Roadtrip in Scotland - Looking for tips

[bastiaan]

Hey all,
We're planning a roadtrip in Scotland during the summer (August), and I wanted to see if there are any locals who have tips for EV charging. It will be our first roadtrip with the Taycan and with an EV also. I must admit I have some range anxiety! Especially since rapid charging looks to be sparse in the area we're planning to go.

We'll arrive by ferry in Newcastle and will drive up to Colonsay for our first stay. Then to Islay for our second stay, and then to Arran for our last stay. From Arran we'll drive back to Newcastle.

Note to self: Look up how to disable the alarm while on the ferry so we don't get stuck there. I read on here about someone who's Taycan was stranded on a ferry for days.

It looks like that past Glasgow 'rapid charging' means 50kW max, and all of those are situated at the ferry terminals. This is okay I suppose; we'll arrive early for the ferry and charge before we go. We've looked for stays that offer EV charging but those are few and far between; we'll be relying on public charging infra mostly. I saw that ChargePlace Scotland operates the public network, and I was thinking of ordering an RFID card and having it sent to the owners of our first stay so we're not reliant on cell coverage to get a charger going.

If reading this, anything of note comes to mind, I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks!

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[dooby]

Can't help you on every question though when driving a rented camper van around Scotland we were keeping our eyes open for chargers and were pleasantly surprised that although there are few and only 1-2 chargers per location there were no queues... As you spotted, often chargers being near ferries seemed to be a pattern.

And speaking of ferries, many ferries on our UK->Norway trip - several times the app worked to set ferry mode but when it didn't I had to call the Vodafone (?) call centre to disable Porsche Vehicle Tracking System and they sorted it saying "the app isn't always that reliable". Other than disabling PVTS, I believe it's a 2nd "lock button" press shortly after the first - the car flashes to acknowledge and disables the motion sensors. No flat battery and no stranded car on any of our crossings (4x multi-hour ones, multiple short hops).

I'd definitely take the ChargePlace Scotland RIFD tag - when we tour Scotland we will do that too due to cell phone reception concerns.

Do you have a mains charger with you? We have the Porsche Mobile Charge Connect and invested in all the relevant connection cables so for the UK we have 3-pin Type-G but also Blue Commando (16A), Blue Commando (32A) and Red Commando (3-phase 32A). We never had to use it, but in an emergency we figured somewhere like a caravan site (or ferry port) might have been prepared to let us connect & AC charge for a nominal fee.

 

[bastiaan]

Do you have a mains charger with you? We have the Porsche Mobile Charge Connect and invested in all the relevant connection cables so for the UK we have 3-pin Type-G but also Blue Commando (16A), Blue Commando (32A) and Red Commando (3-phase 32A). We never had to use it, but in an emergency we figured somewhere like a caravan site (or ferry port) might have been prepared to let us connect & AC charge for a nominal fee.

Thanks! I had written off bringing my mains charger as I have an EU plug. But if I can just buy an additional connector that's worth looking into!

 

[dooby]

Bought ours from Porsche's website but can't find it now however it's essentially this:

https://www.eurospares.co.uk/Parts/7PP971678GP/Porsche?pi=141876

 

[W1NGE]

Hey all,
We're planning a roadtrip in Scotland during the summer (August), and I wanted to see if there are any locals who have tips for EV charging. It will be our first roadtrip with the Taycan and with an EV also. I must admit I have some range anxiety! Especially since rapid charging looks to be sparse in the area we're planning to go.

We'll arrive by ferry in Newcastle and will drive up to Colonsay for our first stay. Then to Islay for our second stay, and then to Arran for our last stay. From Arran we'll drive back to Newcastle.

Note to self: Look up how to disable the alarm while on the ferry so we don't get stuck there. I read on here about someone who's Taycan was stranded on a ferry for days.

It looks like that past Glasgow 'rapid charging' means 50kW max, and all of those are situated at the ferry terminals. This is okay I suppose; we'll arrive early for the ferry and charge before we go. We've looked for stays that offer EV charging but those are few and far between; we'll be relying on public charging infra mostly. I saw that ChargePlace Scotland operates the public network, and I was thinking of ordering an RFID card and having it sent to the owners of our first stay so we're not reliant on cell coverage to get a charger going.

If reading this, anything of note comes to mind, I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks!

West coast of Scotland will offer slim pickings for charging choices so bear this in mind.

The standard speeds are slow (AC <=22kW), fast (DC <= 50kW), rapid (DC <= 150kW) ultra rapid (>= 150kW <= 350kW).

ChargePlace Scotland is the generic provider so make sure you are set up for that - there is an RFID card and increasingly (by EU law) PAYG is an option at most if not all of their EVSEs.

https://chargeplacescotland.org/

Glasgow will have Ionity, BP Pulse, others which will offer 150kW - 350kW.

Plan your route in your PCM with the correct settings and see what it throws up for EVSE charging locations (and pricing).

ZapMap is a useful resource also.

 

[Boss Hogg]

August will be very busy up the west coast, pre-book your ferries for sure. I would not rely on chargers at ferry terminals, always make sure you have a back-up option or arrive with lots of spare time. There are quite a few chargers just not many fast DC, so plan around AC and use DC as a bonus. Getting the Chargeplace Scotland RFID is a good idea. Use zap-map for planning your charging. Glasgow area you'll be fine, plenty options inc 350kw Ionity and Gridserve

Enjoy the trip, it's a lovely part of the world with some great Whiskies on Islay.

 

[bastiaan]

August will be very busy up the west coast, pre-book your ferries for sure. I would not rely on chargers at ferry terminals, always make sure you have a back-up option or arrive with lots of spare time. There are quite a few chargers just not many fast DC, so plan around AC and use DC as a bonus. Getting the Chargeplace Scotland RFID is a good idea. Use zap-map for planning your charging. Glasgow area you'll be fine, plenty options inc 350kw Ionity and Gridserve

Enjoy the trip, it's a lovely part of the world with some great Whiskies on Islay.

Thanks! We've already booked our ferries as we'd heard the same.

I'm curious, why do you say not to rely on the chargers at the ferry terminals? That's exactly what we were planning to do as especially on the islands they are often the only 'fast' chargers available.

 

[W1NGE]

There might be a queue.

Watchout for overstay fees (45 - 90 mins might be your max charging session).

Looks to be around 16 fast (11kW - 22kW - beige) EVSEs across the western isles and a reasonable amount of rapid (50kW - Pink)

If things are as 'tight' as they appear then make sure you have a 3-pin plug capable mobile evse - 0.1 mile / minute - plenty of time therefore to take in the views...

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