A holiday in Scotland
Maya is on the motorway with her daughter and grandson
Watch Maya’s story
Watch and listen to Maya’s story in this short video, or read Maya’s story below.
Read Maya’s story
A long journey
The family are going on holiday to Scotland in the 4×4 EV that they have had for a few weeks after replacing their previous EV.
It’s late afternoon and they have stopped at the motorway services for a break. Their journey so far has been slow because of roadworks, and Maya is keen to stop.
Finding a charging point
Maya has not stopped at these services before, but easily finds the rapid chargepoints because of the clear signage. The chargepoints are near to the main entrance, so it will only be a short walk to the shop and the toilets.
Maya is stiff from driving and her daughter needs space to help her son transfer from the back seat into his Wizzybug powered wheelchair. They are relieved to see that all the parking spaces are wide, so they can open the doors fully on both sides of the vehicle to get out comfortably.
It’s really handy to charge so close to the coffee shop and toilets
Parking
Maya has reversed into the space to put the charging socket as close as possible to the charging unit, and the spaces are long enough that she can move around between the back of the vehicle and the charging unit.
Her daughter can also get the Wizzybug out of the boot without standing near moving cars and bring it round to the side of the car to help her son into it.
Plugging in
Maya is pleasantly surprised by how light the cable feels when she lifts it out of its holder on the charging unit – she has used rapid charging cables before and has found them heavy and uncomfortable to manage. There is an overhead arm that supports most of the weight of the cable, so she finds it fairly easy to pull on the cable and move the connector around to the socket on the side of the vehicle.
Despite the low early evening sun she can see the large, well-lit screen on the unit while she is standing by the charging socket on her vehicle, and it gives her step-by-step instructions. Maya looks at the screen by habit because her hearing aids make her feel like she can’t rely on listening out for a “beep” to see if each step has been completed successfully.
Finishing up
After half an hour, they return to the car park. As they get closer, they can see that the vehicle is still charging and the battery level is now 80% charged, which is more than enough to complete their journey today.
Her daughter helps her son into his car seat and puts the Wizzybug into the boot.
Maya walks to the charging unit and stops the charging by holding her contactless payment card on the front of the unit. She notes from the screen how much she has spent on charging.
Maya does not notice the confirmation sound, but does read the message on screen telling her that the cable is ready to unplug from her vehicle. This is reassuring, because sometimes it is hard to know whether the connector is still locked into the vehicle or if it is just stiff to pull out.
She pulls out the connector easily and sits it back into the holder. Maya closes the vehicle socket cover and gets into the car, and the three of them set off to begin their holiday.
More case studies
Each story is made up of insights from several individuals, to share as much of our research as possible and to illustrate the impact of good and bad design on real people.
Design guidance
Take a look at our suggestions for making public EV charging more accessible
