The Electric Vehicle Experiment

A week of Touring with an Electric MPV

During the summer, circumstances allowed me to experiment with an all electric vehicle. In this blog, I hope to give you a snapshot idea of a my week on the road, and to give readers an idea of the merits of commercial driving with an electric vehicle. (The way of the future, as I was repeatedly told).

My trusted Caravelle (who is fast attracting the name, “Carrie”) has been taken off to the doctor’s, requiring a replacement steering column as its security system is disabled, (not an easy fix). A dilemma arises: Do I cancel a week’s worth of bookings, with possible loss of reputation, as replacements may not be available at this short notice, or do I hire a vehicle for the week? Looking at the sums and logistics, it’s possible to hire and still come out on top.

Next comes the search. A hire car needs to be licensed by a local authority, (Transport for London in my case). Hirers with this specification are few and far between. One reputable company provider did not survive covid lockdown, the pool being smaller, there are fewer options available, not to mention peak season with large number of visitors causing a demand for vehicles.

I return to Civilised Car Hire (https://londoncarhire.com) for the first time in a few years and am not disappointed with their service. Initial choices look hopeful but in the event, only a Mercedes EVQ was available. A week with an all electric car. Now that sounded like an appealing step into the future of motor transport. My electric adventure begins:

Day 1 – The Briefing and Collection

Civilised Car Hire have moved since my last visit to them, so an early train and a bus ride through the South London suburbs, a short walk and a welcome in Camberwell. After an introduction to the vehicle, a briefing about energy saving, vehicle quirks and an app download, we were off.

I’ve driven diesel versions of the EVQ before, so I’m familiar, but not comfortable with their layout. Slightly wider than the Caravelle, admittedly smoother over bumps, and obviously with no engine noise, much quieter. Were it not for the dashboard telling me about energy consumption, and a counter ticking down the available range, I wouldn’t have known the difference between diesel and electric. 99% battery and off we go. So far, so good.

The first thing I noticed was the amount of drain on the battery caused by air-conditioning. Under normal circumstances, air-con is permanently engaged, and little thought put to air temperature. We were clearly in a different ball game. Hot day, so air-con off and windows open. 1 hour later, a battery depleted of 20% of its range.

Day 2 – Airport Transfer and Familiarisation Tour

First booking of the adventure. A London Heathrow Transfer tour. The plan here is to meet off the plane, load the car and see the sights of London before jet lag kicks in, just after lunch.

Despite the media coverage of baggage loss and flight delays, my guests arrive early, and are through Immigration and Baggage Collection within the hour, so we were out on the road and heading into London in time for the Guard Change at Buckingham Palace. Despite the quiet roads into town, we soon discovered that the whole of London seemed to have arrived at the same place. The pipers left their base, a few minutes before 10:45, but we were in place to see the new guard leave the Wellington Barracks and to the hotel to check in and freshen up.

Lunch Option – A very fine lunch at the Sherlock Holmes just off Trafalgar Square and then off to “do” London.

The list to be accomplished are Buckingham Palace, (tick); A sneaky walk into St Paul’s Cathedral between services (tick), a roof top view of London’s skyline, (one of many but not the few from St Paul’s which beats them all hands down); a lap of the Tower of London (tick); a close up view of Tower Bridge (tick); a zig journey west criss-crossing the Thames over Waterloo and Westminster Bridges with a stop at Westminster Abbey and a chance to photograph the tower that contains Big Ben. Back to Brown’s Hotel in time for Afternoon Tea, (arguably one of the best in London).

A lovely day out, local driving but time to recharge the batteries. I headed out to Fulham and to one of the Shell Electric Service Stations. 30 minutes of charging, a spot of coffee and we are ready for the following day.

Sounds simple but charging began after 3 attempts and I still see £60 pending in my bank transaction report. A full day’s recharge for £15.55.

Day 3 Eton and Windsor Castle Tour

Back in the car the following morning, very heavy traffic and an opportunity to recharge in the street. Having spotted the charging point, by the time I’d got to it, a taxi had pulled in and taken the slot. Ca va, not to matter. It was just to be an experiment, still plenty of charge left.

Back to Browns and off to Eton and Windsor Castle in time. The car park I chose was devoid of charging points. I didn’t need one but noted that there wasn’t the option anyway.

One thing I’d been warned about, and one thing that had a bearing on the whole week. Namely, air-conditioning. London is uncharacteristically hot, so air-con is an important feature, that I have taken for granted with my diesel powered Caravelle. As soon as the Air-con was switched, the range instantly dropped by 50-60 miles. (A bit of a worry).

This evening’s recharge takes place in New Malden. Lots of points, just beneath the A3, so not far from home. That said, today’s issue is a difficulty connecting the car, (or more importantly, disconnecting it. (Two pending test transactions stay on my credit card record for several weeks after this).

Day 4 – Windsor Castle Visit and Recharging Options

No bookings today, so a local day trip to Windsor with discerning passenger. (She is not the first person that day to liken the vehicle to a hearse, and point out how convenient and cost effective it would be if I were to make one my permanent vehicle).

