Gerry Thorne drove from Portsmouth to Luton Airport in his CUPRA Born 58kWh 2022.
Introducing your road trip
Travelled from home in Portsmouth to Luton Airport and return.
Planning & preparation
Using my home solar system, even in October I managed to ensure I started the journey with a full charge. A check on Zapmap showed a number of rapid chargers near the airport for a top-up before the return journey. I was taking my daughter and her friend to the airport for a trip to Lithuania so needed space for their luggage which was easy with the Born having a decent-sized boot. I used Waze to plan the journey as it constantly updates with changes to traffic, incidents and even police presence.
Charging
Started with a full home charge using my zappi and solar power and arrived at Luton with 62% battery left. Then drove less than 2 miles to some InstaVolt rapids at Wigmore centre. Also on site is a large Asda, a subway, a KFC and a large pub serving meals all day. Car parking is free for 2 hours but 45 minutes was enough time to charge back up and have a bite to eat and a drink.
Did you encounter any great driving roads on your road trip? If so, where were they and why were they great?
Dual carriageway and motorway ( M25) all the way, so not exactly inspiring but ideal for maintaining a good average speed and a steady consumption. Weather was good which made for a pleasant trip. The return journey was a simple reverse of the drive up although a detour down the M3 to avoid the tailbacks at the J10 roadworks saved a bit of time.
The CUPRA Born
The car was faultless on the drive.The Born is comfortable for longer journeys and very relaxing, especially when using ACC. Waze sat nav using Apple CarPlay was clear and direct with lots of other information such as broken down vehicles etc. The quietness of the electric drive train makes travelling a much more enjoyable affair. Using the air con reduced range by around 8 miles but overall the car returned 4.1 miles per kWh which I was happy with considering I was travelling at motorway speeds with 2 passengers.
Road trip conclusion
Overall, the car made what would otherwise be a pretty mundane trip a calm and pleasant experience. Having only done a few long journeys, it was an ideal way of putting to rest range anxiety and concerns about charger availability. A week later, I did the whole trip in reverse to collect the girls and used the same charger to top-up before the return. The InstaVolt chargers were pretty expensive at 85p kW but they always seem to work first time using the app and the site chosen in Luton was perfect for facilities too.
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