I thought I’d share my experience. I have a MG ZS EV, the Mk1 with 163 miles around town in summer (maybe more if it’s warm enough), which reduces to 115 at 65ish mph. There’s also the winter reduction, which brings around town to about 120 miles and I’d dread to think what a flat 60mph would see. I can charge at home but only on the granny charger, which takes about 14 hours from dead. Living in Cornwall means 2 things, anywhere worth going is a long way away (Exeter is 100 miles and is our nearest bit of motorway) the infrastructure gets updated in accordance with upcoming season, which means lots gets shut down for the winter and if you were planning on charging at a holiday attraction, you’d best make sure they haven’t shut the gates.
Usual daily driving is perfect. I get up, take daughter to school, can go shopping or whatever I want around town. We can go for days out locally or even short trips to the beach. However, once we get to wanting to go any distance, I have to plan, and that distance isn’t really far enough. We went to Paignton zoo last year, a round trip of about 95ish miles, so a charge was needed but there’s only a Lidl charger near the zoo and everything else was quite a trek. So we got there, queued and had a ‘discussion’ about who arrived first before getting to charge, with 2 excited kids waiting outside a shop isn’t fun. Got to the zoo, saw what we needed and came home, stopping at Cornwall Services for a final ‘guarantee getting home’ top up, had to wait, again, as one charger was completely broke.
Here’s the limitation. If I wanted to go anywhere beyond 50ish miles I need to think in advance, the car needs to be fully charged and I need to allow time to drive a little slower. If I want to go that little further, I need to plan charging and have a backup in mind, which isn’t easy down here. In the winter we pretty much are trapped in county and charge twice a week, even if we have to go to the local hospital (14 miles away).
All is not lost though, cars with such a low range are fewer now. Most are city cars not expected to go anywhere near a motorway. However, the Stellantis offerings with the 50kWh batteries are still close enough to the 45 I have that doesn’t offer a solution. The only car on scheme right now that does is the hugely expensive Ariya, which is a beautiful car but at nearly 10 grand isn’t an ongoing option. We need the likes of the Kona or the lowest spec Fisker on scheme just to offer a mini SUV sized vehicle that is accessible but can still go far enough to not suffer the restrictions I currently endure.
I have had the pleasure of an 8 month spell of free motoring, thanks to supermarket and retail centre charging, I have enjoyed cheap motoring for the rest of the time thanks to low electricity costs and free charging. Now electricity has gone up, charging at home cuts into our already limited budget and charging in Tesco has a price to it, it’s become much closer to an efficient mini SUV PHEV or petrol. My next car could well be the new Nissan E-Power, whether that’s Qashqai or X-Trail, I’m not yet sure.
I love the concept of EV driving, I actually feel that it’s keeping me safer on the roads as one pedal driving has reduced the pain I encounter. I’m just not sure all the benefits that were clear and obvious 18 months ago are so now. I do know I’d need a car capable of getting me to 130 miles at 65/70mph in the winter, which means a 250ish range in summer around town. Charging at home is so much easier than having to visit a petrol station but charging in public has become so much more expensive and in some cases the petrol is cheaper.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.
Mark