Eletric cars are they worth it - do you have one

TooManyPoints

What’s the rush? An extra half hour break would be much welcome I would have thought. 

It's interesting that as soon as somebody explains their driving habits, and they don't seem compatible with an EV, the immediate recommendation is that the driver should change his habits. Why is this? 

Ectophile

TooManyPoints said:

What’s the rush? An extra half hour break would be much welcome I would have thought. 

It's interesting that as soon as somebody explains their driving habits, and they don't seem compatible with an EV, the immediate recommendation is that the driver should change his habits. Why is this? 

Because the habits they are describing are usually dangerous - going on very long drives without ever taking a rest break.

ElefantEd

TooManyPoints said:

What’s the rush? An extra half hour break would be much welcome I would have thought. 

It's interesting that as soon as somebody explains their driving habits, and they don't seem compatible with an EV, the immediate recommendation is that the driver should change his habits. Why is this? 

I think it's probably because thinking about EVs makes you realise that different driving styles are possible, and desirable for reasons other than necessity. So it is a natural progression of the discussion.

In the case above, why not let the dogs get a bit of a run around after a couple of hours? And why not stretch your legs for a bit too. Unless you are in a tearing rush, it makes sense, EV or not!

TooManyPoints

In the case above, why not let the dogs get a bit of a run around after a couple of hours? And why not stretch your legs for a bit too. Unless you are in a tearing rush, it makes sense, EV or not!

But it strikes me that two things are being conflated without cause:

Question: I'm thinking of getting an electric car. I want to do a journey of x miles with one stop of y mins. Will an EV be suitable?

Answer: Possible problems with that. Why don't you try stopping twice for 2y minutes? In any case you ought to do that anyway - it's good for you.

(or something like that)

Elliott is quite happy doing his 400m with one stop. It's what he wants to do and has said specifically that when there is an EV that will enable him to do that, he'll get one. It reminds me of the old shoe shop joke: 

Customer: Have you got these shoes in black, size seven?

Shoe shopkeeper: No, but we have them in brown, size ten.

The way the EV conversation is going, we should add to that:

"Why don't you give the tens a go? You can stuff them out with old newspapers to make them snug. In any case, you shouldn't wear shoes that might be tight fitting and black is so 'last year.' !"     

shinytop

Ectophile said:

TooManyPoints said:

What’s the rush? An extra half hour break would be much welcome I would have thought. 

It's interesting that as soon as somebody explains their driving habits, and they don't seem compatible with an EV, the immediate recommendation is that the driver should change his habits. Why is this? 

Because the habits they are describing are usually dangerous - going on very long drives without ever taking a rest break.

Not really.  Even if you stick to the hgv limit of 4.5 hours, at 65 mph that's almost 300 miles. That's further than anyone sensible would risk driving even the current longest range EV on the motorway.  Most people can't afford a LR Tesla so will be limited to 2-3 hours before having to stop. That's assuming they can afford a viable EV at all. 

I accept that this is an inevitable consequence of moving from ICE to EV but let's not kid ourselves changes in driving habits won't be required.

Herzlos

TooManyPoints said:

What’s the rush? An extra half hour break would be much welcome I would have thought. 

It's interesting that as soon as somebody explains their driving habits, and they don't seem compatible with an EV, the immediate recommendation is that the driver should change his habits. Why is this? 

Because these examples are trotted out regularly as a trump card to defeat EV's whilst being (a) borderline unbelieveable, (b) hugely rare and (c) pretty dangerous.

The motoring organizations AA/RAC recommend a quick break every 2 hours of driving, so the 400 mile claim with a single 2 minute stop is sort of doable at 100mph, which absolutely isn't possible in an EV (since most won't go that fast, or suffer terrible economy degradation). More realistically from UK motorways is that the journey is going to take at least 6 hours, probably 7, which is a long time to be sat in a car from a tiredness, muscle and bladder perspective. It's also going to suck for the dogs and human passengers.

Any time I've done a cross country road trip of that length I've averaged well under 70mph as it seems impossible to miss all city traffic. I generally try and split it into 200-300 mile days with an overnight if I can, because it just makes it a lot more bearable and means I can actually function at the other end.

The reality, if you're trying to make EV's work and not trying to find ever more obscure reasons they won't, is that you could hire a petrol car for those trips with the money you saved on fuel from having an EV the rest of the time, or you just let the journey take a bit longer. Given it's a trip only made a few times a year having to have an extra 20-30 minute stop is unlikely to be a major issue and will make the trip a lot more bearable.

Petriix

I don't recall anyone ever claiming that switching to an EV doesn't require some compromise. However the degree of compromise is very often overstated. Personally I find it pretty ludicrous that anyone would look at their most extreme journey and demand that it must be possible in an EV without the slightest additional delay before they could consider making the switch. Adding 30 minutes to each of six journeys per year is trivial in comparison to the benefits of electric driving. 

