Great journey yesterday from South Northamptonshire to the Lake District, towing our 1550kg Unicorn Vigo, with our Polestar 2 LRDM. It’s our 7th or 8th holiday towing with the Polestar so are getting the hang of it.
Two stops, the first after 110 miles in Crew at an Instavolt. Insta was on a go slow at only 80kW max (49 mins)
Second stop 85 miles later at the South lakes Porsche experience center. Great 350kW charger peaked at 136kW for me (battery at 26%). Stopped for just 25mins. Then on to Borrowdale. The whole journey used 146kWh over 260 miles giving a potential range of 132 miles on a single charge. The first leg was even better (much flatter) with a potential range or 140miles towing.
In all just 75 mins of charging on a 7:25 min journey, but we had some long delays on the M6 (around 50 mins). Car was superb…
Total electricity cost, about £61, with about 40 solo miles left over at the end.
We did the same journey last October. I have learned 4 key things since then.
1) ultra-rapid chargers make a huge difference. I would love an EV6 as a tow car for that reason (though I am not sure I would give up the Polestar just for that).
2) there are a LOT more ultra-rapid chargers than just 8 months ago.
3) Gridserve MSA that replaced the Electric Highway chargers are NOT ultra-rapid, even though they are advertised as 120kW.
4) Plan to use as much of your charge as possible each time to maximise charge rate and minimise charge time. As the number of Ultra-rapid chargers grows, this gets easier.
The infrastructure is definitely not as bad either the press make out or people think it is, but it still has a long way to go!
Quote: Originally posted by The hog on 24/7/2022
So you spent an hour and a quarter recharging on a journey I could do in my diesel without stopping and still have plenty of fuel left!
No thanks.
Theoretically I could do the same, but these days I would take at least one break, possibly two, on a journey of that length, although that may have more to do with my age. In my younger days I might have done it without stopping.
Did it really take 7 1/2 hours and two stops costing £61 to do 260 miles? My V8 petrol/LPG Land Rover can do double that without refuelling in quite a bit less than 6 hours while towing over 2500kg. Admittedly it would have cost more, 260 miles would cost around £70-£75 but the extra fuel cost is offset by being able to spend more time working and less time travelling. Why on earth would I switch to an electric vehicle?
Quote: Originally posted by The hog on 24/7/2022
So you spent an hour and a quarter recharging on a journey I could do in my diesel without stopping and still have plenty of fuel left!
No thanks.
Likewise!
I regularly do a longer version of the journey from London to Lakes towing my 4 berth caravan with my 7 seat PETROL car, all on a single tank of fuel with about 100 miles of solo driving left in the tank at the end, AND for LESS expense in fuel/energy! Where is the cheap running cost of an EV in the real world?
And I only voluntarily opt to stop on route for maybe 20 minutes, mostly to let the dog stretch her legs and have a wee! Often do it in cold, dark, wet autumn months where use of heater, headlights and wipers are necessary, which would further compromise EV range per charge!
It's an interesting read, and thank you tdrees for that, and demonstrates in a practical way that longer distance towing is possible for EV's, but it's no sales pitch for an EV, and not going to convert me any time soon! Pay MORE in fuel/energy to do an already time consuming journey MUCH slower, I don't think so thank you very much!
We did 230 miles yesterday in our Santa Fe diesel towing the van. 26 mpg and still have just under a quarter of a tank.
One stop to,stretch our legs, eat and comfort break! We parked in with the trucks.
If we changed it would possibly be for a self charging hybrid.
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Quote: Originally posted by 664DaveS on 24/7/2022
Could be difficult if you can't find somewhere to leave the van. Plus it would need to be secured or it might go missing.
I've yet to see charging points at the areas caravans are normally punted to in motorway services, usually the HGV parking area, if you're lucky in a few, a dedicated caravan parking area, and where the charging points are in the main car parking areas, usually right up by the cafe/shop buildings, are normally VERY inaccessible for towing a caravan to. I can only conclude that in most you need to dump the caravan in the HGV/caravan parking area, fully secure it (or risk losing it!) then take the car to the main charging banks for up to an hour - what a faff! Then you've got to try and get back to your caravan in HGV/caravan parking to hitch up again! In many services all that may be impossible as HGV parking is often VERY separate from car parking areas with no access! I've noticed in quite a few services that once you've parked in HGV area, you can't even access the ordinary fuel station, you have vehicular access to HGV fuel station and exit only!
Motorway services are all too often very poorly laid out for the needs of caravaners at the best of times, dealing with an EV's needs as well, doesn't bear thinking about!
Quote: Originally posted by martin734 on 24/7/2022
Did it really take 7 1/2 hours and two stops costing £61 to do 260 miles? My V8 petrol/LPG Land Rover can do double that without refuelling in quite a bit less than 6 hours while towing over 2500kg. Admittedly it would have cost more, 260 miles would cost around £70-£75 but the extra fuel cost is offset by being able to spend more time working and less time travelling. Why on earth would I switch to an electric vehicle?
