Why electric cars aren't as scary as you think – a beginner's guide to the Citroën ë-Berlingo
New Citroëns are ideal for a road trip, for any family. In the first of our series, Gillian Smith and her husband Ian head for the sands of east Scotland, with their two big, happy dogs. Will the ë-Berlingo offer all that the Smiths need?
Big Issue / Citroen Days Out.
Pictured
Gillian & Ian Smith with their dogs Lyla and Darcy with their Citroen eBerlingo.
Share
Did you know that rottweilers love being close to their people? As in… ‘I must be on you or beside you at all times. There’s no other option, hooman, so get used to it.’
In that regard our Rottie, Lyla, is typical of the breed. In our normal car, she sometimes tries to jump into the back seats from the boot, even though she’s clipped in securely, just to close the four-foot distance between us.
In the Citroën ë-Berlingo? She was more than fine! It turns out that the huge, square rear windows are like a television that keeps her happy as she watches the world go by.
Our other dog, Darcy, is a chocolate labrador and is also very typical of her breed. So she prefers to sleep throughout an entire journey. Classic lab.
Welcome to chunky modernity
I’m really looking forward to this day out. The practical delight that is the Citroën ë-Berlingo arrives on our driveway, just outside of Glasgow, the day before my husband Ian and I are due to head on our day out. As a graphic designer I’m pretty picky about how cars look, but I was really impressed with the Citroën’s looks. I’m no car expert (this will become increasingly clear) but I find the ë-Berlingo’s chunky modernity really appealing.
This is our first experience with an electric car, and I’m in equal parts keen and anxious. I won’t lie: the ‘range anxiety’ is a thing for me despite the Citroën ë-Berlingo’s official range of 213 miles (WLTP) being more than enough for us to get out into some of Scotland’s many scenic bits.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
The ë-Berlingo’s sat nav display. (The Big Issue / Citroen Days Out. )
The journey begins…
We don’t have a home charger but we do have a proper outdoor socket, and the ë-Berlingo has the optional cable for a normal three-pin socket. We plug it in as soon as it arrives, and sure enough, the next morning it has charged to 99%.
With the dogs secured in the boot, our journey set on the car’s nav with the smart touchscreen, and a podcast streaming thanks to the wireless Apple CarPlay, we head out onto the M8 towards John Muir Country Park in East Lothian.
Initially, I’m watching that battery gauge tick down, especially as I’d read up on it and learned that electric cars can be less efficient at motorway speeds. But as we cruise past Edinburgh, I stop fretting and relax into the journey. Which is comically easy, by the way.
The ë-Berlingo’s so quiet that it is a bit weird at first. I have to check that it is on! The seats are really soft and inviting; proper armchair-style comfort. It’s also nice and stable on the motorway even with crosswinds. It all just feels effortless and easy for the entire hour and a half. I go to shift gear a few times, forgetting the ë-Berlingo is automatic, making the drive even easier.
(The Big Issue / Citroen Days Out. )
At the beach
We arrive at the Country Park after 68 miles with 64% battery remaining. I’m beginning to realise that this trip isn’t even going to make the Citroën break sweat when it comes to range…
The walk is fantastic. We hit the beach path, which has really beautiful salt plains that take you on to Belhaven Bay; a gorgeous beach with miles of sand for the dogs and the Bridge to Nowhere at the end. There’s so much space out here for the dogs to run free, and it’s lovely to be out of the city. Why don’t we do this more often?
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
After a few hours of letting the dogs tire themselves out, we hop back into the ë-Berlingo and head up the road a couple of miles to Dunbar Harbour. It’s so pretty, and we bagged some free parking so it’s even more tempting to amble around and enjoy the holiday atmosphere. I also change my shoes, and find that the sliding rear doors and huge amount of space in the rear seats is perfect for providing loads of room when you need to faff around in a car park.
(The Big Issue / Citroen Days Out. )
Homeward bound
Back in the Citroën, we put our home address into the nav, which tells us that we’d get there on our existing charge with no problems.
