Epic journey back & forth over the Pennines. 450 miles in total towing a trailer when loaded had half a tonne of frozen wood plus another half tonne in the car.
Car: Ariya 87 kWh e4orce dual motor
Key stats: Range when towing 220 miles
Temp: -5 C rising to 1 C day
Consumption: 2.5 miles/kWh
Speed: 60 mph motorway,
50 mph A roads (legal limits)
I will post replies on different aspects.
Preparing the car, driving & heating, charging & cost
450 miles sub zero towing a tonne
-
Ian Thompson
- Posts: 49
- Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:36 pm
Preparation
I bought two boot liners plus some old dust sheets to fill the car with wood without messing up the interior.
Charged to 100% overnight, worked out how to start the battery pre-heat. Centre console screen/home page/settings/ev/battery/scroll right down…(!!) pops up a little note saying that it speeds up charging in the cold.
Had a detachable Towbar fitted.
Emptied the trailer Erde 142 to take the load.
I bought two boot liners plus some old dust sheets to fill the car with wood without messing up the interior.
Charged to 100% overnight, worked out how to start the battery pre-heat. Centre console screen/home page/settings/ev/battery/scroll right down…(!!) pops up a little note saying that it speeds up charging in the cold.
Had a detachable Towbar fitted.
Emptied the trailer Erde 142 to take the load.
-
Ian Thompson
- Posts: 49
- Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:36 pm
Driving & Heating
On motorway used Eco Mode, adaptive cruise set at 62 = 60 mph actual acccording to google maps.
Navigated using apple car play. On proper ice & snow used “Snow mode” that is very very good but disables the adaptive cruise so I only used that in car parks & country roads which weren’t gritted.
Used the heated seat. 21 C cabin temp. Heated steering wheel. Set the system using the console bottom right fan/temp icon. Used heated windscreen if it froze, and preheated the car in the morning setting a departure time on Nissan Connect App. Some like it hot!
On motorway used Eco Mode, adaptive cruise set at 62 = 60 mph actual acccording to google maps.
Navigated using apple car play. On proper ice & snow used “Snow mode” that is very very good but disables the adaptive cruise so I only used that in car parks & country roads which weren’t gritted.
Used the heated seat. 21 C cabin temp. Heated steering wheel. Set the system using the console bottom right fan/temp icon. Used heated windscreen if it froze, and preheated the car in the morning setting a departure time on Nissan Connect App. Some like it hot!
-
Ian Thompson
- Posts: 49
- Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:36 pm
Charging & Cost
Set off full, 110 miles one way. Might have got back without charging but the Sat Nav on the return took a longer way probably to avoid congestion. So stopped at Birch services M62, GRIDSERVE with preheated battery took 90 kW at 15% state of charge. Afterwards I rang Nissan asking if this was normal since I’ve often had 130 kW. They said this was normal when it’s really cold you might not get full charging speed, I’ve no idea if true but it only needed 15 mins to give me some buffer to get home. Arrived back 6%.
Put the car on charge at home 7 kW & unloaded. Setting off next day very early so I took it to a local Monta supercharger to boost it. Got 90 kW again, just put in sufficient to ensure next morning it would be 100%, without that would have only been 80% full there are not enough hours in the night to fill it right up in one night when it’s really low.
Next day another early start, this time decided to put the extra charge in on the way out, instead of way back. Stopped at Tesla supercharger early Sunday morning. Haha forgot to preheat and it was at 60% at -1C so I only got 45, took 30 mins for what I needed still quicker than the previous night because there wasn’t any queue like there had been the previous day.
That was better strategy since it was so empty I could park across three bays and avoid unhooking the trailer.
Got back with 12% remaining, topped up on low cost overnight.
The whole 450 miles cost £47.65, towing the trailer.
Diesel would have cost £65 for reference if you can get 45 mpg towing.
Interesting expedition! This car is great on the cold but the cold charging could be faster and preheating operation could be simpler and it would be great to know the actual battery temp (without buying a separate device).
Set off full, 110 miles one way. Might have got back without charging but the Sat Nav on the return took a longer way probably to avoid congestion. So stopped at Birch services M62, GRIDSERVE with preheated battery took 90 kW at 15% state of charge. Afterwards I rang Nissan asking if this was normal since I’ve often had 130 kW. They said this was normal when it’s really cold you might not get full charging speed, I’ve no idea if true but it only needed 15 mins to give me some buffer to get home. Arrived back 6%.
Put the car on charge at home 7 kW & unloaded. Setting off next day very early so I took it to a local Monta supercharger to boost it. Got 90 kW again, just put in sufficient to ensure next morning it would be 100%, without that would have only been 80% full there are not enough hours in the night to fill it right up in one night when it’s really low.
Next day another early start, this time decided to put the extra charge in on the way out, instead of way back. Stopped at Tesla supercharger early Sunday morning. Haha forgot to preheat and it was at 60% at -1C so I only got 45, took 30 mins for what I needed still quicker than the previous night because there wasn’t any queue like there had been the previous day.
That was better strategy since it was so empty I could park across three bays and avoid unhooking the trailer.
Got back with 12% remaining, topped up on low cost overnight.
The whole 450 miles cost £47.65, towing the trailer.
Diesel would have cost £65 for reference if you can get 45 mpg towing.
Interesting expedition! This car is great on the cold but the cold charging could be faster and preheating operation could be simpler and it would be great to know the actual battery temp (without buying a separate device).
Charging faster? The flat 90kW curve is the maximum charging speed for the Ariya when the car detects you're on a long trip, even when the temps are hot outside, this is normal behavior, you charged at maximum speed.
The 130kW charging curve is only granted for a single time on a driving session when enough time separation is met according to the car charging algorithms, Nissan doesn't want you to abuse the 130kW charging curve, it's meant for a single day quick top up and that's it, for the heavy lifting of multiple charging within a day the 90kW one will be used.
Also for your information the 90kW charging curve is as fast as the 130kW one when going from 10 to 80-90%, the 130kW one only is faster when you want a quick partial top up to 50% or 60% because it tapers of much earlier than the 90kW one.
The 130kW charging curve is only granted for a single time on a driving session when enough time separation is met according to the car charging algorithms, Nissan doesn't want you to abuse the 130kW charging curve, it's meant for a single day quick top up and that's it, for the heavy lifting of multiple charging within a day the 90kW one will be used.
Also for your information the 90kW charging curve is as fast as the 130kW one when going from 10 to 80-90%, the 130kW one only is faster when you want a quick partial top up to 50% or 60% because it tapers of much earlier than the 90kW one.
Having not used a public charger yet is it true that charging points dont always deliver what they advertise due to the grid and if there are two cars hooked up at once? I have read that the ariya at 130kw max is obviously lower than some evs but it said it had a better curve which ment it wasnt that much slower charging, anybody found that to be true? Thanks
You're correct.DAYORK wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 7:17 pm Having not used a public charger yet is it true that charging points dont always deliver what they advertise due to the grid and if there are two cars hooked up at once? I have read that the ariya at 130kw max is obviously lower than some evs but it said it had a better curve which ment it wasnt that much slower charging, anybody found that to be true? Thanks
