The Dodge Charger is a car model made by Dodge. It’s a larger sedan that’s often offered in faster, sportier versions. The podcast is mentioning it as a specific vehicle name, not just the word “charger.”
“Seven kilowatts” is how strong the charger is. Stronger chargers can add energy faster, while a 7 kW charger is slower—so it’s the kind of setup you’d use when you have time, like overnight.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is an all-electric car, meaning it runs on a battery instead of gasoline. The podcast is talking about the first version of it before Hyundai made a mid-cycle update. That’s important because the earlier and updated versions can have different features.
The Hyundai Ioniq Electric is an all-electric Hyundai (it runs on a battery, not gasoline). They’re talking about the early first version of it, which matters because older EVs can charge and behave a bit differently than newer ones.
They’re talking about a big, luxury Hyundai EV called the Ioniq 9. They didn’t want the large car for this challenge, so they went with a smaller one instead.
Term
range plus kit
“Range plus kit” is a set of features or settings meant to help an EV get more miles out of its battery. Here, they connect it to the smaller-battery version so it can still do a decent distance.
“ADAS suite” means the car’s safety tech that helps the driver. Think features like keeping you in your lane or helping avoid crashes, working in the background while you drive.
“Electric cars” are cars that run on electricity stored in a battery, not gasoline. How far you can go depends on the battery and how you drive, and you’ll need charging access.
Charging points are the places you pull up to so your electric car can plug in. Different chargers can add energy faster or slower, so it affects how long you’ll be stopped.
A lot of EV chargers use a phone app to start charging and handle payment. If you don’t have the app set up, you might have trouble getting the charger to work.
Preconditioning means the car gets ready for charging ahead of time. It helps the battery be at the right temperature so charging can be faster and smoother.
The Audi 90 is another older Audi model. In this segment, they say the main difference versus the Audi 80 is that the 90 used a five-cylinder engine instead of a four-cylinder engine.
A “five cylinder engine” means the engine has five working cylinders. The host is using that as a simple way to tell one Audi model apart from another.
An “EV charging network” is a group of electric car charging stations that work together as a service. The host is saying GridServe’s network covers most of the UK.
GridServe Plus is a paid membership for GridServe’s electric car chargers. The idea is that you get cheaper charging—here they mention 25% off—and it costs £7.99 per month.
LIVE
Welcome to the Motion Podcast, recharging around Britain on Monday the 13th of July,
2026.
Hello, I'm Alan.
Hello, I'm Andrew.
And in this episode, you'll find out that charging doesn't need to be taxing.
Our bladders don't help last the car range anymore.
And driving only in daylight is actually really quite nice.
Oh, very much so.
That has been the win so far.
We actually made it to the sun.
You can't see is the window over there.
The sun is setting.
There are striated clouds in the sky, etc, etc, etc, it's very nice.
And we are not, like we did last time, standing beside a charger somewhere at the far end
of Bourbonneau.
Yes.
Well, this is the first one of these and it has been a learning curve already this evening.
So, yes.
Shall we start off?
We'll talk about how our days go on.
Yes.
Happy smiley faces, by the way.
We'll talk about how our days go on.
But do we want to quickly, just tonight's one, and we'll try and skip over this in
future, talk about why we have decided to take a week out of our lives to do this again.
We're asking that would be fair.
It's been 10 years since we did Charging Around Britain.
It's actually just under 10 years since we did it by a month or two.
Yes.
We started hell with the whole driving in the light as well.
And at 10 years, we kind of wanted to know how it's going now.
Is it easier?
Is it harder because there's more vehicles on the road that needn't want to charge?
Have the cars improved by much comparably or as comparably as we can make it?
And then also has the charging infrastructure improved, which was a whole point to the first
Charging Around Britain was really, we were talking lots about charging and charging infrastructure.
And we still do, as you might have noticed, talk lots about charging infrastructure.
And we wanted to know if it was any better because we're sitting there and we
pontificate most Tuesdays about stuff.
And we've got our own personal experiences in our local areas.
Yes.
But is that representative?
