I’m very much for electric vehicles and look forward to having one. The lack of engine noise and seamless power delivery very much appeal to me. However, I’m not prepared to embrace them until the technology and infrastructure both improve drastically from where they are now.
We garage our cars overnight, so charging isn’t an issue for us. If we couldn’t charge at home I personally wouldn’t consider an EV until there was no other choice, in spite of what several posters on here say. Their ‘charging strategies’ sound like a level of stress and hassle that would drive me nuts and simply wouldn’t work for us. For example, we have our food shopping delivered, so never go to supermarkets (which many use for charging).
For 95% of our journeys, even the current ranges of most EV’s would be fine for us, but it’s the remaining 5% that deters me at present. I find stopping for fuel to be a pain, even though with an ICE car it takes less than 5 minutes. I just could not be doing with having to stop for 20 minutes or more to recharge. Life is too short. When the technology improves and a car can be recharged from near empty to full in less than 5 minutes (which I’m sure will happen eventually) then this current barrier is eliminated.
Then there’s the issue of finding somewhere to recharge and being able to get a charge point that isn’t in use. The current infrastructure is way behind the trajectory needed for us all to be driving EV’s from 2030, especially if you don’t live in a built up area. We spent 3 weeks on a fantastic touring holiday of Scotland and a few times in the remote parts we had range anxiety even with a diesel. If we’d had an EV we simply couldn’t have done the holiday.
So, yes, I’m very much for them and if we never did anything more than local journeys and day trips (so that I only ever had to charge the car at home) then I would have one now. However, at present, an EV wouldn’t suit us and would take away the hassle free nature of driving for me. I would consider a PHEV now even though they are a bit of a compromise but, as with EV’s, the technology will no doubt improve and these compromises will lessen over time.