Part 1: France | 2500 miles in a Nissan e-NV200 24kWh EV campervan from N.Wales UK to S.Spain

Trip from N.Wales to Southern Spain in our 24kWh Nissan e-NV200 fully electric DIY converted campervan.
Blog post: Blog post: blog.zerocarbo...
Driving across UK and France was very straightforward even with our 24kWh battery giving a normal driving range of 70 miles in winter. However, it's very early days for EV infrastructure in Spain. It's currently quite challenging in central and southern Spain with a low range EV.
Total public recharging cost for 2500 miles was £109
Mobile apps we used on this trip:
Chargemap: located and activate charging points in France. Recommend ordering Chargemap RFDI pass play.google.co...
Electromaps: locate charging points in Spain play.google.co...
PlugShare: most major charging points wordwide play.google.co...
Elevation Profile: very useful in Spain! play.google.co...
Ibil: activate Ibil chargers in Spain play.google.co...
Easy Charger: Activate Easy charger units chargers in Spain: play.google.co...
EDP MoveOn: activate EDP chargers in Spain play.google.co...
Iberdrola: activate iberdrola chargers in Spain play.google.co...
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Music
Alan Walker Fade NCS
• Video

[@neileroberts]

Oh man.... I want an ENV200 now. That is amazing.

[@Radio4ManLeics]

Great video! You reminded me of what Campervans are all about. You two are a great couple, and seeing you both enjoying the shared experience so much is really uplifting! Bon voyage à vous!

[@outbacktesla]

Great video guys, keen for Part 2. Van fit out is superb!! 👍

[@GlynHudson]

Thanks! Part2 is now live kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGjRo5iBq7ljqqM

[@GlynHudson]

Great to see you meetup and help Wiebe Wakker. I've been following him since the beginning. What an awesome trip.

[@outbacktesla]

@@GlynHudson It sure is. Was brilliant to host Wiebe, we were his first hosts in Australia and he was with us for a month while we waited for the Blue Bandit to arrive. Great guy and we've stayed in touch and kept following his adventures in Aus. Epic journey!

[@johantoday]

@@GlynHudson This video does not exist. I think this is the proper link now: Part 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKOno4eBi9qioKs

[@matthewspry4217]

Charge map pass works in UK with ESB energy 👍

[@Simon-dm8zv]

Truly fantastic. Thanks for sharing your rather interesting (and still quite unique) adventure. Like I said before, I see the e-nv200 as the perfect successor of my diesel powered T4 campervan and hope to ever own one as well. Looking forward to more :)

[@GlynHudson]

Thanks, the new 40kWh e-NV200 would make a fantastic campervan

[@MegaLegend76]

Had the same van til recent. Drove from portsmouth to sagress in Portugal for 3 winters, a two week journey each way because the lack of charging infrastructure, especially Portugal. We carried a 6amp evse, honda 2kw generator, 10kw lifepo4 range extender and 2kw inverter and 1kw of roof mounted solar. The most useful tool was actually planning, adaptability and persistence.

[@GlynHudson]

Good effort! Wow, did you make the 10kw lifepo4 range extender yourself? How much did it weigh? Where did you store it? That's a lot of extra battery. We're going to Spain again this winter, the infrastructure seems to have improved since last year. Our summer trip to Slovenia / Hungry from the UK went very smoothly, the infrastructure in mainland Europe (apart from Spain!) is quite good now kzbin.info/www/bejne/jpbQXoCXl9qChrc

[@MegaLegend76]

The 10kwh lifepo4 is our house bank of 48v, for long journeys the 100kg bank is strapped at the rear to the bed frame, aswell as a victron 2kw inverter. The inverter has a neet trick, i can sellect the mains amperage to pull from a source like generator or limited campsite, then add battery energy as well to charge at 3.3kw. Charging using the generator only at 6amps is really slow but necessary sometimes. I'm glad the charging infrastructure is improving, the early days were seriously challenging, but satisfying also.

[@GlynHudson]

@@MegaLegend76 that's very impressive. Do you have any photos of your setup? I use the OpenEVSE to adjust the charging rate from 6A-28A (6.6kW)

[@MCSMIK]

Great video. Subscribed and looking forward to part 2!

[@GlynHudson]

Thanks, part 2 is now live! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGjRo5iBq7ljqqM

[@waynekerrr9027]

I couldn't think of anything worse than stopping every few miles to charge up , that's after going searching them...petrol every day for me 👍👍👍

[@GlynHudson]

Our van is 10yr old technology almost all new EVs have a range of over 200 miles. Some Teslas now have a range over 500 miles. It's not possible to buy this version of our van any more, so it's certainly not the future! However, If I can do a journey like this in our old van it will be easy in any modern EV. There are also vans with other 200 miles of range, checkout the new Vauxhall Vivaro-e

[@waynekerrr9027]

@@GlynHudson you mention Tesla's ..why would I pay £50/£80k on a EV to save £1000 fuel per year...have people gone mad, or just got too much money

[@GlynHudson]

