Plan your exit early
Don't wait for the car to complain. If the range is dropping faster than you expected, leave at the next junction or services. A short stop at a rapid charger is far better than a recovery on a fast road.
Motorway speeds drain an electric battery quicker than town driving. Slowing down a little, and turning the heating down, can stretch the miles.
Cold weather makes it worse. Batteries lose usable range in the cold, and the heater uses power as well, so a range figure from a warm day can be a long way out.
Smart motorways have no hard shoulder in places, so a stop there is far more serious. Check the signs for emergency areas as you go and know where the next one is.
If the car stops
Follow the Highway Code advice for a breakdown. In short:
- Put your hazard lights on
- Try to get the car off the carriageway. Use the hard shoulder, an emergency area or the left, as the road allows
- If you're on a smart motorway with no hard shoulder, head for an emergency area if you can reach one
- Don't stay in a live lane unless you have no choice
Getting yourself out
If you can get out safely, get out on the side away from the traffic, and wait behind the barrier. Take children and pets with you, and leave the car locked. Stand well back and keep an eye on the traffic.
If you can't get to safety, stay in the car with your seat belt on and ring 999. Tell them where you are and that you're stuck in a live lane. Don't try to push the car or work on it yourself.
Then call us
Once you're safe, ring us. Tell us your car, the plug type if you know it, the battery percentage if you can see it, and exactly where you are. On a motorway, the marker post numbers and the road number help a lot, and so does a shared WhatsApp location pin.
We're open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Call for a price. We'll tell you honestly how long we expect to be. We only do mobile charging, so if the car needs recovery or a repair, we'll say so.
What a mobile charge can do on a fast road
Our 7.5 kW charger adds about 10 to 12 miles in 30 minutes. That's a top-up to reach the next rapid charger, not a full charge. We'll help you pick where to go before we leave, so you don't run flat again straight away.
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