I did a 250-mile, 7-hour trip in my diesel car. How would an electric car have coped?
Last bank holiday Monday, I travelled the 260 miles from Edinburgh to the North Midlands in my diesel Hyundai. I still had enough fuel for another 250 miles, but the journey took seven hours instead of five. It was very wet, windy and cold (4C). As a result, I had the heater, fan, lights and wipers on all the time. I had no worries about completing the journey without refuelling but I did stop at the services to use the toilet facilities. The parking spots were very busy. Had I been using an electric car or were electric cars more popular, I doubt I would have been able to recharge an electric car for some time.
This got me to thinking what effect would this have had on the "..up to x miles" that the adverts show for electric cars. I believe the Hyundai Kona has one of the highest a published ranges of up to 300 miles but have also read this has been downgraded due to safety issues. I do not think I would have felt as confident driving home in an electric car in such bad weather. Had the car started to run low, how much notice would I have? Enough to make it safely to the next service area?
This got me to thinking what effect would this have had on the "..up to x miles" that the adverts show for electric cars. I believe the Hyundai Kona has one of the highest a published ranges of up to 300 miles but have also read this has been downgraded due to safety issues. I do not think I would have felt as confident driving home in an electric car in such bad weather. Had the car started to run low, how much notice would I have? Enough to make it safely to the next service area?
Asked on 7 May 2021 by Fortyman
Answered by
Andrew Brady
No one is claiming an electric car is right for everyone (just yet). The infrastructure still requires a lot of work and, if you're regularly driving 260 miles in one go, an EV clearly isn't the answer. That said, there are a lot of drivers who rarely venture more than 100 miles or so from home. If they can charge a car on their driveway overnight, an EV is perfect for commuting to work or going to the shops, while the (rapidly expanding) EV charging network can supply a power boost on occasions when they do need to venture further afield. We suspect the electric car landscape will look dramatically different in 10 years' time – both in terms of the real-world ranges of electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure.
Electric cars do tend to give a lot of warning when you're running low on battery (we're currently running a Mazda MX-30 and it'll start to tell you to find a charger when it still has 50 miles of range left). Even when it's down to 0%, an EV will usually go into some kind of 'turtle' mode to allow you to, at the very least, get to the hard shoulder.
Electric cars do tend to give a lot of warning when you're running low on battery (we're currently running a Mazda MX-30 and it'll start to tell you to find a charger when it still has 50 miles of range left). Even when it's down to 0%, an EV will usually go into some kind of 'turtle' mode to allow you to, at the very least, get to the hard shoulder.
If you cover no more than 100 miles per day and have easy access to a charging point at home or work, then an EV is ideal for you.
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