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EV Day Trip to Edinburgh

We took a trip to Edinburgh and up to Wallace Monument this week. This is somewhat for folk who drive electric vehicles and those interested in doing so.

The Car

The car we've got is a 38kWh Hyundai Ioniq. It's really efficient and is otherwise pretty unassuming. For the trip we made heavy use of the smart cruise-control and charged a few times.

Southbound and down

The aim was to get to Ingliston Park and Ride around 1100, we left pretty early on and thinking we would need to charge around Perth (Scotland) after travelling from Inverness.
We chose to stop at the BP Pulse chargers in Perth as they were cheaper (40p/kW) compared to the Ionity chargers (69p/kW). However, the BP chargers would not work. The CCS on the two free chargers were marked as in-use by the system and as such would not let the car charge. Nor was it possible to tell the charger that the bay was free.
Blue car charging from an large 'IONITY' branded station. There's a green light above the station, as well as a second station beside it.
Scratch BP then, off to Ionity. Their chargers are a very short journey up the road. All 4 were empty and remarkably easy to use.

Added bonus is that there's a Starbucks opposite so we could get some refreshments after a few hours in the car.

Dash displaying 42% charge remaining, charging at 31kW and a remaining time of 34 minutes to 80%

The car discharged to 42% from 100%, leaving us with about 79 miles of range, which was enough to non-stop the trip to the park and ride. We re-charged back to around 80% which took the same time as ordering and drinking our hot chocolates.

Blue car with door and boot open plugged into a white charging station

Next stop was the Park and Ride at Ingliston. There we searched a little for some chargers and found some 'fast' 7kW chargers, these are operated through Charge Place Scotland, so were a swipe of the RFID card and plug-in. The recharge time around 3hrs to full, perfect amount of time to drop Large Child off at the train in Edinburgh, take the tram both ways and arrive for a refilled battery.

The Tram

Small Child holding the rail inside the tram
This was our first trip ever on the trams in Edinburgh! They were fantastic! A family ticket from Ingliston is cheap at just over £9 for 2adults and 3 children, both directions.

A picture of Princes Street, Edinburgh. There're two trams at the tram station. The street is busy with people walking around but little on the road.
Tram was quiet and smooth. I'd thoroughly recommend it, we're going to be taking the tram in future for all travel into Edinburgh.

Photo of the Scott Monument. Framed with green, sunlit, foliage.

Northbound

We took the opportunity to visit the Wallace Monument on the way North as I'd never seen it before. Small Child fell asleep shortly before reaching the monument car-park so I travelled up the path alone.
Large stone wall with a metal man standing with sword held-out. Two busts can be seen in the doorway

We stopped at Ionity on the way home, just to ensure we could get back without trouble. The car was estimating 10 miles of range left after the detour via Stirling and past Sherriffmuir.

Car Stats

After travelling 350 miles at motorway speeds and A9 speeds, so between 50-70mph the car averaged out at 5.1mi/kWh which seems incredibly efficient. This works out to 196.08 watt hours per mile, 121.84 watt hours per kilometer or 171.9 miles per gallon (US) gasoline equivalent*

This is with running the A/C as well. The roads were busy so having the car control its speed relative to the vehicle in-front definitely helped.

Car display showing 350.6miles travelled, 5.1mi/kWh efficiency, 7 hours 50 minutes of travel time and 27 miles of range left.
Car display showing 27 miles left, 11% battery and charge times of 1h 6m for rapid charging, 3h 55m for fast charging or 14 hours for 3-pin charging.

Few extra photos from Wallace Monument

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