EV Road Trip from Peterborough to Cardiff. Around 400 miles in total. This is the first trip to be recounted rather than recording the actual thing – this was due to a technical issue with the audio in the original recordings. I hope it’s still fun to watch all the same! It includes a descent down The Tumble and some good Welsh scenery. Also some charging at Connected Kerb and Gridserve.
No cars were harmed in the making of this video! Although I have now covered over 58,000 miles in my EV6 over 2 years of ownership.
This is a drive in my Kia EV6 2022 RWD GT-Line model electric car (EV) as part of my channel trying to show real life with an EV including how driving longer journeys are affected by battery range and charging times, availability and reliability. There may also be some videos on tips and tricks and how the car runs. All videos will include some of my personal opinions and these may cover anything and everything. This is all real life experiences, nothing is fabricated here.
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Filmed using a GoPro, Rode microphone and edited with Openshot.
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hello and welcome to EV Car Share So today’s video is slightly different than what I intended it to be or this video Um I don’t do them daily or anything or weekly just kind of randomly but I was down last last week earlier this week um in Cardiff for work So I drove down to Cardiff I did whole load of filming at least I thought I had Well I did do filming Um but the sound didn’t come out too well So this was supposed to be me taking you on a journey doing a road trip to Cardiff and back with some interesting charging on the on the way back and some kind of stuff like that Um but as I say the sound didn’t go very well So there’s some opening sequences where I’m just going as if I’m a fish and there’s there’s no sound whatsoever And then there’s a whole load of sequences where there’s a crackling kind of static in the background You can hear me but it it’s it’s really annoying Even more annoying than usual you might say So I decided I’m not going to do that I’m not going to make that video It’s just not worth it But I didn’t want the trip to go to waste So today I am doing a recounting of the trip There will be on screen lots of screenshots of um car scanner and of things along the way and and stuff stuff that’s interesting So it’s not just me speaking to you like this Um so keep watching Hopefully it’ll be good If you like the format let me know I might do some more like this There are plenty of trips I do that I don’t record So I have the opportunity then to recount those if this is a format that’s watchable If it’s not then again let me know So down in the comments um let me know what you think This could be complete failure or it could be a success Who knows so I set off from Peterbr as I say from home on a work trip down to Cardiff charged to 100% So on car scanner as you’ll see 100% right now at the moment is in terms of kilowatt hours remaining energy is coming up as 68 and a halfish Um so 68 1/2 kw hours or 68,500 I think it was 60 if I remember correctly W hours as car scanner shows it So that was um enough to get me down to Cardiff but not enough to get me back home again So Cardiff is about 190 miles from my home So 250ish is what the car um predicts at the moment on the rangeometer on the display The satnav told me I would not get there which as we’ve discussed before as I’ve discussed before the satnav is really pessimistic So it thought I would not get there at all I need to charge Obviously I told it “No I’m not doing that.” And um I proceeded to head down to Cardiff most of the way of course just fairly normal Um nothing spectacular Taking the route on the A605 down to the A14 A14 along to the start of the M6 M6 until junction 4 where I turn off south side of Birmingham on the M42 Then M42 onto the M5 M5 down to the M50 M50 towards Wales Um towards the towards the border with Wales Did all of that Um planning on a stop for breakfast Eventually got to the A40 cafe So once you leave the A50 the M50 heading into Wales you reach the A40 around Ross Ymouth that sort of area And on the left as you come around near Monmouth there is a place called the A40 Cafe Now I’d spotted it Um done my kind of little bit of research looking where I might stop for breakfast And it’s a an independent cafe Um just the roadside Looked good Decided I wanted to try something independent wants to try something where he gets an actual plate and knife and fork and a mug rather than all this McDonald’s with wrappers and paper and stuff that gets thrown away and disposed of And most of it is not recyclable Um because it’s got food on it but they try to make you think they do recycling in McDonald’s I’m convinced they don’t actually do most of it as recycling They have the intentions but because of the way they do