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I’m at the charging point in Gerona putting some electrons into the battery on my Nissan Leaf. Having a think about my last trip to the mountains where I had to drive a petrol car. The joys of being an early adopter with electric car

 I do one or two trips to France for my Nissan Leaf to have small vacations. In this podcast I cover trips I made to Les Angles in the French Pyrenees and also the trip to Arles. We went to Arles to see a Van Gogh exhibition in a quarry. It was a special light and sound, audiovisual extravaganza. It was like being inside the mind and the pictures of our favourite crazy artist. Mostly I talk about the journey with the Nissan Leaf. On the way there I ran into difficulties with charges and the same sort of thing on the way back. There were chargers which didn't work when there was supposed to. There were rapid chargers which were present in the PlugShare app, but entirely missing in the street. The one really good thing is that the travel was for the most part free. I only had to pay to charge the car to 100% at home before we left. Also had to bring the car back to 100% following the vacation when we returned home. It was a trip of 800 km and really the biggest cost was the price of going through the toll

 Stupid GPS tried to squeeze me through narrow streets Maybe I was just stupid to believe what the GPS was telling me. As soon as I made the turn it looked a little bit narrow. It said turn right and then turn right again – Then there was nowhere else to go. I had to reverse back and then I saw another possibility to go forwards and took it. I should have reversed back further and ignored the instructions of the GPS completely. After squeezing through a very narrow alleyway I ended up in a pretty little French village square. I was able to ask for help from someone sitting at a table at a bar. My French is really bad but he was able to help me and tell me I had to return down the narrow street I had just come through. Blog post for this Podcast At the end of my small detour I was surprised I managed to survive. I was breathing hard and sweating rather a lot. A huge moment of relief when I made it back to the main road. I was then able to continue round to the car park I was looking for in the Ceret. My b

 In this episode having a little think about the future of electric vehicles. I am a little bit disappointed with the slow uptake and the patchiness of the charging infrastructure. In Barcelona there is plenty of charging places. When I go north into France I find charging points even in the smallest of villages. This is in contrast to when I went south to Sevilla and for such a large city it only had to rapid chargers. Both of these rapid chargers were provided by the dealerships. One of them was Renault and the other one was from Nissan. There is a possibility that they would have been closed for part of the day. I have already been to a few Nissan dealers were the electric charge is behind a fence or a door. It's only available during the working hours of the dealer. EV20Q Blog post for this podcast.

 It was lovely to get out and have a drive in my 2018 Nissan Leaf. I went to St Pol De Mar which is just north of Barcelona and I checked out the charging points within the town. There were three of them and in all of the places only the granny charging speeds were available. I could plug into Shuko sockets and get 3.3 kW but it wouldn’t do me any good plug-in into the type II sockets as the Menneke’s sockets weren’t working. It was a good day out and finally I got to come Calella de Mar and I found a Type II socket which worked. I plugged in and had a wander around the town while the car was doing some charging up. I put about 12% into the battery and I was happy with that. I was able to get back home with 61% in the battery and so it was a good cheap day out driving my 2018 Nissan Leaf. Check the Web post which also has a Video.

Had to change my plans due the chargers in the shopping centre not working. Plugged in and it looked like it was charging and when I got back to the car it was un-charged. Very disappointing indeed.

  Driving electric car in France – Adding charge points to the PlugShare app After a week in the house not really going anywhere I needed to get out for a drive my car. My Nissan Leaf electric car had been sitting in the garage going nowhere and she needed some exercise. So we set out towards France to find some Révéo electric vehicle charge points and add them to the PlugShare application. I was easily able to visit five of these EV chargers just across the border in a cluster just south of Perpignan. There were some good views in the French countryside and some pretty little villages. I could see the Pyrenees nearby and it was a good day out. I use one of the chargers in a town near to the coast and was disappointed with the speed of the charging. He came in at a paltry 3 kW and in the 48 minutes I was there added virtually nothing to my battery. So instead of driving all the way to Girona to give one final top up before getting home I pulled into Figueres Nissan dealer. I stayed there until I had sent

I heard about the new 2019 Nissan Leaf when I arrived back home from a trip to Birmingham. The new car is a bit of an upgrade to the old 2018 car - Bigger battery and faster charging. Not much else apart from a slightly larger screen in the dash. Have a look at EV20Q Website for more details.

