Maddie Goes Electric, Episode 5: Long journeys in an electric car (A beginner's guide) 

Just to clarify, at 15:08 it was ‘user error’ rather than ‘unit error’ that meant the car didn’t rapid charge properly; Maddie and Greg accidentally selected the wrong connector! They actually needed to use the CCS or "Combo" connector to rapid charge their Kia e-Niro. An easy mistake to make and one that will be covered in episode 6, when Maddie discusses her experience of driving an electric car with Robert!

By making genuine mistakes that actual drivers will make all the time, this is the best video yet.

Utterly insane that you can't just tap a contactless card on the charger and pay that way. Why all this pissing about with a dozen different apps?

19:40 Perfect ad for their customer service. So the lesson is, always be friendly and obliging, you never know who's listening!

I love how during the somewhat stressful moments of trying to figure out how to charge that all of the British colloquialisms came out! It sounded so cool! I will have to write some of those down to use across the pond. Your teamwork was fantastic too! So refreshing to see a couple working together in a positive manner. What a great series! Can't wait to see the next episode!

My next car will definitely be an electric thanks to you and Robert, thank you to both of you!

"We've only got 30 miles of range left". That would have been 50% charge in my old 2011 Leaf! ;)

Oh Maddie i was shouting at the screen "that's the wrong cable!!!"

These are great, convinced me to test drive a 30kWh Leaf on Sunday and hopefully make the switch. Thanks!

If RU-vid had existed at the beginning of the 20th century (1900s) people would be uploading videos about getting rid of their "hay guzzler" and transitioning to the horseless carriage. What a new, clean, and sparkling innovation! No more horse poop in the street. Of course finding gasoline for sale could be a challenge. Which is why there was a 3-way race between the internal combustion engine, the steam engine, and battery powered vehicles. Fuel for your Stanley Steamer was easy to find, but the car was inefficient and a pain to drive (long warm up time). The batteries in electric cars sucked and you were limited to a 10 to 12 mile range, at best. And while gasoline was hard to find with poor distribution, it solved other problems. Once gasoline became widespread ICE cars ruled the roads. We face a new transition. One that is just as inevitable as the last transition from muscle and bone to ICE.

Again, thank you for showing what actually happens. This is what Reality TV should be !!

Really important, honest and accurate video that demonstrates (a) that you can easily do long journeys in modern BEV but (b) the charging infrastructure isn’t as easy to use as it needs to be to encourage mass adoption (in the UK at least). I’ve driven 28k miles in my Kona electric, love the car and would never go back to an ICE car, but learning how to use the charging infrastructure, what apps to download, what RFID cards you need to get hold of etc. has been the biggest challenge. Fine if you’re an enthusiast but I do know of some people who’ve handed their lease BEV back in frustration as a consequence of the complexity. Fortunately things are getting better with more and more providers/chargers simply requiring a contactless card to initiate a charge and their being more chargers (and therefore backups). Really enjoying the mini series and wish it’d been available when I was a new owner!

Maddie! Just lover her enthusiasm and optimism for the future. Greg seems like a good guy too :) 👍😀⭐️

Great show, I'm really enjoying it! I feel I need to mention that these public charge points and, for that matter, home charge points, are not "chargers" , they are power points. An EV's charger is always built into the car. Most EV's can be charged using either AC (alternating current), such as you would find at home, or at public charge points using the type 2 connector, or DC (direct current), generally found at public charge points. Many EV built in chargers have a capacity of, for example, 11 kW. This means that during your first charge stop, you chose the type 2 connector and up to 43 kW of AC supply, but you were limited by the rating of your built-in charger as to how much of this AC supply you could "pump" into your battery. If your charger is rated at 11kW, then your 20 minute coffee break would only have given you just under 4kW, or about 15 miles at best! DC (direct current) supplies, or Rapid Charging as its often referred to, bypasses the built-in and relatively limiting AC charger and "pumps" the current directly into your battery using a CCS connector, as you did the second time you charged. Many public CCS supplies provide 50 kW of DC current, but your car can accept up to 100 kW, or perhaps even 150 kW of DC current, which is becoming more widely available. With a 64 kW battery in your car, you could charge your car very rapidly using one of these charge points. Keep up the good work promoting EV's.

