Rent an EV for a road trip in the UK

[kanthai]

Hi guys, greetings from Thailand.

I planned a trip to visit England and Scotland in April with my parents and sister (4 people including me) and wanted help deciding which car to rent. I heard that the UK have a clean air zone or an ultra-low emission zone that restrict some vehicle. I also want to hear your opinion on the reliability of the charging network in the UK as well.

Do you think is it appropriate/necessary to rent an EV to travel from London to Edinburgh with several stops along the route?
If I choose an ICE, will I have a problem with the aforementioned zone?
If I choose an EV, will I have a problem with the charging network along the route to Edinburgh?

Hate to leave my Taycan at home but looking forward to trying Cayenne or Tesla Model Y over there.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help!

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[W1NGE]

Hi guys, greetings from Thailand.

I planned a trip to visit England and Scotland in April with my parents and sister (4 people including me) and wanted help deciding which car to rent. I heard that the UK have a clean air zone or an ultra-low emission zone that restrict some vehicle. I also want to hear your opinion on the reliability of the charging network in the UK as well.

Do you think is it appropriate/necessary to rent an EV to travel from London to Edinburgh with several stops along the route?
If I choose an ICE, will I have a problem with the aforementioned zone?
If I choose an EV, will I have a problem with the charging network along the route to Edinburgh?

Hate to leave my Taycan at home but looking forward to trying Cayenne or Tesla Model Y over there.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help!

Scotland is slowly introducing LEZ (Low Emission Zone) across major cities. Enforcement won't start for at least a year (Edinburgh) even thought it was introduced 2022. Other cities will vary but not something to worry about.

Note that LEZ doesn't mean you can't use non-EV vehicles. In fact most modern / new cars comply with the regulations and if taking a rental car(ICE) then don't worry about it at all. My 11 year old Boxster S manufactured in 2012 meets the new LEZ requirements for example.

England will have similar and London has been running congestion charging for many years so watch out for that.

In UK pretty much all public charging can be paid for by card rather than an app and so there is flexibility.

Download something like ZapMap and enter your route which will highlight all the charging options - filter out slow charging and focus on DC 50kW or more.

In Scotland, ChargePlace Scotland is the main public provider and for this I think it would be wise to have their RFID card. Spend some time looking at - https://chargeplacescotland.org/ - paying via the web is also possible.

The further remote you travel then EVSE locations start to thin out and the number of ultrafast / rapid EVSEs diminish - AC charging prevails.

 

[SteveGTS]

Have a look on turo.com, lots of Teslas and even a Taycan for hire. The good thing about Turo is you get to see the car you are hiring, most of the big rental companies are “this nice car, or similar” where similar means it also has four wheels ?

 

[mutanthands]

The UK public charging network is somewhat lacking (this topic is a whole thread in itself). Having said that, a Tesla would help mitigate some of the issues.

It's a holiday, why make it difficult? I would just rent an ICE car, don't want extra stress when travelling, especially with family in tow.

I wouldn't rent a car in London. Just use public transport, then when you need to drive up to Scotland, rent a car from somewhere not in the ULEZ zone.

 

[AlexR]

London to Edinburgh? Take the train - First Class. Enjoy the scenery and relax. Or Fly and it's only an hour. It's a long drive spent on Motorways and going through some busy areas. Personally I would fly and then rent a car if you wanted to explore around EDI (not needed for in town anyway).

 

[pauloamore]

OP - W1NGE and MutantHands are spot on.

ICE or fly. The core motorway network is boring... Especially in England.

 

[Ernestostvo]

I needed an EV for a weekend trip and found the battery range great until I hit some rural chargers that were either offline or super slow. I’ve rented locally before and used car service austin tx during a business trip—they had a few EVs, and it was a smooth process, so might be something to look into if you're ever in Texas.

 

[anonymouse]

With a tiny bit of planning you should have no issues at all travelling London to Edinburgh. I disagree with the advice of others that you should take a petrol guzzler; although train and plane are good options if you don’t want to see any of the lovely countryside along the way (eg a detour into Yorkshire, the Cotswolds, the Lake District or the Peak District etc).

Rent a Tesla and flow along in silence with autopilot taking some of the load to make a relaxing journey. The Tesla supercharger network is comprehensive, although if you are going further into Scotland you should get a ChargePlace Scotland card.

You can use A Better Route Planner to check out your route and see what different networks cover them.

Hertz are abandoning Teslas for their fleet in most countries. Turo would give you a guaranteed Tesla, but won’t do one-way rentals if that’s what you are thinking of doing.

 

[simcity]

I disagree with the advice of others that you should take a petrol guzzler; although train and plane are good options if you don’t want to see any of the lovely countryside along the way (eg a detour into Yorkshire, the Cotswolds, the Lake District or the Peak District etc).

The quotes were from over 2 years ago. The UK public charging network has changed dramatically in that time.

Not sure why this specific thread was revived, other than to link to a car hire company in Austin, Texas ?

 

[anonymouse]

The quotes were from over 2 years ago. The UK public charging network has changed dramatically in that time.

Not sure why this specific thread was revived, other than to link to a car hire company in Austin, Texas ?

Yes, good point. I didn’t spot the reawakened old thread because the most recent spam was current. Time to bury it again!

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