miklcct
On Moderation
I normally travel by public transport. However as the railway was blown out, I got no choice but to hire a car. I hired an electric car at Eastleigh, which is a Renault Zoe which has a range of 100+ miles (70 miles for older models) as claimed by the car club. My day plan is to get to Guildford Lido first, then near Wembley Park for orienteering, finally Central London. I planned to find a paid parking outside the congestion zone to charge it during my day in London, and use public transport inside London.
When I entered the car, it showed only less than 60 miles remaining even on a full battery! So I had no choice but to charge it in Guildford.
However, when I arrived Guildford, The car only had less than 10 miles left. I head to the closest charging point to the lido, it was out of service. Then I try another one on the map, but it didn't exist on the ground. I try the third one, but found the card in the vehicle was not working, and only by then I realised that it was not on the same network. So I found one on the network, but all parking space was occupied by non-EVs. I eventually plugged in the vehicle far away from the lido, next to the mainline train station, and walked 15 minutes back to the lido.
I had wasted more than an hour finding charging, combined with the time in familiarisation of the car controls (as I had never drove this model before), and the time needed to walk from the station to the Lido, I only got there by 10:15 compared to 08:15 if I could take a train to Woking than a bus direct to Guildford College.
As a result, I had to write off my orienteering race near Wembley Park, at I could no longer get there by 12:00.
After my swim, I returned to the car, and I was shocked that the car wasn't charging at all! I tried plugging out and in again but the charge post didn't work. I called the customer service, mentioned the symptom, and they suggested me that the charge post was broken. I drove to another one in town and exhausted all the on-network posts in Guildford, found none working at all, which left me no options but to pay for an off network post.
I opened the map and found one in town centre, which is at a Waitrose. I paid the parking fee and successfully started the charge, but I am only allowed to stay in the car park for 1 1/2 hours. However, my car needs 6 hours to be fully charged.
By now I'm running out of time to go to Central London, but I can't leave my car unattended for a long time for it to charge and grab public transport to London. As my car still doesn't have electricity, it's no longer possible for me to go to London now.
I'm still at the supermarket and I'll need to find another place for me to get my car back to full charge for me to drive it back to the returning location.
My day has been ruined because of the lack of EV charging infrastructure even in the city. I'll never use an EV again anymore!
When I entered the car, it showed only less than 60 miles remaining even on a full battery! So I had no choice but to charge it in Guildford.
However, when I arrived Guildford, The car only had less than 10 miles left. I head to the closest charging point to the lido, it was out of service. Then I try another one on the map, but it didn't exist on the ground. I try the third one, but found the card in the vehicle was not working, and only by then I realised that it was not on the same network. So I found one on the network, but all parking space was occupied by non-EVs. I eventually plugged in the vehicle far away from the lido, next to the mainline train station, and walked 15 minutes back to the lido.
I had wasted more than an hour finding charging, combined with the time in familiarisation of the car controls (as I had never drove this model before), and the time needed to walk from the station to the Lido, I only got there by 10:15 compared to 08:15 if I could take a train to Woking than a bus direct to Guildford College.
As a result, I had to write off my orienteering race near Wembley Park, at I could no longer get there by 12:00.
After my swim, I returned to the car, and I was shocked that the car wasn't charging at all! I tried plugging out and in again but the charge post didn't work. I called the customer service, mentioned the symptom, and they suggested me that the charge post was broken. I drove to another one in town and exhausted all the on-network posts in Guildford, found none working at all, which left me no options but to pay for an off network post.
I opened the map and found one in town centre, which is at a Waitrose. I paid the parking fee and successfully started the charge, but I am only allowed to stay in the car park for 1 1/2 hours. However, my car needs 6 hours to be fully charged.
By now I'm running out of time to go to Central London, but I can't leave my car unattended for a long time for it to charge and grab public transport to London. As my car still doesn't have electricity, it's no longer possible for me to go to London now.
I'm still at the supermarket and I'll need to find another place for me to get my car back to full charge for me to drive it back to the returning location.
My day has been ruined because of the lack of EV charging infrastructure even in the city. I'll never use an EV again anymore!