We're really enjoying your journey. We're in S. California, USA, and leased the Niro EV in May 2019. It's our first EV and we love it!

in the future, you'll want a CCS charger on the road, and/or a level 2 charger overnight where you stay. you two are adorable, and this series is full of good information. we definitely need more than 6 episodes.

The best couple on RU-vid! Love their happy attitude 😊

That was a very honest appraisal of the mistakes and issues you will face on the UK roads. Many Rapid chargers don't work. Several I have come across the CCS (combo) AC/DC cables are often faulty and are poorly serviced. That said when you do find a reliable CCS rapid charger, they are brilliant. Ecotricity are pants and often either don't work or are very costly. The UK government needs to get all petrol stations to start adding rapid chargers and at a fair price. Right now there are only a few stations that have rapid chargers and most of those are pricey. So plan, plan and have a backup plan. And take a long lead extension with you, just in case you need to get a charge from a house somewhere if you get caught out in the sticks. Overall I haven't had an issue, but given that more BEV's are hitting the market this year, the lack of available charge points will start to get swamped. Cheltenham is a good example; there are few charging points (that work properly) and the CC isn't interested in providing them either as their Director of the environment has stated in an email back to me. To be fair, councils aren't that interested in electric cars, apart from maybe Milton Keynes as an example. Lidl is starting to put in some rapid chargers (expensive) and Tesco (free fast charger (7KwH)). Dear Rob, Thank you for getting in touch regrading this issue, which we are currently discussing with Gloucestershire County Council as Highways Authority, with a view to securing more on-street charging points, although there are currently 17 charging locations in the town, putting it at the top of the list in Gloucestershire for the number of charging points per thousand vehicles. Generally speaking, the Council views this as a national infrastructure issue, with some differences of opinion in relation to the overall environmental benefits of EV’s. You may be aware that the up-front carbon cost of new electric vehicles is substantial and that EV technology uses rare earth minerals, bringing into question the long term sustainability of this approach for mass transit given the climate impact. In terms of rare earth metals, I read that the whole world supply of cobalt would be used up by just the UK’s car fleet transitioning to EV’s. As things stand, the costs of infrastructure have been falling to local authorities, which given the impact of austerity on local government finances does pose an additional challenge. Making such charging points free of parking charges adds to our costs, with CBC currently underwriting the electricity costs at the four charging points within our car parks, which are operated and maintained by a private company. Out of interest, it would be helpful to know where you live and therefore, whether this is salient in determining whether Oxford or Bristol are more convenient shopping locations. Yours sincerely, Mike Mike Redman Director of Environment Cheltenham Borough Council

So funny that they are called "pumps". Also, why different terms like Combo vs. CCS - come on charging stations, be consistent!!

Its great following Maddie's newbie journey to EV ownership. As a recent convert to the world of EV's, its incredibly informative from the diliemma of what car to choose, where to go to view cars, charging systems, green elec suppliers, to real world usage. Its easy viewing from the smiliest, enthusiastic presenter on the old interwebs! Great channel'

You can come to a complete stop by holding the left paddle, no brake pedal needed. Also, auto regen setting works well too.

Bloody love Maddie, we need more Maddie in 2024

This is an excellent series. You are both so positive even when you make mistakes. And today you went to Otley where I was at school in the late 1960s! I seem to remember doing bicycle races round that car park, or at least round the block where the car park is now. My school was Prince Henry's just across the river from there.

Had these playing while I work today, hugely informative and entertaining!

