[ElectricMonkey]

Hello everyone,

I am wondering if anybody in this forum took the MX-30 for a long trip and if so, what was your experience?

So far, I have mainly used my MX-30 as a city car, commuting to work for few kilometers every day. I had also some short trips, around 100/150 km, but I am wondering if a long trip, let's say 500/600 km would be still doable.

Of course, I am fully aware that it would require 8/9 hrs counting all the breaks to recharge. However, if you are not in a rush and if you accept to maybe even stop for a night somewhere, I am wondering if it would still be a decent experience.

Did anybody travel for such long distance with the MX-30? How was the (not so) fast charging experience? Is the time calculated with ABRP reliable when you travel with the MX-30 (the app still lists the MX-30 as alpha)?

Any experience you have to share might be useful to understand if a long road trip would be long, slow and maybe not ideal but still doable, or if I should not even consider the idea.

Thank you in advance!

 

[AJDT10000]

Hi. Definitely doable. I have driven about 360 miles (580km) over 3 days whilst on holiday. Used a mix of rapid chargers and fast chargers.

The most I have driven in one day is 260 miles (419km). One rapid charge stop on the way, charged (7 Kwh) whilst at destination and one rapid charge stop on the way back. As long as I charged when the battery was warm, I got 35Kwh - 37Kwh speed up to 60%. Drops speed after that. e.g. It took 40 mins to charge 22Kwh.

We tried to make sure that when we stopped, we timed it with getting some food or coffee or going shopping etc. Anything other than just sitting in the car.

It's a lovely car for driving over distance. As you say, you have to not be in a rush and treat the recharging as part of the overall experience.

I always have a back up plan if the charger I want to use isn't working (and a back up of that). Just in case! The lowest charge I've been down to is 5% but I knew there were 3 different rapid chargers where I was going.

I've found the more longer journeys I make, the more confidence I have to go further.

Hope this helps and enjoy!

 

[VivaMazda]

Hi. Definitely doable. I have driven about 360 miles (580km) over 3 days whilst on holiday. Used a mix of rapid chargers and fast chargers.

The most I have driven in one day is 260 miles (419km). One rapid charge stop on the way, charged (7 Kwh) whilst at destination and one rapid charge stop on the way back. As long as I charged when the battery was warm, I got 35Kwh - 37Kwh speed up to 60%. Drops speed after that. e.g. It took 40 mins to charge 22Kwh.

We tried to make sure that when we stopped, we timed it with getting some food or coffee or going shopping etc. Anything other than just sitting in the car.

It's a lovely car for driving over distance. As you say, you have to not be in a rush and treat the recharging as part of the overall experience.

I always have a back up plan if the charger I want to use isn't working (and a back up of that). Just in case! The lowest charge I've been down to is 5% but I knew there were 3 different rapid chargers where I was going.

I've found the more longer journeys I make, the more confidence I have to go further.

Hope this helps and enjoy!

Totally agree. The trick is to charge while you are doing something else.
After a couple of hours on the road a break is not a bad idea anyways. Also destination slow AC charging does not make exciting Youtube videos but works effortlessly IRL.

 

[ElectricMonkey]

Thank you for sharing your experience!

I decided to give it a try and I will be driving for about 600km in a couple of weeks.

The idea is to try to reach destination within the day, so I expect the whole trip, breaks included, to take around 9 or 10 hours.

I am curious to see if and how the heat of the battery might affect the charging speed in the last leg of the trip, because if I want to do it in one day, I must consider 4 or 5 fast charging.

I will share my experience once it is done!

 

[VivaMazda]

Did a longer trip this weekend. The plan was to use our id3. But the id3 was not feeling great, under the weather, gave more error messages than I have Swedish Crowns in my bank account.
So plan B was the MX-30. Actually love driving it but 800 km in a couple of days did not seem ideal. 35 kWh battery, slow fast charging, it sounds kind of nuts.

Outward leg: Used a fast charger that was not busy during a coffe break. 90% when we came back to the car. Worked like a charm.
A probably drunk lady almost reversed inte the Mazda though. Came from the liquor store...
After 245 km hotel night w AC charging. No worries. Easy piecy. 130 km the following day.

