Exactly the kind of real life experience type testing that I love to see. Shows how ‘inconvenient’ a long trip really is.

Excellent video, thank you very much. I've ordered my Inster a month ago, another month to wait. I'm impressed with its options and performance, and your video confirmed all that and more.
Regards from the Netherlands (So I won't make a guess if you can make that trip!)

Excellent and informative little video. I appreciate people demonstrating that even the tiniest EV will happily accept "going out of town for an adventure"

For potential EV buyers, remember the following: For a planned long journey, some bother to charge it to 100% at home - I usually do not care. As mentioned, on very long journeys (more than one fast charge), 10 to 60-80% is the normal charge target. There is a small note to be made: The aim is always to reach the destination (home/work/a hotel/B&B etc.) below 10% (since most of Norway comes with home- or destination chargers). Therefore, the final charging stop on a very long journey is usually a very shallow and quick top-up, just to make sure that one has 5% battery left on arrival.

In fact, many will end a charge at 60% during multi-charge journeys, utilising the "50% range wave". There is usually a charging-speed drop-off after 60%. For the Inster (around 200-mile range according to WLTP on slower UK B-roads?), this means that one can plan for 1.5-2-hour stints of driving, with shorter 15-20 minute charging breaks (instead of waiting for things to charge up to 80%).

For me, this gives me a more "human charging rhythm" (albeit with a car with a bigger battery - but not huge (60 kWh)). Every two hours I stretch my legs. Charging to propel me 2 hours further takes around 15-20 minutes, which is plenty of time to grab a coffee, use the restroom, check the news on my phone, and avoid getting restless about the additional 10-15 minutes needed to bring the car back to 80%. (One can see this drop-off at 13:30 in the video - charging speeds drop markedly around 22 minutes into the session).

If you really want to stress time-efficiency, 2 shorter charging sessions (back to 60%) will provide the battery with ca. 2 x 50% = 100% range in 30 minutes, while one long 30-minute charging session typically provides only a 10-80% charge (=70% range added in 30 minutes).

I want a coffee refill every 1.5-2 hours anyway, so I get a double bonus.


For fun - I asked ABRP about driving an Inster from Torquay to Edinburgh: It confirmed that it can be done with 3 charging sessions. BUT - that would mean that you would be plugged in for over 1 hour and 50 minutes on the trip. If you plan for 4 charging stops, you will be plugged in for only around 1:30 minutes.

Breaking the trip up with an extra stop will give you 5 legs of ca 1.5 hours each, with 4 charging sessions of 20-25 minutes each - while shaving over 20 minutes off the total charging time - in an Inster.

To this decade-old Norwegian EV driver, this is truly acceptable for such a tiny little puppy of a car. I totally get that people who commute from Torquay to Edinburgh for work every day must have a diesel (most EV commenters seem to have that kind of commute). But for more sane people doing such journeys in off-hours/vacations/for a weekend visit - 4 cups of coffee, maybe a longer lunch break during the trip, maybe even choosing a slow 50 kW charger inside a pretty town to have a sightseeing and walk-around is meaningful.

I can report the same as all my friends/family/collegues: Riding on 90- to 180-minute driving stints between 20-minute charging breaks leaves us more rested, happy and less stressed when reaching the destination, compared to the old 8-10-hour ICE stints of old.

Good luck with the "experiment". It will be fun to watch/hear your evaluation while we remember that nobody is getting an Inster as the primary 500-mile-a-day car. I bet it will handle it gloriously.

Might be quicker with more stops, & moving on once charge drops before 50kWh If it does before 80%

I do like the Inster, my wife has a 24 Kona, and the tech in her car is absolutely fantastic, so I imagine this is just the same. Have you a wall charger or the granny lead to charge at home?

😍

Efficency is good, also DC changing eficency is ok 89%, meaning that 11% not reach battery. But the DC price is is so expensive compared in Latvia, we have 1kWh about 0.39 euro cents from 300kw station, but in your situation its almost the same price as diving gasoline car.