Nissan LEAF Acenta, Lincolnshire and back – Living with an EV: Road Trip Report

Nissan Leaf Accenta, Lincolnshire and back - Living with an EV: Road Trip Report

What is the make and model of your EV?
Nissan LEAF Acenta 62kWh

 

Introduction
Drove to visit various friends in Lincolnshire (people seem to be migrating east of the A1) traveling from home in Cheltenham and back over six days.

 

Planning & preparation 
Didn’t plan, apart from arranging stays with friends and one-night at an Airbnb.

 

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Charging
Fully charged at home. Stayed two nights in Stamford (lovely town!) where our friends let us plug in for the night (13amp outdoor socket). Two further nights before reaching Lincoln, lovely city and cathedral!!. Then visited more friends at Torksey Lock where there are three bp pulse Type 2 chargers – brilliant! Except all three were out of order: the call centre said they were ‘off grid’. No worries, there are plenty of chargers on the way home. Getting late, so aimed for the Royal Oak pub at Collingham thinking we could have supper while the car charged on the 50kWh Alpha charger: except it was displaying a fault code and out of order.

 

Next stop on the way was Newark which has two 50kW bp pulse chargers in the town, BOTH out of order. Found the GeniePoint charger in the basement car park at Morrisons in the town but the touch screen wasn’t responding and the charger was in a location with no mobile signal so using the App or website out of the question. We have an RFID card though.

 

However, three calls to the helpful call centre (outside the car park to get a signal!!!) got the charger going again. By this time it crossed my mind that an ICE car would be much less trouble! Got some groceries from the store (open late fortunately) and the car charged well pulling 47.3kW. The journey back to Cheltenham was uneventful if an hour or so later than it need have been!!

 

Nissan Leaf Accenta, Lincolnshire and back - Living with an EV: Road Trip Report

 

The EV itself 
The car behaved absolutely perfectly. Frosty mornings? No problem, turn on the climate from the iPhone!!

 

Road trip conclusion 
Fantastic trip to beautiful Lincolnshire, wonderful catching up with old friends and relatives. Driving long distances in the EV is hugely satisfying and relaxing. We will do it again. BUT: deeply disappointing finding six out of seven chargers out of order, five of them BP Pulse. If this is representative of the network then they really need to get it sorted. Being a member of bp pulse (shiny new card arrived the other day) is pointless if the chargers don’t work! The network was considerably more reliable in the days of Chargemaster!!!

 

See other road trip reports here

 

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