Electric Vehicles Guide - corrections required, please, Andrew Capstick

jonathantaylor999

Having been a loyal fan of MSE over many years, plus already an EV driver, I excitedly read your new Electric Vehicles guide this morning and, I'm sorry to say that I was rather disappointed in some of the factual inaccuracies it contains - these clearly need to be amended to allow for a more level article, please.

1.  PHEVs - you suggest only 10-15 miles on EV only. Most PHEVs actually offer anywhere between 25-70 WLTP miles on a charge, with the majority of affordable models, such as the Seat Leon / Peugeot 3008 / Skoda Octavia offering 30-40 miles range.
2.  EV prices vs petrol car prices - you should really be comparing like-with-like in terms of specifications. For example, at £27,055 the Vauxhall Corsa-e is a GS spec, so pricing up a petrol GS spec model, with the auto gearbox and sat nav that comes as standard on the Corsa-e means a petrol equivalent price of £23,590 - obviously, still more than the petrol, but not the £10,000 differential you suggest.  Taking the Mini Electric, however, and the Electric is actually £100 less than the petrol Cooper S 3dr to which it shares its performance and specification.
3.  BP Pulse charging table - you state there being a £15 flat fee and £30 flat fee under the rapid / ultra-rapid column headings. According to the BP Pulse website, these amounts are actually 'pre-authorisation' amounts deducted from a users bank / credit card, from which their final charging cost is deducted and any remaining value refunded.
4.  London Congestion Zone & PHEVs - only pure electric vehicles are exempt from the LCC, PHEVs fees were introduced in October 2001.
5.  Charging to only 80% - it's possible that you have mistaken the suggestion to only rapid charge up to 80% with overall charging? The battery Management Systems in modern EVs slows down the charging speed dramatically after about 80-85%, so it is simply wasting time to continue to tie up a rapid charger trying to get to 100% if it's not strictly necessary for your next leg of driving.

Other than these inaccuracies, I did enjoy reading your new article. Thank you.

Section62

jonathantaylor999 said:

2.  EV prices vs petrol car prices - you should really be comparing like-with-like in terms of specifications. For example, at £27,055 the Vauxhall Corsa-e is a GS spec, so pricing up a petrol GS spec model, with the auto gearbox and sat nav that comes as standard on the Corsa-e means a petrol equivalent price of £23,590 - obviously, still more than the petrol, but not the £10,000 differential you suggest.  Taking the Mini Electric, however, and the Electric is actually £100 less than the petrol Cooper S 3dr to which it shares its performance and specification.

This isn't really an inaccuracy.  The costs of an auto gearbox and satnav only need to be added if they are features the buyer actually wants.

Many people will be happy without. If they were optional extras on the Vauxhall Corsa-e then your point would be more valid.