We have recently changed our lovely Land Rover for a shiny (nearly) new Hyundai Ioniq Electric Car. The maths made sense for our usage. It has a range of about 190miles, which has suited us well so far. Now, we’d usually take my diesel Mondeo to the airport. It’s big and has about 600 mile range, so no having to stop when you are late for the airport or simply want to get home as soon as possible after a long flight.
Unfortunately it’s currently broken, so Mrs Wonders’ Hyundai stepped up. The airport is about 110 miles from home, so no chance of making it there and back without needing a charge. We also needed some airport parking arrangements. Step in APH parking with electric car charging included. The theory is, they charge it while you are away, so you come back to a fully charged car. See how they did……..
We’ve used APH a few times on the past and have been quite happy so they seemed like a good choice.
We followed our satnav directions, with a cheeky stop in Lidl just round the corner from them (really useful if you are staying in an airport hotel with overpriced drinks and snacks!). On pulling up to the barrier ANPR cameras scanned us and let us in. Only about 12 hours early, oops. We decided to stay overnight as a precaution after missing our flight due to flat tyres a couple of years ago.
We pulled into a parking lane as directed and offloaded people and luggage. Then off to reception to check-in. It was explained that our extra 12 hours would cost us £10, fair enough, we were staying at an on-airport hotel so getting rid of the car the night before was ideal.
We were then sent back to the car to bring in our car charger lead. Don’t forget this, they won’t/can’t use their own. This duly handed over we hopped on the bus for a 10 minute transfer. The bus was modern with lots of space for luggage and had handy USB chargers if you need to quickly boost the charge on your phone.
If you don’t know. Most modern electric cars have phone apps to check up on it, turn on heating, check charging, etc. I fully intended to stalk my car whilst away! We arrived with about 30% charge.
At some point the following day our car started to charge. It got to 65% then was unplugged. I was fully prepared to grumble away about not getting a full charge and that ruining the point of the service…….but a few days later it was plugged in again and charged to 100%, I shouldn’t be so quick to judge! Maybe they were juggling car chargers. As long as I get back to a car with 100% charge then I am happy.
On our return, we texted our booking reference to a mobile number as instructed, to ensure the car was ready and waiting before heading to our bus stop. Again, a painless and friendly transfer. We headed into reception to collect our keys and then to the car which was parked close to the reception, before heading home.
It was a lovely, straightforward experience and ideal for our needs!