The first time you drive over a mountain should be interesting! On the way down you'll add charge to your battery and your brakes won't overheat or even be used at all ☺

Well done on making the switch and loving your journey - I think your series should convince many others to follow suit. Easily the best series about EV ownership out there. I have a Tesla Model X, having had a Model S and rented lots of Renault Zoe first generations in France over the years. I'd never go back to an ICE again and making the switch to electric is both fun and pretty easy. Sooo much nicer to drive in every respect and you're right about the re-gen brakes - really one of the hidden gems of EV driving.

Been there, y’all did great as a couple. They need to really simplify this tho. I’ve been driving electric for a while so figuring out charging has been trivial to me. However, these videos shine the light on areas of improvement and how daunting it can be to switch from gas to electric.

I am loving this series. Maddie, your enthusiasm is a joy.

Good for you two... I was thinking of buying an electric car, the miles I do in a car will be enough for my needs...it will go on charge every night so no need to worry...

If you are going to stop for coffee or the restroom on your route, you may as well DC fast charge for that 10-15 minutes. It helps with the final state of charge at your destination.

I have to say that this is a great collection to watch if you are considering going electric. I have watched all of the 5 so far. All I need is for Western Canada to get their finger out and start installing the infrastructure. In the meantime, I will have to keep with my Kia Niro hybrid. Great show Maddie, keep up the great work, your with a great team.

Well done for the series Maddie and Greg. This highlights the BIGGEST problem with travelling long distances in an EV. It’s not the range, it’s the idiotic variety of public chargers. I’ve got a stack of RFID cards and apps, but I still arrive at some destinations and find a different supplier that needs a different registration. This has got to change. Hopefully we’ll also see a single standard connector too.

All public chargers really should have a simple pay-at-the-pump option, in addition to whatever other option the provider wants to use. I've no issue with different providers having their own apps, monthly subs perhaps with better rates etc etc, but there should always be the option to simply turn up at any random public charger and just use your bank card, rather than having to register for yet another account, especially if that company covers an area you rarely go to. Other than that, awesome series :-)

Every charge point must use contactless otherwise it won't be user friendly enough, Tesla ahead of the curve yet again

15:29 As soon as I saw that Level 2 connector being attached, I thought "oh no... this isn't going to end well." 😂 At least you all have options. Here in the U.S., rapid charge (unless you're a Tesla owner) is practically nonexistent outside of California. Great episode!

Very informative. The more I watch and learn though, the more I realize just how more advanced Teslas are in all this by just plugging in the cable and walking away. Hopefully others will catch up soon as you'll never get the general public to jump through all these hoops.

HORSE! 🐴 [Warning: this game becomes very addictive. And you may find yourself shouting it even when there's no-one else in the car... Not that I'd do that. Nope...]

Phew! You found one that worked. All 3 in our are are faulty but don’t tell their network. When you come to use them, they actually flatten your battery, according to my brother who sold his electric car as unviable.

Now imagine having to do all that when it's windy with heavy rain or sleet. The day Rapids are all credit card/contactless cannot come soon enough.

Loved this episode. All completely honest reviews.

I'm at 5:42, and can't help but point out that depending on how long you're going to be there for, a trickle charge for my standard household outlet or any power source you can find anywhere would probably be rather useful. I'm not sure how long your trip is going to be but I would I think that it's really likely that while you are wherever you are going and it doing whatever you're doing, you're not going to be using the car for the overwhelming majority of the time you're there. Yes, trickle charging isn't super fast but it works and may get you enough range while you are there to get you to a rapid charger on the way back, conveniently.

Great job on another video. Greg brings good energy and it's great to see you in it together. Love the vibe and am so envious of you having an EV with that range. Liked your blue jumper too Maddie. The patterns and colours made me think Scandinavia which seems to suit you.

Enjoying your series and perseverance. Keep up the good work.

