With a prophetic touch, the Proclaimers lyrics to “I’m gonna be” discusses a distance the protagonist is prepared to walk for his beloved. 500 miles is the distance from home to Pitlochry and back, where I’ve spent a splendid weekend with wife and friend’s drinking and dancing. One of these friends has just been forced to get an electric car (VW jobby) as a company vehicle. Their experience demonstrates just how poorly the country is set up for this forced change. I won’t relate the whole tale, but just imagine journeys taking twice as long… having to drive round towns to find a spare charger which trickled piteous amounts of juice, cards being declined (for no reason, the prepaid amount was taken)… the whole experience added so much stress, extra effort and unpleasant a taste, the whole of the group feel 500 miles walk is preferable to being forced to get an electric car.
So, hands up electric vehicle (main mode of transport) owners… is my mate an unlucky twonk, or is his experience relatable to yours?
It seems to be a common tale.
A neighbour ‘went electric’ a few years back, but had so much stress, especially on longer holiday trips, that he now has a hybrid.
My daughter in New Zealand has an electric car and doesn’t seem to have any problems, charging at home, at the supermarket, and at work. She says it is so much cheaper to run than her previous Mitsubishi Outlander.
It is a second car though, her husband has a 3.2litre Ford Ranger pickup, so maybe her electric car makes up for that gas-guzzler!!
I often see adverts for electric cars claiming a range of “up to 475 miles” with a disclaimer on the bottom of the screen saying this may not reflect real world driving conditions.
It would be interesting to know what real world range your mate actually gets from it before having to hunt for a charger.
Wind in the back and downhill probably…
Absolutely relatable. Mine was meant to be a second vehicle really with Helmut’s the main. Helmut however now works away a good deal of the time, taking my freedom with him 
. I worry about something happening to a loved one as they are all some distance from us and taking an agonisingly long time to get there if Helmut is away. I do of course have my bikes which I tend to use rather than my car for distance travel where practicable but in terrible weather such as we’ve had this past weekend or when I need to take lots of stuff they’re not a great option.
I looked up a What Car real range test and, based on the official range of a Tesla 3 (374miles), it was coming out at roughly -
Summer - 86% of official range
Winter - 75% of official range
Going by my daughter’s car which has an official range of 273miles, that comes out at 235miles summer range. The What car test got 246miles. Not sure she has ever worked out actual range.
That suggests a car with 475miles official range would actually achieve around 408miles in summer, 356miles in winter.
I guess it depends on how you drive - foot to the floor acceleration and heavy braking will kill the range, just like it kills MPG. Fifth Gear drove the North Coast 500 in an electric car - a gentle driving Rory Reid got a far better range than drive flat out Vicky Butler-Henderson!!
Okay, so let’s assume it’s about 250 miles for a decent electric vehicle that doesn’t cost £100k.
If you want to use it for something other than local runs or commuting you’re going to need the public charging network. Like a petrol car, you’re not going to wait for it to be empty before looking for a fuel pump (charger), so let’s say you do that at 20% charge left. Using a fast charger (the only practical option) you can only charge it to 80% capacity, so you only have 60% capacity before looking to charge again.
250miles x 60% = 150 miles. In the real world that represents about 3 to 4 hours driving which is probably enough before taking a break, so if you can refuel in under an hour then it’s probably tolerable.
The problem is probably more about the availability of chargers rather than the range.
Back in the day the milk float was EV, it had a regular limited urban route, and then had the rest of the day to recharge back “home”. Plenty of people have a similar life style, so it works for them.
But try using it for something a bit more adventurous and the EV is less suited. People are starting to realise this, combine this with the excessive cost, and car manufacturers are now finding them hard to sell. Faced with fines for not meeting EV quotas and the shit is starting to hit the fan.
Government are trying to encourage people to buy something they don’t really want and it’s not working too well. Expect further “encouragement” by means of substantial road/fuel tax rises, and added inducements to use public transport.
You’re expecting the EVangelists to give you an honest answer?
It’s all smoke and mirrors IMO. Want an EV with a decent range, that’ll be £50k plus then thank you and expect to to loose eye watering amounts in depreciation, something the MSM and youtubers forget to mention.
What Crap have done a comparison between 3 “cheap” EVs, a Citreon, BYD and the MG4. All cost mid £20ks so not cheap by my standards and they did a test route in all 3 at the same time. Starting at 100% charged and had to look for a charging point once down to 20%. I can’t remember the exact figures as I was laughing so much at the justification journalism but they were under 150 miles and then charged them to 100% (not 80) and they give the usual justification crap
Of I’ll just get a coffee while I’m waiting blah blah blah. Turns out the slowest took getting on for an hour to get back to 100% when they’d only been driving for under 2 hours. What a joke. Then there’s the (varying costs of between expensive and eye watering) for using public chargers. Even in my 2L petrol motaah fully laden I drove to the peak district last weekend, was one of the designated drivers and did 200 miles of mixed motoring and still have over 200 miles left in the tank. Time to refuel when I do, under 5 minutes and never had a problem paying for fuel. The EV experience is just not suitable for me. I know I don’t do that many long trips (but with the MIL now in a care home in Weston-super-Mare that will change) but what I will NOT tollerate is having long journeys being made even more stressful by all this charging nonsense
What Public Transport ? Routes are disappearing, numbers falling and staff shortages ( at a high point across the industry) cause constant disruption of daily schedules with no notice.( we could train the Channel Boat People to drive buses).
Exactly. But that won’t stop politicians pushing forward their agenda, they know best.
Oh, no, they’re public servants aren’t they. 
I think that the real truth about EV’s is yet to be exposed. For all the reasons mentioned is the reason I did got go full EV when I replaced my car 16 months ago.
I went for a hybrid which has proven to be a great compromise. My first proper service is booked this month at 18000 miles, so would seem to be a good distance before having to put my hand in my pocket.
The depreciation on cars is a concern for us all which is why I will keep my current car for as long is feasible, basically running it into the ground. Not something I have ever done in the past, but as I get older it just seems to be the most sensible thing to do.
Not only are there a string of problems as all have mentioned above, I have found them soulless. They can go very fast, very quickly but that is their only trick. No involvement with the process at all.
Add in the nanny state “ safety aids” and it’s HUGE no from me.Modern cars leave me cold. I think the sweet spot was 2017-2020.
Bikes are going the same way I’m afraid with huge amounts of unnecessary things added to the spec list as well as adding to the price.
At this stage of my life an electric car would probably fit in with my lifestyle, but I won’t buy one for two reasons.
- They cost far too much.
- I have no confidence in the life span of lithium batteries.
My iPad battery is completely dead after six years. My electric mountain bike is four years old and the battery now provides a range of a little over a half of what it did when new.
What does that mean for cars? Will the range be half of new within five years and will the battery be dead after ten years effectively writing the car off at that point? No surprise that used prices plummet.
There’s probably not much that can be done about the price, I assume this is a reflection of the cost to manufacture, but both the industry and the government really need to go on a major PR exercise to dispel the negative myths around electric vehicles if they really want them to succeed. The fact they haven’t, suggests to me that they are not myths, but reflect reality.
Two of our work cars are Toyota Corolla Hybrids (estates). The 2022 one is a pretty nice car to drive and really practical (plus has the Best.Heated.Seats. Ever. which is nice on nights 
). The 2024 one interferes with the actual driving of the car so much that it’s irritating. The highlights for me are:
Reverse it anywhere near overgrown hedges or close to a wall near the back, knowing with your human brain and using your mirrors that a collision is not about to occur and it slams the anchors on and flashes red accompanied by a big screeching noise.
Any object in front of you that it thinks you will collide with it warns you - this includes any car coming the opposite way round a bend, most traffic islands immediately off roundabouts and any pedestrians within about 760 miles (not quite…but you get the idea). You get an audible screech and a red warning flashed. If it thinks you are still being a bit thick or actively trying to mow something down, it starts to apply the brakes and again if it thinks you’re absolutely not capable of judging for yourself, it will slam the anchors on.
The front and rear collision assists make life so difficult if you’re trying to get the car turned in a narrow rural road or driveway or driving up tracks with loads of overhanging vegetation. A turn looks like - reverse about half the distance you want to - slams brake on. Pull forward about half the distance you want to - slams brakes on etc etc etc. You end up with about a 50 point turn and if there are onlookers you also feel more than a bit daft 
.
Drive on a twisting road (most are round here, it’s rural) and deviate from a nice straight line and it tries to correct you, resulting in a swerve. Apparently it is “Pro Active Driving Assist”.
All the screeching and flashing and interfering shreds my nerves if you’re in an already fairly high - stress situation - it warns of impending doom constantly. You can turn some of these features off or adjust, but every time the ignition is turned off, they reset so you can’t waste time sorting it every time you turn the ignition back on.
That is the most frustrating part
Exactly those problems Mrs V . That’s why I don’t want a modern car.
The one I drove thought I was putting it in a hedge every time a wisp of grass blew in front of it on the rural lanes … oh and if you didn’t indicate it fought you …! Get it on a motorway with road works and temporary white lines and it was so confused it nearly stopped …!.
Nah.
Oldskool by name and nature …!
Yes, I’ve read many tales much the same on the Evoque forum, tales of the “safety feature” swerving you towards oncoming vehicles, imagine the fun I would have on our narrow Cornish lanes.
I had the dealer phone me the other day asking me if I’d like to buy a new car, I told him that all these new features are stopping me, I have a 2018 car which I will hang on to, I have to disable the engine stop/start each time I get in, that’s bad enough thank you.
Among the many “toys” I have parallel and normal park assist, never used it since I bought the car. I read recently that Ford are stopping providing this feature because they know from their vehicle data (big brother is always watching) that NOBODY EVER uses it.
It’s no wonder car drivers never see us, with all these distractions you can hardly blame them. 
Loads of my driving for work is done at good pace down narrow country lanes; it discombobulates the Toyotas no end!! I often take a van anyway because it gives me options but sometimes just to drive something “normal” .
I have had two cars with parallel park and normal park assist…I have also never used it.
You are right; all of this going on inside the car becomes pretty distracting…you spend half your time trying to see what emergency is about to befall you according to the car. I have also found I have begun to trust my own judgement less - are my eyes tricking me because I can’t see anything about to happen but the car is having a meltdown…so maybe there IS something there far closer than I think…