But then, only a couple of miles away from the harbour we spy a pub with an Osprey charger and, as we fancied a late lunch, this is an ideal stop.
As with everything else about the Citroën and this trip, the panicking about public charging is unnecessary. I tap my card payment on the machine, and then plug in the ë-Berlingo using the mode 3 charging cable (which comes as standard), with 59% charge still showing. We head inside for lunch.
The charger is a 160kW charger, apparently. And no, I don’t know what that means, either. As I said, I’m a newbie to EVs so this is all a different language to me, but I could see that the car is charging – and the Citroën app on my phone means I can keep an eye on the charging remotely, too. I let it do its thing.
Sure enough, in the 41 minutes it takes us to enjoy excellent fish and chips at the Pine Marten pub, the ë-Berlingo’s battery status has jumped up to 97%. It costs £15.87.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Now, I can sit back and enjoy the ë-Berlingo as it carries us back home. I can’t believe how easy it is, in the end. It is so smooth to drive, and the charging experience is straightforward, too. Here’s to more electric adventures. And happy dogs.
A beginner’s guide to electric cars
Electric cars are quite scary. Not in the literal sense, you understand; there are no ghosts in the battery or creepy clowns hiding in the ‘frunk’. But if you’re not familiar with them then the whole idea of an electric car can feel overwhelmingly confusing and inconvenient. I mean, what is a frunk, anyway?! What we soon realised is that it isn’t actually scary in practice. It’s a learning curve.
And the odd language and numbers that get thrown about casually as if you’re supposed to know what it means can also be intimidating and unhelpful.
We’re here to help with that, so here are some hints and tips to help you make sense of electric cars, and the jargon that goes with them.
What you need to know about public charging:
• Almost every electric car comes with a ‘CCS’ socket for rapid charging. This socket is compatible with the vast majority of public charging stations in the UK and across Europe.
• You can check the details of a public charger – what socket it’s compatible with, how fast it is and even with live data on whether it’s in use or has any reported issues – via zap-map.com or the Zap-Map app. It’s a really useful tool, and means you can plan ahead easily for long journeys.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
• Most motorway services in the UK now have a bank of rapid chargers that any electric car can charge at, so you don’t actually need to plan ahead. We’d recommend it if you’re worried or not used to driving an EV, though, for your own peace of mind.
• You can pay with a contactless card on almost all public chargers.
• Rapid chargers vary in power and speed. Again, Zap-Map is great to check the details of charging stations on your route, although most are powerful enough to deliver 100 miles of range in around 15 to 25 minutes.
• An electric car’s rapid charging speed is dictated by the car’s hardware. It’s measured in kilowatts (kW). For instance, the Citroën ë-Berlingo charges at up to 100kW, but you can plug it into any rapid charger no matter how powerful the charger is.
• An electric car’s charging speed slows down when its battery gets to over 80% charged. This is why most EV drivers only rapid charge to 80%, before carrying on with the journey.
(The Big Issue / Citroen Days Out. )
What you need to know about an electric car’s real-world range:
• The ‘WLTP’ range is the range that an electric car achieves in government-legislated efficiency tests that all vehicles must undertake.
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
• Sadly, few electric cars will achieve the WLTP range figure in everyday use, but many get close to it.
• An electric car will be less efficient in cold weather, and in faster driving. So a winter drive on the motorway will be your worst-case scenario for real-world range. A summer drive in more moderate countryside or suburban driving will likely result in the best range that your car can achieve.
• Real-world range can vary by as much as 40% between summer and winter. For instance, a car with a 250 mile range might easily do 220 miles in summer, but 170 miles in winter.
Will you sign Big Issue's petition to ask Keir Starmer to pass a Poverty Zero law? It's time to hold government to account on poverty once and for all.
Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
Support our vendors with a subscription
For each subscription to the magazine, we’ll provide a vendor with a reusable water bottle, making it easier for them to access cold water on hot days.
