Route Planning .. Newbie.

[Matt W]

Hi, I’ve had my Taycan now for around 4 months and love it. I only ever charge at home, with the odd charge out and about but never needed out of necessity. I’ll be heading to Cornwall over Easter, near Padstow and have a cottage with a EV charger on site (so I just need to get there). So, I need to plan my journey from North Essex (340 miles). I’ve been looking on Zapmaps, and tried the Porsche planner to give me a rough idea (Porsche planner looks to be down now as it’s just stopped working!). I’m planning on two stops, but just wondered what peoples experience was like M4/M5 heading south. Any better ones, or ones to avoid - my current range prediction is showing around 220 miles on a full charge. Allstar stations preferred (fuel card!), but not essential.

I’m under no illusion it won’t be busy, so just looking to pick people’s brains on their experience. I plan to leave early ish, stop late morning then again after lunch hoping that might avoid the core lunchtime periods.

Any advice appreciated.

Sponsored

 

[kl98cwg]

From my last trip to Cornwall, I’d recommend IONITY at J28 of the M5 (Cullompton). I’ve always found IONITY very good so tend to try and plan around them anyway, there are a few others on your route.

 

[snb7x]

I did a similar lengthy trip from Ireland via Chester to Northampton recently. I charged at IONITY Citynorth near Dublin, Gridserve Chester & Rugby. There seemed to be an immeasurable positive difference in allowing the car to prepare for a charging stop (using Porsche charging planner) when it came to mid journey stops. A couple of mornings later I called at Gridserve Rugby again 15 miles into my trip north to Sheffield and speed of charge was pathetic by comparison!

 

[simcity]

This ought to help

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1DOswN-GODssM2XmKV4oQ9r-mkGcbGno&usp=sharing

 

[Dabz]

Ionity at the chippenham motorway junction is usually fast, but busy. After that, Exeter is good and they're building a new charging hub in Cornwall I believe. Sorry for lack of specifics - I'm doing a similar journey in July and when I looked it was all fairly easy (I'm similar - rarely charge away from home). Before that I'm doing France which is more of a worry but I keep being told it's fine

 

[Scandinavian]

Ionity at the chippenham motorway junction is usually fast, but busy. After that, Exeter is good and they're building a new charging hub in Cornwall I believe. Sorry for lack of specifics - I'm doing a similar journey in July and when I looked it was all fairly easy (I'm similar - rarely charge away from home). Before that I'm doing France which is more of a worry but I keep being told it's fine

There are a few areas in France , like the north west, where there is a lot of new stations popping up. Apart from that it is a very dense network of high power chargers. Along the main large routes from Calais to Barcelona or the Italian border, I have seen about 30 km between high power >150 kW charging stations. It is more a question of finding the correct app or payment method that is the problem. Porsche Charging Service with app or Card, will easily cater for most needs along the main corridors. But in some more rural areas there can be a need for other methods of payment.

The main providers are Ionity, Total, Fastned and Allego. But in many Lidl outlets as well as Carrefour supermarkets you will find great chargers as well. And Tesla open for all are plentiful.

It is not at all like the U.K. where the infrastructure is quite substandard. Much better in France.
Below a screen shot of stations with more than 150 kW chargers between Calais and Reims. If I try to zoom out the graphics on the iPad can not handle all the stations available!

u

 

[Dave Birch]

From my last trip to Cornwall, I’d recommend IONITY at J28 of the M5 (Cullompton). I’ve always found IONITY very good so tend to try and plan around them anyway, there are a few others on your route.

Me too but six chargers can get full quickly, especially at weekends. Porsche in Exeter has two chargers but often in use or blocked by mechanics. If coming down A303 which is a shorter route than M4/M5 go for solstice services. On A30 nice cheap Tesla chargers we can use are at Lifton. Bodmin has loads of chargers now near McDonald’s and Cornwall Services just further along is good too.

