CHARGING YOUR ELECTRIC 208
Plug the e-208 into an ordinary household socket and it will take 24 hours to charge the 50kWh battery. But invest in a 7kW wall charger and that drops to 7.5 hours, which means it’ll be ready for the next day’s commute. Access to 50kW rapid DC chargers along your route is essential for longer trips like ours, allowing you to top up to 80 per cent (after which the charging rate slows markedly to protect the battery) in around 50 minutes. The e-208 can even charge at 100kW stations (to 80 per cent in 30 minutes) though they’re still rare. We didn’t see one between Land’s End and Birmingham.
How far will that get you? Up to 217 miles according to the new, more realistic WLTP test figures, and in warm weather, mixed driving CAR has posted around 150 miles of range. But hit the motorway in extreme conditions, as we did, and the practical range before you’ll want to plug-in is closer to 100 miles, sticking to the speed limit.