Is that representative or is it just a postcode lottery thing or what?
So hence going all around Britain or as much as we can.
Yeah.
And sort of kind of around the outside-ish.
The first one was.
Yeah, this one's a little bit less and there's various things that we have to sort of,
whether we're going to try and include this time, the compromise being that we're maybe
not as far out to the coast, as far out to the east coast anyway, as we were the last
time.
But we'll see.
We'll see how that goes.
Is that the why?
Anything else?
I think so.
No, nothing.
They're the main headlines of why we're trying to do it.
So today, day one, what we did, we went from yours near Preston and we are now at Cornwall
Services, Bodmin, in Cornwall.
So we came down, we did a mix of all sorts of roads, you had to, I've driven motorway
today.
Somebody else has driven, has driven all the little wiggly roads, it was really ridiculous.
But we've come from, so Preston down to Bodmin, we came down via Shrewsbury, caught up with
Jim Cooper and Mr Jalco there at lunchtime, so that's cool.
And then we came down via Hereford and got stuck in traffic there.
Yes, Hereford was gridlocked.
It really was awful.
Because I remember last time, we did it and we came to Hereford and it was kind of busy,
and that was on a bank holiday as well.
But today, it was just a normal Monday, it was mobbed, and then down there over the original
Seven Bridge, because that was slightly shorter, but it turned out shorter.
And we got caught behind every Sloan, the San Cascay and South Wales.
And then down, where next?
We stopped at Corsway, Corsway, just outside Bristol, extra services, and then down here.
And the car is sitting outside on charge as we speak, it's just on a seven kilowatt
charger, so there's no real rush.
And it means that it'll be ready sometime around midnight, hopefully we won't get charged
a fee for leaving the attach, but we're told that it happens quite a lot and there's nobody
who's complained about it.
All good.
Yeah, that was today.
Yeah.
That pretty much sums up today.
It's been kind of long, I mean we didn't leave till quite late.
No, it was for reasons.
A bit later in leaving.
And then we left our lunch behind, which I'm quite depressed about, because the Greggs
did not make up for what we had.
But what is still waiting for us in your fridge, which was silly of us because we were then
in a rush.
Yeah.
So what are we doing it in?
We're talking about why we're doing it.
Car.
So last time we used a Hyundai Ioniq Electric, the very first generation pre-facelift one.
Yeah.
Well, I really like to talk about it that much.
No.
Because there weren't many of them around and stuff.
This time we have, Hyundai are very kindly supporting us again.
Yes.
They tried to foist something large and luxurious on us, which would have been really nice.
And Ioniq 9 would have been lovely.
But we held out and said, no, we don't want your great big car.
Give us your little electric B-segment hatchback, because we're idiots.
So we have an InstaO2.
The basic one is the InstaO1.
It has a smaller battery, so a range plus kit.
The top of the range is the InstaCross, which has a decent sized battery, decent range,
but it's got lots of bits bolted on.
In fact, the longest range one is the one in the middle, which is an InstaO2, which has
all the kit we need.
Oh yeah, more than.
It's got aircon.
It has comfy seats.
It has lots of gadgets and toys, which will bonnet you quite a lot.
It has the usual ADAS suite of safety stuff.
I don't mind.
It feels like it.
Well, it would have been rough on the roads, are you?
Yeah, it would have, actually.
Because I was mostly on the motorway, I would say.
It generally worked just fine.
It worked with your driving style, yes.
So notice the ADAS, these safety systems, do not complain about my driving style.
I just want that on the record.
They don't complain about mine because they're off.
But no, it's been great.
It's got a maximum range of 220 miles, which is over 100 more than we had a decade ago.
And a decade ago, you'd driven an electric car for a day longer than me.
I had never driven one on the day we started.
So that original trip was a big learning curve as we drove around for a variety of reasons
and a variety aspects of the ownership and the driving.
This time we've come into it knowing a lot more, driven lots of electric cars between
now and then, and we're very comfortable with how to drive them, how to set them up.
Alan went on the launch of the Insta in the UK.
