Short trip to the UK

[McgR]

We took a trip to the UK for 3 days. First time with the car in the UK. Used the tunnel. B&B around Hastings and did some short day trips.

First of all great country. Met some very nice people with our dog and with the EV. Both attract similar minded people.

Our trip from Belgium to Calais is around 200 km. Decided to charge in Ionity Coquelles from 45 to 85% just to be shure.

For the Shuttle I booked Flexi plus because it would be easier with the dog. Quite expensive but worth it for me and put it on my company anyway. After checking in at the pet control next stop French border and UK border control. Very fluent en quick. Took some snacks at the Flexiplus lounge and waited 20 minutes.

Both Tesla chargers at the lounge were available. Also another brand that could be activated with Porsche Charging. Tesla was cheaper so used that one. Quick connection. Charged to 96% while we had to wait anyway.

After reading some comments on this forum I booked with a rooftop box to be scheduled in a single level train wagon. All Tesla’s have to go on these wagons too. Probably because of low ground clearance. Afterward I read on another forum that Flexiplus lounge wouldn’t be accessible for high vehicles and took the roofbox out of the booking. My reservation still remained for large / high vehicles. Wasn’t a problem now both categories have the same acces to the lounge.

Nice that the car could be switched on during the trip for AC and music. ICE cars had to be switched off so no AC.

When arriving in the UK the car prompted the head lights were automatically adapted. It did that at every start afterwards to remind us.

Speed was still in Km/h. Speed sign recognition is mph. Innodrive suggested the mph speed limit in km/h which was easy no calculating necessary just accept the speed change.

After visiting Rye we arrived at the B&B in Guestling Green with 85 %.

On the first day we did a walk on the Seven Sisters and a short stop in Brighton. Many street lamp chargers but charged at a 22 Kw charger in a underground parking. Quick connection with Shell RFID card. 8 chargers only one occupied. Saw a Neptune Blue Turbo S parked in the same garage. Arrived back at the B&B with 80%.

Next day we visited Canterbury. Chose a parking with 4, 11 Kw chargers. Only found it on the Zap map app not on Porsche / Shell / charge map etc. First entered the castle street parking found no chargers because needed the castle row parking on the opposite side. My bad. Happy with RWS by the way, really small parking garage.


Entered Castle Row. Found the 4 chargers all 4 free. Tried for 15 minutes no way to connect. App, RFID’s and website didn’t work. Bad mobile internet and couldn’t get connected either. Had a chat with a local BMW i3 owner and he never uses them. After a while a local Polestar 2 owner arrived. She depended on this charger because she can’t charge at home. At the end she managed to connect with the app. But she only gets one of the four work. The other 3 didn’t have a QR code. All normal parking spaces taken by the time I finished trying so had to leave the parking lot. Moved on to plan b charger. A Shell recharge 11 Kw charger close by at the Aldi parking. Drove around the parking 3 times but never found it. Wrong adress in the Shell app but also in PCM. While driving around an BMW iX did the same. Probably same problem. Decided to go pack to the first parking that had lots of free space and parked there. Didn’t really need the charge anyway.

Drove to Dover in the afternoon to visit the Castle. Nice visit, very impressive. Afterward looked for a parking with charger. Two big parking lots near the coast. First one found the place still having the markings on the floor but no chargers anymore. Moved to the second one. 4 free chargers. Couldn’t get them to connect with all of my six rfid cards. Didn’t have the courage to download another app for another company and enter my credit card again. Decided to charge at Ionity on the way back after dinner.

Charged to 90% at Ionity Channel Gateway. Plug and charge worked. Maximal charge speed 110 Kw starting at 35% SoC probably because 4/4 chargers were being used. Nice chat with an EQE owner.


Returned home after 3 days. The Tesla SC were just in front of the pet registration desk and used them again. Great charging experience. Connected to the app within a couple of seconds. Faster than Ionity but similar with previous Fastned experience. Why can’t every charger work like this. I noticed Tesla charging price have gone down since last year. Cheaper than Ionity and Fastned without Porsche Charging. Charging speed is much slower however.

In general the road quality around Kent and East Sussex wasn’t great. Don’t think local Taycan owners should order 21 inch wheels. Lots of pot holes. The roads were very narrow too but very nice sceneries.

To summarize: very nice trip, met very nice people everywhere, nice walks and pub dinners. Charging was oké and I didn’t run into trouble because I had a plan a, b and c. Plan c were some MFG 150 Kw chargers. They were in strategic places and 4/5 chargers per station. Didn’t need them at the end but that would have provided a reliable back up. Local chargers were quite a disaster in my short experience. Even the local EV owners were not able to connect. I saw quite some places were the chargers where removed: Dover car park, Sainsbury car park, Flexiplus in Folkstone. If you have to rely on this infrastructure it may be a problem. Canterbury has quite some EV Dot chargers but nobody can connect and they are only displayed in the EV dot and Zapp map app but not in Porsche, Shell, charge map, plug surfing etc. It would be better if they would connect to different companies.

