A Run and an EV Charge

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Have you noticed how if an event is organised in the evening, long into the night, people see it as normal to participate. Have you also noticed how waking at the crack of dawn, to run, four towns away, is seen as lunatic, and crazy behaviour. We live in a society and age that has normalised being nocturnal, in the evening rather than the morning.

Last night was special because a storm was forecast, and expected. It took a while to arrive and at first it was just a gentle rain. The rain then got worse and worse, until eventually it was a sudden, intense downpour with litres of water being forced down onto the roof. I thought “This is as if a canadair had dumped its load of water on my roof, now that I’m writing about it. I started recording the sound, and I went to check that all the velux were closed, and that the blind was closed on the one that had a blind.

At 4am, after sporadic sleep the alarm rang, and I thought, “I don’t want to get up, is it raining when we’re meant to be running?” and it wasn’t meant to, so I got up and got ready. I set off and I arrived half an hour early so I decided to charge the car to eighty percent.

The car said that it would take 20 minutes to charge to the desired level so I did some running warm ups while waiting. When a person or two started to arrive for the run the charge was “complete” so I unplugged and parked in a normal space.

It’s worth noting that the car is a Leapmotor T03, a Chinese designed car distributed by Stellantis in Europe. It’s one of the cheaper, more affordable models with space for four people, maybe even five, depending on whether they’re my size or not. It also has the capacity to transport a Genesis Equilibrium bike, if and when required.

Aside from the price, size and volume it also has a single phase, rather than a three phase charger. This means that it charges a third as fast as other cars on AC but is comparable to other cars when charged with direct current.

A week ago I went to the same charger, and went from 62-67 percent to one hundred percent during the morning run. I was plugged for about two hours. In that time I waited for the group to arrive, we went for a run, and then I waited for the charge to be complete at one hundred percent.

For me it’s interesting to find chargers where we can charge a car while we’re actively doing sometime. In some cases a fast charge is good but that wears out batteries faster. When you slow charge it gives you the time to do something while waiting, whether it’s hiking, going for a walk, meal or other.

If a car charges from 20-80 percent within two to three hours you can afford to let the battery get lower between charges but if you know that a car charges slower, it’s better to set the limit at 20, and grab charging opportunities when you can. A social run is one opportunity, a solo walk is another, and time being social doing something else is a third.

If charging takes longer than you can park for, it makes sense to charge when there are convenient opportunities. The run this morning was a convenient opportunity. For me “convenient opportunities” are at chargers that are cheaper than the norm, and there is something to keep myself occupied while waiting for the charge to finish. Running, hiking and similar are good opportunities.