CAN YOU ROAD TRIP IN AN EV? 600 Miles in the Audi e-tron GT

Today, I'm in the Audi e-tron GT Quattro, travelling as far down south as I can to Beachy Head in Eastbourne. But what is it actually like to do a road trip in an electric car? Let's find out....

If you're interested in getting into the used car industry, check out the website below for more information on my online course. It's only £27 per month with biweekly livestreams! There are nearly 100 videos covering a whole range of topics. Plus you can cancel at any time. Click below.

I'd be grateful if you could give the video a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe if you're new to the channel.

Follow Me:
High Peak Property:

/ @highpeakproperty

Thanks for watching

#highpeakautos #audi #etron #ev #roadtrip #audietron

[TillyCollie]

I had a Jaguar iPace for several months and it was a fantastic car as long as I didn’t need to make a journey more than 200 miles from home. What people often do not realise is that although you may start a journey with 100% charge, when you are on route you wont be charging to more than 80% because that’s when the charging speed drops dramatically. You also wont want to allow the battery to drop below 20% because of uncertainty finding an available and working charger. So really, you can only use 60% of the battery capacity. The range is inversely proportional to your speed and drops significantly from 60 - 70 mph and more so should you exceed the national speed limit. It is of course on long journeys when you are likely to be on a motorway and want to travel faster. In a nutshell, the manufacturer claims 300 miles range but at 70 mph with heater or air con on this drops to 240 miles. But you can only safely use 60% of that in between charges so that means that you need to find a charger every 140 miles! I sold my iPace after running flat with 4 faulty charging stations in a row between Exeter and Truro. I had to wait 4 hours for a flatbed transporter and paid £340 for it to be carried home.

[thomasj]

Driven to the UK five times all the way from Norway in a Tesla Model 3 Long Range. Our longest charging stop on our last trip was 18 minutes. Our charging infrastructure is world leading, with 20-40 Supercharger stalls common. I’ve yet to queue for a charge the last four years. In fact there are so many chargers you’d struggle to drive more than 10 minutes on the motorways to find one. The UK? Put simply it’s like going back in time. Here’s some stats: The UK has 3800 ultra rapid chargers. Norway has 7000 with a population 13 times smaller. Thanks for the video!

[PixelVibe]

Recently did a return trip to Manchester (550 miles) on 3/4 tank of diesel. 70mph on cruise the whole way, fully loaded car and a/c on. Not once did I have 'range anxiety'. At every service station there were EV's queuing, and their owners having a coffee while waiting (add the £4 coffee and £3 pastry to your charging stop every time). For longer trips you can't beat a modern, efficient diesel.

Edit: I actually repeated this same trip the following week, again on 3/4 tank of diesel. Took about 3 minutes to fill up and literally smashed out another 550 mile trip.

[stevehancox]

Hi Matt, love the channel and thanks for putting yourself through such torture to demonstrate the problems with the non-Tesla EV charging network in the UK.
I have had a Tesla Model 3 for 4 years. I have driven the length and breadth of the UK over that time (including Orkney) without any major issues.
The Tesla Supercharger network is the game changer when owning a Tesla. If I am doing a long journey, I charge to 90-100% at home then most of the time I only use Superchargers on long journeys. The only time I have had to wait for a charger in 4 years was at Gretna Green (only 4 Tesla Superchargers there at the time). Most other sites, there are large numbers of chargers and waiting is not an issue. I usually pay around 35-40p per kWh when using the Superchargers (the car tells you how much you have paid). The car also navigates to available chargers and preheats the battery for faster charging when you get there. Having said that Scotland’s non-Tesla EV charging network worked well for me via Charge Place Scotland when there were no Superchargers around (such as on Orkney Mainland)

[haydensmith]

This is really interesting video and I really enjoyed the real world review, I own an EV and unfortunately I often have very similar experiences, whenever we go anywhere other than local trips we take our 20 year old diesel which works perfectly and far less stress and anxiety.

[AJAC]

I have owned an E-Niro since 2019, at that point chargers were reasonably accessible, albeit with less availability. In the last 18 months the charging infrastructure has become more challenging. Hence I’m selling my EV and going back to a Rav4 PHEV. Whilst I love the way EVs drive the frustrations of the charging network are just to painful. I throughly agreed with everything you said and your experiences.

[philipfoster]

This is why I have gone for an PHEV and a home wall box. I can do nearly all of my local driving and commuting on full EV but still do proper road trips without all this frustration and anxiety. I'm sure it'll get there one day but until the government actually puts as much money into the network as they've wasted on HS2, they're pissing in the wind.

[Sturge]

I suppose it depends on the ev you drive, recently had to go from Reading to Hexham for a wedding charged the car to 100% off my excess solar and headed off 3 up. Due to traffic the car informed me I could make it to Washington with 5% left but my bladder couldn’t so stopped at Ferrybridge plugged into a Supercharger went for a comfort break, grabbed a coffee as needed some caffeine and had more than enough to get to Hexham. Hotel we were stopping at was next to a council car park with 11kW chargers at only 31p per kW. Yes had to download an app but was able to charge to 100% with free parking for the weekend. Following day was the wedding then set off the day after, car said could get to Oxford. Again bladder not that good so stopped at Ferrybridge again, plugged into a Supercharger went for comfort break, grabbed a coffee and headed home. Got back to Reading with 20% battery. Painless, easy and simple and less than £30 spent.