So he had spent quite a chunk of time and many miles with one anyway.
So you were familiar with the car, how it worked, and you got all the schmiel off the PR.
And it was a very driving launch as well.
Some launches you go on and there's like, oh, well, here's 20 miles, you can drive it.
But this one, I think we did 60, 70, 80 miles.
It was a good few hours plus coffee stops because it was a car launch.
And it gets to go to Portland Bill and things as well, it was very cool.
And the car was cracking there and loads of little lanes.
It wasn't a million miles away from here really.
In fact, we go kind of through that area tomorrow and it was great.
So I knew I liked the car.
Today it's been even better to be perfectly honest because on a launch everything's charged
for you, everything's there, everything's ready and it's kind of handed to you on a play.
Because it's little and it's not that heavy and it has a small battery.
Eight doesn't use that much energy when you're going along.
Because it's getting that 220 mile range.
And by the way, we're seeing 205 when we fill it up and that's not.
And that, by the way, is us running.
The AC is on auto.
The car is on normal.
We're just driving the way we normally drive.
We're not doing any specific.
We're not hypermiling or anything.
No, no, no, no.
How would we drive any car, typically, and this is what we're doing?
Yeah, yeah.
So on the motorway, for example, we're sitting with the cruise control set at the national speed
limit, the adaptive cruise set at the national speed limit.
And it's downhill, uphill, whatever.
We're not being clever.
We've got the regen set to auto.
We know we have to drive an awful lot of miles.
We want to be able to do it with the least amount of concentration possible.
And compromise.
And compromise possible.
So we're driving as we normally drive.
So much like I would drive my Lexus, whatever, that's how I'm driving.
And it's great.
And of course, because it's small, because it's not using a lot of power,
then when we plug in, we've got about time to go for a wander, move by a drink, find a toilet,
have a bit of a chat.
We spent the first charge stop today.
We spent 15 minutes longer than we really needed to or should have,
just because we were chatting to Mr. Dialka.
So far, it's all been very, very smooth.
Well, the first two charging points we rocked up to, we had 100 miles range still left.
Yeah.
And we set off with 205, and then we had 206 or 5 again when we set off.
And if you're wondering why we stopped, it's because we've been driving for about two hours.
Yeah, it's roughly two hours as well.
That 100 mile, or just over 100 miles coming out of the range.
Yeah.
And so it's been very much like, it's been very much, yeah, well, I need to stop and have a bit
of a concentration break.
And let's charge the car at the same time.
So the third charging point was purely because at the second stop, there weren't any toilets.
So it was human-induced, the third one.
And we just plugged into charge.
We would actually have got here with about 20, 30 miles range left.
But instead, just whilst we were in, we plugged in and we charged up.
Yeah.
We charged up there.
Charging has been pretty seamless via the app.
What?
Yes.
Yes.
Mine is my own fault, but...
Well, oh yes.
Sorry.
I have found charging to be pretty seamless via the app.
If you can use the app because you're not a fool who hasn't remembered their password, then...
Or their usernames, so they can't just reset the password.
Then, yes, I've watched it in action.
It's very seamless.
It's very easy.
It looks like a great user interface as well.
If we weren't using my phone as the camera right now,
then how would hold the app up so people can see it?
And the mapping is keeping you in the knowledge live of how many...
The charging destination you want to go to, how many charges are free,
or not free, are not being used.
Are available for use.
The Insta, by the way, is also showing that information on the nav.
Yes.
So, whenever you go to choose a charging point,
it does give you live feedback at that moment of what the availability is.
And that's via Hyundai's own navigation.
We're using the Hyundai navigation.
I haven't worked out yet if there is preconditioning and stuff
going on when it's preparing to charge,
if it knows you're getting close to a charging point.
I think you can do it if you have my Hyundai app.
I think there is a way to do it, but I don't have that.
I don't think it is.
You just walk with a press card, to be honest,
if you start trying to put the app on.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's going to connect.
You don't know who's the address.
So, I don't tend to bother.
But because we've been running and then we go to charge,
it just...