What an epic. We have such a long way to go with the infrastructure, and ease of use. Brings back memories of when I had my 40kw 2018 leaf and did a uk wide road trip. Arriving at the motorway ecotricity pumps and there being only 2. One not working and the other being used by a PHEV grazing 3kw on the charger. I sold the leaf straight after it. I have sympathy when you used the AC. Most people don't realise the majority of cars can only take in 7kw max on AC. The dealerships aren't interested in educating people either, on what charger to use and what limitations their car has (cough..... rapidgate). My Nissan dealer just told me to keep an eye on the GOM (cheers 😒) 50kw was rapid in 2017, certainly not now. 250kw plus charging speed will get my attention and get me back into an EV again.

yep, as soon as you said 'select AC' I knew what was going to happen :) Guess we live and learn

Excellent series. You ask all the questions we’re thinking and likewise with the road trip exactly the kind of mistakes we all could easily make in choosing the right charger when there’s more than one option that would work.

13:20 or so... It is slightly entertaining to watch people go through this process. I've had a short range electric vehicle for a couple of years now and can distinctly remember (and keep in mind that I am a massive early adopter and huge fan of electrification of all of things involved in transporting basically everything on our planet) staring at the range indicator as if The entire world and all of the things I value in it were dependent upon... Well that's just it... There's no reason to pay that close of attention to it. The range estimation is reasonably accurate and the only thing you have to get over is yourself. It's totally normal too focus on that range number for the first couple of weeks but I will tell you from personal experience after living with a very short range electric vehicle for a couple of years, it doesn't even bother me in the slightest. In fact, there is one trip that I make once per week on most weeks that involves pushing the car really beyond its limits so I do in fact have to make some accommodation in terms of my speed to make the distance of the trip. But, the point of that story is that my heart rate doesn't increase at all, my blood pressure doesn't go up in this lightest, and I get none of the physical symptoms of ranch anxiety that I used to get but I first had the car and I run it right down to below where the car can even measure. It goes down to 5% and after that it just starts flashing all dashes. But, I've never run out of charge or been stranded on the side of the road or had to call a tow truck or anything like that. You just have to use your brain and think ahead a little bit and do a bit of preparation and or planning and it all works out just fine. So doing that trip in a gasoline car would cost me somewhere on the range of eight or nine dollars, and now it costs me $1 in electricity. And we have cheap subsidized gas in the US. The savings gap would be much larger in European countries or Canada or other places where they actually pay what gas (petrol) actually costs.

Brilliant episode to watch on a dismal wet Sunday morning while munching my porridge. These two work so brilliantly together, wish i could do that with my other half or Maddie, either would be great.

You guys are too cute! I knew when I saw you connect the J1772 the first time you charged....."Oh.....they are going to be disappointed". 😳 Hey you worked together and figured out it, and made an adventure out of it! To all you Tesla folks, yes right now you are correct, the Tesla Superchargers are the easiest to use. The other systems will become better. i mean when you drove an ICE vehicle you didn't make a big scene about going to one particular companies station to fill up, did you? Keep in mind electric fast charging is just in it's infancy, so cut some slack to folks that don't drive a Tesla, and be supportive!

I remember doing Dublin to Dundee via Belfast, in our Leaf I think 2013. Boy, have things have improved 😆

I think the Government should force petrol stations to install a certain number of charge points - Make it a law that if Petrol stations want to keep selling petrol/diesel they also have to have say at least 8 charge points on each major motorway services and at least two points on every general A-road petrol station. It would make sense to me that oil companies will want to be part of that market anyway so a bit more of a push from government would help.

We play horse too. Our rules. Horse 1 pt. Deer 5 pt. White deer 500 pt. Spotting a Cemetery’s kills all points of other players. Miss calling horses or deer minus their equivalent value. Great videos.

5:19 YES! She finally said it!

This is super instructive, both for potential EV buyers & for those who make EVs or charge networks. (For comparison, buyers, if it were a Tesla, you'd plug into a Tesla Supercharger, & it would charge. Tesla sets up your payment method when you get the car. And you get 150kw or 250kw, not 50.)