[ChipperMega]

Great video and reflects exactly what I've found.

I've had EVs since 2015, currently using an eNiro with the lease ending in November, I'll be replacing it with a 3 litre BMW diesel. Public rapid charging availability is now worse than it was when 8 years ago.

In September we did a trip from Devon to the Lake district, over 6 days we did 1077 miles. Where we were stating had a public charger so I could charge over night. On the way to the Lakes I spent 30 minutes on the phone to Gridserve at Gloucester services trying to get a charger to start but had to give up. Then the next 2 were busy, we finally charged on the 4th service station. 10 minutes in to charging, after I just sat down to eat my (very late) lunch the car tells me charging stopped, someone had pressed the stop button on the charger so I had to go out and start it again.

On the way home it was a similar story, no chargers available on 3 attempts, got to Exeter really needing a charge and there were 2 cars already waiting, we had to wait around 45 minutes for a charger and in the mean time, 4 more cars got behind me in the queue.

The cost of charging over the week was £149.52. In a BMW 330d it would have cost £124.59 in diesel and would have saved 4 or 5 hours of my time and a lot of stress.

[theicemario]

Beautifully shot and edited video. Also refreshing to see a sleek saloon in this world of crossovers and SUVs.

[gavery]

This is exactly the experience I had when I owned an Audi etron. I loved the car and hated the charging infrastructure. I changed to an Audi Q7 55 tsi and my wife has a Mini electric that we charge at home and never take on longer journeys. This works perfectly.

[maverlk]

An interesting experience, yet my own has been very much different.
I did a 500 month mile round trip to South London on august bank holiday weekend in an electric car with a 254 mile range! It was faster than in an ICE car because my stops coincided with the need to eat, pee and stretch my legs, with the car recharging faster than I could do those things!
Watching the queues for petrol pumps on an unplanned stop (for toilets, food and because we were in a stationary M6 jam) made me smile.
The 2 electric chargers at Keele services also had a queue, but I didn’t need them.
I spent a few minutes planning and it was seemless (apart from 8 hours going and 11 coming back due to the ridiculous traffic). Sat with the heat pump climate control on knowing I wasn’t sat there for hours burning 🔥 fuel was also a ‘smug’ experience.
My previous 3litre diesel X5 could do 500 miles on a tank (£140 to fill from empty), but in this traffic I would have been lucky to get 400 so a stop for fuel would have been essential.
I believe people take a position on such matters and only seek to justify it, rather than adapt and rationalise and see the overall benefits.
Waking up every morning with a full charge for a couple of quid has felt so liberating this last 18 months.
I have done numerous road trips and 75p per kwh to charge is a big rise in price, but my X5 would have needed to do over 45 mpg to have been cheaper on fuel (forgetting the £3 cost of a full battery to start with) and that never happened!
Perspective is all!

[Canalsman]

I visit France regularly on long trips in my motorhome. I have been observing the provision of charging points, not for the motorhome I hasten to add, and it's striking how much better the network has developed.

You go to the smallest village miles from anywhere and there are charging points. And because there are so many charging points many are ready and waiting to be used.

What a contrast!

[Michael-xvku]

I wish you had learned more before you reviewed:
- You never had the car preconditioned because you weren't using the onboard nav.
- Ionity supports plug and charge if you had set that up with Audi.
- You also could have used an app like Plugshare to know those chargers were not available before you navigated to them.

This looked like more of an experience of someone renting an EV, not an owner.

[clfield]

In the UK EV's only make sense for people who only do local journeys, and mainly town driving and can home charge whenever they need to. This is also better for the air quality in said towns. As soon as you start needing to do longer distance and any motorway miles, ICE vehicles still remain the vehicle of choice

[gerrym]

£60 charging gets 250 miles 😱😂 What happened to them being cheap to run?

[paulie-Gualtieri.]

Needs a twin turbo diesel V8, great test Matt, good consumer advice.

[robk]

Brilliant video. I'm a Service Engineer who has to travel throughout the UK. My company offers electric cars. I've opted out and use a petrol Golf with 100, 000 miles on it. Financially, it makes little difference running my own car or having a basic EV.
So basically, i prefer a 100, 000 mile Golf to a new MG4.😊

[rhiantaylor]

As an EV owner, I quickly reailised that you avoid charging away from home wherever possible as it is typically 8 to 10x as expensive. A mini road trip I carried out yesterday was W. London to Cardiff (140 miles) and back. The round trip was more than my Zoe could achieve so I looked on Zapmap for a fast charger in Cardiff that was free and added just enough to make it home again which took about 15 mins.

[gordonbarnes]

EV's are fine if you use them for the odd jaunt around town and charge them overnight, we are nowhere near them being adequate enough for long distance travel.