Where's everyone going?

[DanZac]

Interestingly, we seem to be split into two quite distinct camps. The hardly go anywhere, happy at home group. And then a few that are knocking up some big leisure miles on a regular basis.

I've got no idea what that tells us, or shows. Apart from the general concensus that the roads are busier than they used to be.

I suppose the different answers confirm different normal vehicle use and explain why you get such diverse and differing opinions during EV discussions.

What works for one, is unlikely to work for another? But at the same time confirms that in a lot of cases, big vehicle range is not really an issue, however that vehicle is powered, as we don't actually generally stray that far from home?

Fair play to those of you that are knocking up the big miles though. Rather you than me (having played the big miles game, I'd rather not go back to it).

 

[daleyd]

I don't necessarily think you can assume people who often make 300 mile journeys would be stopping to eat en-route.

It's very do-able in a one-er if you time it right and get a clear run, at most you might need 1 or 2 five minute loo breaks.

If you always have somewhere to be for a specific time, much better to just get the travel bashed out efficiently, and if you don't get caught in traffic, use the extra time you allowed to account for it eat before doing whatever you're there for, otherwise grab a snack and crack on.

I’ve done it myself, I’ve done return journeys from north wales to Essex and back in a day - many times. What I’m saying is that it’s not usual, and even when I was up for doing that in my younger years I still had to stop to eat and for breaks.

To add as well, with modern tracking and mobile phones etc, if doing stuff like that for work then you’d be advised on checking your company driving policy.

When I was bashing 50-60k miles a year out tracking was unheard of but even back then our company policy was to stop and take breaks every so often (yeah right…). Nowadays when your movements are monitored - well good luck if they check and see you’ve not stopped for the last 6 hours. Time have changed.

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

As for enjoy the world, many of the places Ive been are shall we say an aquired taste.

Did you acquire the taste though?

I'm actually quite fond of:
- the Basra Governate (now it's calmed down a bit) in Iraq,
- Uganda,
- Ecuador &
- about 50% of the Indian states I've visited (would not take the missus though)...

Algeria & Senegal both left me with a positive impression too.

Nigeria, Congo (Brazzaville), the Autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Libya are all places I really wanted to like, but just feel far too sketchy to ever relax.

The Chinese interior is also somewhere I really want to like, but get a different uncomfortable feeling about.

The places I've found least enjoyable on my travels are somewhat controversially:
- the UAE (Dubai in particular),
- KSA, and
- the USA (even with a valid US visa from the embassy, the second the CBP guy sees multiple entry visas for Iraq, Libya, and China in your passport, it's going to be long and unpleasant).

 

[skotl]

For me, 75% of journeys are less than 30 mile round trip. 20% are Glasgow, Aberdeen, Pitlochry maybe 150 mile return.

And the others are to pick up my late brother in laws kids from stoke which is probably 280 miles each way.

That last one rules out an EV for me - last thing I want to do on that trip is to hunt around the car park for a spare charging port then kill 45 minutes plus in a service station. When they stop selling new petrol cars I’ll stick to used until the infrastructure gets there.

 

[Smallfry]

Driving from Kent to Preston tomorrow, then back via A14 and Harlow. couple of weeks ago to Bridgewater, and before that Sheffield, all there and back in one day. I do it quite a lot to collect things for my automotive obsession. Generally leave about 4.30am.

I used to do a lot of miles when I was working, but not as much as some. I do it mainly because it is easier than using pallet services, and also because now that I am economically inactive, I would hardly go anywhere, so its a day out. Of sorts. Other than this, I am happy to stay at home. I have been to most places I wanted to go, and besides, it is quite interesting listening about road closures, traffic jams etc, and make me glad I am not going anywhere.

 

[jimbo84]

Work is a whopping 2miles away, go to my mum’s maybe once a fortnight who is 12 miles away and then the inlaws maybe once a month who are roughly 20 miles away. Go to other relatives who are around 150miles away twice a year. We generally holiday within a 100 miles from home.

We had a train trip up to edinburgh the other month for a couple of nights, at 200miles away that’s the furthest we’ve been in quite a few years.

I can’t be bothered going anywhere nowadays. Driven all over the country and various places abroad and would think nothing of driving a couple of hundred miles to go and pick up something and nothing off ebay in the past, but be it planes, trains or automobiles travelling anywhere in this country is a ballache nowadays.

