A fascinating thread. I fully expected that 100% of those who drive EV’s would be complete converts, especially as the early adopters can, in the main, charge at home and wouldn’t have the same challenges of those who can’t. We are fortunate that we garage our car so could charge easily at home, but it’s the limited range that has stopped us. We do quite a lot of touring holidays. I enjoy planning them to take advantage of scenic routes etc with 5 minute fuel stops every 600 miles. I wouldn’t relish having to plan to make charging stops at places where we would otherwise have no need to go.
I was fully aware of the stated ranges being somewhat optimistic, especially in the winter, but I hadn’t considered that speed and use of essential items such as heated seats and air con would also have a detrimental impact. I couldn’t face having to make a long journey plodding along at 60mph for fear that going any faster would necessitate a premature and unplanned charging stop.
Also, no sensible ICE car driver paying for their own fuel fills up at a motorway service station (due to the eye watering costs), but their range means that you’d never need to anyway, as you’d fill up before a long journey – job done. With an EV on a long journey you’d presumably have to suffer the cost or plan detours off the motorway network, in areas that you don’t know, in order to find cheaper charging options. Again, more faff and wasted time.
I fully accept that if peoples overriding priority is cheap running costs and you can live with all the compromises, then EV is the way to go. However, until battery technology advances considerably (both range and recharging time) I am happy to suffer the extra costs in return for none of these worries.