Myth: EVs Don’t Have Sufficient Range
A common fear about the switch to driving a electric car is the one about range.
In the early days, with the 24kW Nissan Leaf, there may have been some justification for worrying about it; at least for some people. The early cars had a supp;owed range of 109 miles, but in real world driving this would have been more likely to have been just 90 miles. Moreover, if people drove aggressively, this would come down further; just as it does with petrol and diesel cars. And, back then, the charging network was not very expansive.
I recall having a seven day test drive in an early Tekna model and trying to charge in various places. We charged at Beaulieu Motor Museum (obtaining a charge card from reception), and then, after driving around a bit, tried charging in Lymington. We’d found reference to a charger in a council car park, but it was just some three pin sockets, so was painfully slow. On our way home, we stopped at Rownhams services on the M27, where there was one rapid charger. There was another Leaf charging and we chatted to the driver. He was a big fan of his Leaf and covered lots of miles, but he carried a generator in his boot as an emergency measure - I think he said he hadn’t needed to actually use it.
But, and it’s a big but, the average car in the UK travels just 142 miles in a week. So, even then, a range of about 100 miles should not have presented too much of an issue for most. This was especially the case as Nissan (back then) would install a free charger at your home when you bought a new Leaf. In fact, they told us they would also fit one at another address of our choosing (with the home owners permission), so if there was somewhere you regularly went, they’d put a charger there too! And, they provided free ICE car hire for two weeks a year for those occasions where you felt your battery electric vehicle wasn’t going to be suitable.
I owned a 2012 Leaf 24kW for six months and, with a depleted battery, it only had a range of about 56 miles. However, with the expansion of the charging network, I actually managed to use it quite effectively.
Nowadays, most electric cars have better range and the charging network is significant.
One of the key things to remember is that most EV drivers have charging capabilities at their home, or their work, or even both. The use of the public charging network is therefore only required when travelling longer distances. Whilst there can be hiccups, the fact is that the network is vastly more substantial than it was when I first drove an EV. In fact, it’s substantially more than it was just six months ago.
It’s also worth noting that thousands of drivers run out of petrol or diesel in the UK each month. Apparently, 28% of drivers in the UK have admitted to running out of fuel at least once. In addition to that, the RAC claim that around 150,000 people in the UK put the wrong fuel their cars each year. These are staggering numbers and suggest that these risks are far higher for drivers of cars with internal combustion engines than they are for drivers of EVs.
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