Top Gear go electric caravanning
Tune in to the latest Top Gear episode on Sunday (21st November at 8pm) where Freddie Flintoff, Paddy McGuiness and Chris Harris go touring in Northumberland and visit our Berwick Seaview Caravan and Motorhome Club campsite. The presenters each chose their favourite small, perfectly formed ‘micro-caravan’ to team with a state-of-the-art electric car, and set off for a peaceful getaway in the beautiful wilds of Northumberland. A peaceful getaway that somehow ended up including a Zorb-ball hillclimb… and a chilli-eating ‘hot lap’ challenge. Obviously!
Watch the show live on Sunday or on replay afterwards here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011vp0
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It was entertaining and they seemed to enjoy themselves without slagging off the vans. So overall positive, in my eyes at least.
Colin
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Silliness aside ..... just highlights how ineffective an electric car is trying to tow a caravan anywhere over & above a short distance .... and the caravans used were hardly heavyweights. And the rest of us mere mortals don't have a camera crew at hand for when the battery is completely depleted.
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Haven't seen it yet. F1 took precedence.
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He may be just too intelligent to attempt to engage overmuch with Luddites, if your mindset it tuned to dislike & denial then no help can be proffered. Pearls before swine etc-no offence👍🏻
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They may be the future with electric tow cars but are a far cry from the space and comfort of present caravans. OK for a couple of weeks in the sun on a full site but a CL in autumn in the UK? Can't see them being embraced with any degree of enthusiasm. Whilst ranges, even towing, are becoming a bit more feasible, any sort of long distance touring doesn't look viable.
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Rocky.... after watching the program would it encourage you to buy an electric vehicle to tow a Caravan ? .Even before watching the program which as I said, I found it stupid I would not buy an electric vehicle to tow a caravan with. Yes I am a Dinosaur in many instances, but a luddite I am not, if something works and is proven, trust me I am first in the queue. Towing with an electric vehicle is not there yet for me.
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Then of course there is the price. Didn’t that Audi and blow up set up cost circa £110,000.😲
It was predicable daft. Although I used to watch it weekly, it’s one of those programmes that has gone on far to long and should be quietly put to rest.
Weren’t they told about pitching to the peg, when they checked into Berwick.😂
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No not at all ADP, I will get one when the distance in the batteries are similar to ICE vehicles but not before👍🏻
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I agree CY. We like to get out whenever we can. The units on the programme wouldn't really work for us. Although we often cook outside in the summer, we don't in the late autumn, winter or early spring.... or when the weather is too bad. If we were restricted to such units, I would think quite a few would call it a day....
Fingers crossed for some serious improvements in towcars the next couple of years... and with affordability....
David
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And that is a journey of about 100 miles with York roughly in the middle. So they weren't prepared to chance it for more than 50 miles. ChocolateTrees seems to be the only one with real world experience so far, so perhaps a more detailed account of his journeys might be advantageous in making an assessment.
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I'm sure ChocTrees will be on shortly once he has recovered from pushing his car to the not-so-near charging point.
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I think we'll all just have to play it a bit by ear!!
One problem could be that, as electric cars get more popular (assuming they will) and as diesel will be used less, deisel could well become more difficult to get (like LPG), or could increase in price making it less affordable.... We could get a technological breakthrough, making electric cars more viable in towing for long distances, or even a different type of 'green car' (hydrogen??). Whichever way we go, I guess affordability will be an issue...
David
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The rises in costs will it seems affect us of a certain age, more than many younger of the population.
OHs son cannot understand how we can live as we do on our pensions ?
As I have posted before next year may well be our last doing as we do , it may even be before the end of the year ,with all that is happening
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Only just found this thread (late to the party).
Top gear is a great entertainment show, but that is all it is. I was looking forward to the EV caravanning section as much as anyone, but it was never going to be sensible.
I admire them for finding 3 ultra-lightweight vans to tow, but the Polestar has the lowest tow limit of the three (1500kg) and was still well under it's limit, so it wasn't about caravanning in its normal sense.
If it had been a consumer program about real caravanning, it would have shown charging via hookup on site, and what you need to overcome (and therefor how the infrastructure could be quickly and easily improved) to charge with a 'van while towing.
The chilli eating challenge was hilarious, and the best bit was the unshown drag race on the beach at Bamber Castle. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=584831002573135&ref=sharing
What really annoyed me was the "drive a car until it runs out of fuel" bit. What did they think would happen? A fleet of battery wielding angels show up born on bolts of electricty to recharge them? Utter rubbish.
What they should have done was had a race to the end including a charge stop. Pick the right charger and they would have only needed a "volt and bolt" (Splash and dash), showing how easy (or not) it is to charge, and how fast you can add range when you battery is low. As little as 5 mins on a rapid for Flintoff would have take hime easily over the line.
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SHOCKING 
!!
