Range anxiety – there’s an app for that

Some say that the future of motoring is electric. It’s great for the environment, but it has given birth to a new phenomenon – Range Anxiety, an anxiety about running out of charge before reaching the destination, especially during long-distance drives.

A new free-to-download app, EVDC, aims to reveal all the public charging points and identify the nearest ones to you, plus offers a discount on the cost of charging. There are no subscription charges to use it.

EVDC is the brainchild of Canadian Tech Whizz- entrepreneur, Matthew Teudor, who has been developing his app for over 4 years. He collaborates with charge providers – more than 240 of them around the world – buying up charge in large quantities at wholesale prices. This means that EVDC can offer people who use the app the benefits of reduced-price electric charging.

So we decided to do some real-life journeying to put the app through its paces. We tapped in our destination, and various charging points along the way, appeared with information on whether they are working and available, or in use.

We chose a Lexus – its RZ450e, Lexus’ latest large All Wheel Drive electric SUV. So we were travelling in style. The Lexus RZ450e had been chosen for our trip for several reasons – mainly because we wanted to see what it was like on all types of road and also because with the car’s range displaying 245 miles, we knew we were going to have to make use of public charging facilities along the way and we could see how the EVDC app fared.

We wanted to ensure we gave the car and EVDC a good run out for a day at the Kent Coast from London, touring the county before heading back. So we headed around the North of London on the M25 and made our way across the Dartford Crossing and out into Kent, braving the latter end of the morning rush hour – and the queues at Dartford – in the process.

First stop was RAF Manston. Set atop one of the highest points in Kent, Manston has two museums – one dedicated solely to Spitfires and Hurricanes with whom it was a key strategic WW2 base and the other a more general RAF Manston Museum (did you know it was officially London’s third airport for a while in the 1950s/60s?).

Having enjoyed all Manston had to offer – including an excellent iced coffee – we motored on for a late lunch in beautiful Whitstable, where the EVDC App told us that there were several possible recharging sites. We picked one seemingly on the front – which turned out to be at the rear of the Marine Hotel, in its car park.

Here we encountered what was potentially a major problem. Like many so-called “destination charging points”, you are at the mercy of the management of the venue. The Marine boasted no less than six chargers, and all, according to the app, were listed as available. However, on reaching the destination, all were occupied by non-charging, non-electric cars – this despite large notices everywhere telling people that the bays were for EV charging only.

We would urge those who opt to install Destination Chargers at their location to seriously consider a penalty system of some sort so that people understand that these are bays that are reserved solely for EV charging – and if they use them incorrectly, they will face the consequences.

We were, however, fortunate on this occasion that the car park was wide enough for us to be able to park the Lexus across the occupied bays and the charging cable was long enough so that we could still use the charger.

Limited access to charger

We went in to have lunch and left a note on the windscreen with our telephone number should the “offending” car owners return, which they did, in the latter stages of our lunch. So they moved out of the bay and we moved in to finish charging.

The EVDC app worked well – and we saved 6p per kw using it – a saving of around 9 per cent against the price as published on another app.

Satisfied, after a spell on the beach and the mandatory ice cream, we made our way through the Kent countryside and home.

The return journey was slow, because of the time of day, but the Lexus whisked us around in comfort and, on what was one of the first really hot days of the summer, its vented seats made our ramblings effortless. It really is a great luxury family cruiser, eating up the miles and, when occasion demanded, showing a truly remarkable turn of pace – it will give petrol-engined supercars a run for their money away from a a standstill, and all this with five people sat in the cabin and their luggage stowed in the boot.

We returned to North West London without needing to charge the car again, but have used the EVDC app on several occasions since, at other places. EVDC is new to the UK; it doesn’t yet have the depth of coverage of some other apps, but it is still more than good enough to find recharging points nearby, and we have since made even bigger savings than in Whitstable.

EVDC tell us that the GEN 2 app is imminent and will feature full journey planning capability with Sat-nav functionality.

For those travelling in EVs and crossing country borders, EVDC has a trick up its sleeve: its own crypto-currency. It may sound a little over the top, but it avoids any need for currency conversion with the commission or poor exchange rates,  so it is far more than a gimmick.

VERDICT: Our experience with both the Lexus and the EVDC App have left us smiling – and the dreaded range anxiety was nowhere to be seen. If this is what EV travelling has in store for the future, it has more than a little going for it. 

More info: www.evdc.network

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