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[Novemberwhisky]

Hi mcGR. I’m planning a drive to the uk in december. With regards the Channel Tunnel. i read somewhere there’s a way to get the wider carriage( I guess not a wider carriage but the car track) to avoid scuffing wheels, is this what you got with the roof box option? Did you notice a wider access?

thanks

 

[anonymouse]

Hi mcGR. I’m planning a drive to the uk in december. With regards the Channel Tunnel. i read somewhere there’s a way to get the wider carriage

The system now recognises the Taycan automatically (previously you had to say you had a roof box) and books you into the ’high” carriage (for our purposes it is also wide). It costs slightly more than the double-decker carriage but is worth it.
After checkin make sure you follow all the high vehicle signs to the train. You will be with camper vans, people with roof boxes etc.

 

[Novemberwhisky]

Thanks - I had clicked through to payment and noticed the statement saying ‘your vehicle identified as having low ground clearance or excessively wide’

You’ve cleared it up , cheers ??

 

[Poshfpg]

Hi mcGR. I’m planning a drive to the uk in december. With regards the Channel Tunnel. i read somewhere there’s a way to get the wider carriage( I guess not a wider carriage but the car track) to avoid scuffing wheels, is this what you got with the roof box option? Did you notice a wider access?

thanks

I think it automatically puts Taycans in the wider trains when you book but as they're less regular I just drive onto whichever is available. If you have the surround camera then the front one lines you up perfectly in the middle of the narrow carriage and you won't scuff your wheels. Can't seem to upload my video but here's a still showing how it works.

 

[Novemberwhisky]

Nice - thanks for the informative photo ?

 

[McgR]

The system now recognises the Taycan automatically (previously you had to say you had a roof box) and books you into the ’high” carriage (for our purposes it is also wide). It costs slightly more than the double-decker carriage but is worth it.
After checkin make sure you follow all the high vehicle signs to the train. You will be with camper vans, people with roof boxes etc.

I didn’t know if it did this automatically for the Taycan or because I first selected the roofbox option (and cancelled afterwards). But good you can confirm the Taycan automatically is assigned to the single story wagons. It makes life easier.

 

[Throb]

I didn’t know if it did this automatically for the Taycan or because I first selected the roofbox option (and cancelled afterwards). But good you can confirm the Taycan automatically is assigned to the single story wagons. It makes life easier.

Thanks for the informative write-up. Very good. I also didn't know the Taycan is automatically assigned the wide carriage. I always just tick the "roof box" option. I use the Tunnel around twelve times per year.

Regarding the Tesla chargers. Am I understanding it correctly - you started them with the Porsche Charging card?!!

 

[McgR]

Thanks for the informative write-up. Very good. I also didn't know the Taycan is automatically assigned the wide carriage. I always just tick the "roof box" option. I use the Tunnel around twelve times per year.

Regarding the Tesla chargers. Am I understanding it correctly - you started them with the Porsche Charging card?!!

No with the Tesla app. Really fast and easy to use. Just need to install it on your phone and add a credit card.

 

[anonymouse]

Regarding the Tesla chargers. Am I understanding it correctly - you started them with the Porsche Charging card?!!

not possible - they (with the exception of the very rare v.4) have no card reader. Charging is started using Tesla’s app in the ‘charge my non tesla” section.

 

[Throb]

No with the Tesla app. Really fast and easy to use. Just need to install it on your phone and add a credit card.

Thanks for the reply. It was the way I read your post. I've re-read it and I understand now. I thought you meant Tesla is "another brand you can start with the Porsche card", but I realise now you were talking about a second brand which could be started with the Porsche card.

I've got the Tesla app in case of emergencies.

not possible - they (with the exception of the very rare v.4) have no card reader. Charging is started using Tesla’s app in the ‘charge my non tesla” section.

Thanks for the reply. I thought not. I misunderstood the OP's post. I've got the Tesla app in case of emergencies.

 

[boardmince]

Actually doing a three-day journey is still not completely satisfying for me. But most of all it brings a wonderful feeling of enjoying the journey. Certainly captured many beautiful moments. I also want to plan a route to explore more of the fresh countryside.

snake io​

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[Graeme]

Thanks - I had clicked through to payment and noticed the statement saying ‘your vehicle identified as having low ground clearance or excessively wide’

You’ve cleared it up , cheers ??

I drove from the UK to France last weekend and yes indeed eurotunnel automatically put me in a tall/wide carriage and there’s loads of space driving on and off ?

 

[Tooney]

Thanks for your trip report.
You didn't say so but I gather you found charging in UK less reliable than in your home country and continental Europe?
You wrote:

When arriving in the UK the car prompted the head lights were automatically adapted. It did that at every start afterwards to remind us.​

I didn't understand what you meant.

 

[McgR]

Thanks for your trip report.
You didn't say so but I gather you found charging in UK less reliable than in your home country and continental Europe?
You wrote:

When arriving in the UK the car prompted the head lights were automatically adapted. It did that at every start afterwards to remind us.​

I didn't understand what you meant.

In the UK they drive at the left side. The head lights need to be configured differently. The Taycan did this automatically when exiting the train and showed a message in PCM. Some really old cars need stickers on the headlights and less old cars could do this manually.

The DC chargers and Tesla SC worked fine. Problem where the local AC chargers at carparks. Part of the problem was bad cellular reception which made it impossible to download an new app. And couldn’t connect with other apps. And multiple locations chargers were removed.

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