Driving through an Advert

Our first proper drive in our new car yesterday was like driving through an advert. Winding Welsh roads, leaves blowing in the wind, driving rain, splashing through pools of standing water and stunning welsh countryside. There was even a medieval castle. Meanwhile we were warm and comfortable as we glided along almost silently in our electric powered car. Lovely!

Harlech Castle

We headed north, playing with various features of the car as we went. We had Harlech Castle plugged into the SatNav. On arrival it was pouring with rain and blowing a hoolie. Despite the imposing castle walls, the castle grounds didn’t look too inviting so instead we headed straight to the café for lunch. The café and visitor centre were nice, with a large glass front overlooking the surrounding countryside from the dominant position of the castle on top of the hill. There wasn’t a huge amount to see today though as mist and rain obscured it all. Things weren’t looking any better after lunch so we stayed for some cake.

The weather still hadn’t improved so rather than get soaked looking around the castle we jumped back into the warmth of the car and headed back home via Maentwrog and Dinas Mawddwy.

Car Economies

It wasn’t the best of days to be testing the cars efficiencies. The cold, the wet and the wind won’t have helped it’s miles/kwh. I doubt the winding, hilly welsh roads aren’t the best either. The fact that we had the lights, wipers and heating on the whole time will have drained the battery too. It gives us a good idea of what it’ll do on a fairly normal day here in Wales though.

We started the day with around 82% charge. The total driving was just over 110 miles and by the end of the day we were down to 43% charge. That’s 39% of the 64Kwh battery. That works out at 25Kwh for 110 miles. So, 4.4miles/Kwh. That works out about right because at that rate the total range of a full battery would be a just over 280 miles.

Charging

Back at home we plugged the car into our Zappi charger and left it to see if the scheduled charging would work. Sure enough, it kicked in overnight and started topping the car back up for a few hours using cheap rate electricity. It did stop charging a couple of times overnight for some reason but we’ll try again tonight to see if that always happens. It’s probably more an issue with the electricity supply to our house than anything else!

Zappi Usage
Zappi Usage

We should pretty much have a fully charged battery by Monday morning. We can of course always give it a boost and charge it whenever we want but if we restrict it to cheap rate it’ll obviously save us some money.

I guess the next thing to try is charging it at a public charging station somewhere. Out with the apps and RFID cards!!

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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