I am a non Tesla EV driver. I have just returned from a week in Scotland, I had heard tales of damaged chargers, expensive chargers and out of order chargers, so we took our old granny charger so we could charge up over night at our accommodation. There was no need, there were lots of 7-22kw chargers in many towns and all were working and not at rip off motorway prices. On the way home I stayed in Cumnock, where we found more chargers than we could have wished for. I am heading down to RHS Bridgewater soon and I know they have chargers, but I can’t see them on any apps. This is all bad for the local tourist trade, charger suppliers and EV drivers. When will we see one (shows all charger) app/route planner. Keep up the great work Dave, and Tesla keep making open to all charger👏👏💪
Nice as long as Tesla is the cheaper option. Here in Norway that is no longer the case unless you subscribe. There are at least a couple of CPOs that are on par or cheaper depending on location. My local SuC charge 5.25 NOK/kWh drop-in off-peak. Subs get 3.90 NOK/kWh but cost 115 NOK/month. The other CPO right next to it is at 4 NOK/kWh.
Avoid ALL Route Planners! For Non-Tesla drivers, Zapmap/Google maps (or Apple) combo works best as it is better to choose a stop yourself than rely on a route planner app. (7 years experience) 1. View route on Google maps. 2. Choose (>150kwh/>3chargers/cheapest/amenities) charge stop(s) on Zapmap along the route. 3. Add postcode as a ‘stop’ to Google maps. 4. Send to car! 5. Feel😂smug at having a seamless Polestar/Volvo/Renault Google car operating system!
Just used Fastned's app route planner with the same origin and destination as in the video: better than I thought. For my MG4 SE, starting at 100% and arriving at destination with 10%, it suggested three stops. First a Tesla charger at at Frankley, open to all, after 103 miles, arriving at 35% and charging to 46% in about 5 minutes. The second stop after a further 47 miles, arriving at the Tesla charger in Gloucester with 19% SoC and charging to 67% in 22 minutes. The third stop at the Ionity in Cullompton after 91 miles, arriving with 10% and charging back to 70% in 28 minutes. A total journey of 339 miles in 6h 13 minutes. Fastned does support CarPlay and it's free. You can customise the total range for your vehicle, I set 200 miles for my MG4 which is what I comfortably get in the summer from a full charge (4 miles/kWh) - I get 4.3 mil/kWh on my 50 miles return trip commute to work which is 50% motorway, 30% A roads and 20% town
My mg4 doesn’t have one, so last week I drove to Cornwall and used CarPlay which has ev charging now as well,and all I did was when I was approaching 60 miles left, or needed a comfort break, hit “add stop”, scrolled down the list until I found one at the range I wanted to go and it added it, not auto but very useful
100% bang on about the on the Tesla route planner. It' superb but "informed choice" of where to charge would be an outstanding upgrade. Also an ability to do it from the app and send to car in order to "schedule a trip" would be cool, so we can plan our routes from inside our homes. I'd also like to generally see more connectivity between the app ad my computer, I'm a data nerd, being able to pull all the data the car and the app has on it would be awesome for figuring out bad habits (such as poor charging behaviors and analysing "how I drive") would be cool.
Thanks Dave, I will try a better route planner. I usually do something a little different. When do a trip longer than the range of my MG4 I first use Electroverse to see where the stops might be needed, ( because I am a bit of a nerd I cross check with Tesla App and Zap Map), but then I determine from that information where we might stop for a coffee/loo break or lunch, I then plan to charge at those stops ( whether I need to or not), so we might stop for a loo break when the battery is say still at 60%, but assuming an available charger I will plug in any way for the 10 mins or so. The logic is I am stopping anyway so I take the opportunity to charge to minimise waiting to charge time at any “needed stop”. We did this on a recent longish trip where the car would not have quite made the round trip, we stopped for lunch near our destination , charged while having lunch ( I was the only car charging at an 8 device 150kw charger stop), then no further stops needed whilst travelling around and journey home, perfect. I admit I am also in the partially retired category so no effort. ( I use the in car SatNav for guidance on the journey).
Been an A Better Route Planner (Pro) user for many years. Your observations are very much the main reason I still rely on ABRP for journey planning - I can do all the pre-planning on a big computer screen and then pull the chosen route onto the phone app for Android Auto/Apple Carplay navigation in the car, and the live data (via an ODB 2 dongle in my case) makes the usage data far more accurate. Never really had to use it to "plan en-route charging stops" since I haven't yet needed to use more than a full battery for any journey I've undertaken. I have a few niggles regarding the route guidance: I really wish it gave more specific information about exits on roundabouts as I've mistakenly taken the wrong exit on a roundabout, and I'd really prefer if it told you the "highlight destinations" at junctions on motorways/national routes since signage on such roads is mostly based on the highlight destination. In saying that, their mapping/routing data is all OpenStreetMap-based, so I or anyone else could add this information to OSM and (in theory, at least) ABRP would then be able to display it.
