Category: funky cat

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Efficient Driving

Well that was quite surprising.

I was driving from Weston to London, a distance of 140 miles. I didn’t have a full charge, but the Funky Cat was reporting a predicted range of 165 miles. The trip consisted of in the main motorway driving, up the M5 and then down the M4. Experience with motorway driving told me that I would struggle to do the 140 miles with a 165 mile range, so was expecting to stop on the way to add some charge to the Funky Cat. I wouldn’t expect to have 25 miles on the car left.

However, the motorways were quite slow, with heavy traffic. I noticed that as I drove the AEC figure was dropping. By the time I arrived at London the AEC figure was down to 20.0 and I had a predicted range of 40 miles left. 

With a 48kWh battery in the Funky Cat, a figure of 20kWh/100 mile could mean a theoretical range of 240 miles… The normal figure I see is in the 25-27 range which is around 185 miles. The WLTP for the Funky Cat is 193 miles. This experience was highly unusual.

When I got to London I added some charge with some on street charging.

Driving back home to Weston, there was less traffic on the roads, so it was quicker, but as a result I used more power for the same distance home, I only had a 56% charge when I left London, so had to stop and charge and had an issue with that.

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On street EV charging

One feature of London suburban streets is the availability of on-street EV charging, usually making use of street lighting to provide the power.

I was staying with family in Wimbledon in London and I decided to take advantage of the availability of the charger to charge the Funky Cat.

It is a slow charger just pushing out around 5 kWh, so this is a solution for when you have time to charge. There is a twelve hour limit for the charger I was using. Despite the slow speed, it’s not cheap, between 7am and 12pm it’s 60p kWh but overnight it falls to 40p which is better value.

I only used it for three hours getting 15.6 kWh. The real advantage was convenience, not having to drive somewhere to charge was a real bonus. Of course for local residents who don’t have a driveway, this is a solution for when you need a charge.

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Problem, not my problem

One of the regular places I charge when travelling back from London is the Tesla chargers at the Westbound Reading MOTO Services. There are no Tesla chargers on the Eastbound side, why that is, I do not know.

It normally just works at these chargers, but on this visit, the charger failed to work. Usually I never have problems with these chargers, however having arrived and parked, but was unable to start he charge on the app. This also then locks the charging cable  in the car. I then had to do the usual hassle of opening the bonnet to manually release the charger from the car. I moved the car and put it on charge and it all worked fine from then on.

I don’t think this was a problem with the Funky Cat, I think that there was a specific problem with that charger.

I did get 23.8 kWH in 35 minutes, which took the Funky Cat from around 30% to 50%. This was delivering at a rate in the region of 50kW. One of the downsides of the Funky Cat is that it can’t take advantage of the speed of some of the rapid chargers out there. Some are rated to deliver 350kW, the Funky Cat can’t take that kind of power.

Having reached just over 80% I stopped the charge and unplugged. I find it strange that unplugging after a successful charge just works. I wonder if there is a kill switch on the charger itself so that it doesn’t remain locked when a charge fails to initialise.

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The Funky Cat has a puncture

A couple of weeks ago the Funky Cat had a puncture. I was driving into Bristol on the B3128 down Clarken Coombe. There was a rock in the road, which I tried to avoid, failed and it ripped a huge hole n the side of the front nearside tyre. I was able to make it the lay-by.

The Funky Cat doesn’t have a spare tyre, it has a pump and some tyre repair fluid. I knew that this probably wouldn’t work as this didn’t feel like a normal puncture.

The air pump and the tyre repair fluid can only be used to repair sealed tyres with a puncture on the tread.

So, I made the decision to call the RAC, the Funky Cat is a lease car, so comes with breakdown cover. The problem I had was that where I was on the B3128 there was no phone signal. I had to walk into the Ashton Court woods to get enough signal, to check the website to get the right number and call.

The RAC was very quick and quickly got the wheel off, and then they headed off with the wheel to get the tyre replaced.

That took longer than it should have, but that wasn’t the fault of the RAC (or the tyre place). Once the RAC was back they completed the repair and I was on my merry way.