Hotel night 2 complimentary charging at the rather nice hotel. Great. 400 km home... Starting out well into the afternoon. 😬 Fast charging from 4% to 91% in appr 50 minutes after 220 km? Tricky, tricky to start the charger. Danish charger, Sweden has been to war with Denmark over and over so this is probably a revenge???
AC charging while eating at an IKEA before that. Short slightly pointless fast charging at SOC 75%. Promotional Volvo Power Stop. Loads of expensive Volvo EVs on display and Polestar 2. Great looking cars and all but with price tags to match.
Really cool free chargers Thanks Volvo!!!! Volvo C40 looks the business but what about a Swede/Mazda owner only 50% discount? Is that to much to ask???

After wayyyyy to many road works came home with 4%.
The MX-30 really shines when it comes to safety, reliability and sheer driving fun. Reliability is kind of important. Trust me on this one. It is. So id3 honestly.......

Whats less fun with the MX-30 however is that you depend a tiny bit too much on public charging on longer trips. The fast charging could be, well, faster? Mazda eventually will have to take EVs more seriously and offer battery packs above 50 kWh and faster rapid charging. But 100% honestly I m kind of glad that the id3 had a bad day.😃👍

 

[PPJ]

That's good information thanks, I have a 450 mile or 625km journey planned next week here in the UK, I'm looking forward to the experience and I'll report back how it all went. I've planned the journey as best as I can so hopefully it will all go smoothly 🙏

 

[VivaMazda]

That's good information thanks, I have a 450 mile or 625km journey planned next week here in the UK, I'm looking forward to the experience and I'll report back how it all went. I've planned the journey as best as I can so hopefully it will all go smoothly 🙏

With time on your hands you are going to be just fine. Enjoy the trip! Tip dont forget AC charging and avoid Danish chargers🤣🤣🤣.

 

[Milkfloat]

Best of luck PPJ; I will be interested to read how it goes. From my limited experience, if you plan the trip around the Instavolt chargers (for fast charging), you may increase your chances of a successful outcome.

 

[ElectricMonkey]

Hi, I am back from my 1240km total round trip from Frankfurt to Berlin and back to Frankfurt, and I would like to share my experience.

The outward journey was 597km long and it took about 13 hours with a 2 hours break to visit Leipzig on the way. I had a total of 7 stops to recharge (including a slow recharge in Leipzig). The longest stop was about 40 minutes for the last leg of the trip, while the average charging time was about 25 minutes from 20% up to 80% max.

The trip was long, but overall enjoyable, without any major issue with the charging stations. My main concern was what to do during all these stops, worried I would be bored to death waiting. In reality, after plugging in the car, there is barely time for a visit to the toilet and grabbing a coffee or eating a snack. At each stop I always ended up recharging more than what ABRP would suggest, making the trip probably longer than what would have been if I had stuck to the plan. The total cost for the outward journey was about 50€.

After this better than expected experience, I was actually looking forward to the return trip, thinking I would have been able to optimize the recharging operations. Oh boy I was so wrong.

The return trip was a nightmare.
It took a total of 14,5 hours, with a break of 1 hour for lunch in a small town along the way. I had some troubles basically with every single charging station. Some were not working, some took ages to authenticate, some were occupied and some were impossible to find even though the app located them nearby on the map. I had to stop 11 times(!!!) and I spent around 60€.

The worst part about this whole experience was definitely the way I was forced to plan the trip and how inconvenient it was to use the infrastructure during the journey.

ABRP took me to unknown charging stations, it was nearly impossible to adjust the trip plan when I was forced to find an alternative charging point and at one point the app even reroute me to a previous charging station because it did not register the stop (when I realized it, it was too late and this mistake costed me more than 1 hour and 1 extra stop).

With the exception of Ionity (god bless this provider, it is worth every single cent they charge), some charging stations accept only an app to authenticate, while others only accept the card or token. Thank god I had everything with me, including 5 apps from 5 different providers, 1 card and 1 token, otherwise I would have been in trouble.

Anyway, since this is an MX-30 forum, let me report, at last, the best part of this long journey: the car.

I have never driven such a relaxing, comfortable, safe, enjoyable car. It is so silent and spacious (front seats only, of course), and the cruise control works as a charm on the autobahn, making the trip really relaxing and, as I said, safe.