things with all this paper and stuff I don’t think it is So I was quite happy to find a cafe with a plate And I ordered up my full English breakfast We were still in England at this point by the way just over the border Um so it was a full English breakfast not a full Welsh breakfast Um and so I had my full English breakfast and uh coffee It was very nice The the breakfast was excellent Really good Uh bacon was nice and thick and it all in all very nice Coffee was a bit meh I only ordered the white coffee I mean maybe if I’d spoken to the lady and maybe ordered the latte or something like that Um a bit more then Yeah But I I was like I’ll have a coffee And she said “White coffee?” I was like “Yeah that’ll do.” Uh at the time I really wasn’t really thinking but for a coffee yeah it could have been better let’s say All in all quite happy though Cost me just over £10 for a full English breakfast and a coffee which is about the going rate I think I’m not going to say it’s cheap It’s certainly not Um but it’s going rate and I was happy to support a small local business rather than a big multinational like McDonald’s or any of the others carried on down to Cardiff Got down to where the I was seeing my customer for the day Um spent some time obviously doing the the work I intended to do when I was down there All went well in that regard I think time will tell but um I’m pretty happy with the day They had pod points in the car park I didn’t use them but it was something that I noticed Now they don’t appear on the Pog Point app so they weren’t public charge points They weren’t ones that I could activate via the app I don’t know if if id plugged in they would have just charged freely or whether there was some sort of card or code that was required And I didn’t really fancy plugging in and having to go to reception to find out whether there was a card or code required and whether or not I could use it as a non-emp employee kind of as a visitor Um don’t know Some of these things are a bit tricky to know If if you could it would be very useful especially for people traveling a long distance If you got there with zero battery and then you could charge and you were there for the whole day working on site as a contractor then you could disappear with full battery Absolutely fantastic That would be just the perfect scenario for traveling workers like myself Um but as I say I didn’t really look into it I don’t know Maybe I can email my contact and find out for future reference That might be a good thing to do Um so I was there with about 32% battery I think So plenty to get me there I had didn’t um need to charge on the way but not enough to get back Now the other thing about this particular trip as I’ve mentioned on other trips and as you might have noticed if you’ve seen other trips I’m into my cycling And in South Wales where I was there are some good cycling hills And I am currently working my way through a list of cycling hills around the UK And so far or at that point I was 75 out of the 100 hills on the list having completed I knew there were two more hills that I hadn’t attempted that were in that area So I had pre-planned ahead of time once I’d finished work because it’s now longer evenings lighter evenings bit warmer weather nice sunshine I would go and drive my car from Cardiff up to a place called Blenavan I’m going to call it Blenavven I’m not entirely sure of the pronunciation If my Welsh gets me completely out then please go ahead and rip into me in the comments I’m going to call it Blen Now I’d spotted on my app on the Electroverse app that there were several connected curb charge points in the car parks of Blunavvern One car park had them at 22 kW The others were all sevens So I was hoping for one of the 22s Then I would take my bike which I had in the in the back of the car and I go and cycle these two hills take me between two or three hours That was the plan Come back to my car car won’t necessarily be well wouldn’t be fully charged definitely not um but it would have some more charge in it um these charge points were also quite inexpensive compared to the ones on the motorway so with a slightly lower cost I could put some charge in it maybe enough to get me home maybe not depending on how things went but certainly while I was busy cycling it could be busy charging it may as well rather than just sitting in the car park So that was the plan I left Cardiff went to Blen Alvin The first charge points which were the 22s I didn’t actually go to the car park The car was I put them in the sat now and the car was telling me that they were both taken So both of them now the car would have not charged at 22 kW anyway The AC maximum on this car is 11 but it’s at least 11 is better than seven It’s kind of half again pretty much Um yeah around that So 7 plus half of 7 is around 11 It’s 10 and a half but it’s around 11 Um so that’s what you’re looking at