I am the same I use ABRP with the OBD2 dongle and I did pay the subscription so I get the status of the charging locations as well, so you know if there are chargers available before you get there. Also I have found that it also adjusts the route and chargers for your SoC. And as it knows I have a home charger, it gets me home with just enough charge so I don't waste money on public chargers, so it works for me even if teh route instructions take a bit of getting use to.
I use ZapMap, ABRP and Electroverse for my infrequent trips into Northern England from Central Scotland and all three insist that I should stop and charge at 50% SOC at Gretna Services 124 miles from home after leaving with 100% regardless of the setting I input. Gretna is often packed with queuing but 9 miles down the M6 at Carlisle is a very lightly used Ionity at the new Starbucks that has 350kW chargers. My car has enough range to get to Richmond Services/ Scotch Corner( very expensive Gridserve) with a safety margin yet all 3 insist I stop at Gretna even when I input 5% SOC on arrival.
Stoped at Banbury yesterday on my way home from Manchester. Great stop, fast food available plus a coffee shop! Started charging via the app and walked across for a pee and coffee - 30 mins later 85% charged and I was on my way home to Surrey! Used my satnav on phone, iPhone, but new where I was charging!
Nice video Dave. Very informative having just ventured out on my first big road trip (well, York🤣). I planned using zapmap and Google mapped the same route. It's a faff but it worked for me as a non Tesla owner. Might see you out and about, I'm not far from you in Skelmersdale. 👍🏼
Really good review Dave. I have a Volvo EX30 with Android Automotive built in and google maps seems to work really well in it, recommending when and where to stop and for how long. Really love the car too.
Great video. Really interesting how dreadful some route planners actually are. The biggest disappointment is Octopus, seeing as they blow their own trumpet so much.
I used the Electroverse app for a trip to Luxembourg via Dunkirk with no problems at all. The Electoverse card worked seamlessly and prices half of those in UK. Cheapest was Luxembourg on the motorway(!) at 43p/kwh.
A choice of good food and coffee is the most important factor. The price is also irrelevant, I've never chosen a service station on a journey because of diesel price 😅. I also refuse to stop at places with no amenities.
Actually wholeheartedly agree with your take on this. On a route planner - I'm not looking for the cheapest price necessarily, i'm looking for the best place to stop. I used to love knowing little secret picnic spots for breaks on long drives along A roads that offered great facilities, had a fantastic burger van/coffee van and maybe something special like a playground for the kids or a lovely view. Route planners should bring those features forward! With an EV I don't need to find a garage, if I need that I'll just go to a traditional motorway services, I need to find a spot I'm comfortable spending some nice time in to relax on the way.
Except that fossil fuels don't vary anywhere near as much as EV chargers. Could be as cheap as 22p on Tesla vs £1 on some stupid ones. Do I want to pay twice, three or nearly four times the price? I don't. 😊
I've tried most of the common EV route planners and found them mostly more trouble than use (including ABRP). Luckily I only travel occasional long trips, so it's manageable to manually plan my route if it's the first time I've driven that route in my EV. For my regular long trips, I know where the best chargers are, based on experience.
Thanks for another excellent informative video, for some time I've felt that this EV, map route planning/charging thing, is a complete missed opportunity for Google Maps route planner, especially considering the auto android connection.
I use the VW route planner in the new ID4 that's with software v4, it does everything you say the Tesla app does, if I want to plan my own stops I use the Elctroverse app. zapmap is hard to use as is ABRP
It seems like they're putting lots of chargers in select locations, it occurred to me that maybe if they put just 1 fast charger in every petrol station, that might help with charge anxiety, if you know that wherever you are you can pop into a atation and get 20 miles maybe from a quick 5 minute charge, so you won't get stranded anywhere
Yep, Tesla has this nailed. Thanks for the tip on better route planner not tried that one but, agree with you on the problems with the others not usable. Like you we know our routes now this means we also know our human/ev favourite charging stops.
Model Y Long Range cannot do that non stop, beyond its range by a significant amount. A very useful feature that the Tesla planner lacks is the ability to set an arrival SoC.