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170 once more

I do realise that the predicted range is based on my previous driving, and that will vary depending on which roads I am driving, use of heating and air-conditioning, acceleration and regenerative braking. However, after charging to 100% I was pleasantly surprised to see a 170 mile predicted range.

Screenshot

The lease for the Funky Cat comes to an end in a couple of months and I have been looking at replacements. Not that I would get a new Ora 03 to replace the Funky Cat (it isn’t available as an option anyhow) I would like to get a car with a significantly longer range than the Funky Cat.

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80% or bust

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.

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Charging once more at Stourhead

Stourhead

Back in February I visited Stourhead and did a behind closed doors tour, however the house’s state rooms weren’t open, since I had always planned a repeat visit to see these rooms.

On that visit I did make use of the EV charging facilities. Though I had a few issues with the ChargePoint app and my bank card, in the end I used ApplePay and all was fine.

So, on a recent return visit to the property I was able to easily plug the Funky Cat into the chargers, and again I used ApplePay to set the charge going.

Stourhead also had some rapid chargers which looked like they could deliver more charge (so faster charging). The last time I was there they weren’t available as there had been a cable theft. This time they were working. After my visit I disconnected from the fast (11kWh) chargers and decided I would top off my charge using the rapid chargers. I was at about a 70% charge, so wasn’t expecting miracles, but the actual charge rate was very slow, so I didn’t connect for long.

There was an issue which may be just me, but on the fast charger   ChargePoint put a £15 hold on my card, I spent just under £10, but the remaining hold was still there five days later! The rapid charger took a whopping £35 hold and likewise it was still being held five days later.

I don’t think I had this issue at other National Trust properties recently as I have spent more than the £15 held. This time though there was a £50 hold on my bank card and I only spent £13.

Didn’t put me off, and I do appreciate the fact that chargers are available at some National Trust properties.

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Lidl EV Charging

After some problems with the Tesla chargers and not getting a charge, I headed off to Lidl close to Cribbs but towards the A38, to get some shopping done. When I got there, I saw they had an EV charger. Using the Lidl app, I could get charged for 62p a kWh. A little more than the Tesla chargers but still a reasonable price. 

The only time I have used Lidl EV charging before was in France where it worked really well and was significantly cheaper at €0.39 per kWh (that’s about 34p). Though I set up the Lidl app in France, that was the French Lidl, so I had to repeat the process for setting up the app and being able to charge the car. Once this was sorted, I put the Funky Cat on charge and went and did some shopping. I took my time. I only had the car on charge for thirty minutes, but that had put on nearly an additional 50% charge, taking me to 71%. I was impressed with the speed of charging and it wasn’t 85p that the MFG garage would charge me, they’re situated on the way between Cribbs and Lidl.

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Problems with the Tesla Chargers

red car next to Tesla charger in a car park

The last time I went to Cribbs Causeway I had problems with starting a charger using the Tesla chargers next to John Lewis. I have used these chargers before and have had issues as well.

The process I use is to park, using the Tesla app and start the charge, I then plug the charger into the Funky Cat. What should then happen, is the charger should initialise and then start charging. What actually happens is the charging fails to initialise, however when you “stop” the charge in the app, the charging gun remains locked to the car (this is a car issue thinking the gun is still live). I then have to use the manual release of the cable from under the bonnet, which should be an easy task, but isn’t.

The last time I tried to charge I made three attempts across two different chargers. None worked, in the end I went to Lidl and used their charger.

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Not Charging at Hardwick

Hardwick Hall

More and more National Trust properties are putting in EV charging stations. These are mainly fast chargers, which means they are the slower 11kWh chargers, which are in fact ideal when visiting a property.

I had actually chosen to visit Hardwick Hall as I was on my way back from visiting Yorkshire and they had (according to the website map) EV charging facilities. For me this meant that I could stop there, charge the car, enjoy visiting the house, walk the grounds and still have time for a scone and a pot of tea.

However… the EV chargers were not by the house, so I couldn’t charge the car. According to the volunteer I spoke to, the EV chargers were down by the ponds, a thirty minute walk to the house. I didn’t really have time to drive there, and walk back. So, I left charging to another time and went to explore the house.