really is the is half again um 50% extra 50% extra free Well it’s not free but 50% extra anyway for the same amount of time Um so that was the plan Those as I say they appear to be taken on the satnav So I didn’t even go to that car park I just went to my backup plan where there were two 7 kW charge points and they were both free So I rolled up into that car park free to park in this little village Could call it a village Maybe a town but I’m going to call it a village Didn’t seem to do much there Plugged into one of those Got a bike out Went for a cycle Really good Did the two hills One of them was something mountain clen clenv I don’t know something other mountain I can’t remember and the other one was the tumble which is quite a famous cycling hill it’s been featured in the um uh tour of Britain and cycle rides like that so the the pros have all ridden it certainly when you look on straa which is a a tracking app for sports um the fastest times up that hill were all pro cyclists Absolutely nowhere get anywhere near that sort of speed or time but I I did well I think I did well enough for myself Um I’m happy And I completed both of the hills and they’ve both been checked off on my app now on the list So that’s all that was all good Now I got to lenavvin with 16% battery remaining after having cycled for my 3 hours Then I had around 50% remaining The connected curb app said that I’d taken on board 23 about 23 kw hours which is good And I used my Electroverse card to start that because there’s a discount on Electroverse when you use the app or card I have an RFID card so I use the card Those AC charge points like that you cannot use contactless by the way Just thought I’d mention it You need to have either an app to activate the charge point or you need to have an RFID card The Octopus Energy Electroverse is very useful for that As I say I got a discount It also gives me that RFID card that allows me just to scan and start the the charge point money I prefer to scan a card and use an app It’s up to you Everyone has their own preferences So got back to the car Um decided I fancy something to eat There was a fish and chip shop in the village just up the hill So I went up to the hill got some fish and chips walking not driving Um thought I’d leave the car charging Came back down the hill and then took the car off charge to drive it to a scenic point Um there’s a hill up the hill There was a a lake and car park area that I’d spotted on my bike that I wanted to go to Wanted to sit there and have my my chips So I had pie chips and gravy Very very nice Um chips could have been better Pie was really good Gravy was really nice All in all it was good Don’t get me wrong but I would have liked the chips to have been a little bit nicer Maybe maybe it’s just a bad day Maybe midweek on quite early as well on midweek wasn’t so good but who knows who knows so then I um got going went down the descent of the tumble in my car Quite interesting to see how quickly I can get down in my car compared to how long it takes me to cycle up um two different extremes Um beautiful views off the top Hopefully I’ve got some footage that could show you that cuz that that is really nice [Music] [Applause] [Music] That’s I [Music] love you [Music] Heat Heat [Music] Heat [Music] Heat [Music] Heat Heat Heat [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat [Music] Heat [Music] Heat [Music] Heat [Music] [Laughter] Heat Heat [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] Heat Heat Heat [Music] Got to the bottom had gone up a percentage So it was 49 dropped from 50 down to 49% by the time I was in my car parking area I was sat there with my um my car in utility mode listening to the radio the fans on and so on to make it nice and comfortable in the car So then when I headed down the hill got to the bottom of the hill I was back up to 50% Great really really enjoy that when you’re going down hills and gaining energy always good but 50% was not enough to get me home so I planned in my satnav I went okay let’s go to rugby services satnav said I wouldn’t make it the difference between what the car said I had in the battery and miles and what satnav said I would need was very slim it was only about 10 miles different so I was like will I make it won’t I make it well let’s have a go Let’s see I wanted to go to rugby services because they now have huge numbers of charge points Their grid services are quite expensive 79p if you pay in the app Now they’re I think they’re 85p or 80 something p if you just pay by contactless So gone up a bit Um expensive already Can’t use my electric so I don’t get any sort of discount on them really There’s no good reason to go there except that there there are loads of them So I really wanted to go see this I think it’s 32 they’ve got there now Obviously 32 charge points That’s quite an impressive site and kind of shows the point that the infrastructure