The Funky Cat has a WLTP range of 193 miles, real life experiences when I first got the car was in the 185 mile range. These days with the car approaching its third birthday, is close to 165. For 90% of my driving this isn’t really an issue. However, it does or can become frustrating on longer journeys.
On those trips that are significantly longer than the range I obviously have to stop on the way to charge the car. My preference is to stop at Tesla charging stations, in the main as they are significantly cheaper than chargers such as InstaVolt or GridServe, but also some of the charging stations are in locations other that motorway services (though I do use those Tesla charger as well).
What I like to do is to charge to at least 90% and if I can even 100%. However I have noted that there can be an issue with Tesla chargers when the chargers are busy.
On one recent journey back from York to Weston-super-Mare (around 240 miles) I had planned to stop at a National Trust property and charge there. The night before I had been to the Tesla chargers at the Designer Outlet York, where I had eaten, and then post 8pm had put the Funky Cat on charge until I had reached a 100% charge without issue.
My first stop on the way was Hardwick Hall, according to the website they had EV chargers, in fact they did not. I left charging to another time and went to explore the house.
After visiting the house, and looking at the route home, knowing I had about a 40% charge left, I saw that the Designer Outlet East Midlands, which was about ten miles away, had a bank of Tesla Chargers. So, I drove there and plugged in.
Now the M5 Gloucester Services (Southbound) are 120 miles from the Designer Outlet East Midlands. WIth a 100% charge that wouldn’t be an issue, even with a 90% charge, I would still have around 145 miles range. With just a 80% charge that would give me just a 128 mile predicted range, with motorway driving, probably not enough range to get to the Gloucester Services.
The problem I had with the Tesla chargers is that they charge congestion fees. When I was charging at Designer Outlet East Midlands I was charged an extra £2 for charging an extra four minutes over my 80% charge.
Supercharger congestion fees are fleet-wide initiatives to ensure a frustration-free charging experience for all Tesla drivers. Superchargers are designed for fast charging and therefore, should only be used for as long as it takes to charge a vehicle.
Congestion fees accrue when a Supercharger site is busy and your vehicle’s battery is already at or above the congestion fee level of 80% battery charge; or your charging session has ended. Fees are waived for the first five minutes, and then billed until the vehicle is moved.
They have a congestion charge of 50p per minute, which starts once you have reached a 80% charge. Now with a Tesla Model 3 with a WLPT range of 332 miles then an 80% charge would give you around 267 miles. However, my Funky Cat with an 80% charge would get just a 128 mile predicted range. I knew this would be pushing it to get to Gloucester services, so I headed on home down the M42 and stopped at the Solihull Retail Park. Once again I was limited to an 80% charge, but I was only 103 miles from home, so it was enough to get me back.
When I got the Funky Cat three years ago there was an EV charging infrastructure in place, but in some places it was limited. In Weston-super-Mare back in August 2023 there were just two rapid chargers available, since then another twenty or so chargers have been installed. In addition more fast (22kWh) chargers have been installed in various other locations as well.
Back in September 2023 I wrote about another journey back from York which was challenging as there were limited chargers at the different motorway services I went to and often they were busy. Back then there were only a couple of chargers at Hopwood and Strensham services, today there are many more. The services down in Exeter has nearly a hundred EV chargers installed.
The lease for the Funky Cat is coming to an end, I have decided whatever I replace it with, that EV will have a bigger range than the cat.
