Switch EV Project Blog

Quick Charging at Thornaby

Back to Basics (an ICE!)

For the first time in two weeks I drove a petrol car to Newcastle and back yesterday. It is a very strange experience. There is no regeneration of power whenever you slow down or brake gradually and it genuinely seemed shocking to me to be wasting such potential. The heater filled the car with luxurious warmth without an apparent loss of mileage which was lovely - but then I got to thinking what an inately inefficient machine the petrol engine is to be throwing away that much heat as a matter of course.

I can honestly say that my driving habits in terms of fuel efficiency have been radically altered  as a result of the electric car distance limitations. I'll be investing in a trilby hat before I know it

 

Serendipity

Isn't it great when things just work out. it turned out that there is a charge point right outside the Discovery Museum where we were last night to see the Unthanks.  The Great Hall made a great venue and i was all charged up when i got back out. the concert was great too - i don't only think about cars and charging. Pauline

 

Another Chapter!

Thank you to all of the trial candidates from the second phase of the trial. We had some good feedback, with clear indications of where improvements can be made as well as the elements that drivers love, and many people requesting a second trial period with their cars!

 

We are now working our way through handing over the next 32 cars for the penultimate 6 month trial, and there are some very happy new drivers on the road, with more to come in the next fortnight. 

 

The forth and FINAL stage of the trial will start in November this year, so if you want to take part, please let the team at Switch EV know now!

 

Enjoy the bank holiday! 

iOn enjoying the sun!

Here is the iOn basking in the sun in South Shields:

The Metrocentre Marketing department are putting it through it's paces this month.

Personally i've really enjoyed driving it and it is quite a talking point with people asking me what it's like to drive, how long it lasts etc etc.  Having had the car at home this weekend i've been able to utilise two charge points in South Tyneside.  It would be good to see some supermarkets getting involved as I was running low and was looking for somewhere to while away a couple of hours to give the car an extra boost.

Helen

Morpeth to York using sustainable transport

The LEAF is on trial with the Charge Your Car team at Gateshead College, and is being put to good use. 

The photos taken by Steve McDonald from the Charge Your Car team, who has been using different sustainable transport options to good effect!

Steve took advantage of the Charge Your Car network, including the new quick charger at Wynyard Park, to visit a friend in York from his home in Morpeth.

 

Free work based charging posts for Switch EV trial candidates!

Thanks to the team at Charge Your Car, organisations wanting to join the Switch EV trial can get a charging post installed at your work premisis for free - which is yours to keep. 

 

The "host of the post" would be responsible for 50% of the cost of the connection of the post (approx £300), and would have to provide a dedicated EV parking bay until the end of the project (2013) but the post, the ground work, and the installation would all be free.

 

Through the trial we can also install a domestic charging unit - a Pod Point - in people's homes for the duration of the trial, again free of charge, to ensure convenient recharging solutions.

 

To find out more, or join the trial, just get in touch!  

LEAF in Winter

Winter is here.   That should not really be a surprise should it?   We opened the curtains this morning to a couple of inches of snow and so begins the ritual of clearing the drive.     

Now herein lies a problem.   As you can see from the picture, we have a very steep drive.   You will also note from the picture a snowy Nissan Leaf sitting at the bottom of the hill.    It is true that I didn’t expect to get it up the drive...our other cars struggle too.   In fact, it is only our four wheel drive that can make it.   So it is unfair to judge an otherwise excellent vehicle on this little episode.   However, it does raise a very good point.

 

Snow is not unexpected around here, although we have to admit to being caught out this morning.   We fully expect our drive to be rendered inaccessible for up to eight weeks every year when it snows or is icy.   The rest of the road network is much better protected and ability to drive safely is maintained by the local county council pretty much all round the year.   We are prepared and when snow is forecast, we move our cars to the top of the drive and park them in a layby adjacent to our boundary by the road.   We could have done this for the electric car too and continued to use the car as long as road conditions were favourable.   However, this is where the electric car system hits a fundamental flaw.    If the car is at the top of the drive, the charge cable is not long enough.   The 5m cable attached to the Podpoint is ridiculously short and inflexible for general usage, and utterly useless in these circumstances.   I have been advised that a longer cable would be a “special” and incur additional cost, and unlikely to be ready before the end of our trial.   The portable charge system supplied with the car has the same length of cable and the extensive car instructions advise against the use of extension cables when charging the vehicle.

 

As a result we could potentially have a car available for our use, but no means of charging it.   We are now faced with the silly situation of waiting for the snow to melt so we can continue to use the car.

 

Whilst we really like the Nissan Leaf, who would buy a car you can only use for ten months of the year?    A well thought out car is being let down by poorly thought out infrastructure.

 

AVID CUE-V proving popular

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue have had an AVID CUE-V for several weeks now, and are enjoying the experience....

 

"The trial is going great! It has been working out of Newcastle and is due to come into HQ and be used by our training department in the next week or so."

 

 

 

 

LEAF Driver Update

Swaisland Harris have now had the Leaf for just over a month and we are continuing to find it to be an excellent town car.  It is performing well and to some extent we forget that it is an electric vehicle.  We are experiencing some difficulties with the mileage range indicator which seems to generate numbers on a random basis as you can be driving along one minute with 80 miles on, have a bit of a spurt and put the air conditioning on and end up with 50 miles.  We only once got down to single figure range and thankfully we were close to a charging point.  We had a trip into the country to the Battlesteads Restaurant at Wark and with four adults on board the car performed well despite being driven along the A69 at 70 miles an hour.  The charge we got at the Battlesteads did reassure some of the passengers that we would get home.

 

We have done over 700 miles in the first month and it is proving to be good, the only problem has been getting to grips with the heating system, the frost that we had caused some de-icing problems and it was a cold drive to work.