Greg has the EV Grin now.

Great work, Maddie and Greg! Honesty is always the best policy - charging can sometimes be confusing :-) Modern EVs, like your e-Niro, fortunately, go such a long way on a single charge that range anxiety can be consigned to the coal mine of history.

Zap Map lady says “700 new stations are being added per month”. Having owned 2 EV’s for a year my jaw dropped. First reaction: where? Not in my area (Wirral, near Liverpool). In 12 months practically no changes to number of chargers within 50 miles.

This was hilarious!! those faces with the electrify America charger was priceless pretty much me the first week with my ev I was saying godddddd why did I do this? Then I learned the charging curve

If this isn't the best advertisement for a Tesla I don't know what is. I have had better luck when connecting to CCS Type 2 in our Tesla, but relying on that network seems pretty awful.

Guys I have really enjoyed this set of video's! Maddie you have been awesome!

I have the Kona and charge mainly at home, it’s time for all this faffing about to ✋ stop and the government to start legislating that all the rapid charge points accept a credit or debit card. Destination and fast chargers I accept are a bit different in so much as they could be on a hotel parking place or private drive.

Enjoyable series! Two things to consider for your next EV adventure. On your first unsuccessful attempt to fast charge, your video showed 0 kilowatts on the charge screen. That perhaps should be an indication to you in the future that it is not charging. And on the second attempt where the machine had a hard time recognizing your bank card, try flipping it over, so the smart chip is facing the screen and not away from it. The odds are that the machine is trying to read that newer chip, and not the older magnetic strip that was on the other side.

A to B, via DC

I got excited for you when heard you say you’d located an Engie charger in Otley as I knew it would be free. That saved a few pounds compared to Ecotricity at Ferrybridge. I can’t wait to get my e Niro next month. Thanks for your videos

Saw you guys plugged in the Type 2. Then you guys came back after 22 minutes. I thought oh no ...

I've had my Zoe three years. Only had to rapid charge 5 times (I have charged more times when the electricity is free and I was stopped anyway but didn't need it) and have only used POD point and Ecotricity so far. POD point is easier because you plug in and it starts to charge straight away and then you confirm on the app once it has started. The Ecotricity ones are handy because they are at the motorway service stations and I've never had a problem rapid charging with AC (I have heard they can be less reliable for CCS though). Destination chargers would have been the ideal solution for their trip.

Briliantly informative and fun to watch is this series. But the fuelling infrastructure is still the weak link, should be so simple you should be able to swipe your credit card (im advised its all going that way). Running a Tesla P85 for 6 years 92,000 uk miles and a Zero SRF Motorbike that uses the public network I get to experience the difference. I could jump in the Tesla tell it to take me to Sorento in Southern Italy now and be confident of just getting there (23 hrs 15 minutes and 6 stops btw) but confidence of public network is zero. I know its improving but I cant say its early days, its been 6 years.

Episode 5, & Maddie still rocks!!

Good video, but I just feel you should compare your experience with a Tesla owner. 50 kW isn't fast and there is no hassle with the Superchargers.

You guys are amazing!!! Thanks for sharing!

What a cute couple! Very informative.

A lot of Tesla people comlaining that 40kW isn't fast, but then again it is free. I do the same thing myself - there is a free 50kW charger that I oftentimes use, and the price for free is that it just takes a bit longer. The eNiro should be able to take a maximum of about 80kW, but any charger that can supply that much juice probably won't be free.

I'm a little bit in love with you Maddie. You are such a nice host. Keep it up 😘

Regen basically reverts the direction of the motor, all those rotations of the wheels garner energy back into the battery.

When you're screaming at the screen saying you want CCS and not AC, but realise Maddie and Greg can't hear you!