 

[simcity]

There’s a lovely up to date Google map link up in post #4 which shows all UK operator sites with a minimum of 5 rapid chargers - basically a proper charging hub.

Better than ZapMap. Believe me.

….with PCS you can home in on Osprey (especially in Kempower format), Fastned - even BP Pulse (although I’ve not tried myself on ‘religious’ grounds ) as well as IONITY.

Failing that MFG are excellent and plentiful and you can even venture to Sainsburys for a decent rapid fill these days albeit at 75p a unit. Some of their Kempower based sites are 300 kW at 800V so….taste the difference.

 

[bn8959]

I use ABRP app (A Better Route Planner). You can set preferred charger brands so it favours the ones you have cards for.

I use it on a web browser on my PC to investigate the best stops before I travel. Don’t necessarily use it for Nav - I would plumb in the chosen stops to PCM.

You can also tweak your preferred arrival SoC and departure SoC and also tell it places you may stop for lunch, so it can take in to account a longer 22kw charging stop for example.

 

[b16mov]

Hi, I’ve had my Taycan now for around 4 months and love it. I only ever charge at home, with the odd charge out and about but never needed out of necessity. I’ll be heading to Cornwall over Easter, near Padstow and have a cottage with a EV charger on site (so I just need to get there). So, I need to plan my journey from North Essex (340 miles). I’ve been looking on Zapmaps, and tried the Porsche planner to give me a rough idea (Porsche planner looks to be down now as it’s just stopped working!). I’m planning on two stops, but just wondered what peoples experience was like M4/M5 heading south. Any better ones, or ones to avoid - my current range prediction is showing around 220 miles on a full charge. Allstar stations preferred (fuel card!), but not essential.

I’m under no illusion it won’t be busy, so just looking to pick people’s brains on their experience. I plan to leave early ish, stop late morning then again after lunch hoping that might avoid the core lunchtime periods.

Any advice appreciated.

Just put your destination in the sat nav and it tells you where to stop and how long for … you can also edit what percentage of battery you want at your destination and the car heats up the battery for the correct temperature so you get the fastest charge

Every time I’ve gone on a long trip I just use the cars sat nav and it does its thing and pre conditions the battery temperature for when you arrive at each charging station

 

[matrix]

Highly recommend using ChargeFinder app. Much better updated than the google link posted above and Zapmap for those in the UK. There are som great filters in Chargefinder app and it will show live status and how long a certain connector has been occupied/free. Also show realtime info and prices for all Tesla open to all chargers, Ionity etc. I use it in the Nordics a lot where it also show all payment options and price comparisons. I hope this feature will be available in other countries soon. https://chargefinder.com

 

[Matt W]

Thanks for all the comments / suggestions. ABRP was a really good shout with all its options - That sorted my route to suit what we wanted (preffered stations etc) and I’ll just input that into the Porsche Nav tomorrow to get the conditioning. I have the charge finder and gmaps saved also as a backup. So, all set now.

 

[Besotted]

Hi, I’ve had my Taycan now for around 4 months and love it. I only ever charge at home, with the odd charge out and about but never needed out of necessity. I’ll be heading to Cornwall over Easter, near Padstow and have a cottage with a EV charger on site (so I just need to get there). So, I need to plan my journey from North Essex (340 miles). I’ve been looking on Zapmaps, and tried the Porsche planner to give me a rough idea (Porsche planner looks to be down now as it’s just stopped working!). I’m planning on two stops, but just wondered what peoples experience was like M4/M5 heading south. Any better ones, or ones to avoid - my current range prediction is showing around 220 miles on a full charge. Allstar stations preferred (fuel card!), but not essential.

I’m under no illusion it won’t be busy, so just looking to pick people’s brains on their experience. I plan to leave early ish, stop late morning then again after lunch hoping that might avoid the core lunchtime periods.

Any advice appreciated.

Don't forget Porsche main dealers are completely closed on a Sunday although the route planner
doesn't take this into account when providing a charging plan.

Sponsored