100 miles a day on motorways- help

tykesi

NigeWick wrote: »

2nd hand 30kWh Nissan Leaf. Charge at home on Economy 7 and Delamere services en route to Bristol if no charging at work, then charge at Delamere on return journey too. If you join Ecotricity it will be 19p per kWh charging, if not there's also a £3 connection fee. The 30kWh Leaf will do your 90 mile one way trip easily and if you do have to use Delamere. You're looking at under £12 per day if you get your home energy with Ecotricity. If you can charge just at home and work, it'll be less.

Just a thought.

A ridiculous thought. Who wants to stop on their commute to ‘fill up’ for a couple of hours? Mental.

ElefantEd

I'd second the Leaf idea. My wife works about 50 miles away, commutes 4 days a week. Charges up at work (so no having to wait around on the way or the way back - though if she does need to for some reason, it takes 10-20 mins to charge to a reasonable amount ie enough to get home). Cost is pennies per mile - about 2p/mile is using electricity at home, free at work or at rapid chargers (though we are in Scotland, there is a charge in England but it's less than the cost of petrol). Also, in the 3 and a bit years we've owned it, from nearly new, maintenance and servicing has been very cheap; there's basically nothing to go wrong. New tyres and brake pads is about it. Ours is the 20kwh version, and although it will just about do 100 miles on a full charge, it's a bit tight; as NigeWick says, the newer 30kwh version wouldn't even need to charge up at work as it can easily do 100 miles.

NigeWick

tykesi wrote: »

A ridiculous thought. Who wants to stop on their commute to ‘fill up’ for a couple of hours? Mental.

Why ridiculous? Who wouldn't want to save money and take a break after an hour's driving? Mental.

motorguy

NigeWick wrote: »

Why ridiculous? Who wouldn't want to save money and take a break after an hour's driving? Mental.

Its ridiculous because commutes are dull enough without having to elongate them by sitting around waiting on your car to recharge.

When i leave work, i want to get home. I think most sane people would feel the same.

Top Gear estimate 90 miles real world range during winter from a 30KW leaf.

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/nissan/leaf/tekna-5dr-auto/first-drive-0

I certainly wouldnt want to be setting off on a long commute on a winters day shi tting myself about whether or not i'm going to make it to work....

AdrianC

NigeWick wrote: »

Why ridiculous? Who wouldn't want to save money and take a break after an hour's driving? Mental.

I certainly don't want to spend ten minutes or more (plus fannying about, plus waiting time for a charger to become free) every hour sat in services. Gawd, no. And that's before we remember that range is shortest on cold, wet nights. Just when you least want to be fannying at the services instead of getting home.

Are you really suggesting you need a break from driving every hour? By all means every three or four - absolutely - but every ONE hour? Ridiculous. You'd never get anywhere.

ElefantEd

Well we get 85 miles real range in our 20kwh Leaf (driving at normal speeds ie 60-70mph on A roads/dual carriageways); it drops in winter to about 75. But 1.5 times that (for teh 30kwh version) gives way over 100 miles.

Also, if you ever get worried about the range, you just drive a bit more slowly; you can increase the miles/kwh substantially, but even driving at 50 rather than 70 helps quite a lot.

Joe_Horner

tykesi wrote: »

A ridiculous thought. Who wants to stop on their commute to ‘fill up’ for a couple of hours? Mental.

The sort of person who really believes that electric cars are close to being viable for everyone.

jimjames

NigeWick wrote: »

Why ridiculous? Who wouldn't want to save money and take a break after an hour's driving? Mental.

An hour? I can't think of any reason I'd take a break after driving for only an hour. Leaving work I'd just want to get home

forgotmyname

A break after 1 hour? Blimey imagine all the lorry drivers stopping every hour. Nothing would get done.

I drove from the Midlands to Cwmbran, then down to Redruth and back to the Midlands. Only stopping briefly to unload a small pallet of items at each of the two stops. Topped up the fuel just outside Redruth and then all the way back to the Midlands non stop.

It may suit you doing 50 miles, but the OP wont be doing 50 miles each way. So they are unlikely to make it there and back on a single charge during the winter.

bigadaj

forgotmyname wrote: »

A break after 1 hour? Blimey imagine all the lorry drivers stopping every hour. Nothing would get done.

I drove from the Midlands to Cwmbran, then down to Redruth and back to the Midlands. Only stopping briefly to unload a small pallet of items at each of the two stops. Topped up the fuel just outside Redruth and then all the way back to the Midlands non stop.

It may suit you doing 50 miles, but the OP wont be doing 50 miles each way. So they are unlikely to make it there and back on a single charge during the winter.

There'd be far fewer bottles of !!!! thrown onto the verge side if they did.