Post last edited on 24/07/2022 13:59:41
It did, but 50 mins of that was sitting in traffic on the M6. So actual journey time if 6h40m. We used to do the same journey in our XC90 and would stop twice in that too, for about 30 mins less over all.
Quote: Originally posted by 664DaveS on 24/7/2022
Could be difficult if you can't find somewhere to leave the van. Plus it would need to be secured or it might go missing.
We always leave someone with the ‘van. Tricky if towing solo. Never had a problem finding somewhere to leave it yet.
Quote: Originally posted by 664DaveS on 24/7/2022
Could be difficult if you can't find somewhere to leave the van. Plus it would need to be secured or it might go missing.
I've yet to see charging points at the areas caravans are normally punted to in motorway services, usually the HGV parking area, if you're lucky in a few, a dedicated caravan parking area, and where the charging points are in the main car parking areas, usually right up by the cafe/shop buildings, are normally VERY inaccessible for towing a caravan to. I can only conclude that in most you need to dump the caravan in the HGV/caravan parking area, fully secure it (or risk losing it!) then take the car to the main charging banks for up to an hour - what a faff! Then you've got to try and get back to your caravan in HGV/caravan parking to hitch up again! In many services all that may be impossible as HGV parking is often VERY separate from car parking areas with no access! I've noticed in quite a few services that once you've parked in HGV area, you can't even access the ordinary fuel station, you have vehicular access to HGV fuel station and exit only!
Motorway services are all too often very poorly laid out for the needs of caravaners at the best of times, dealing with an EV's needs as well, doesn't bear thinking about!
We have used 3 sets of services. Stone M6 north, Hilton park M6 south and Skelton Lakes in Leeds. Also the area at M1 J29A, but it’s not real a traditional services. No real issues so far, but I did check out the layout on line before using to be sure it would not be a problem. Having dedicated chargers for towing in future would be nice, but it is workable without.
Quote: Originally posted by The hog on 24/7/2022
So you spent an hour and a quarter recharging on a journey I could do in my diesel without stopping and still have plenty of fuel left!
No thanks.
Likewise!
I regularly do a longer version of the journey from London to Lakes towing my 4 berth caravan with my 7 seat PETROL car, all on a single tank of fuel with about 100 miles of solo driving left in the tank at the end, AND for LESS expense in fuel/energy! Where is the cheap running cost of an EV in the real world?
And I only voluntarily opt to stop on route for maybe 20 minutes, mostly to let the dog stretch her legs and have a wee! Often do it in cold, dark, wet autumn months where use of heater, headlights and wipers are necessary, which would further compromise EV range per charge!
It's an interesting read, and thank you tdrees for that, and demonstrates in a practical way that longer distance towing is possible for EV's, but it's no sales pitch for an EV, and not going to convert me any time soon! Pay MORE in fuel/energy to do an already time consuming journey MUCH slower, I don't think so thank you very much!
The towing costs equate to about 41MPG. If you are bettering that with a petrol, then there is clearly no saving. Over all, the time loss was about 30 mins compared to how we would have towed before. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I grant you. Some like to tow for 5 hours straight with out a break. On the few occasions I have done that, I hated it…
But I agree, it’s more about what can be done. I chose a car that I would love solo, and could also do my towing, given that I drive about 90% solo and 10% towing. Being able to use an EV for my tow, gives me choice about the rest of the time.
Quote: Originally posted by clbewi on 24/7/2022
Looks like you have to un hitch the van as well, a lot of faffing about.
Yes, we definitely have to unhitch to charge, but with 2 of us, it’s barely 5 extra mins per stop. It’s a bit more faff, but not horrendous. Not having to would be nice, but it’s not a deal breaker.
Quote: Originally posted by The hog on 24/7/2022
So you spent an hour and a quarter recharging on a journey I could do in my diesel without stopping and still have plenty of fuel left!
No thanks.
I did, yes, but only 30 mins longer than I would have stopped for anyway. And the benefit is I now have my EV with me :-) (I see that as a benefit, others may of course not). The fact I had plenty (or only a bit) of a energy left is of course neither here nor there. Further charging could have been done if I needed more, and I was able to charge next day while visiting Keswick (which took me no time at all).
An EV would be fine for me, it's just the cost of buying one that puts me off. I can't afford a fraction of what a suitable new one would cost me, and I wouldn't trust a second hand one, as you have no way of knowing how good the batteries are. My current diesel car cost less than a set of batteries for an EV, and it probably goes just as far on a tankful of fuel as it did when new. I doubt you could say the same for a 13 year old EV.
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Topic: Long tow with an EV
via mobile 23/7/2022 at 9:15pm