I had an electric van but replaced it last year with a petrol car, given the lack of the need of a van, the huge depreciation in electric vans and the cost of an electric car compared to something suitable in dinojuice I cut my losses and went back to petrol.

 

[ukracer]

I did 316 miles on Friday. Sevenoaks to Truro via Trowbridge. 7 ½ hours through the tail end of the snow. I was thankful it wasn't 24 hours earlier going through Launceston etc!

A few stops in my 2.0 petrol Mondeo but it was comfortable.

I was I admit wondering how an EV would have coped. Reckon I'd have had range anxiety.

Part of me thinks it's a bit of an affront that when going long journeys in an EV you are basically forced to stop to recharge. In that 20, 30 minutes, an hour or whatever you'll likely be supping coffee, or hot food, all which took energy to produce.

Interesting discussion with my son who was supposed to be finally getting his GTR back this weekend. But strangely it's developed a lamda sensor issue and a steering rack leak. It's only been away for a couple of years on and off.
So...we were talking about him being sick of it all and he had checked out some EV that was £199 deposit and £199 per month on a 3 year lease. But when I asked about charging 2 EV's he reckoned it would throttle everything back if they had two EV's.
So what happens when a family of 4 have 4 EV's. How do they all get charged?

 

[ukracer]

Assuming you would be eating anyway (at some point) I’m not sure you would be using “extra” over and above what you normally would

Never eat at services . Far too much of a rip off.

 

[nickk]

I do a tour around France,3-4000 miles,occasionally NW Spain,every school summer holidays,4 weeks in my 1967 camper,can’t get enough of it,been made very welcome staying in @Mick Annick garden,met @Barking Mat ,love the French climate,country,roads and people,lost interest in touring GB,the weather and it’s generally too familiar.
I drive more miles abroad than GB.

 

[addjunkie]

Did you acquire the taste though?

I'm actually quite fond of:
- the Basra Governate (now it's calmed down a bit) in Iraq,
- Uganda,
- Ecuador &
- about 50% of the Indian states I've visited (would not take the missus though)...

Algeria & Senegal both left me with a positive impression too.

Nigeria, Congo (Brazzaville), the Autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Libya are all places I really wanted to like, but just feel far too sketchy to ever relax.

The Chinese interior is also somewhere I really want to like, but get a different uncomfortable feeling about.

The places I've found least enjoyable on my travels are somewhat controversially:
- the UAE (Dubai in particular),
- KSA, and
- the USA (even with a valid US visa from the embassy, the second the CBP guy sees multiple entry visas for Iraq, Libya, and China in your passport, it's going to be long and unpleasant).

Guess I did. I started travelling for work in 1978 and stopped 2018. Was supposed to go to Alexandria for 3 years, but decided not to bother, The job I really fancied was Mauritania and Senegal, but it kept getting delayed until I was no longer bothered. Id agree about the middle east, never felt at ease in any of it. I reckon the sun boils their brains!

 

[GRW]

When I was doing around 30k miles p.a. for work (for years but not since mid-2022), I regularly went from South Coast of Wales to Anglesey (or N Wales somewhere) & back in a day (or did several days up there in one hit). No motorways, so early starts (needed to anyway, but less traffic) & get a move on. 3.5 hours "making progress", a quick stop for a pee and a 5-min break... then into a full day's work (often driving between sites), then driving back).
Driving is no fun & demands lots if focus when you're always pushed for time, under time pressure and scouring the road for idiots and the Scamera Scourge.
I don't miss it (& I used to love driving/riding).
Now, I've a sub-20 mile round trip, mostly dual carriageway, 15-min taking it legal each way - a doddle.

Driving my comfy, commanding seating position Campervan, without time pressure in a vehicle that encourages steady driving & not spirited driving- is generally a pleasant experience (though 20mph zones on main arterial roads in Wales is an irritation in anything).

