Sublime gravel riding in The Trossachs - My 1st EV
My 1st EV - Mountain Guiding with a Conscience
Hmmm, so what has this all got to do with adventurous and fun activities in The Lake District? More than first appearances suggest.
For a number of years now I have had growing concerns about my own impact on the environment and have been very keen to minimise any negative effects as much as possible. Thankfully, for almost all our time in The Lakes, we have lived in Ambleside and been able to walk straight into the mountains from our door. Such a privilege that has been.
Whenever going rock climbing, a car journey has been necessary, although I have on rare occasions cycled to the crag, this really isn’t practical for anything other than a short journey.
So when we moved house earlier this year and are now based on the outskirts of Grange-Over-Sands, all journeys into The Lakes, be that for work or pleasure, take longer and involve more driving. I was soon burning through way too much diesel for my liking and so made some big changes, including the purchase of not one, but two electric vehicles to replace our current ICE vehicles.
With the right energy tariff and a rooftop energy supply, these will enable us to travel around The Lakes emission free. I like to think of it as Mountain Guiding with a conscience.Â
First up are the Photovoltaic panels - one of the first home improvements we did was to have solar panels installed. After receiving quotes from numerous suppliers, we went with local firm - Go Green Solar - who have been outstanding. Their advice was to cover one side of our roof with panels, this added up to 14 in total, with each having an optimiser for added efficiency.
As part of the package, an inverter, 5.18kWh battery, and EV charger were also installed. So quite a job and not an inconsiderable investment on our part. This all happened at the beginning of July, so in time for all that lovely summer sunshine.
The 6kWh system has regularly generated around 30kWh on sunny days over the summer and naturally this has decreased with the arrival of autumn and daylight hours being shorter. But still impressive, take today, 2nd October, as an example. It has been overcast all day yet we have still generated 9kWh meaning complete self sufficiency and we’ve even managed to top the car battery up a little, all using energy from the sun, on this cloudy day. Neat huh.  Â
So now onto the EV part of the story:
Back in May this year we bought a small secondhand EV. A BMW i3. I initially used it for days when I didn’t need loads of equipment, but once I was used to it, I did start to fill it with ever more equipment on canyon trips and multi-activity days. It worked okay for these, but did sometimes come up a little short on space.
What I very quickly realised though, was that an EV was the right choice as I was now driving with zero emissions (we are on a 100% renewables energy tariff). This meant I was actually having more days out in the mountains again on my days. A massive plus point in my eyes.
Initially we did not have a home charger. However, charging via a 3-pin plug worked okay, but it was a relief when the home charger was installed in July. It also meant the start of free fuel for us on some days, as we could direct the energy generated from the solar panels straight into the car battery. Absolutely zero emissions yet again. That’s a very nice feeling.
Home charging has been all we have needed so far with the little car, more on public charging later.
Things were going so well we decided to replace our other vehicle with an EV, this time something larger so I could use it more regularly and easily for work days. Also something with a little more range so it would be easier to use on longer trips.
I took time to look extensively and ended up choosing a Skoda Enyaq with the smaller battery option of 62 kWh. This was a choice based partly on economics and so far that’s working out pretty well. The Enyaq is a large estate car (although it is more usually referred to as an SUV, I think this is just marketing waffle) about the same size as a VW Passat estate.
Unlike the i3, this has a more normal construction, so no carbon fibre, making it a fairly heavy vehicle, I think almost 2 tons. Sadly this is pretty standard for a modern EV. Even so, the economy so far is decent, not quite to the same degree as the i3, but with a light right foot 4+ m/kWh is easily achievable, even when loaded with kit for a work day. Winter will of course see this drop, but we drive much less in winter, so not really an issue for us.
We either charge using solar via the home charger, or overnight at off-peak rates (on the green tariff). This makes running these on a daily basis incredibly cheap. But just as important, it is kinder to the environment, especially locally due to the reduction in air pollution. I must add, we purchased both as secondhand vehicles, so aren’t adding vehicles to the road.
The road trip:
Last week we had a short holiday up in Scotland. This was to be the test for charging away from home and longer journey logistics in an EV. I was a little apprehensive, but had spent time planning our stops so had at least some confidence all would be well.
We used 2 apps to help plan the route and charge stops. Zapmap and Electroverse. I also have 2 RFID cards, one from Skoda and one from Electroverse (Octopus Energy). I used the Skoda card for this trip and it worked well.
Electroverse suggested a stop at Gretna services for a top up so we did this and it went well. The chargers were of the ultra rapid variety but actually only delivered around 40kw max in reality. This was okay for us as we didn’t need much. Starting the charge was easy, simply plug in, tap the RFID card (or a credit card) and it starts. By the time we’d popped to the loo and had a 5 minute leg stretch it was done and we were on our way again.
Whilst another stop wasn’t necessary, I’d spotted what looked like a nice charging location at a country park just south of Glasgow, so we stopped there too. This wasn’t quite as straightforward. The first charging station we visited was all out of use. Thankfully there were 2 more sites within a minutes drive, so we tried one of those. These were all working and all empty.
I plugged in and tapped the RFID card to get the charge started, then we headed off for a walk around the nearby lake. We planned on stopping for about 30 minutes as this was a slower charger, but when we returned to the car we were informed by another motorist that these chargers were currently free of charge. We checked with the service provider and they confirmed this good and unexpected news, and we stayed a little longer, popping into the local hotel for a coffee - way nicer than a typical motorway services.
Well, I was later to learn the free charge wasn’t actually free. It was free only when using their app, which I was not. Oh well, it was still pretty good value so no drama.
We arrived at our destination of Aberfoyle calm and feeling quite rested. The journey being slower than it would have been in a regular ICE vehicle. Then it was lots of fun gravel biking for the duration. See photos. We stayed at the rather lovely Trossachs Holiday Park - and would highly recommend this as a base for cycling or walking.
Prior to setting off back home we knew we would need another charge and had checked out the charging points in the centre of Aberfoyle. These are operated by Charge Place Scotland and the easiest way to use these was with their app, which we downloaded. These chargers were cheap (for public) at £0.50p/kWh and almost always available. Whilst charging we went for dinner at a pub in the town, so no actual waiting involved at all.
Charging in Scotland - this will almost certainly be from a renewable source as Scotland now produces more Renewables than it consumes: https://www.gov.scot/news/record-renewable-energy-output/ - so all CO2 / NOX / SO2 free driving for anyone using an EV north of the border.
During the return journey we stopped just once and this was just north of Carlisle as we had identified some very good value fast chargers. I think we stopped for about 25-30 minutes, so a little bit of waiting, but certainly not inconvenient. At just £0.49p/kWh it was worth the wait.
The rest of the journey was super smooth and once home the vehicle was plugged in for a cheap overnight charge.
Owning a second-hand EV has made me feel much more comfortable about driving again. The reduction in emissions is really what does it for me and I urge anyone considering the switch to give it a try. Particularly so if you have a renewable energy source at home or work, or live in Scotland. The savings both environmentally and economically are considerable. For us it means more days will be spent climbing and the drive to and from the crags will be super relaxed.
Thanks for reading. Normal service will resume with my next blog post that will likely be about a recent day spent squeezing through caves in The Yorkshire Dales.
Mark
Autumnal sunshine in Scotland - My 1st EV
Charging just outside Glasgow - My 1st EV
Home charger showing energy source being 99% renewables - My 1st EV
Rooftop power station - My 1st EV