep winter, a fraction of the power that goes into the car comes from the solar panels on my house. In fact, if I know the car requires a top up and I see from my display in front of me that there is significant spare power available from the panels, then I'm outside in a flash, connecting car to house.

Is there another way for me to see how much more I've had to pay for electricity? Yes, because I'm a sad git who happily notes my electricity consumption each day, and have done for years. Therefore, I can compare the same 8-month period across 2014/2015 and 2015/2016.

As of writing, I've had to buy 469 more units of electricity (at 11.76 pence each) since I got the car compared to the same period a year before. That equates to £55.15. Unfortunately, that cannot be an accurate measure of the electric car's costs because it takes no account of other possible influences on our electricity consumption. Still, I'm not complaining. The truth lies somewhere between the two and I suspect it is a lot nearer the lower figure. Nearly 5,000 miles for the price of a largish tank of fossil fuel.

How poor is that car?

When I first got the car and was writing about it, I was aware that I might be seen to be overly biased in its favour. I tried to compensate by writing about those things I could find that could be criticised. Anything. It wasn’t easy, but I’ll try again.

First, a word about my expectations of a car. I have tended to eschew luxury motors and it is not my intention, even unconsciously, to use my car as a symbol of power and status. I know that to some extent, I’ve failed because by having two, albeit small cars in our driveway is, I’ve made a statement. Nevertheless, until I got my hybrid Yaris, the previous four Yaris cars I had were small vehicles with 1-litre 3-cylinder engines and entry-level equipment. I was perfectly happy with that. I'm not a connoisseur and my expectations are probably low. But when I stepped into the Nissan Leaf, it felt like an order of magnitude improvement in the levels of equipment and comfort that I was used to. I got another point of view from a BMW-driving friend who had a shot in the Leaf. He opined that it felt at least as smooth as his car. I feel it is an extremely pleasant, smooth, quiet, unfussy, responsive, calming driving experience and I’m very fond of it.

So what don’t I like? I don’t like the wipers. From new, they tended to streak and I’ve read that it is a good idea to replace them with some Bosch blades.

I don’t like the windscreen washers. Toyota had implemented great systems to minimise glass scratching by spraying screenwash in a powerful fan or delivering copious quantities direct to the blade. The Leaf’s skooshers are pathetic squirts in comparison, delivered from a relatively small screenwash tank. Nissan could learn a lot from Toyota.

I still haven’t quite got used to the relatively large pressure I have to apply to the indicator stalk if I want to give a flick indication. I like that even with a short operation of the stalk, the car continues to flash a few times. However, the force required to make it happen is nearly as large as the force needed to engage the indicator properly.

What else don’t I like. I don’t like that the music player doesn’t give a visual indication of the length of a track and its playing position. However, I have become used to the different sound quality of the system which bothered me at first. I had compared it unfavourably to the Yaris sound system.

I positively hate that every so often, and often at inappropriate times, a voice comes on and begins to tell me what my average energy consumption has been in miles per kilowatt-hour, what my ranking has been for efficiency in my region and to give me a tip for more efficient driving. I neither know how I turned it on in the first place nor how I can stop it from ever coming on again. It is very annoying, especially when it interrupts a good radio programme, causing me to miss a crucial section.

When there are three folk sitting in the back, they often complain about a large raised structure that gets in the way of the person seated centrally.

What else? Oh yes, the previously mentioned range. It would be nice if it had a few more miles, say, double? And I don’t particularly like the shape of the car. :-)

But in all honesty, I think it is a great car. It’s very well equipped. Far more knobs and whistles than I need or really want. Auto headlamps, auto wipers, rear camera, tyre pressure monitoring system, cruise control... drone on and on and on.

The bald truth is that I have to be really picky to find anything to moan about the car. I love its silence, its smoothness and its power. It is a good advertisement for what an electric vehicle can be and I really didn’t understand the car reviewer on a BBC Alba programme who took one for a review and didn’t like it. His frame of reference for what makes a car good is obviously radically different to mine. Maybe he misses the noise of a powerful engine massaging the seat of his pants or the whiff of hydrocarbon when it’s going in at the filling station, or coming out of an exhaust pipe. Maybe he had the car stuck on Eco mode the whole time.