Having left a little later than usual, we arrive as the Guards depart Windsor, Camera at the ready for that perfect shot of the guards passing Windsor Town Hall, I come away with the less than perfect shot of a police officer, who decided my field of vision would be a good place to stop and watch the guards herself.

I always like to start a day with a full tank, or in this case, a fully charged vehicle, so go off in search of local charging points. .

1st choice – local supermarket – An account with a specific electricity supply company is required. As we are only with the vehicle for another few days, it doesn’t seem worth the bother. (Particularly as I am in the belief that I have a profusion of local options).

2nd Choice – Recently installed bank of chargers at my local Shell garage are all out of order

3rd Choice – The other local Shell garage has access to the chargers blocked off by refuse, (so guessing not working).

4th Choice – A local hotel has two chargers but access to the charging stations is inside its car park but height restrictions in the car park prevent access, so back to New Malden, some 3 miles away.

Day 5 – Daytrip to Bath

The Bath Test – My mantra for an electric car is, “Can it pass the Bath Test?” By this I mean, could I run a day trip from London to Bath? It’s the longest day tour I do, with 100 miles each way to cover, and a little local driving. On this occasion, I am transferring guests from The Rubens Hotel in London, with a few stops in Windsor and Avebury on the way. A good test.

We have a super wander through Windsor, watch the Guards arrive for the change and then head further west via Windsor Racecourse, (my guests are from Lexington, Kentucky). Then to Avebury to check out the Stones, have a spot of lunch before heading further west to Bath. A quick stop to check out the White Horse at Cherhill and as the traffic is heavy, we enter Bath from the North at Lansdown, (my preferred route in). The day has been longer than planned and when I say farewell to my guests, I am down to 100 miles of charge. Probably not enough to get home but not to worry, as they’ll be plenty of options on the way home, (he said……).

It took me a while to realise that my credit card company had picked up some out of character transactions, and felt that it was about time I inserted my pin. Not a problem under normal circumstances, it’s just that being a bit state of the art, electric car charging points are contactless only and don’t have a keypad with which to input the pin. It took me sometime to find this out, and several calls to charging companies before said credit card company imparted this little gem of wisdom. Fortunately, phones are not so discerning, but unfortunately, the keypad was so low down and face recognition is not easy at knee height. I was at Amesbury before I managed to find somewhere to charge and have worked out the payment method required. Useful but with no nice facilities, I am forced to sit in the car waiting watching the clock tick down. After 30 minutes, I’ve had enough and have sufficient to get me to home territory.

The afternoon has not been entirely wasted, as a fellow electric car driver has given me useful advice on cost effective charging. Apparently, Tesco is the place to go. A Tesco close to home is my destination. BP Plus is an alternative was highly recommended when I picked up the car. Unfortunately, my local Tesco doesn’t have an obvious charging point and neither does the nearby BP garage. That’ll be another trip to New Malden then. 20:30 that evening, I am back at New Malden but this time, the coffee shop has shut and the machine is being cleaned. This time I need the full charge, an hour watching the battery return to 99%.

Day 6 – London Sightseeing Tour

The final day with the car is a London highlights tour. We will travel around London, looking and learning about Westminster Abbey, The Palace of Westminster, The Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral. After a visit to the Tower, we head to St Paul’s and then break for lunch at Poppies in Spitalfields, (in my humble opinion, one of the best places in London to enjoy Fish and Chips). Parking spaces here are in short supply but I do find a charging point advertised on the Zap Map App but when I try to seek them out, I find that they are either in an inaccessible car park or non-existent. I resort to a parking space a short walk away from Spitalfields.

From there to Westminster Abbey and back into the City for a secret roof top view to enjoy. We end the day back at the Rubens Hotel. Off to recharge the car, which is now at 60% after a day’s urban driving. I find a super charging point in Vauxhall, close to Civilised Cars, but need an hour for the charge. This time, I park the car, put it on charge and ironically, head to the place that the Cab Shelter Trust was set up for, (to keep driver’s out of the pub). Half a pint of lager and a packet of crisps, a five minute drive back to Civilised Cars’ base, the final inspection and a handover of the keys.

Conclusion – And there ended the experiment. What a week?

I have been booked as a driver guide, not only because it is a convenient way to travel but also, and more importantly, because many of my guests has are elderly or in someway infirm, and cannot walk far. – It’s important to highlight that Driver Guided tours in cities while a luxury for some, are the only way of getting around for others. I also concede to a self righteous feeling as the Mercedes purred through the City, devoid of any form of toxic emissions. (I’ll also concede that I had a number of requests to turn the air conditioning back on).

Since writing, I see my local garage’s electric points have been installed, so could have at least gone home for an hour while the car charged. Naturally, if I had my own, I’d have a more permanent infrastructure or regime in place. As it is, there seems to me, to be a long way to go before I could consider making electric viable as a touring option.

For more information on the tours I offer, please have a look at my website, https://www.jollygoodtours.co.uk