Headed for FIgueres for a top up charge while taking a break. Next took the coastal road through Portbou on to Cerberes in France. Used the Révéo  charger while eating pizza and taking advantage of free parking. Moved on to Collioure to wander around the town and the harbour. Came back home via Girona and didn't plug in at the shopping centre because I didn't want to wait in a long queue to get in the parking where the chargers are situated. Full post on EV20Q

I went to Ireland and hired a car. It was a petrol car and was like I have gone back in time to the olden days. Had to do so many things manually which the Leaf does for me automatically. Burning fossils, changing gears, switching on headlights and I even had to dip the headlights for myself. The Gen 2 Nissan Leaf Facebook group is full is helpful users willing to assist new drivers and those who come to look in and kick the tyres.  Or go to the EV20Q Website and see all the blog posts about electric cars.

Traffic jams stopped me from driving to France but I did still test a CHAdeMO charger in Figueres. I also made tea in my Nissan Leaf using a 12volt kettle I plugged into the 12v socket in the car. Apple crumble flavour tea was good and I even burned my tongue.

I got an invite to go and have a look at the Tesla model three. It was being made available to look at in the Barcelona showroom. When I got there there was a model 3 to look at, but only from the outside. I was extremely disappointed I couldn't get to sit inside the vehicle. Difficult to understand why they had a vehicle and show but only limited to viewing from the outside. The salesperson told me the car was being removed later that day. The car looked like it was pre-owned and was not new. The foot wells were dirty and needed to be vacuumed. The car was covered in fingerprints and there was some minor damage to 1 of the wheels. The car still looked great. Even though my Nissan Leaf is just about perfect for my needs I still want the Tesla Model 3. It looked so gorgeous and even sexy. Excellent, sporty and aerodynamic lines. I just love the colour of blue as well. I squinted in through the windows to look at the interior. It's extremely spartan. This does make it exclusive and high-class looking.

The joys of travelling in France in an electric car. There are loads of charging points and it’s not too difficult to charge the car up using either an app or an RFID card. I just got a new RFID card I wanted a tryout for this trip. So I jumped into my 2018 Nissan Leaf and headed towards France. It was necessary to pay for the charging in Ceret. I checked the account on the web when I arrived back home. I paid €4.50 to use a very slow charger which made it quite expensive. It was costly on a per kilowatt basis but for the day of driving it still worked out pretty cheap. I stopped on the way at a Nissan dealership to add some charge while still in Spain. It was a good drive along some pretty French roads in the foothills of the Pyrenees. On the way back I got some more free electricity in the Catalan town of Girona. I love driving my electric car. The 2018 Nissan Leaf is a marvellous car and I think it’s good value for the money. You can buy cars with bigger batteries but you have to pay more for them.

A road trip to Barcelona to hunt for the Chademo's. I found a few that worked and a couple that didn't. At least I had a great day out driving my car and the 248km I did only cost about €1.75. It is so cheap to run an Electric vehicle when you can get the car battery filled up for free.

Went to Barcelona on a Road Trip to check out a few more chargers. Went to Poblenou first then to Mercabarna and on towards the airport. I would have called into another on the way near home but I wanted to get back to see the Apple Event on the TV.

I was testing out RFID cards, finding type 2 chargers in shopping centres and discovering good places next to the motorway for charging.

Rosie gets a break. three or four days not going anywhere except for a short trip to an art gallery in St. Feliu de Guixols, She did get a wash though and only slightly caught in the rain on the day after. The Kärcher pressure washer is great for car washing with the foam soap attachment and the pressure spray. Load of rubbing and carressing of my Nissan Leaf.

Having electric car you might need to plan A, Plan B, Plan C and maybe even a plan D. It will be good when there is more infrastructure for electric cars available generally.

The charger had been fixed. Last time I went to it there was nothing there, it had been beheaded. Got chatting to a Welshman who is an EV driver in a Renault Zoe and I was able to pass on some information about getting charged around Spain.

Electric vehicle day out to the salt mines of Cardona. Experiences of a Nissan Leaf 2018 on a longer trip. How to plan for charging on the route.