Eco mode

When I first took delivery of the car, I was enthralled at the remarkable power it expressed when pulling away from a standing start. Whatever boy-racer tendencies I had as a twenty-something are long gone but for a while, now in my mid-fifties, I found the power, responsiveness and overall eager feel of the car quite exhilarating. On one occasion, I tried the eco mode and, ugh! Wet blanket. Back to the powerful ‘normal’ mode. And so it continued for a month or two until a conversation with somebody made me try it again.

Eco mode is now my usual mode of driving. It gives the car longer range around town because the acceleration is more muted. It lets me return to my more measured, typical-me-behind-the-wheel ecomiser personality. Now it is rather pleasurable when occasion demand that I be quick off the mark. I put a stop to the eco mode, hit the pedal and take off, whether it’s at lights that have caught me in the wrong lane or on a slip road onto the motorway, effortlessly syncing the car with left-lane traffic, something I had to do rather a lot recently during our trip south.

The Great Spring Electric Adventure

My better half was aware that I wanted to stretch the Leaf’s legs a bit so she suggested that we take it down to England to visit my sister in Shropshire, who is also interested in electric cars. And so it began; 296 miles – each way. The trip south would be split after 124 miles by a stay in Penrith, thanks to a late afternoon departure. With the planning precision of a military general, I plotted all the Ecotricity charging points along the way, noting the miles between each and drawing up separate lists for the southbound and northbound legs to take account of those sites that are only available in one direction.

With the spring weather getting warmer, I had been getting used to the range being around 90 miles and I harboured the idea that we might make Annandale (70 miles) but knew that Abington was available (46 miles) should we need it – and we did!

First, a little about range calculation. If I charge the car to 100%, I note its estimated range and zero the trip meter. Then as I drive, I watch the distance travelled increase while the remaining range decreases and I add the two. (I ignore the first mile of travel to give the estimate time to settle.)

If conditions are heavy or I’m pushing hard, the total drops. In good conditions or light driving, the total goes up. This way, not only do I see the available range, I monitor the total range to gauge overall performance.

As we climbed out of Glasgow into the Southern Uplands, a stiff headwind and heavy rain combined with the hills to dramatically reduce the total range down from 95 to only about 65. I set the cruise control to 60 mph and plugged away in the lorry lane. No way was I going to risk trying to reach Annandale. Abington would be our first stop and by the time we reached it, we had just 20 miles remaining – 69 total. It is possible that the subsequent downhills might have extended the range enough to reach Annandale 25 miles further on but I wasn’t here to exercise range anxiety.

A few miles short of Abington, still cruising at 60, we caught up with another Leaf whose driver was obviously eking out their power. Maybe they had their cruise control set at 57 or so. I thought to myself, if he’s just come through what I have, he’s probably short of power and has the same plan as me. I gingerly overtook him, still at 60, half expecting a race to commence to Abington Services.

Having pulled into Abington, we parked at the two pumps, both free, and as we gathered our things ready to plug in in the rain, the other Leaf pulled up. We settled down for a coffee and snack when the woman from the other Leaf approached us. Could I help them get the pump working?

Their story was that they own a Renault Zoe but were test driving the Leaf and were giving it a proper workout. They had come all the way from Inverness so had already dome 200 miles. Althought they had probably recharged twice if not three times in their trip, they were struggling with the CHAdeMO connector. They seemed to have got the sequence wrong and when I tried it, all came good. We would pass them again later.

At Abington we got back up to 92% charge but the range said 65 miles; not enough for Southwaite, the last stop before Penrith. I had expected 60 or 70-mile hops between charges but with the effects of the foul weather fresh in my mind, I chose to stop at Annandale for a top-up. And anyway, my better half wanted to get something from the shop there.

After another two dozen wet, windy miles, with our power still being hammered, we called into Annandale. There is only one ‘pump’ and two huge Mitsubishi SUVs were sat in both spaces next to it. I waited while the better half hit the shops. Happily, after only eight minutes, a space at the pump was free. It was getting dark and we knew this was going to take longer than planned. We were having to make more stops and I was reluctant to go faster. We elected to grab some fast food and let the car top up.

I decided to stop again at Southwaite, 40 miles later. Our hotel was 15 miles further but I wanted next day to start with a decent charge. On this occasion, I got a chance to learn the characteristics of rapid charging now that the rain was backing off a bit.

