Essential electric vehicle tips for Irish road trips and motorway driving
A long journey in an electric vehicle can be just as stress-free as in a petrol or diesel car. Picture: PA
Electric vehicles are becoming an increasingly popular sight on Irish roads.
Recently, battery technology improvements have made them a more tempting proposition over petrol and diesel alternatives.
However, if you’ve just bought an EV and you’re new to battery-powered ownership, taking one on a long journey can be a daunting prospect.
So, with that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks to make sure you’re fully prepared when taking your electric vehicle on a long journey.
One of the most sensible and helpful pieces of advice for any EV owner would be to plan your journey.
If you’re driving a long distance, the chances are that you will need to top up at least once. If it’s a familiar route that you know, look at what chargers are available on the journey and then work out which one will best suit your vehicle.
Range anxiety has become a commonly used phrase towards EV ownership; however, with a bit of planning, you can prevent that from happening. All you need is to drive carefully, and considerately and know where to stop off.
Then, a long journey in an electric vehicle can be just as stress-free as in a petrol or diesel car.
If you have a home charger, one bit of advice would be to top up the night before. This means that you can start your journey fully charged, which means you have to potentially stop less and get to your destination in a shorter time.
All home chargers will be a slow AC 7kW unit, which will top up an average EV overnight, but it will just reassure you that your vehicle is ready to go in the morning when you set off on your journey.
If your EV won’t cover your journey on one charge, stopping off to top up can take time. So, to ensure that no one goes hungry or thirsty, take snacks and drinks with you.
This will make the journey less stressful, many public EV chargers are located on motorway service stations, where you can buy food and drink if you forget to take your own.
Also, driving while dehydrated or on an empty stomach can mess with your concentration levels, can make you easily frustrated and leave you less able to make decisions quickly — so make sure you’re drinking plenty of fluids when you’re on the move.
Changing your driving style can help to eke out every last kilowatt from your EV.
Driving an electric vehicle at 120km/h on the motorway can drastically deplete the charge as the motor has to work harder to keep it moving, however, if you drop back to 100km/h, not only are you still making decent progress, but you can improve the battery’s efficiency and lose less charge overall.
An advantage to this is that you may not have to stop to charge as many times if you go slower, meaning you could get to your destination quicker.
The dilemma is, do you go faster and stop more frequently to charge, or go slower and stop less often?
This is a question you need to ask yourself if you want to get to your destination on time.
There are several different EV charging apps available on your smartphone. They can tell you where a charger is located, how many sockets are available and what sort of plugs they use.
Also, some apps will tell you how many chargers are in use at the time and will also say if the devices are functioning as intended. This is all here to make your life easier as an EV owner.
Examples of apps available to download are EasyGo, ePower, Weev and ESB ecars.
Just because you’re driving an EV doesn’t always mean that your journey will run smoothly.
If you encounter diversion, road works, heavy traffic or poor weather, always have a backup plan.
If you’re diverted off course, make sure you know where the next available charging point is, as you can find yourself suffering from range anxiety.
This can add extra time to your journey, leading to stress and worry.
