Brighton to Glasgow: 500 miles in a Kia EV6 Car News

7:03 p.m., A74(M) northbound, near Elvanfoot

It’s been a long day behind the wheel, but it’s almost over. We bisected the Dales and the Pennines on the A66 under cloudy, rain-covered skies, and as we climbed the predicted range took an ominous downward turn, just as the defog started to struggle to keep the screen clear (a nudge on the fan soon sorted that). But as darkness fell, so did we – and we arrived at Ionity Chargers in Gretna with around 25 miles to spare.

It was dark and cold, and if it had rained we would have been pretty wet too (there are still no shelters to park under most of these charging facilities). But the Scottish power grid was kinder to us than the Yorkshire one, supplying power to the EV6 at a very good 150kW. In 16 minutes, the car was more than 80% full, and it was the driver who slowed down the progress with his need for candy. I suspect no one really needs faster charging than this.

So off we went, with 80 miles to Glasgow, certain that we would complete the trip. But when? We arrive at our meeting point just south of the Clyde, and Edleston has already been back and forth looking for filming locations. He must have.

He returns to reveal that he had arrived at 7 p.m. sharp, having stopped three times (but only once for fuel). That meant I was 40 minutes behind him, having stopped the same number of times, although clearly a bit longer each time.

A fairly insignificant extra 40 minutes on what turned out to be a 466-mile trip for both of us makes the EV6 the moral winner in my book. If we had found 150kW chargers at each stop, we might have reduced the difference to just half an hour. Again, we were lucky to charge as it was, and we paid for the privilege.

Who would have thought an electric vehicle could do so well over the distance on UK roads? Not me, I admit. Plus, who would have thought that recharging it could be so expensive? The problem is that when you have no electricity and you have places to go, you have no choice but to pay what they charge. Hopefully the force of competition continues to drive prices down and people are bold enough to pull off the freeway for a mile or two to get a better deal.