With the speed of 120km/h set in the cruise control, including some segments at 130/140km/h (but also some kilometers at 80km/h due to construction works), the average energy consumption was a stunning 17.9 kWh/100km (temperature was between 15°C and 22°C, 2 adults on board).

Only for the last part of the trip, I had to deal with the high temperature of the battery, probably due to the frequent recharges and high speed. I got the warning message to activate the cooling system for the battery when I stopped to recharge. Once I plugged in the car, I noticed the car enabling the cooling. I could hear a noise from the vents from the front hood which immediately got cold as ice. I suspect the car was using the energy from the charging station as the battery recharged slower than usual even though the charging speed was similar to what I witnessed earlier during other stops. Other than this minor inconvenience, I did not notice any other particular side effect.

In the end, I am glad I did this trip. Now I know what I can do with this car, how to better plan a long trip, and what to expect on the way when dealing with the charging stations.

I will probably never do such a long trip again with my MX-30, unless I can spend a night somewhere along the way. Anyway, I did not buy this car for this purpose. I just wish we could use a proper route planning software for such extemporary adventures.

 

[VivaMazda]

Hi, I am back from my 1240km total round trip from Frankfurt to Berlin and back to Frankfurt, and I would like to share my experience.

The outward journey was 597km long and it took about 13 hours with a 2 hours break to visit Leipzig on the way. I had a total of 7 stops to recharge (including a slow recharge in Leipzig). The longest stop was about 40 minutes for the last leg of the trip, while the average charging time was about 25 minutes from 20% up to 80% max.

The trip was long, but overall enjoyable, without any major issue with the charging stations. My main concern was what to do during all these stops, worried I would be bored to death waiting. In reality, after plugging in the car, there is barely time for a visit to the toilet and grabbing a coffee or eating a snack. At each stop I always ended up recharging more than what ABRP would suggest, making the trip probably longer than what would have been if I had stuck to the plan. The total cost for the outward journey was about 50€.

After this better than expected experience, I was actually looking forward to the return trip, thinking I would have been able to optimize the recharging operations. Oh boy I was so wrong.

The return trip was a nightmare.
It took a total of 14,5 hours, with a break of 1 hour for lunch in a small town along the way. I had some troubles basically with every single charging station. Some were not working, some took ages to authenticate, some were occupied and some were impossible to find even though the app located them nearby on the map. I had to stop 11 times(!!!) and I spent around 60€.

The worst part about this whole experience was definitely the way I was forced to plan the trip and how inconvenient it was to use the infrastructure during the journey.

ABRP took me to unknown charging stations, it was nearly impossible to adjust the trip plan when I was forced to find an alternative charging point and at one point the app even reroute me to a previous charging station because it did not register the stop (when I realized it, it was too late and this mistake costed me more than 1 hour and 1 extra stop).

With the exception of Ionity (god bless this provider, it is worth every single cent they charge), some charging stations accept only an app to authenticate, while others only accept the card or token. Thank god I had everything with me, including 5 apps from 5 different providers, 1 card and 1 token, otherwise I would have been in trouble.

Anyway, since this is an MX-30 forum, let me report, at last, the best part of this long journey: the car.

I have never driven such a relaxing, comfortable, safe, enjoyable car. It is so silent and spacious (front seats only, of course), and the cruise control works as a charm on the autobahn, making the trip really relaxing and, as I said, safe.

With the speed of 120km/h set in the cruise control, including some segments at 130/140km/h (but also some kilometers at 80km/h due to construction works), the average energy consumption was a stunning 17.9 kWh/100km (temperature was between 15°C and 22°C, 2 adults on board).

Only for the last part of the trip, I had to deal with the high temperature of the battery, probably due to the frequent recharges and high speed. I got the warning message to activate the cooling system for the battery when I stopped to recharge. Once I plugged in the car, I noticed the car enabling the cooling. I could hear a noise from the vents from the front hood which immediately got cold as ice. I suspect the car was using the energy from the charging station as the battery recharged slower than usual even though the charging speed was similar to what I witnessed earlier during other stops. Other than this minor inconvenience, I did not notice any other particular side effect.