@@waynekerrr9027 this is why I buy an old van for £9k and convert it to mysefl! I don't mind spending a bit of extra time charging. Not many people buy new Teslas, most are leased or on finance. You can pickup a Tesla Model S for £26k 2nd hand with free unlimited supercharging. Still more than I can afford but a good deal for some

[@waynekerrr9027]

@@GlynHudson yes your right, I've just looked and you can pick up second hand Tesla's for about £27k all with about 150.000 miles on the clock..not quite sure who in their right mind would buy one of the these, when you can pick up a brand new Audi A3, mercedes A class for less money ..ok you might get some free charging , but I only spend about £800 per year in fuel anyway, and if those lovely 150.000 mileage batteries get problems, then wow, say goodbye to a huge wedge of cash.. Like ya van though 👍👍👍

[@coop69coop]

Fair play! Your a braver man than me !!

[@countteddy]

im going to do all this in my 24kw........apart from the rock climbing bit of course..........following your trip with envy ..ENVy200 .......

[@GlynHudson]

Go for it! See description for the apps we used to activate the charging points

[@BikeTall]

Very cool. I wish the eNV200 was available in the States, but we only have the gas version here. America is so far behind when it comes to EV availability & green infrastructure.

[@VeeFour]

Inspiring stuff!

[@islaws4589]

Wow am really impressed! We have a 24kw Leaf & just about managed to travel back from Cemaes Bay to Hyde (E Manchester) with one stop at Singing Kettle services. We managed 4.7 miles/kWh (2 adults/2 kids + luggage) which was a nice surprise tbh and gave us some confidence in the car! May I ask what the eNV manages? Am intrigued as I really like the camper idea when we change the Leaf!

[@GlynHudson]

That's good efficiency in winter, good effort! I know those charging points well along the A55. We have both a leaf and env200 so can make a good comparison. Since the env200 is less aerodynamic than the leaf consumption increases dramatically at higher speeds. Around town in summer the env200 is very similar to the leaf, however at 50mph the env200 consumes about 10% more energy than the leaf. Also since the env200 has not got a heatpump heating system like the leaf, instead it has a resistive heater this uses more energy for heating than the leaf. I have to work hard to get above 4mi/kWh in the env200, normal driving is at this time of year is around 3.5mi/kwh giving a range of 70 miles in the env200. I would recommend the 40kWh env200 if budget can stretch. This would make an awesome camper

[@islaws4589]

@@GlynHudson Glyn Hudson That was last August so pretty warm. I drove alone to Nottingham & back though last Monday using the heater for the 1st half of the journey & got 4.8 overall - that was through the Peak District mind you so I managed to keep the speed low. 3.5 miles/kWh sounds really good. It's clearly usable given the journey you are both undertaking! Re the 40kW. It'll be a few years before we change so yeah, would hope there will be a few knocking about by then.

[@super-sim1665]

Thinking of solar powered env200. Seems the easyest solar vehicle to convert but no one seems to have done this.

[@GlynHudson]

It's possible but would require a very large solar panel array. The minimum powr for EV charging is 1.4kW. Solar power array would need to produce 1.4kW for 17hrs for a full charge. The array would need to be at least 6x 250W panels operating at peak output

[@ecoflashcards]

Good video and very informative - have a sub Sir!

[@Radio4ManLeics]

How long does a rapid charge take, and what does it cost, please?

[@GlynHudson]

It takes about 20min and costs about £4. Cost varies between rapid charge operators between £1.80-£5

[@cokyrobes]

Impressive guys - how much did part one cost in electricity? Also what efficiency are you getting in wh/m ? I did a very similar trip in 2017 in an MX 100D and we averaged 410wh/m over the 2k miles we did. Want to do it again in my M3P when it finally arrives!

[@GlynHudson]

The rapid charging costs for the UK part (N.Wales > Portsmouth) cost £24. Crossing France cost £47 although £10 of this was an overstay charge since we slept on a AC charging after charging had finished. It would be possbible to reduce the French charging cost by about 30% if we took out a Izivia (corri-door motorway network) subscription rather than use Chargemap pass. However, charge map pass is so convenient since it works on all networks in France it's a price woth paying IMO.

[@GlynHudson]

In normal driving the env200 averages around 3.5mi/kwh, on some legs where we needed to stretch our range (mostly in Spain, see Part 2), we managed to average up to 5mi/kwh. Enjoy the M3p when it arrives. Are you swapping your MX100D for the M3P? Do you reckon this is an upgrade or downgrade?

[@cokyrobes]

@@GlynHudson I work for Tesla - so the X was not mine - I've been saving for 5 years to get my first Tesla - the M3P. So I consider it one hell of an upgrade from my golf R!

[@freetrailer4poor]

I want one too, they don't sell electric vans in usa :(.

[@GlynHudson]

Yeah I've heard the env200 is not available in USA, that's a real shame it's a great van. We don't have the Chevrolet Blot EV in the UK. You may be able to find a similar EV van sold as the Chevrolet City Express in USA