Top tips for the ultimate EV road trip
08 October 2024 | Alex Thwaites
If you’re planning a holiday or visiting friends and family this autumn, driving is easy and flexible. But taking a longer road trip with an EV takes a bit more planning.
We've covered our top tips for an EV road trip below – including the ways OVO’s helping to make it cheaper and easier to drive electric.
5 tips for EV road trips
Expert advice from OVO's EV Director, Alex Thwaites, for a smooth and enjoyable EV journey.
1. Know your range
If concerns about battery range are stalling you, you’re not the only one. Almost 80% of people agree that going electric is a vital part of reducing our collective carbon emissions, but lots have worries about finding a charging point on the go.
Before setting off on a trip, especially if it’s a long one, it’s crucial to know the range of your electric car. The range is the distance it can travel on a single charge. The average EV range is 236 miles – the equivalent of a return trip from London to Bristol – while recent research suggests the range for new vehicles is closer to 300 miles.
2. Choose the right kind of charge
Generally speaking, there are 4 main types of EV charging – slow, fast, rapid and ultra-rapid. As a rule of thumb, you’ll probably use a slow charger at home, fast chargers at places like supermarkets, and rapid or ultra-rapid chargers at motorway service stations and public car parks. Each charger type has a specific set of connectors that are designed for low or high-power use.
Rapid charging is typically used when you're already on the go and need a boost, while slow and fast charging are better used as top-ups at home or at work.
3. Plan your trip
Be sure to plan your route ahead of time. You can use Charge Anywhere in the OVO Charge app to find available EV chargers, so you know where to stop off. It gives you access to 34,000+ UK chargers and 400,000+ across Europe, shows which chargers are available and reliable, and lets you pay straight through the app. Plus you can save up to 15% compared to Pay As You Go prices and get extra features with a Boost plan. Light Boost, for £2 a month, gives you 10% off while a Turbo Boost, for £8 a month, saves you 15%. If there aren’t many chargers available, pick the most direct route to get there and drive slower to save battery power.
4. Use regenerative braking
Regenerative braking is clever tech used in electric and hybrid vehicles. It converts some of the energy lost during braking into electricity, and then stores it in the vehicle's battery. It works best when you’re driving in stop-start traffic. So, if your vehicle has this option, it’s worth turning it on to allow your car to recover energy as you brake.
5. Create a charging routine
Once you have your charging routine down, you’ll start to see a real difference. Aim to charge your EV battery to about 80% capacity, and try to charge it up again when it gets down to around 20%. This is the most efficient charging routine, as the battery will usually charge the final 20% at a slower rate. If you’re charging at home, you could smart charge for 7p a kWh – day or night – with Charge Anytime.1 That’s 2p a mile – helping you go further for less on your road trip.
So, if you already drive an EV, you’re now armed with all the know how to plan longer trips. And if you’re considering making the switch, you can get your EV journey off to a rolling start by banking up to 2,400 free EV miles to use in the future2 with Beyond, our Energy Savings Account. Now the only decision to make is where you go next.
Important Information
1 When you add Charge Anytime to your plan, your home energy rate will stay the same, but the energy consumed by your EV will be charged at an effective rate of 7p per kWh when smart charging (thanks to payment of your Charge Anytime charging credit). The 2p a mile claim is based on an EV customer driving the UK average of 7,000 miles at an average of 4 miles per kWh. The Charge Anytime add-on rate on 01/01/2024 is 7p per kWh. Actual sum per mile is 1.75p. Individual costs will vary based on your vehicle efficiency, driving style and weather conditions. Subject to eligibility and acceptance of our terms and conditions. To get the Charge Anytime add-on, you’ll need to have a compatible electric vehicle and/or EV charger, a smart meter, and to download our app. You’ll also need to agree to your smart meter sharing half-hourly readings with us. For full details of compatible chargers and EVs please see our Charge Anytime terms and conditions.
If you need your car in a hurry, you can override your smart charging schedule with the Charge Now function. You'll be charged at your standard home electricity rate when you're not smart charging.
2 Our Beyond EV Reward allows eligible customers to bank up to 100 free miles a month over 2 years (up to a maximum 2,400 miles), which can then be redeemed when a customer signs up to Charge Anytime. Free miles can be redeemed at any time over the 2 year period and for 3 years after. Free miles must be redeemed in one go and are payable as account credit within 30 days of redemption. Credit will depend on the number of miles banked when redeemed and the current Charge Anytime rate. Charge Anytime requires a compatible charger or EV (see Charge Anytime terms for details). Mileage calculation based on average sized EV requiring 1kWh per 4 miles. Actual miles obtained depends on type of vehicle, driving style, weather and other factors. Terms and eligibility criteria apply. For more details see our Beyond terms and conditions.