This August, The Priory Rooms Meeting and Conference Centre were delighted to welcome all the way from Holland Raymond van der Stelt, his wife and their 100% electric car as they stopped by to use our vehicle charging points.

Following Quakers in Britain’s 2011 commitment to become a low-carbon and sustainable community, The Priory Rooms have put in place several eco-conscious initiatives as we strive to become Birmingham’s greenest conference centre. One of these initiatives was installing two 32A 3 phase charging points in our car park at the beginning of 2013. Several people have since used the charging points, but none have travelled quite so far to use them as Raymond and his wife!

Raymond contacted The Priory Rooms a year ago as he began planning a trip from Holland to England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and back again in his electric car. He designed a round-trip of 1,350 miles, taking 21 days, based on the location of charging points across the UK. Birmingham was an ideal charging point on his route from Banbury to Beddgelert. The Priory Rooms’ charging points, in the heart of Birmingham city centre, also offered the perfect opportunity for an afternoon of shopping and sight-seeing!

Raymond, a civil engineer, is 39 years old, owns his own project management company and has a passion for special cars. Last year the Tesla Model S caught his eye with it beautiful shape, similar to a Jaguar XJ, the 17 inch centre screen which you control the entire car from and its sports-car speed of 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds. Best of all for Raymond, a fan of long-distance car journeys, no engine means the Tesla has trunk and funk (storage space in the bonnet).

Raymond and his wife have previously travelled by car to Scotland, the Lake District and the South of England, but for 2014 they set themselves the exciting new challenge of doing it using their new premium electric car.

Skip forward a year and Raymond and his wife met with The Priory Rooms’ Business Development Manager Beth as he charged up the Tesla. Beth asked Raymond about the cost of running his electric car. He explained in Holland they pay 24 eurocents for a KWH and he gets about 4 kilometres from 1KWH; roughly converted it is 6 eurocents per kilometre. The Tesla’s battery comes with a warranty of 8 years for unlimited miles.

But how convenient is it to drive an electric car in Holland? Raymond detailed to Beth there are 21 companies which provide charging points each with their own company payment card. However you can charge up at every public charging point with any of these payment cards; providing you access to over 9,000 charging points! Following a “fuel” up at The Priory Room’s charging point Beth bid Raymond and his wife farewell and a safe rest of journey!

You can see where Raymond’s journey continues to on his Googlemaps page http://goo.gl/wUhlsI. If you have any questions about driving electric cars you can also contact Raymond on raymondvanderstelt@gmail.com.

For information about The Priory Rooms Meeting and Conference Centre’s eco-conscious initiatives visit our website page http://www.theprioryrooms.co.uk/page/about-us/environmental-initiatives. If you would like to use our electric charging points or book a meeting room at the venue please call Beth on 0121 236 2317.