Well, I have to apologise as it has been over a month since my last post. And I have quite a bit of car related news to relay! I guess the biggest news was my abortive attempt to reach Belfast. As there is currently no FCP in Newry, the only way for me to make it to Belfast at present is via the FCP in Monaghan, and then onward towards Belfast via the A3. Of course this is a significantly longer route and required me to add about two extra hours to the journey (one hour for the extra distance and one hour for charging)! That's quite an extension to what is usually a two-hour car journey. But I decided to give it a go.
In preparation for my journey I planned my route, confirming that travelling from my home to the FCP in Monaghan was no more that 128km and that the distance between Monaghan and my destination in Belfast was no more than 100km. I also contacted the Topaz garage in Monaghan to confirm that the FCP was operational (this is because the FCP in Glasnevin had failed on me while I was using it only one week beforehand). All was good, I sent the map to my car (via Carwings) and got up at 0530h the next morning to start my epic journey.
As the distance was only 128km to Monaghan, and I had traversed 152km to Wexford without too much difficulty I felt that I could let myself go wild and travel at an average speed of 90kph! So I started my journey on the N2 bearing this in mind. However, as I continued along the N2 past Slane I started to get very concerned about the Distance-To-Empty meter. And then it happened - for the first time since I had the car I got an audio warning that my destination may not be within reach of the current range of the car!
To cut a long story short, I did manage to make it to Monaghan with just 8 Km left on the clock. But it was a harrowing journey, requiring me ultimately to reduce my speed to 60kph and as a courtesy to the drivers behind me I had to regularly pull in to allow them to pass me put safely! I was NOT impressed. However, I had made it this far and Belfast was only 100km away. So I pulled up to the FCP and plugged my car in. To my relief the car started to charge - and then it STOPPED! The FCP displayed the same error message that the one in Glasnevin did when it had failed on me only one week earlier! I was devastated. I knew that if someone was to come out and fix it it would still delay me enough to ensure that I did not make my 1030h meeting in Belfast! My day had been ruined!
Three hours later, after two very nice engineers from Carra arrived to fix the FCP and kindly waits with me for an hour to fully charge the ca I was back on the road home. I did not wish to risk continuing to Belfast in case this charge point failed again on my return journey. Thus I decided to give up. Determined to make sure I had a better journey home than I did on the way to Monaghan I deliberately paced myself on the roads back! But then - stupidity struck! Yes, on the almost completely straight road home I took a wrong turn! Absolute disaster - I ended up double backing on myself and returning to Navan! It was now clear that I no longer had enough charge to get home! What was I going to do.
With no FCPs around it looked like I wast ing to have to call Nissan's car service and have poor Pepé towed home! I was not looking forward to that. But then - a light bulb appeared over my head (in the cartoon version of our Universe). I only need about 10 Km more. And I had my two charging cables. If I could plug in some where and wait for about an hour, that should do it. I remembered a friend of mine who lived in Navan. I called him, asked him if he was home and if he wouldn't mind if I stole some of his electricity. He very kindly said yes and after an hour and some toast and tea I was back on the M3 motorway heading home!
I learned a lot from this experience. The three most important facts that I have taken from my adventure are:
1. The Nissan Leaf has a real world operational range of 100km - this is going at motorway speeds and using air conditioning
2. There should be at least two FCPs at every FCP location
3. There needs to be FCP locations at least every 60km on every major inter-urban route in Ireland (North and South!)
If points two and three are implemented Byrne ESB and point one is observed, then the Nissan Leaf will finally become a real-world replacement for ANY family car in Ireland. However, without it remains a city car with limited capability.