The car just takes it up to what was it doing at one point?
Was it 150, or was it?
No, I don't think we got that.
I think we were at 80 odd.
All right.
It's not the world's quickest charging car.
In terms of how quickly it can consume the electricity
and put it in the battery, but it's fast enough.
Any time we stop, it says,
well, it's going to be an hour to 100%, which generally went...
Well, we're not really going.
We did the first time because we took this job.
We did it because we were just chatting, so it ticked over.
But we're not aiming for that?
No, not really.
We're aiming for as much as we need to get to the next point,
which can be quite easily be 80, 85% or whatever.
Yeah.
And that seems to be running really,
really quite nicely as a plan.
I mean, as I say, it's outside to charge to 100%
because we are in no rush for it.
And to be fair, we've got a bit of a meaty day tomorrow.
Yeah, we do.
Yeah.
So tomorrow, tomorrow we're leaving here.
And Bob, we're heading down to Falmouth.
The reason being is that as far as we got the last time,
we are hoping that we can get in the coming of strip to Falmouth.
Yes.
And then we're at Falmouth.
We can just turn around and start heading east.
That's important to us because last year,
we were staying in a different hotel.
Those of you who know your chain hotels, you can see the video.
We'll know what chain we're in right at the minute.
There's a different chain of hotels.
The reason we had chosen that hotel was because they had an EV charging point.
When we rocked up much later, about as late as it is now,
to be honest, about 10 o'clock.
Yeah.
We went around and we did a lapse of the car park trying to find it.
And it turned out they'd removed it the week before.
Yes.
Yay.
So we started off with very little charge.
And then we had...
So day two morning, we couldn't get the charger down the road.
There was another charging place down the road.
And we couldn't get that to talk to the car.
So that was a good 20 minutes waste, didn't it?
Then we were like, right, where else?
Oh, there's something in Falmouth we can probably eat.
No, no, we have to somewhere else.
There's a step before that.
We thought, we know where's Eco in green.
We'll go to the Eden Project.
They'll have charges.
And sure enough, they did.
And it was like three kilowatt destination charge or something.
Yeah.
So that wasn't really going to work.
No.
And then we went to Falmouth.
Then we went to Falmouth.
And eventually we found one that worked in a car park in Falmouth.
And we had the...
What I'd maintained is the best Cornish pastier I've ever had for breakfast.
But I think that that was a lot of that was situational.
Yes.
We needed to pick me up by then.
And that helped.
But then that day we ended up in Folkestone.
The next day we ended up in Folkestone.
No, after that day we've been in Falmouth, we ended up in Folkestone.
Yes, but it was into the...
Yeah, sorry, the joke was...
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Sorry, yes, yes.
Of course, yes.
I guess I've blanked out many of these past midnight ones.
It's only Glasgow, I really remember.
Yeah, even then.
So yeah, so that's the plan tomorrow.
It's a long and then it's looking like we've got a quick meeting with Hyundai on the way.
We're heading up and going to Cheshire.
I always get the...
Cobham.
Cobham.
Grid server Cobham.
It was Cheshire that they were near before.
That's when it always gets mixed up.
So with the Grid Server Cobham, we should charge to there.
We'll have to stop on the way, but that should be a bit of a zap.
If we're fully charged, we should get to Plymouth before we need to charge.
Then we'll need to charge to Southampton.
And then it columns much closer and then it's down to the hotel.
Hotel, hotel and maybe stop at Folkestone Services on the way to the hotel to charge so that...
Oh, it doesn't really matter.
Oh, we can charge the next morning.
See how far, what range we've got because we could actually be the other side of the
the river before we need to stop to charge.
We've got that flexibility now with this car.
This has made a massive...
There is, so far we have had zero range anxiety.
Oh yeah, that's not been a problem.
It's been harder to fuel ourselves and it has been to fuel the car.
Not the world's quickest dinner tonight.
So otherwise, it's going well.
We're still live.
We haven't killed each other yet.
There was one moment earlier on which was quite close.
But I dangled an ice bike book in front of him and he's fine now.
