London Brighton EV Rally 2024: A Driver's Point of View

Today, exciting day ahead as this is the 4th edition of the London - Brighton EV Rally. About 100 electric vehicles ranging from motorbikes to delivery vehicles, to a big truck and including a number of conversions and many mainstream cars depart from Westminster. There are token prizes for the best efficiency meaning that there is a good spirit of hypermiling going around a number of the participants. So what does it feel like on the day, how well did we manage to keep our efficiency down. We're in the mighty Hyundai Ioniq 28kWh (this one dates back to 2018) and it relishes these reasonably short distances, with A-roads and B-roads, so hopefully it should do well, right? Well, let's see about that as we share our journey with you, topped and tailed with some views of the event at start and finish.
Music credits
Powerful dubstep| Massive by VTEMO
Phonk Dubstep Electronic Motivational by VTEMO [Royalty Free Music] | Massive
• Phonk Dubstep Electron...
Music promoted by onsound.eu/
Dreamy Lo-Fi| Rooftop by Alex-Productions
Dreamy Lo-Fi Hip Hop background music (No Copyright Music) \ Rooftop
• Dreamy Lo-Fi Hip Hop b...
Music promoted by onsound.eu/
#LondonBrightonEVRally #EVHypermiling #hyundaiioniq

[@randombitsofreality]

You've had fun! :)

[@evdabbler]

Always!

[@robertpopek6063]

Nice efficient driving! Was the contest only about efficiency or was there also other parameters?
PS. My most efficient driving with the Ioniq was down to 95 Wh/km.

[@evdabbler]

It's more of a friendly showcase of how EVs are progressing in numbers, capabilities and choice really, not really a formal contest but yes efficiency is the consideration for the token prizes.

[@Nikoo033]

To promote EVs, I think it would have been better to aim for a longer trip. Westminster to Brighton is only 51 miles, which a Nissan Leaf or Renault Zoe first gen can still do easily.
So perhaps Westminster-Plymouth would have been a more interesting trip (slightly over 200 miles, so in line with what most EVs can do nowadays).

[@evdabbler]

To note the rally continued (with fewer cars) to Paris the next day and Geneva the day after. I must say I could not help thinking that the slow driving in a couple of places to maximise efficiency was not giving the best image. Finally while the return trip late in the day was very quick (1h15 maybe) it took us the best part of 4h to get from Westminster to Brighton with the heavy traffic, convenienve stop and ice cream / viewpoint stops. Let's not forget 50-60 miles can be a very long distance timewise in Greater London (or Paris, Geneva, etc) with all the traffic. So at least it proves that any EV of any generation is good enough for commuting and most weekend escaping.