 

[Keith 66]

I have an elderly toyota corrola used as a van to cart tools, boat gear & dog. Milage about 2500 a year It rarely goes more than three miles from home.
My wife has a modern Honda Crv & if we go long distance we use that.
In all honesty i would be well suited to a small ev that can be charged at home from our solar panels. 50 mile range would be fine.
But while the old banger toyota keeps passing its mot i will just run it until it dies.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

though 20mph zones on main arterial roads in Wales is an irritation in anything)

Tell me about it!...I did a 1 hour trip to the airport at the weekend....managed to get up to 40mph in places but only briefly!

Not really sure why people in London bother buying fast cars anymore!

 

[sg66]

150 miles I wouldn't bat an eyelid, I went to fort Augustus for fish and chips once that was about 570 miles, I know you said ignore work but I regularly exceed that daily and have done for yrs, I would have no issues with an electric van save for the bit where it would be 100k to cope with the distance required I think last I looked only a Merc had the range.

 

[fizzy]

It's funny but I still love driving. My best holidays are big road trips. Spain is probably the best country for that. Deserted roads. Hardly any speed cameras away from cities. Huge mountains and petrol stations everywhere that actually allow you to use the toilet.
I enjoy driving down to my dad's old house in the Algarve. Best part of the journey is the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander. 36 hour crossing. Love it.

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

Guess I did. I started travelling for work in 1978 and stopped 2018. Was supposed to go to Alexandria for 3 years, but decided not to bother,

40 years is a fair while!

I think I may be on a similar path, I've had a couple of recruiters reach out about jobs I would have given my left nut for a few years ago, but looking again now, being confined to just the UK market makes them seem kinda dull and small.

The job I really fancied was Mauritania and Senegal, but it kept getting delayed until I was no longer bothered.

Mauritania is a sore spot, we came within a gnat's whisker of winning a substantial contract there which would have justified me spending basically as much time as I fancied over there for the first 2-3 years.

Got edged out at the last moment by a late bid from a company which somehow managed to submit a near identical proposal to ours, but bid everything exactly 3% cheaper than us, and have by all accounts done a very lacklustre job.

Id agree about the middle east, never felt at ease in any of it. I reckon the sun boils their brains!

I have always found the Omani's nice enough, but there again it's inexplicably much cooler in Oman due to favourable geography.

 

[fizzy]

40 years is a fair while!

I think I may be on a similar path, I've had a couple of recruiters reach out about jobs I would have given my left nut for a few years ago, but looking again now, being confined to just the UK market makes them seem kinda dull and small.


Mauritania is a sore spot, we came within a gnat's whisker of winning a substantial contract there which would have justified me spending basically as much time as I fancied over there for the first 2-3 years.

Got edged out at the last moment by a late bid from a company which somehow managed to submit a near identical proposal to ours, but bid everything exactly 3% cheaper than us, and have by all accounts done a very lacklustre job.


I have always found the Omani's nice enough, but there again it's inexplicably much cooler in Oman due to favourable geography.

I was brought up in Yemen and Oman. Loved it. Hated the UAE though. Yemeni people were lovely treated us really well.

 

[Onoff]

So what happens when a family of 4 have 4 EV's. How do they all get charged?

Stagger the charging periods which is likely impractical. Could work to some extent in my case I guess where SWMBO does very low mileage, my lad does a 3 shift pattern and I work a day job but really just go to the station and back. 3 people in the house though working 9-5?

I think there are some chargers that divvy up the charge between a couple of EVs but that you halve the capacity obviously.

Upgrade to a 3-phase supply to the property. That then would mean getting the DNO involved. In my case a single phase branches off the main run pole which has 3 phase, goes overhead (over the road) to a pole in a neighbours garden, then branches again, overhead to 3 of us. If I wanted 3 phase the whole lot would need upgrading.

Fears are that if everybody did it it would overload the network. Then there's all the extra material etc.

Must have a chat with a neighbour who runs 3 EVs, just out of interest. A Tesla, a VW ID something and a big van. I think he likely charges at work too as he runs his own business. I imagine he has 3 phase at work.

Real world fears, coming soon!

 

[Onoff]

A great piece on Radio 4 this morning. About fast food and how it grew in the States after the war, from the cliche diner to the standardised chain / franchise model on the back of road building and social mobility, the baby boomers etc.

Ergo the facilities where people stop "to charge" have a ready made market to target with other (energy hungry) services.

 

[Onoff]

- about 50% of the Indian states I've visited (would not take the missus though)...

Would you take mine?