An electric vehicle would suit my needs. Low annual mileage. Can charge from home socket no probs. However, there are times when I do need to be able to get charged en-route and the processes involved put me right off the whole thing. In terms of cost, I estimate that going electric would save some £300 p.a. in fuel costs. Fine. But at least half of this would be eaten up by having to buy a mobile phone/network access (I do not have one and really do not want one of the offensive, nasty things). Then there’s the whole app nightmare and paid-for subscriptions which I seem to need to get permission to plug into a charger. Overall, in terms of fuel cost, electric would cost me more than petrol.
There is also the reliability of using on-the-road chargers. Reading posts here and on EV forums, it seems that chargers often will not accept the cards, apps, subs or whatever else they demand. This, in addition to having to wait to get on a charger and the time to top up is just not on for me.
Understand that the government is “working towards” universal pay-as-you-go charging on all recharge points. Many working parties, consultations, quangos, reports, surveys etc. All these will achieve, as ever, is more money in the pockets of Boris’s pals on the working parties etc. If there were open-access, properly working, pay-as-you-go charge points everywhere then I don’t mind losing out on cost when I have to use them. Don’t think it will happen though. Too much money to be made by keeping it complicated and difficult to use.