In the end, I am glad I did this trip. Now I know what I can do with this car, how to better plan a long trip, and what to expect on the way when dealing with the charging stations.

I will probably never do such a long trip again with my MX-30, unless I can spend a night somewhere along the way. Anyway, I did not buy this car for this purpose. I just wish we could use a proper route planning software for such extemporary adventures.

Thanks for posting this report!
Well done!
Clearly charging infrastructure both in Europe can and pretty obviously has to improve. Fingers crossed.

 

[Milkfloat]

Wow, ElectricMonkey, that was some trip and your description is so good that I can almost taste the experience. It also reminded me of listening to a Bach organ recital in the Thomas Kirche in Leipzig, but that is by the way.
Please forgive me using the imperial version of consumption, miles/kWhr in this post, but when planning a trip, I find the mental arithmetic easy.

Now, once we have had these little Mazdas for a while, we know exactly how to achieve 3.2, 4.0 or even 4.5 miles/kWhr. Additionally, unlike the planning Apps such as ABRP, we posses a highly flexible thought processor that isn't limited to a series of relatively simplistic algorithms. So, given a 100 miles to drive as an example, would we choose to drive at 3.2 consumption and stop part way for a small AC booster charge or would we drive at 4.0 consumption, take a little longer driving time but do it in one go without a stop? ElectricMonkey's return trip makes answering that question quite straightforward until we get a big improvement in infrastructure availability and, in my opinion, real, trustworthy, live information. We want to know that the point is working and available before we arrive and that it will work without yet another App or account. The UK Instavolt network is superb in this regard as a model of what is required and they are already compliant with the UK government instruction for account free swipe card payment.
Of all the real trips that I have taken or envisage, not once have the planning Apps produced an output that I would use.The first big failing is that they treat all the infrastructure as equal and working. Again, to use a UK example, until the new owners hopefully sort it out, one would be mad to plan to use Ecotricity chargers; their reliability and up-time record is dreadful. Furthermore, I would never consider planning to use a charge point that I could not see on Streetview before I set out so that I know exactly where it is. Sometimes, it can take me 5 minutes to find the damned thing with a computer in the comfort of an arm chair. Searching with a car at low SOC is enough to create heart failure.
For you chaps much more adventurous than I, please keep these thought provoking experiences coming as they are both good reading and instructive insight into getting the best from our little cars.

 

[AJDT10000]

Really great description of your trip - thanks so much for sharing. Really interesting.

Totally agree with Milkfloat about reliability of chargers and Instavolt - they've never let me down. I'd also include Osprey in the UK as they work in the same way to Instavolt and are expanding rapidly.

I've never used ABRP but in the UK, I use Zap-Map. The comments on each charging point are invaluable when planning a route and looking at the reliability of the charger. (often they will highlight the nearest cafe and toilets).

 

[PPJ]

Completed my long journey yesterday, a total of 473 miles or 670 km, this was not done all at once and involved stops at different places including Liverpool and the Lake District. Charging was very straightforward, it was a combination of a 50kwh fast charger which was an instavolt unit, a little bit of free charging from pod point units at a shopping centre in Liverpool and some home charging on the granny lead at families home. The return journey was done all in one go 210 miles or 337km with only one stop, I arrived home with only 2 miles of range left and surprisingly I wasn't anxious about it. This type of journey is rare for me and happens maybe twice a year, but with good planning and always having a backup plan incase of broken chargers it can be done with relative ease. Oh and with 8% left to 100% took about an hour to recharge, with a toilet break and a bite to eat it was perfect timing 👌

 

[Tom13]

Hello everyone,

I am wondering if anybody in this forum took the MX-30 for a long trip and if so, what was your experience?

So far, I have mainly used my MX-30 as a city car, commuting to work for few kilometers every day. I had also some short trips, around 100/150 km, but I am wondering if a long trip, let's say 500/600 km would be still doable.

Of course, I am fully aware that it would require 8/9 hrs counting all the breaks to recharge. However, if you are not in a rush and if you accept to maybe even stop for a night somewhere, I am wondering if it would still be a decent experience.

Did anybody travel for such long distance with the MX-30? How was the (not so) fast charging experience? Is the time calculated with ABRP reliable when you travel with the MX-30 (the app still lists the MX-30 as alpha)?