Yes, must crack down my pen for tomorrow.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
Before we get to the very end, there is one little piece of parish notes which is completely and
totally unrelated to charging around Britain.
It's thank you folks who have answered my question about the difference between the Audi 80 and the Audi 90.
It turns out the big difference is that the 90 had five cylinder engines and not four cylinder
engines, unless it was a decent whiskey store full cylinder, and there were lots of other
little detail differences as well, which supposedly, thank you Phil Half, is why one wing
on his Audi 90 was different from the other one because he thought they were the same.
He bought an Audi 80 wing and loads of other little bits.
So yeah, thanks Phil, thanks Nia.
Thanks Michael and someone else.
I'm so sorry I did reply to you by email at the time to say thanks.
I just, it's a long day.
Before we completely finish up, let's take a couple of minutes to quickly thank our
charging sponsor, GridServe.
They have an EV charging network that spans almost the whole of the UK.
And whilst you can just turn up and pay with a debit card or via that,
you can also get 25% off charging rates at all the 200 of their locations with GridServe Plus.
GridServe Plus costs just £7.99 per month and can be cancelled at any time,
much like many gym memberships, as well as discounted charging or many other seasonal
membership benefits such as EV health checks whilst you charge, pet portraits and similar.
Many people take out GridServe Plus for a month or two at a time to cover a holiday
or a period of seasonal travel.
For more information, in fact, more than you could possibly want at gridserve.com slash membership.
Thank you very much.
Thank you folks from GridServe.
Thank you also to Shendou UK for having faith in us to lend us another car in which to do
many thousands of miles in a very, very short period of time.
If there's nothing else new, then don't forget the betrayal and tomorrow you can
give us any feedback and share your thoughts with the show at motoringpodcast.com on BlueSky at
Motoring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and on the contact page of www.motoringpodcast.com,
the hub of all our activities.
Remember, you can support us financially via Patreon and please leave a review and rating
on Apple Podcast, YouTube or however your podcast app lets you do such a thing.
Andrew, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
The best way to get in touch with me is if you search for Crackwindscreen on BlueSky this week.
I won't be looking at LinkedIn.
Alan, if people want to get in touch with you personally, what's the best way for them to do
that?
The best way to do that is once again, BlueSkyROMAT AGP Bradley, that's B-O-E-D-L-E-Y
dot B-Sky dot social.
We'll be back again tomorrow, but until then, I've been Alan Bradley.
I've been Andrew Clues.
And safe motoring.
About this episode
Hosts kick off Day 1 of their recharging road trip around Britain (13 July 2026), framing EV charging as less stressful than before. They compare today’s charging infrastructure to a decade ago, then recap the route from near Preston to Cornwall Services/Bodmin and the traffic they hit. Charging details follow: 7 kW overnight timing, app and live availability, and a strategy of topping up to around 80–85%. They also troubleshoot a removed hotel charger, then find low-power destination charging at the Eden Project.
Today, Monday 13 July 2026, we began Recharging Round Britain, where we try as closely as we can to recreate the route we undertook nearly a decade ago. Hear our daily updates as we find out what has changed, if anything, to the infrastructure, electric car technology and if its easier or not to do this harebrained adventure.
CHARGING SPONSOR
Thanks to our charging sponsor, GRIDSERVE, They have an EV charging network that spans almost the whole of the UK.
While you can just turn up and pay with a debit card or their app, you can also get 25% off charging rates at all 200 of their locations with GRIDSERVE Plus.
GRIDSERVE Plus costs just £7.99/month and can be cancelled at any time, much like many gym memberships, and as well as the discounted charging, there are many other seasonal membership benefits such as EV heathchecks while you charge, pet portraits, and similar.
Many people take out Gridserve Plus for a month at a time to cover a holiday or seasonal travel.
Thank you to Hyundai, who once again have loaned us an electric vehicle enabling us to travel around as much of Britain as we can in six days. This time, we are using an Inster 02. To find out more on the Inster, you can listen to Alan’s time with one during the UK launch of the car, by clicking this link here.
If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST
