Right, after all that technical stuff, here’s my version of living with an EV. I’ve had 2, so I’m no expert but have some experience and the joys of Autistic dedication to research.
My week is mostly driving people to places not to far away. My daughter to school, my wife to work, my mother to her appointments. A lot of these are trips of less than a mile each way. Which is the first advantage of an EV. An internal combustion engine takes a while to get the lubricants up to temperature and running efficiently. During this time the engine is running inefficiently and if done too regularly will shorten the life of the engine. A motor has significantly fewer moving parts and can run from ice cold as efficiently as warm. These short trips in a modern car would cause a lot of problems with things like the particle filters clogging up, oils not warming and friction causing problems within the engine. Over a prolonged period, this would result in some very expensive repairs.
I charge usually overnight at the weekend, unless I’ve a longer trip and I want to guarantee a full charge that will usually last me for 4 -6 days. This charge happens while I’m watching tv and then sleeping. In the morning it’s school run, a cautious drive to school, being aware of the children who aren’t looking at what’s coming or walk down the middle of the road without a care. The best bit of driving like this is that the car is in eco with maximum regenerative braking so it’s press to go and lift to stop without using the brake unless holding at stop, usually at junctions. This run I’m more than happy to acknowledge that I’m not emitting all the fumes of so many other cars I’ll see on the run. It’s not a wealthy area, so there’s quite a few rather agricultural landrover type 4x4s that are getting on for pensionable age. You can imagine the plumes of smoke they leave behind.
I’m running all week to school, the Mrs’ work or various doctors, medical and care appointments. All around town unless it’s a hospital appointment at the only local hospital some 14 miles away. This is a week of milling around local short trips. This is a pretty unremarkable life for the car but it’s comfortable, smooth and real easy to drive.
When we go away here’s were life becomes more complex. The car doesn’t have a huge range on a run, it’ll manage 120 ish miles at a steady 65mph. So, we took a trip to the next nearest zoo for my daughter’s birthday, that’s around 165 mile round trip, so there’s a charge required. Plan where to stop, what to do whilst stopped and it’s as easy as that. Charge overnight, whilst doing all the usual things. Drive a nice, relaxed drive to the planned stop at a Lidl and charge and wonder across to the McDonalds across the way and once we’ve eaten, go to the zoo just down the road. We do what we need to and drive home, no need to stop and recharge once we get home, knackered.
We’ve done Cornwall to Southampton and back, including driving around visiting friends and shopping centres, totaling some 540 miles for a total cost of £24.65 (pre pandemic) and the last trip up to Havant for a rugby match cost less than £50 including home charges. If we pick the wrong chargers then prices can be a little wild, there’s a charger in North Cornwall reportedly costing £1.50 per kW, which means it’s cheaper to drive a large petrol engined SUV there.
I’ve never been in a position where I’m close to running out of charge and needing to go somewhere, if I’m down to the 1/4 mark then it’s time to plug in overnight. It’s as easy as that. No worrying about whether we have money to go to a petrol station and put in the minimum value (or the amount we need to drive around up to the next payday). It still costs less than £15 for a full charge at home on a PAYG meter and horrendous electricity charges. If I could go to the many EV designed tariffs then that cost could easily come down to below £10 and, if we have a home charger, then lower still. I get the freedom to drive 2 households to all the necessary appointments, work and school without the worries of finding cash for fuel, we just put an extra £50 per month into the meter and probably don’t use that all on the car.
It’s pretty obvious just by looking at the amount I’ve typed out today that I think a lot of driving an EV, my next car will definitely be electric and I can’t see any reason why the several after that won’t be as well.
I’m more than happy that some people have already engaged with this thread. I hope that prospective EV drivers find information that’s useful and that current EV drivers can join in with their experiences. I am concerned that there are some who will want to jump on this with all the usual anti-EV junk, all I can say is that if you have a genuine concern, please ask questions, if you’re just going to regurgitate a Daily Express article about how poor they are, please save your effort.
Also note, I am perfectly aware than EVs aren’t perfect for everyone yet. Some tow heavy caravans, some live out of their car for work 4 nights a week, some need the ability to travel a long distance in an emergency and need the reassurance that they aren’t going to have to charge. If you live in a property where you can’t charge at home, there are challenges that your location could prove insurmountable and the costs will increase if the only charging is on a public unit. I’m not the only who’ll preach that everyone needs an electric car in their life and they’re dinosaurs if they can’t or won’t accept that. Whatever we drive and for whatever reason we chose that vehicle, it’s our business and that’s good enough for me. Please, post with a similar thought.
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