One thing people seem to forget is that, unlike refuelling a petrol tank, you don't have to stand there holding the charging cable while it charges. That liberates you to do any of a number of activities which can totally mitigate the need to stop. And, unlike a petrol car, you don't have to refuel an EV at a forecourt; you can choose far more pleasant locations. 

On my recent EV trip from Norfolk to (and all round) Ireland, I charged about a dozen times. Only once did I stay with the car while it charged. I was otherwise eating, sleeping, walking, shopping or just enjoying exploring a new area. Having an EV dictated that we couldn't drive more than 200 miles in one go, but that just encouraged us to plan regular stops in nice places.

If I was hell-bent on getting from East Anglia to the West Coast of Ireland in one go then it would have been a tough journey. Because I've embraced the paradigm shift into EV driving I was happy to travel slower and enjoy the adventure. I don't drive that far very often and I'm certain that the total time I've spent rapid charging adds up to less than the equivalent time I would have spent driving to a petrol station, queuing, refuelling, paying then driving home. 

Martyn1981

TooManyPoints said:

What’s the rush? An extra half hour break would be much welcome I would have thought. 

It's interesting that as soon as somebody explains their driving habits, and they don't seem compatible with an EV, the immediate recommendation is that the driver should change his habits. Why is this? 

But Elliot specifically said that the drive would not be possible with an EV. But 400 miles with a 20min stop, is possible, today, with some EV's. So it seems worthwhile sharing that info to explain that the driving habit isn't incompatible with an EV. Hopefully others considering a switch to an EV, will then read the replies, and see how thinmgs are changing.

Given that a single 20min stop is quite minimal, especially for a family trip, then that scenario is a strong outlier. It's a good idea to at least suggest the option of stopping twice, as that would open the BEV options considerably, and reduce the necessary expenditure.

shinytop

Herzlos said:

TooManyPoints said:

What’s the rush? An extra half hour break would be much welcome I would have thought. 

It's interesting that as soon as somebody explains their driving habits, and they don't seem compatible with an EV, the immediate recommendation is that the driver should change his habits. Why is this? 

Because these examples are trotted out regularly as a trump card to defeat EV's whilst being (a) borderline unbelieveable, (b) hugely rare and (c) pretty dangerous.

The motoring organizations AA/RAC recommend a quick break every 2 hours of driving, so the 400 mile claim with a single 2 minute stop is sort of doable at 100mph, which absolutely isn't possible in an EV (since most won't go that fast, or suffer terrible economy degradation). More realistically from UK motorways is that the journey is going to take at least 6 hours, probably 7, which is a long time to be sat in a car from a tiredness, muscle and bladder perspective. It's also going to suck for the dogs and human passengers.

Any time I've done a cross country road trip of that length I've averaged well under 70mph as it seems impossible to miss all city traffic. I generally try and split it into 200-300 mile days with an overnight if I can, because it just makes it a lot more bearable and means I can actually function at the other end.

The reality, if you're trying to make EV's work and not trying to find ever more obscure reasons they won't, is that you could hire a petrol car for those trips with the money you saved on fuel from having an EV the rest of the time, or you just let the journey take a bit longer. Given it's a trip only made a few times a year having to have an extra 20-30 minute stop is unlikely to be a major issue and will make the trip a lot more bearable.

The real elephant in the room is the cost of an EV that is capable of doing long journeys.  Many people (myself included) drive sub-£10k cars, either by choice or necessity.  A sub-£10k EV isn't realistically going to be doing any long journeys. This may change in the future won't any time soon.  Or maybe used EVs will never get that cheap before they're turned into storage batteries.          

Elliott.T123

born_again said:

I feel sorry for the dogs 😶‍🌫️

At 50 mph: 8 hours

At 55 mph: 7 hours and 16 minutes

At 65 mph: 6 hours and 9 minutes

At 70 mph: 5 hours and 43 minutes

For anyone worrying about the dogs they get a 2 hour walk either end of the journey and a long weekend of being extremely spoiled and are more than content asleep in the excessively large Skoda Superb boot with plenty of toys and treats!

I wont pretend it isn't pushing it on the driving front, there are certain times one of the drivers does struggle and we swap 2/3 times rather than just the once. 

Usual route is Surrey to Lancaster in 1 go with me driving, I have been doing this for 10+ years since my uni days and unless the M6 is hell am very comfortable doing it in 1 hit. Then the other half takes over and drives up to Edinburgh (ish) 


But genuinely thank you to some of the posters, I wasn't aware EV's had reached the point that this was achievable so it is something I am going to explore! I'm really not being awkward for awkwards sake, honest!