@@jameschapman4824 Yes or I'll add the next couple of legs of a long trip to see what it offers but always aiming to arrive with minimum SoC is dumb. I would also like to have directions in English but place names in local language and that should be trivial since the satnav already supports multiple languages. It would be easier to hear church (Église) pronounced correctly instead of Tesla's brutal Egg Lice. Same for other names.
Hi Dave a better route planner is good but i drive a Kia EV6 and if I want the fastest charge from the charger I have to use the cars own nav and charger list so the car will pre heat the battery before charging. But other than that as you say a better route planner is really good to look at on your I pad / computer while planing your journey
Good video, wasn’t aware of some of these options. My previous EV was an Audi e-tron GT, and the route planning sucked pretty bad - I gravitated towards ZapMap (paid) for planning longer routes. Around Easter I switched to a BMW i4, and based on a few journeys, it seems the routing experience is very close to the standard set by Tesla based on this video, I probably won’t switch back to independent apps.
The problem that I have at my old i3 route planner is that doesn't know the ''availlable to all EVs'' Tesla chargers. And they are the cheapest out there. So, before I leave home, I open the Tesla site and I find all the chargers I can charge on the way to my destination. I check on Google maps the distance between them, if I can make it, let's go!!!! Otherwise I will stop for 5-10 minutes at another charger and continue to the next Tesla charger.
I never bother with these complicated route planners, I just use Google Maps on my phone and stick the nearest open Tesla supercharger for my MG as the next destination for my route. In the end, just like with the old fuel stations, I have my favourite supercharger locations for a given route and just use them.
Like you I have southern family so Halifax to Bristol is done purely based on our need for the loo and to eat all calculated via the Tesla App, Cribbs Causeway is our go to end charger only due to my wife liking to shop there !
I have been doing similar (but don’t have a Tesla) and have found all that I have tried flakey in one way or another so far 😞 A lot don’t seem to be able to show all/any Public Tesla Superchargers (that I know are on the routes) for my non Tesla (even when paying the subscription) and some don’t interface with car data
I agree, it is fantastic and easy to use. We can use google maps on the PC to plan trips, and it transfers it to the car automatically. The charger stops info is accurate and you can simply scroll down if you want to look at other nearby chargers. It knows which Tesla chargers are open to the public, so uses them if needed. Doesn't stop some snobby looks from certain Tesla drivers though!
I am doing a similar 360 mile trip to Cornwall next week and my routing seemed to indicate a stop at Gloucester. Great to hear you avoid that one and I too will aim for Bristol. Since getting my Tesla I have found it's planner to be very good, but up to this point I had not needed to us rapid chargers. ABRP is also useful for previewing trips. I tend to avoid all of these wanting extra payments and maybe a better way is to limit a free version in time, rather than features.
If the stop is Gloucester Services - I highly recommend that service station for it's facilities. I've not used it as an EV driver, but my god the produce and the shops there serve absolutely gorgeous fresh farm produce. Really is a nice place to spend a bit of time in. It can get crazy busy though.
ABRP 50Euro to use on Android Auto. Is a big downer. But being able to link to a OBD2 which gives live SOC is good. Worth it, not really unless you are going to use it for a lot of planned trips.
ABRP with premium for the vacation times will add Apple Carplay and Android Auto support and live car data via OBD dongle. The profile for my e-Golf is pretty bad however. It can't deal with slower speed roads and the reduced consumption. Usually expecting me to use 30-40Wh/km more than what is normal. It is supposed to learn your consumption as you drive with it connected to the OBD, but the consumption calculation only gets worse. These days it thinks I'll use 180Wh/km driving at 80kmh or less when my real consumption in summer with nice weather is more like 120-130Wh/km.
Im more interested in filters for facilties and number of chargers. Filter on prices is fine but for me (and many) with rare away from home charging, convenience wins out over cost. With WattsUp I just tried it as its on my phone ...yep, every single charger along a route LOL.
Never felt comfortable with ABRP does not seem intuitive to me. Much prefer Zapmap or Plugshare easy to operate and can do your own waypoint charging locations. Both lock onto car main screen and binnacle for easy read.
Octopus electroverse tells me the 4kw charger outside my house is 53p/kwh. However, if i rock up and just scan the QR code from ubitricity it gives me a price of 24p/kwh Over half the price for the same charger, just depending on the app you use!