Any experience you have to share might be useful to understand if a long road trip would be long, slow and maybe not ideal but still doable, or if I should not even consider the idea.

Thank you in advance!

Hi,
We decided to go on our first long journey 3 days after picking up the MX 30. Not too long, Selby to Norwich (165 miles or 265km) so planned a charge about half way. This was great and we charged in about 40 minutes at a Podpoint in Sleaford. We suffered a little range stress about 20 miles out but found an Instavolt charger in Norwich and charged to full ready for the weekend.
We did not charge before leaving Norwich as we didn't want to charge too often at a rapid point. We decided instead to stop at King's Lynn and put a Shell station in the sat nav as it seemed to be the best place to stop. This was at night, cold and rainy conditions.
It seemed straightforward but when it came to plugging the Mazda in, the unit kept telling me there was a charger error. We tried 6 times across 4 charging points and got the same error. ZapMap came to the rescue and we found an Instavolt about 10 miles away. This charge got us to 90% in around 50 minutes so we planned another top up about 30 miles from home. This again was an instavolt and was a relatively quick charge to 80%. I still need to research the Shell station issue. £1 for each attempt was taken at the time though this has since been refunded automatically.

Next time we travel we will plan better and know where the better rapid chargers are. I have read the comments below and have taken them onboard too but for me the key is learning about the car and driving in a different way. I will certainly keep an eye on this forum as sharing increases the experience and knowledge.
Thanks
Tom

 

[ReillyJ]

Hi,
We decided to go on our first long journey 3 days after picking up the MX 30. Not too long, Selby to Norwich (165 miles or 265km) so planned a charge about half way. This was great and we charged in about 40 minutes at a Podpoint in Sleaford. We suffered a little range stress about 20 miles out but found an Instavolt charger in Norwich and charged to full ready for the weekend.
We did not charge before leaving Norwich as we didn't want to charge too often at a rapid point. We decided instead to stop at King's Lynn and put a Shell station in the sat nav as it seemed to be the best place to stop. This was at night, cold and rainy conditions.
It seemed straightforward but when it came to plugging the Mazda in, the unit kept telling me there was a charger error. We tried 6 times across 4 charging points and got the same error. ZapMap came to the rescue and we found an Instavolt about 10 miles away. This charge got us to 90% in around 50 minutes so we planned another top up about 30 miles from home. This again was an instavolt and was a relatively quick charge to 80%. I still need to research the Shell station issue. £1 for each attempt was taken at the time though this has since been refunded automatically.

Next time we travel we will plan better and know where the better rapid chargers are. I have read the comments below and have taken them onboard too but for me the key is learning about the car and driving in a different way. I will certainly keep an eye on this forum as sharing increases the experience and knowledge.
Thanks
Tom

Welcome to the forum @Tom13! Aside from the charging, how did the MX-30 handle the 165 mile trip? How did it feel on the roads?

 

[Tom13]

Welcome to the forum @Tom13! Aside from the charging, how did the MX-30 handle the 165 mile trip? How did it feel on the roads?

So in answer to the question - Handling of the car.
I will be honest it was great. I know we have all probably thought it but my wife said it. Her words….. it’s jut like a “normal” car. She is right but it’s better than that. There is reduced engine (ok motor) and road noise in the cabin. Inside feels great and is very comfortable. The lover drive didn’t make me tired in any way.
The driving itself I could not fault. Cornering and country lane driving the car sticks to the road like 5h1t to a blanket and if you need to accelerate hard for whatever your reasons; the MX 30 moves like the same stuff off a shiny shovel.
On the motorway I plates with the cruise control and this was so good I started using it on the A roads too. I am beginning to perfect my 1 foot /no foot driving and have even trusted the car to stop itself in traffic. To me letting the car do the driving seems to give the best consumption performance but as we all know on here…..early days.
At home I’m still on 3 pin plug charging and do that at night every 2 nights with a little top up at work. Work is a 60 mile round trip and at present both ways are in the dark. I run the heating on eco and 17.5 degrees seems fight for now in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Let’s see what Jan/Feb bring eh?
That it from me for now.
Loving the forum - it’s become my go to bedtime reading.
Thanks to you all for sharing.
Tom