Yes, he doesn't realise that his use case - his need - is very rare.
According to the 2021 census, only 383,000 (out of the 15,000,000 people who travel to work by vehicle daily) drive more than 60km, which is only 2.5% of commuters, and 1.3% of working people overall.
EVs are not a good fit if you drive up and down the country as the range won't be sufficient for daily use. However, almost everyone doesn't do this, including high mileage taxi drivers, so EVs are a very good fit for a very large group (at least those who can charge at home).
Yes, public charging is scandalously expensive and should be reduced - removing VAT would be a start.
But what I really meant was not that he hadn't got any points, but that he encapsulates the mindset that so many anti-EV-ers have:
Something like (paraphrasing): "Because it doesn't work for me it must be nonsense propaganda with an evil motive".
That's the point, isn't it? It's the same as that ghastly MacMaster bloke. He's not campaigning to get better public charging to support EV owners, he's using the deficiencies in the charging network to diss the innocent cars themselves.
The MacMaster occasionally says something about "it's OK if you can charge at home and just use the car for local trips," but he says it in such a sneering and derogatory tone you'd think the cars couldn't do any more than the school run and the occasional trip to the shops. Whereas if you choose the right car for your needs you will hardly ever see a public charger.
Indeed. I have had this exact same conversation so many times.
I always say the same thing: "why can't you add 30 minutes to the journey?" and I rarely get a good reason back. The answer seems to be "I want to do it the way I've always done it".
For me it is a mindset change - I find stopping for a proper break to be far more relaxing than the stress of trying to drive the whole journey in one go and worrying about delays.
I am finding exactly the same thing. However, it took actually having an EV to drive the point home for me.
I used to be a "squirt the petrol in, pay and get going" driver. Never waited for anything when I was driving alone. (Passengers tended to have a different view of the journey and insist on different behaviour!) Obviously I knew what I was letting myself in for with the EV, but I didn't realise how actually doing it changes your mindset and you start enjoying the break. And arriving fresh rather than knackered.
Case in point. A few days before Christmas 2022, in my late lamented Golf. Driving to Halifax to spend Christmas with friends. Needed petrol. I was horrified by the price showing at the Todhills service station, so left the motorway at the next junction to find something cheaper. I was actually lucky in that I did find somewhere very close to the motorway (no app to help!) which was about 40p per litre cheaper, I kid you not. But it was literally a portacabin with some petrol pumps out front. No toilets and they only sold some sweeties - not a proper shop. There were a couple of narrow parking spaces next to the portacabin. I bought some chocolate and a bag of crisps and sat in one of the parking spaces to eat them and phone my friend. Constant stream of smelly cars and vans coming in to fill up on the cheap juice. Blech. Fortunately my bladder can do four or five hours without complaint.
Fast forward to Christmas 2023. 23rd December, supposedly the busiest day of the year, and I had to go that day. I had to charge at Penrith, which has rather limited opportunities, so I was apprehensive. My first choice of charger, Booth's supermarket, was busy, so I checked ZapMap and found a free plug at the Rheged Centre, six miles away. Tootled over there and got it. Old Gridserve liked the colour of my credit card and started charging immediately. I left the cat to his fate in the back of the car and walked to the really nice tearoom where I had a cappuccino with a scone and clotted cream. Delicious.
As I sat in the tearoom relaxing I remembered the previous year at that poky wee petrol station, and there's just no contest. I suppose I charged for about 40 minutes in total - it was only a 50 kw charger - but by the time I'd had my afternoon coffee, had a look at the shop, been to the (spacious and well-appointed) loo, and walked to and from the charger, I was at 85%. It was a whole different experience, and all I can say is, life's too short to be always on the run and denying yourself these little relaxation interludes.
And when I got to my friend's house I was cheerful and bright, not stressed and over-tired.
Another point about that Christmas Halifax trip, which I have been doing in one form or another for over thirty years. Petrol stations are not all 24-hour opening. Twice it has happened that I was heading home to Scotland on Christmas eve, and got just about the worst range anxiety I've ever had in my life (if I don't count the time in the middle of a forest in Germany about the size of Perthshire, where I was reduced to stammering "Tankstelle?" to a handy traffic cop).
Bad habit, but I have always tended to wait till I was running on fumes to get petrol. Leaving Halifax, the petrol stations were open, but I didn't need it yet! Three petrol stations in Skipton were all closed. Hellifield wasn't even selling petrol any more. Ingleton Co-op was closed. When I got to Kirkby Lonsdale and that was closed too, I knew I was in trouble. If I turned on to the motorway I knew I couldn't make Tebay. I phoned the RAC to see if they knew where there was something likely to be open, but they just said, phone us back when you actually run out. Huh.
Going north you can't access Killington Lake, so that was no good. Going south you can't access Burton-in-Kendal, and it's a long long way to the next junction to turn back north, so that was no good either. But then I remembered, from years earlier, that Burton-in-Kendal has off-motorway access to the service station. (My PhD supervisor's car actually broke down there one evening when we were driving back from a field trip, and we were spirited off to a nearby hotel without going back on the M6.) So I drove south on the A 6070 to Burton itself, six miles away, and by good luck, in the dark, found a slip road on to the service station (going the wrong way past a no-entry sign, but I was past caring).
I've never seen anything quite so welcome as that motorway service station forecourt, with a row of pumps, open, and a clear run to the northbound carriageway and home. And the girl in the shop gave me a box of home-made mince pies! Now THAT is range anxiety.
And believe it or not, some years later and in a different car, I managed to do pretty much exactly the same thing. Obviously I never learn. On that occasion I had a bit more in hand though, and managed to hypermile to Tebay at a steady 50 mph in the inside lane.
This year, a quick check on ABRP said "Carlisle Ionitys, 113 miles" and that was perfect. 12 ultra-rapids in a row beside a Starbucks, with only about seven cars there when I stopped. Not as nice as the Rheged Centre, but still a pleasant break. And no concerns at all. EVs forever, for me!
grid.iamkate.com
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