Very funny. Really nice to see not all perfect. BUt also good to see how easy it is to resolve issues with charging companies. Excellent Customer Service from Engie - assuming you didn't do a off camera "do you know who we are". Really great show.

It is a bit of a faff working out where to charge. But I suppose on a long run I'd probably think about where I could stop for a break.

Great video. Love your channel. This particular video details the current problems with public charging. There really isn't any unified approach to the various systems. Once this is ironed out, there really won't be any real reason to not go EV. Of course the one network that has this figured out already is Tesla, but I know that that doesn't help all those people that for one reason or another don't own a Tesla. The other networks are getting there but this video shows just how far they have yet to go. Glad they are making progress!

Great advertising for tesla here!

EXCELLENT Video. It's just what people want to see. REAL life experience. THANK YOU!

I grew up in Otley so it was nice to see the town featuring so heavily. Sad however that charging points are rare.

oh my god.....download app, scan your card, fail. call help line....etc etc.....NO WAY.

Thank you, Maddie and Greg, for an entertaining and informative series. Great to see the lived experience.

Great show! But use abetterrouteplanner and tell me you don't LOVE it 😄

This was great! Loved that it didn't work. First real world test I've seen showing all the stupid little things nobody thinks about. Honestly it isn't any harder than setting up a new phone. I bet after a month or two you'd look back and laugh at this. Well done

I seem to missed out the episode that waits for 8 months for the Kia to turn up

Wow here in the U.S. with a Tesla travel is a breeze. Get in the car, tell it where you want to go and the car maps your trip using the Tesla supercharger network. Enjoyed...Thanks for sharing.

why can't all these charge points just accept contactless?

I think I've left the comment already here, but I rewatched the episode and again it's blows my mind as to why it's so DAMN hard to charge an electric car. I love them, I've driven 4 or 5 from the Zoe to the Kia Soul and even a Model S, and the only thing that makes me feel trepidation is approaching a charging point with 10km's left in the pack and not knowing what bullshit you're going to have. It's the right connector type - but it needs a subscription card to function (something that's ONLY unique to this region that you're visiting once in your life). It doesn't have Chademo but it's THE ONLY ONE that accepts contactless payment. It's free, it's what I need, its plugged in and then JUST FAILS to work. It charged my car successfully, but the socket door won't reopen anymore and I can't get my cable back... Let's get away from this PRIVATE "my system is better than yours" infrastructure and start encouraging state based standards - one / two connector types max BUT they need to be available everywhere at decent speeds.

Book a place with an overnight charger

Awesome series the perfect perspective for a beginner to electric

Great work Maddie ! Keep up the good content :)

Thanks for another good newbie video. It highlights why this fragmentation of the charging network needs to end. Imagine if you went to a Shell petrol station only to be told that you couldn't use it because you didn't have an account with Shell. This is seriously screwed up. I also agree with the other comments about sticking to the same terminology (combo, ccs, etc.)

The last time I was this early it was impossible to do a long-range journey in an EV.

15:00 Whenever I start a charge at an unknown location (or the charge is critical) I just wait a little bit to see the rate of rise of my battery's state of charge (SoC) before I leave the car. Some newer units will show the charge rate in kW (and some cars show this too inside). Worth checking to ensure you're getting the charge you thought you were!

No apps or plastic RFD, just have tap to pay with debit/credit card. Everyone knows how to do this for years.

Fantastic series, well done Maddie. Looking forward to you final one. Couple of questions. Did you pay for parking in the car park? If you use your own cable in a public place is it secure from thieves?

It's like a TARDIS 🤣🤣

Ely - just down the road from us - small world! Particularly like the horse game - will try that :D Great series :)

16:00 Aaaaaaand that's why Tesla is going to absolutely dominate. None of this bollocksy crap fiddling around with chargers that barely ever work quickly and as they should. Like half the charging how-to videos like this I've seen using public rapid chargers end up this way. Tesla = drive up press button on charger, plug in, DONE.