is there but we’re not lacking infrastructure in the UK You can go and charge your car quite easily But then I got going and I was reaching the point where the M50 joins the M5 and I was feeling like I could do with a stop for the toilet I didn’t really want to hold on all the way to Rugby And I was also in the back of my mind thinking there’s also the possibility I won’t make it And what is there in between here and Rugby i couldn’t think of anywhere really apart from there’s some BP pulse charge points at the NEC But it’s a bit of awkward getting off the road there and getting to the NEC and it’s yeah I didn’t want all that faf and BP pool’s quite expensive as well even more so than the grid serve I think So that was my dilemma and I decided okay I’m going to just stop now at strenum strumm strum strumm services So I stopped off at Strange from Services and I did a very fast charge Went to the toilet Took about 10 minutes on the grid serve charge points using the app to start it Got my 79 p Um and I put in that was 23 kw hours So the one down in Blen was more than that I think about 28 kwatt hours So I put in my 23 kW was enough to take up to 60% So I worked out that I really needed it back up to 50% to get home with zero So to give myself that buffer I took it up to 60% And then headed back off again Now while I was journeying around the M42 I noticed that there are now some Apple Green charge points on the M42 The car popped up that there were 12 out of 16 available um at the next junction at the point where they are I think it’s Hopwood Is it Hopwood services um I think so So I could have and probably should have stopped there instead Rather than Rugby and rather than Stretch those Apple Green charge points are on the grid on the Octopus Electroverse app So that would have been the better place to have stopped it would have been a lower cost and it would have been quite nicely positioned in terms of my journey um for me to stop there So in retrospect that would have been better It would have cost me less So anyway charged up at the grid service at Strenum carried on got home as I say I gave myself a 10% buffer Got home with 12% 12% is not bad Um that’s a reasonable buffer I don’t like to go too much below 10% or too far down that way if I can avoid it I also don’t like to charge up with too much expensive electricity on the on the roadside So if I’m arriving home with like 30 40% then I’m I’m kicking myself I’m thinking I’ve got this totally wrong Um there’s absolutely no way I should be arriving with that much expensive energy still left in my battery better to have as little of the expensive energy as possible and then charge it when you get home Um which is what I did really 12% Okay Would have been even better if I’d arrived with say 6 or 7% Um would have saved myself a few pounds maybe but not a great deal So 12% was okay Got home obviously car straight on charge Don’t want to leave it down at 6 7 8 9 10 etc 12% um you want to bring it up at least over 20 30% um straight away if you can So I plugged in um Octopus Energy on the intelligent octopus tariff which I use allows me that low cost charge um pretty much whenever I request it really But outside of the low cost hours if I’m plugged in charging it brings down the cost to that low cost charge So I was able to get a low cost charge Um which was perfect And yeah and that was it really So all in all a good journey No particular hassle Um there weren’t any charge points that didn’t work The charge point that I used in Blenavvern was nicely situated in a car park allowing me to charge while I was busy doing my cycling up the hills Um which was grand They were both available The one I plugged into worked I don’t know if the other one worked I didn’t try it Why would I um would have been nice if they were 22s rather than sevens because then I would have got a slightly faster charge and probably had they been 22s and I was charging 11 Um then I would have got so I almost had no I would have still been a little bit short I think I think I would have still needed to top up a tiny bit at the the grid serve or somewhere on the motorway I don’t think I’d have quite got enough in the battery to get me home um doing some rough calculations in my head So that was it That was the journey Um grid serve again plugged in worked no problem Didn’t have any hassles just a little bit expensive Um but as I say yeah that was the journey So hopefully this recounting interspersed with suitable pictures from my cycling and from car scanner and pictures of my breakfast and all that sort of stuff has been fun enough to follow along with I’m going to leave it there I’m going to say thank you for watching If you liked it like the video If you want to see more of my stuff and subscribe please And if you have something to say stick it in the comments But that’s me for now So until I speak to you next time goodbye