In my view the only 2 worth having for Native in-car Satnav/route planning & charging stops are Tesla and Google Automotive with Google Maps. Anything else can be poor and I am certainly not paying for it. I use Google Maps .. have dumped all other Apps including ABRP that I tried for a while over 2 years EV driving .. no need for Android Auto with the native system on-board. But there is a case such as the new Citroen budget EV that has no built in Native Infotainment and just uses your phone
Has something changed with Zap-Map then? I use Zap-map and there is no need to pay to save routes or calculate stops you just need to be registered. ABRP is great but I find it tends to underestimate the range of my Niro I suspect if I was registered and used the real world traffic data it would be more accurate. I tend to use the Niro sat nav anyway to make use of the HUD and pre-conditioning.
An ICE car driver may stop at the M5 Frankley Services & have difficulty finding a parking space when there are plenty of Tesla Superchargers available
Judging by many of the comments here, it seems on the rare long trips with unknown stops, people prefer to plan for food and water, loo breaks and amenities rather than charge percent or cost. It really is becoming a bit of a non issue.
Don't all evs do route planning these days my Megan does this and also plans using the Tesla open to all charges tells me how long to charge for as well
You seem to be assuming there is charging at your destination. This won't typically be the case (at least for me). My typical long journey would be 3-6 stops (over several days and maybe up to 1k miles) with the final destination being back home again. I'm wondering the best way to plan that.
Simple. You set the destination as home and the other end of the trip as a mid waypoint. Then you get round trip planning with charging. That's how I'll plot a 3,000 mile roadtrip, the entire trip and then modify accordingly as we go.
Don't know why you call me a Titan. Better route planner to South of France. Quicker Than Tesla, more expensive, as using non Tesla charging. I think I will stick to Tesla mapping. 180 Euros as opposed to 89 Euros.
From looking on street view the green bays seem to be wider and have hatch markings along the footpath, so i would assume that they are for disabled access.
As always, it’s personal choice. I find ABRP to be completely wooden. Despite choosing only Tesla, IONITY and Fastned, it always defaults to other more expensive makes. Pointless, infuriating app.
Do you mean Premium Connectivity? £10 a month but that has nothing to do with navigation planning, other than traffic data. Traffic data can be provided by using a phone hotspot and connecting the car to that if more faff is desired.
Dave, you are too focussed on Tesla stuff. I know that your personal experience is with Tesla but it would be more interesting if your videos talked more about other models, software and chargers.
As the charging networks improve, route planners are becoming less and less relevant. It is still useful to find a charger nearby when needed but if we trust the statistics, the vast majority of journeys don’t require a planner at all: local-ish journeys where charging will take place either at home or at destination. I charge near exclusively at work. On longer journeys, it’s becoming increasingly likely that any place you stop at for rest or refreshments will have available chargers at reasonable speeds. I normally use the Octoverse app which is abysmal but at least has a free CarPlay integration which, despite not being the best, does give me a list of nearby chargers filtered by speed and distance. Which I can therefore keep an eye on while driving once I reach 30% charge or less. So overall now I don’t use navigation apps to find chargers based on my requirements, but I look at the route already planned without stops and plan to use chargers based on where I want to stop to eat/pee/get a coffee. Which means the charge level isn’t my main requirement at all.
one of the benefits of (good) apps over just stopping randomly is them showing how many stalls are being used. And (future for most) rerouting you to other ones on journey automatically. But your right in a few years time when there are many times more chargers they will not be needed much at all.
@@johnbaker5533 you are indeed correct. Good apps are definitely better than randomly stopping at the moment. Especially in areas that are sparsely populated by chargers. Eventually though it won’t be long when I can just call upon chat gpt and ask it where to stop without even needing an app.
When I go anywhere I want to stop when and where I want to stop that is if I want to stop at all and I don’t want to stop where my car wants to stop or make any detours
OMG you have to drive to a petrol station to fill up? How old fashioned. Mine does it while I sleep. And if OPEC meets and wants to make more money you have to pay more? My cheap rate electricity has just gone down. And if there’s a rush to fill up, your petrol station might run out of petrol? The grid doesn’t.
@@davetakesiton I do drive to a petrol station but I don’t go out of my way I will stop at any station on my journey but I can do at least 600 miles in between fill ups
If you’re travelling down the M5 there’s a great GRIDSERVE stop just outside Gloucester. At a garden centre called Dobbies. Found them on my trip back from Cardiff. Nice restaurant serves up a good English breakfast and mug of coffee while the EV powers up.
Do you buy the updated version every year, or do you have the first one you bought on 1960's? I believe that you still have the old landline phone with that round thing on the top to call the number, right?
