South West UK to Disneyland Paris

[Dabz]

First major trip in the car after having it 11 months and despite a couple mishaps it was a really decent trip. The Taycan is just made for long distance cruising and compared to previous cars I ended the journey far less fatigued.

The traffic sign display and auto headlamp adjustment made driving in France effortless and the abundance of chargers (especially those on the PCS) made for a very stress free journey.

On the way out we left home (near Bath) with 100% battery, charged at Ionity Cobham to 100% (by accident - the car estimated 35 mins to 100% but by the time we'd grabbed a McDonalds it was already full, just 17 mins later) and again at Ionity Channel Gateway so we arrived at our overnight hotel with 98%. In both instances the first charger we tried wasn't working but moving to the next worked fine. In hindsight this final 100% charge was a little OTT but....

We had enough then to get us to Disney and I'd heard a rumour that there was free EV charging at Disneyland hotels so wanted to arrive with as little as possible. I couldn't find any info about this on the official website so was going off a couple random blog posts I'd found, so I chickened out of arriving on "fumes" and we charged for 5 mins at Ionity Saint-witz just in case. Once again, the first charger I found didn't work so had to hop on to a second....but there were about 18 chargers and only 2 others in use so clearly I have a knack of picking the duff ones.

Turns out the blogs were right - the Disney hotel carparks were full of absolutely free chargers which gave a solid 10kwh with no authentication or payment needed. This got us to 100% overnight ready to leave a few days later. I decided to just charge at Le Shuttle terminal this time to avoid stopping en route. We were going all the way home in one go with no overnight stop this time, so the fewer stops the better. Luckily - and you'll hear why in a sec - my daughter needed a toilet break on the A1 so we stuck 10kWh in using TotalEnergies - arrived to find 10 empty chargers! A far cry from the 2 7kwh chargers you find in the UK in many service stations.

We arrived at Le Shuttle with not a lot - about 15% battery - to find ALL the EV chargers broken. A couple others scratching their heads and looking panicked too having tried them all. No problem, I thought - I'm in a Porsche - I'll grab a Tesla charger. After faffing with payment details for my first ever Tesla charge I got ready only to remember that the cables don't reach unless you go in sideways...and there was no chance of that because the place was packed with Model3's and only one normal space available. The flexiplus lounge behind bars was full of working chargers and a host of 911s looking nice and relaxed but I'd booked cattle class.

The upshot of this was that we boarded with 14% battery rather than the 100% we expected to get us home and had to waste 35mins at the Channel gateway Ionity again charging to get us home. My 9yr old wasn't impressed at having to hang round a service station for 35 mins before we even got moving and the timing pushed us in to rush hour as we hit the M25 (thanks also to another delay on the tunnel which added 30 mins).

Arrived home to find a bulge in one of the front tyres which is going to have to be replaced with just 6700 miles on it...so with that, a 2hr delay outbound on Le Shuttle, no chargers at Calais working and then a 3 and a bit hour drive home turning in to a 5 and a half hour traffic marathon...it wasn't without it's challenges but on the whole the car was a dream to drive, made driving in France effortless, charging effortless on the whole and looking forward to the next trip.

Anyone doing Disneyland Paris...free charging (using your own cable) is fantastic and was barely being used so be sure to arrive with a low battery Some might say that was a bigger highlight to me than meeting Mickey....

Sponsored

 

[Porsche-Guru]

... No problem, I thought - I'm in a Porsche - I'll grab a Tesla charger. After faffing with payment details for my first ever Tesla charge I got ready only to remember that the cables don't reach unless you go in sideways...and there was no chance of that because the place was packed with Model3's and only one normal space available.

Are all Tesla chargers in the UK/ France now accessible to Porsche EV owners?

From what I recall, only a few Tesla stations had opened up to other cars.... or have I got it totally wrong?

 

[MrB]

Just as a back-up if you go that way again, there are a bank of 6 Ionity chargers at the Holiday Inn in Coquelles a few minutes from Le Shuttle which I’ve never found particularly busy.

 

[Dabz]

Are all Tesla chargers in the UK/ France now accessible to Porsche EV owners?

From what I recall, only a few Tesla stations had opened up to other cars.... or have I got it totally wrong?

I'm not sure - the Tesla ones showed on the Tesla app as available to other cars and I got as far as starting the charge, it was just that the cable wouldn't reach unless I had taken up 3 spaces

 

[anonymouse]

Are all Tesla chargers in the UK/ France now accessible to Porsche EV owners?

From what I recall, only a few Tesla stations had opened up to other cars.... or have I got it totally wrong?

Most in France and maybe half in uk are now open to us. There was a big block of them opened a few months back in the UK.
As well as the Tesla app, a good tool for an overview is tesla.com/findus :

 

[anonymouse]

We arrived at Le Shuttle with not a lot - about 15% battery - to find ALL the EV chargers broken.

Were they fully out of service or just failing to charge Taycans? the Engie ones at the terminal have failed to start on my two last trips and I suspect there is some incompatibility. Engie has failed to answer my emails about it.

Those Tesla ones are a huge problem in a Taycan because they fave failed to remove the bump stops, which are normally removed before opening to non Teslas. That make it almost impossible to position the car so the cable will reach.

use the Ionity 5 mins away instead.

 

[Dabz]

Were they fully out of service or just failing to charge Taycans? the Engie ones at the terminal have failed to start on my two last trips and I suspect there is some incompatibility. Engie has failed to answer my emails about it.

Interesting to hear you’ve had the same issue - they could authorise and connect but failed to start. It was affecting me and a couple of other cars - a Kia, Jaguar and I think an MG4.

presumably the engie ones in the flexiplus area would have the same issues.

Will definitely know to head for the Ionity first next time which would make the onward U.K. journey far quicker.

 

[anonymouse]

Interesting to hear you’ve had the same issue - they could authorise and connect but failed to start.

Yes that was our symptom exactly. May I suggest you email [email protected] (the address shown on the charger) and [email protected] (the address on their website) and report it? The more emails they get, the more likely they are to do something about it (although I don't have much hope).
—

edit: the support.vianeo address seems to get prompt responses — try that one.

 

[Dabz]

Yes that was our symptom exactly. May I suggest you email [email protected] (the address shown on the charger) and [email protected] (the address on their website) and report it? The more emails they get, the more likely they are to do something about it (although I don't have much hope).

absolutely, will do!

 

[Dabz]

Did this trip again this week and took @MrB ’s advice, staying at the holiday inn Coquelles on the want home. Nobody using the Ionity chargers, achieved 249kwh. Great hotel too.

Main thing to report is that we left earlier than planned due to the heat with 87% SoC. EV chargers at Disney hotels still totally free. Drove 198 miles from Disney to Coquelles and arrived with 18% battery which is baffling, significantly more than I’ve ever achieved before. The nav estimated 8% on arrival when we left but it increased throughout the drive. A steady 120kph most of the way, 33 degree ambient temp.

Flexiplus on Le Shuttle is a game changer. We left the hotel this morning and within literally 11 minutes we were through border control and in the lounge. 58 mins after leaving the hotel we were back in the U.K.

Sponsored