electric cars

Range anxiety used to be a problem

Should you be anxious about your electric car range? Even in cold weather, most electric cars will do 100 miles per charge. Given the average UK car owner generally drives it 20 miles a day, how often will you need to go further?

Exceptions to the rule are:

• Business representatives/consultants
• Members of HM Forces
• The family road trip or holiday, as many as four times a year
• Taxis

If you’re an average driver, one in 73 runs a year will be where you may need to charge your car while making your way there and back.

The engineering side

Electric car market leaders Tesla could have built an EV capable of 500 miles plus by now. It is rumoured that the upcoming Roadster and Cyber Truck will manage distances like that. In 2020 the company stated in its launch of the new long range Tesla Model S, “Mass is the enemy of both efficiency and performance…” There’s more to driving a car than long range.

A car needs to be good at cornering, and we all know about Teslas offering whiplash-inducing acceleration! With a half-tonne battery in your car, these factors are hard to manage. Tesla’s core concept is their cars have to be great to drive, and with mass being the enemy of performance, they have chosen not to go crazy on range.

Instead of huge range, Tesla chooses to offer a network of fast-charging stations you can access across much of the world. These enable you to drive those rare longer distances without worrying.

Electric cars now can go further than you can drive safely

Human drivers need to take rest breaks on longer drives. It makes sense to stop every 90 minutes or so to get a coffee and rest. This makes you a safer driver.

On a longer drive in an electric car you will do well to stop to recharge the battery every 90 minutes to two hours or so. Therefore your electric car range requires similar breaks to you the driver.

Tired drivers made mistakes. If the police suspect you are tired (even without alcohol or drugs in your system) you can be punished for dangerous driving, including points on your license or a ban.

Find out the range of all EVs on UK sale here

Fast charging on long distances

Electric cars are different to drive than fossil fuelled cars.

Most newer EVs will take a rapid charge of 50kW, or around 100 miles in 35 minutes. The best electric cars will take ultra-rapid charges of 150kW or more – 100 miles in 10 minutes.

Remember, rapid and ultra-rapid charging stations charge more per kWh than fast and destination chargers. As with motorway service stations charging more for liquid fuel, it is going to be a much cheaper run if you don’t use these all the time.

An example of a long journey by EV Mapping

In planning a longer distance journey you will need to know where the EV charging stations are on a route.

Using an app like ZapMap on your phone you will plan the optimum journey from A-B via public chargers on the route. The better apps tell you how much each cost and whether they are out of service too, so on the day you can plan your route to your end destination knowing exactly where the short and long stops will be for your car.

Using such mapping, you will know ahead of time where you might stop for a coffee and lunch over a day’s drive. In a coffee break you may want 15kWh and over lunch, 30kWh. This will keep your battery at the optimum 20-80% state of charge and if one charger is out of action, will be able to get to the next.

Zap Map isn’t free but it is the go-to app for most longer UK electric car journeys. If you’re heading out to southern France you can use an international system like Charge Map, though Zap Map are getting better at international routes too with greater coverage of Europe.

Don’t believe the newspapers!

The old adage of ‘don’t believe what you read in the papers’ is a truism where it comes to driving an EV today. Electric car range anxiety is less of a problem than it used to be, and in most cases you will never have such issues.

Though driving around parts of the UK – Dorset, Devon and Northumberland among them – can involve longer journeys between chargers you won’t run out of battery with a little care in your route planning.

Electric car driving has come of age and is actually easier in some respects than fossil fuelled car driving. If you’re on holiday in a village in the back of beyond and are at a hotel with a destination charger, it’ll be easier to get fuel than finding out where the nearest supermarket petrol station is!

Find out about one of the many benefits of an EV being how efficient they are.