Yesterday I was nervous and excited about driving around 140 kilometres round trip in an electric car because so far I drive 30 to 40 kilometres at most, 80 in a single day. This time I drove that in a single go.
I am not sure whether the car has 23 kWh or 40 but I do know that if it has 23 kWh then it required 21-23 kWh per hundred kilometres to get from Nyon to Lausanne at 120 kilometres per hour. The battery was going down fast. I decided to slow down to 100-110 kilometres per hour and the range recovered a little.
I suspect that this high consumption rate is due to two things. The first is the gradient of the motorway. I think that’s it a faux-plat as it’s called in French. It rises gradually. Once I slowed down I was slightly less anxious, especially once I passed La Sarraz. Yverdon is on a plateau that is higher than the Léman plateau so I climbed.
The drive on the flat plateau from La Sarraz to Yverdon-Les-Bains was more gradual and I got to the parking with ease. I parked at the Park and Rail parking as it is convenient.
For the journey back I got in the car and considered whether to try to get home without charging. At one point the car told me that I had a margin of just 20 kilometres between range and distance left to travel so I stopped at the Bavois station. It is what I had intended to do from the start.
Whether a car has 800 kilometres of range between refills, like the C3 I drive does, or the Fiat 500 has 260km of hypothetical range is not the concern for me. It’s whether I can recharge along the way. Switzerland is mountainous and there was a lot of wind. Both of these will reduce the car’s range, as will the need for heating at this time of year.
When I started the car it had 260 km of hypothetical range but the practical range was lower due to the time of year, the gradient of the roads and ambient air temperature. Instead of 260 kilometres I might have had 160 km or less. I wasn’t willing to play chicken with the range estimate.
Remember, the purpose of this drive was to see whether I felt comfortable driving to Yverdon and back, and if I could charge if and when required. To both of these questions the answer is yes. The test was a success. Would it be nice to have more range? Of course. Is it cheaper than the train? Yes, especially if I car share with at least one person. Even with the Demi Tarif driving an electric car is cheaper, with the 10 CHF parking.
For the test I had charged to 100 percent over 2hr30 at a slow charging point. I then charged at a fast point in 18 minutes, up to 80 percent, before driving home. I got home with about 65 percent left.
In summary, I used 43 percent of the car’s charge to get from Nyon to Yverdon to park. I then used around 20 percent from Yverdon to the charging station where I charged to 86 percent or so, before driving home and having 65 percent. As a rough estimate I used 80 percent of the charge to get there and back.
With more confidence, and experience I could have made it without topping up the charge. I know that there are charging stations along the way but those that work are often full, and those that are empty are out of service. That’s why I like to have at least 30 percent in reserve, in case I struggle to find a charging point.
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