So “the network Isn’t quite there yet” was brought into stark focus today.
Had to go a fair distance to collect NewDug. Thought about taking the Evora, but - let’s be bold.
Outbound dream
Full charge before we left. Decided to take advantage of the new IONITY chargers on the way down. Arrived with about 50% charge. All chargers in use so we were “only” drawing about 250kw of the 350 theoretically available (that the e-tron can also take). We walked to the main services and got a sandwich and a cup of tea. Charge complete at 100% before we had finished sarnie 1 of 2 each. Seriously impressive.
Return fiasco
So that was the honeymoon.
Collected dog and needed juice. Audi nav recommend IONITY charge station - 10miles deviation from our route, but hey - they go so quickly - let’s do it. Arrived to find 6 chargers with cones in front of them, at what looked like an as-yet unopened site. Oh fuck. 30miles range left.
Got to a GeniePoint station with 24 miles left. Tried to “fast charge” at a fairly meh 50kW. No worky. Tried the one next to it. No worky. Fuck fuck. Tried the slow charger on it. Worky. Phew. But in 1hr we added 20miles range.
Enough to get us to a decent charger. Arrived at next place with 15miles range remaining. Charged at 50kW - no issues - added enough to take us back to the original IONITY site we used on the way down. Bingo.
Got back to IONITY. Charger available. Started chargeing fine - at 50 ish kw. What?
Other cars (two other e-trons) were on others Charging at 4x the speed. Arse. They left and I thought “I’ll move to their chargers to get the electrons we need fast”. Mistake…..
I then fought with 2 chargers and after a good 20mins convinced our car and the charger to actually talk - pulled 160kw. Not a bad rate, but disappointing giving late evening and no other cars there…. Should have been double that.
So yeah - when it all works - the electric dream is a reality. When it doesn’t it is ball-achingly frustrating and adds feckin hours to your trip. More infrastructure needed!