How easy is it to take an electric car on holiday?

How easy is it to take an electric car on holiday?

If you have no experience of electric vehicles you may easily be influenced by the negative press on electric vehicles over range and the charging infrastructure in the UK.

I have just come back from a 2 week holiday touring Dorset and Cornwall in my Hyundai Kona Electric Vehicle. During this period I have covered over 650 miles and have not had a single problem with either range or the charging infrastructure.

The first week we stayed in self catering accommodation at Steamer Point Lodge near Christchurch. There was no charging facility at this accommodation. The journey from my home to this location was 125 miles. My 64 kWh Kona EV has a real world range of over 250 miles so there was no need to stop on the journey there.

Electric Car Charging

Rapid Chargers

My first charging stop was on the second day at a nearby Tesco superstore where we stopped so Karen could pick up some shopping. Whilst she was in the store I plugged into a 50 kWh rapid Pod Point Charger which filled the car up for £8.49 (0.27p per kWh). This charger can supply the car battery with around 50 kWs of electricity in one hour.

This allowed us to tour the area and get us all the way home to Ivybridge after the first week where we stopped to pick up some food for Archie from our home. Whilst Karen was taking care of sorting this out I popped down to our local 50 kWh rapid charger and filled the car up again. This cost me £9.68 (0.30p per kWh).

Destination Chargers

We then went onto the Park in Mawgan Porth Cornwall for our second week. Here they have two 7 kWh destination chargers free to use for customers. This will supply the car battery with 7 kWs of electricity in one hour. This is much slower than a rapid charger but is ideal if you can leave the car on charge for several hours.

One is for Tesla Vehicles only, the second can be used by any type 2 connector so was fine for my Kona. Any business that does not offer destination chargers will soon miss out on custom. I will look to book accommodation only where there are destination chargers if possible.

This meant I could tour all around Cornwall for free using this charge point at the end of each day.

On one day we ventured to Porthleven where I decided to use another destination charger this time at the Foundary car park just a few minutes walk away from the harbour. This is a new installation with 10 charging points so I thought I would try it out.

They have a coffee company on site which has a cafe and toilets.

Here the Pod Point chargers cost 0.19p per kW hour. EV owners often refer to the ABC of ownership. It stands for Always Be Charging. I did not need to top up but as I was at a charger and it was available I plugged in anyway.

When we finished our holiday we returned home and I still had over 100 miles of range left. In terms of cost I had travelled 650 miles plus the 100 miles I had left for an outlay to me of £20.89 or about 0.03p per mile.

How easy is it to take an electric car on holiday?

In summary then Rapid Chargers are great for shorter stops mid journey as they deliver electricity to your car fast. Destination chargers are where you park up whilst visiting such locations as at shops, restaurants and holiday accommodation where your staying for several hours as they charge much slower.

Simply planning your route and stay using websites and apps such as Zap Map or A better Route Planner enables you to keep an electric vehicle topped up and ready for the next journey without too much stress or hassle.