Recharging Round Britain Day 4 - 16 July 2026
About this episode
Day 4 of the Round Britain EV trip is set up from Inverness, with the hosts comparing how charging habits and infrastructure have changed since “10 years since we first did charging round Britain.” They recap the day’s route and charging stops, including where the car is currently charging on the Grid Surf network, and share efficiency and thermal-management takeaways like battery preconditioning and heat-pump cabin heating. Charging costs and planning get teased for later, alongside practical notes on Eco mode and range recalculation.
Today, Thursday 16 July 2026, we continued with Day 4 of Recharging Round Britain, and we returned to trying to, as closely as we can, recreate the route we undertook nearly a decade ago. Hear how we got on today as we travelled from Washington, via Kinross, Perth, Aberdeen to eventually arrive at Inverness.
CHARGING SPONSORThanks 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.
There's more information at gridserve.com/membership/
VEHICLE SPONSORThank 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.
To see more about the car, from Hyundai themselves, click 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 PODCASTmiles per kilowatt
"With 4.7 miles per kilowatt from West Hills to Inverness. Well, the bad traffic helped a lot with that."
This is a way to measure how efficiently the EV is using electricity. Higher numbers generally mean you’re getting more miles out of the same amount of power.
“Miles per kilowatt” is being used here as an efficiency measure—how far the car goes for a given amount of electrical energy. In EV terms, people often track range efficiency using kilowatt-hours (kWh), so this is essentially a “how efficiently it’s consuming electricity” number.
eco mode
"You put it in eco either. So, you know, this was under normal conditions as opposed to the eco one where you were trying to get that figure."
“Eco” is a driving mode that helps the car use less energy. It usually makes acceleration gentler and can improve range.
“Eco” is an energy-saving driving mode that changes how the car responds to your inputs and often limits power output. On EVs, it’s used to stretch range and can affect efficiency metrics like miles per kilowatt-hour.
battery preconditioning
"We learned that the Insta has battery preconditioning. We have been trying to do what we are doing right now, which is we charge the evening before, basically so we can get up and get out."
Battery preconditioning means the car gets the battery ready before you plug in. It warms the battery so it can charge faster and more smoothly.
Battery preconditioning is when a car warms (or sometimes cools) the traction battery before charging. Doing this improves how efficiently the battery can take charge and can help reduce charging slowdowns in cold conditions.
preconditioned the battery
"oh, hang on, my battery is not conditioned enough for this. And it preconditioned. Yep. It preconditioned the battery so that whenever we plugged it in, it just behaved as it does normally once you had it there."
Preconditioning means the car gets the battery ready before you plug it in. It helps the battery charge faster and more smoothly because it’s at the right temperature.
Preconditioning is when an EV warms or optimizes the battery before charging. The goal is to get the battery into a temperature range where it can accept charge efficiently, so the car can start charging normally as soon as you plug in.
Dodge Charger
"It was sort of started off and it ramped up. The charger have ramped up incredibly quickly. Yes."
The Dodge Charger is a large car built for performance, not just everyday commuting. People often talk about how quickly it can speed up when you press the accelerator. That “ramping up” is basically how fast the car goes from slower to faster driving.
The Dodge Charger is a full-size American muscle sedan that’s known for strong acceleration and a performance-focused lineup. In a news-style discussion, it often comes up when talking about how quickly it builds speed and how that performance “ramps up” in real-world driving. That’s why it may be referenced when the conversation is about rapid acceleration or power delivery.
heat pump
"Other thing we noticed is the Insta has a heat exchanger, a heat pump built in so that it actually can heat up quite quickly using as little battery power as possible."
A heat pump is how the car warms the cabin efficiently. Instead of using lots of battery power to make heat from scratch, it moves heat around to use energy more effectively.
A heat pump is an EV HVAC system that moves heat rather than generating it directly. It can warm the cabin efficiently, especially in cold weather, often using less battery energy than older electric-resistance heating.
heat exchanger
"Other thing we noticed is the Insta has a heat exchanger, a heat pump built in so that it actually can heat up quite quickly using as little battery power as possible."
A heat exchanger is a component that helps move heat from one part of the car to another. It helps the EV manage temperatures so the battery and cabin can heat up efficiently.
A heat exchanger transfers heat between two fluids or systems without mixing them. In an EV, it’s often part of the thermal management setup that helps route heat to where it’s needed—like the cabin or battery—while keeping temperatures in the right range.
electric heated seats
"Also got electric heated front seat, it doesn't have electric front seats. It's got heated front seats and we didn't use those because now we need to."
Heated seats warm you directly with electricity. That can be more efficient than heating the entire cabin, so you may use less battery energy.
Heated seats use electrical resistance elements to warm the occupants directly. Compared with heating the whole cabin, seat heating can reduce how much energy the HVAC system needs, especially during short stops or cold starts.
Gridsurf
"Other things to mention to the after most of the talking, I'm so sorry. We also had to move outside the cozy embrace of our sponsor, Gridsurf."
Gridsurf is the name of the charging sponsor/network mentioned here. It’s tied to the charging stops the hosts used during the trip.
Gridsurf is mentioned as the charging sponsor in this segment. It’s associated with the charging network or service being used during the trip.
Ionstein
"And I had to charge using Ionstein and Aberdeen."
Ionstein is another charging service/network they used. It’s mentioned as part of where they charged when they weren’t using the sponsor’s setup.
Ionstein is named as one of the charging services used for this leg of the trip. The hosts are contrasting it with the sponsor network they were previously using.
charging it at home
"If I had a charging unit at home, this would be a side effect of that. Or even if I don't have a charging unit, I can,"
This is a charger you install at your house so you can plug in your EV when you get home. It makes charging easier and often cheaper than relying only on public stations.
A charging unit at home is a dedicated EV charger installed where you park overnight, letting you top up the battery conveniently. Home charging usually reduces reliance on public chargers and can lower the effective cost per mile.
EV
"Or even if I don't have a charging unit, I can, any months I have an EV or I am doing many, many miles in an EV,"
EV just means an electric vehicle—basically a car that runs on electricity. It’s the type of car you charge instead of refueling with gas.
EV stands for electric vehicle, meaning the car is powered by an electric powertrain and charged from electricity. In this context, it’s used to distinguish the speaker’s electric-car usage from non-EV driving.
Goethe Plus
"I mean, the nice thing about Goethe Plus is you can have it. You cannot have it. You can just join for that month for a week of doing this."
Goethe Plus sounds like a charging membership that can change how you pay for EV charging. The host is saying you can have it for a month or join temporarily.
Goethe Plus appears to be a membership or subscription program tied to EV charging access or pricing. The speaker contrasts having it versus not having it, implying it changes how charging is handled month-to-month.
rapid charges
"the other thing that adds to complexity, the type of person who would potentially need to use as many rapid charges or ultra rapid charges in a day, like we are,"
Rapid charging means using a faster public charger to add electricity to your EV quickly. It’s useful for road trips, but it can be more complicated and sometimes more expensive than charging at home.
Rapid charging refers to faster public EV charging compared with standard home charging, typically using higher-power equipment. It’s relevant here because the hosts are discussing how frequent fast charging adds cost and complexity.
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