When first plugged in, a rapid charger delivers in excess of 100 amps, but as the battery heads past 90%, the current goes down to about 10A. This led me to think that it might be better to charge for a short time and do so more often. I could then go faster between stops rather than trying to make my power last.

Friends on Facebook laughed at how long it was taking us to get to Penrith. In the event, it was 4 hours to go 124 miles but it had been a stiff test. The heavy rain and high winds had cut my miles/kWh significantly.

Often when going up and down the M6, I’ve seen the signs for the Rheged Discovery Centre in Cumberland and wondered what it was. Since it was only a mile or two from the hotel and, more importantly, it has a rapid charger, we decided to start our day with a top up of leccy and a decent coffee. The centre turned out to be a lovely place. Fine coffee and great shops much admired by my better half.

Though we could have made Lancaster Forton Services (55 miles), and the weather was getting better, we were still affected by yesterday’s experience and had a top off at Killington Lakes (29 miles) and then headed on. We’d only stay at one place for 15-25 minutes then head off, setting the cruise control for 75 mph.

At Lancaster Forton Services, the better half headed to M&S to get sandwiches. Rather than eating mine now, my plan was to continue down to Charnock Richard Services and munch them during the next charge. This electric adventure was panning out reasonably well. The 'charge short and often' approach was working. I got to drive faster as I was less prone to wanting to eke out my charge. It was still wet but not as wild as before. At Charnock Richard Services, I went inside to get a takeaway latte and noted a bunch of old boys gathered around the charger inspecting its display.

Next stop was Knutsford, 29 miles beyond and a diversion from our original plan. Based on Google Maps’ suggestion, we had planned to take a westerly route past Chester and through Oswestry and around Shrewsbury. But just before our journey began, Ecotricity’s website had showed that two charger sites on that route were offline (Oswestry and Shrewsbury). Plan B was to stay on the M6 where there are lots of charging options and then past Telford on the M54.

The weather had cleared, there was about 65 miles indicated to our destination and the car was being bullish by suggesting a 90-plus mile range. We decided just to keep going to the end and see how the range would pan out. I mostly sat around 70 mph and was amazed to see how positively good weather affects the car's range. We made our destination without issue, taking a short cut suggested by the car’s satnav via Market Drayton.

This had been a slow but fun way to go 300 miles sans petrol. We felt that it was actually enjoyable to take more breaks in a trip. The car proved to be a pleasure to drive distance and I think that the cruise control is a real boon because it takes a level of mental activity away. I certainly felt more rested at the end of the journey than I would have expected had I been hammering down in long stretches. I think there is a cost for getting to a destination faster.

The trip south had given me insight to the charging characteristics and logistics of long journeys, and taught me to be aware of the effects that the weather or the topography could have on the journey. It was good to think about speed of driving versus charging time and how all these variables interact. Of course, when the 200-plus-mile cars become affordable, all this will become less of a consideration.

Heading home

First stop on the way up was Knutsford. Having fully charged at my sister’s place, we took a 70-mile cross-country route and had 22% remaining, a good result. With a good recharge, we could bypass Charnock Richard and so we pushed onto Lancaster Forton Services, about 54 miles distant, and we cruised at around 73mph. (I love cruise control.) There were 14 miles remaining when we got there.

At Lancaster, we had to decide; Do we stop at Tebay at 38 miles or head onto Southwaite, 65 miles distant? I was aware that Shap summit was ahead and took the sensible option, Tebay, which let me keep the speed up. Anyway, we were enjoying the relatively frequent breaks, even if they were less frequent than on the way south.

Tebay was reached in the blink of an eye. There were roadworks for the few miles leading to it and then I had one of those horrible moments when I thought I had screwed up. A slip road preceded the services and for a sinking moment, among the roadworks, I thought I had missed the turn off. Because I had kept my speed up, there were only 16 miles remaining in the battery and Southwaite was another 30 miles further on. It was an unpleasant, if short-lived thought and the services were a short distance beyond.

It’s a drag

Just as with conventional cars, a car’s speed affects its consumption in a way that has a nasty ‘square’ in the mathematics. But with a short-range car, you have to be more aware of it.

The drag felt by the car can be thought of as being due to all the little air molecules hitting the car and requiring a certain amount of energy to be pushed out of the way. That energy is the kinetic energy of the collision and a famous little equation lets us understand how it works:

Kinetic Energy = ½ mass times velocity squared

By this equation, if a certain amount of energy is required to push the air aside at 30 mph, then at 60 mph, the energy doesn’t just double, it quadruples! By hammering up the motorway at 75 to 80 mph to Tebay, I had shortened the range by quite a way.

At Tebay, we decided it was a good time to stop for a cuppa and give the car time to charge. It was hard to find the chargers as they were poorly signposted and tucked away at the far end of the complex up to the left. As we crawled around the car park looking for them, I had another 'oh no' moment. When we located them, we found charger to be off. Happily, the other one was good.

Out of the way charging at Tebay.

We returned to the car after 45 minutes to find the charge had stopped. Had it stopped prematurely? I was glad to see the car report a 93% charged battery and I don’t know if there was a time limit set on the charger. At any rate, it had charged well. Annandale was my target at 69 miles (with Southwaite and Gretna as alternatives). It should be the last stop before home.

When travelling southbound on the Spring Electric Adventure three days ago, our initial reticence combined with the heavy weather made us top up the battery every 30ish miles. The return journey was proving to be very different.

After Tebay, there was a little concern as the road kept climbing up to Shap summit and the range promptly shortened. Then as we descended, it lengthened again as we sailed past Southwaite and Gretna. The numbers indicated that we should make Annandale with about 10 miles remaining after 68 miles. The actual number remaining was nine miles, a bit close for my better half’s comfort.

Having just done 68 miles, the 69 miles to home seemed readily achievable. The only obstacle would be Beattock summit. Yet I knew that if getting up there took too much out of the battery, we would have Abington and Hamilton as alternates.

As we headed to climb to Beattock summit, I thought, sod it, I'll keep the speed up and do a quick 10-minute top-up at Abington. Rather than going slow, I can sit at 75 (indicated - about 70 true) for the downhill to Glasgow. Then I note that the driving and charging has caused the temperature of the battery to rise to the highest I've seen it.

Battery temperature

The left side of my main display has a large fan-shaped temperature display. The top two segments (10 and 11) are indicated in red and the car was indicating the ninth segment. I normally see it at 4 or 5. This is unexpected and I wasn’t sure whether it would be a problem.

The Leaf is unique among battery EVs by not having an active thermal management system for the battery, relying instead on forced airflow. This saves weight and complexity (and cost) but Leaf owners in hot countries and states have reported problems. It seems that as long as the gauge doesn't go into the red, I can continue what I'm doing. If it does go into the red, I'm not supposed to rapid charge the battery.

I assume the temperature shot up because of the rapid charge/discharge that I was doing by going 300 miles in a day and cruising at 75mph. Outside temperature was only 10°C. It bothered me when I first saw it, not knowing if it was a trend that would put the trip's progress into the slow lane. In the event, it sat one notch below red for the final charge and the last 100+ miles.

At Abington, my intended 10 minute stop stretched a bit as a couple of older guys from Wales quizzed me about electric driving. It is fun to see preconceptions fall away as they learn a little about it all. They looked at the car and found it to be larger than they had imagined. They realise it's just a car. They ask about the cost of the electricity I'm pumping in from the Ecotricity charger. Their eyes widen when I say zero. Folk really dig it.

We get home about 9.5 hours after leaving. It wasn’t the fastest way to go the distance but it was relaxed and enjoyable. I would happily do it again, wiser, and perhaps with a Tesla.

Tesla Model 3

An early impression of the Tesla Model 3.

Just before we headed south, Elon Musk announced the Tesla Model 3. I’ve been anticipating this for a long time, having had the pleasure of driving a Tesla Model S in 2014. I completely buy into what Tesla is trying to do. I think they are a necessary disruptive force on an motor industry that was finding it difficult to work outside accepted norms.

I therefore became one of the 400,000 folk who have put our money down with a refundable deposit for one of the new cars. It is a worthwhile statement of my intentions and it helps indicate to the company that they should push forward with mass sales of (relatively) affordable electric cars.

If I do eventually decide to turn my reservation into a car sale, it won’t happen for at least two years. Model 3 production is set to begin late 2017 (if all goes well). West coast USA will be served first and it will be a while beyond that before right-hand-drive cars. But the car looks amazing and, although a bit of a swish car for me, will probably be a worthwhile long-term purchase.

Exciting times.