Have you ever run out of charge in your EV ?

ThorOdinson

The breakdown people have a portable charger. Gives you enough to get off the motorway and to a proper charger.

Ectophile

CliveOfIndia said:

MouldyOldDough said:

What do you do with EV's that have run out of juice ?

I guess you could always keep a small diesel- or petrol-powered generator in the boot - sort of an EV version of a jerry-can

That's pretty much what the BMW i3 REX was.

Grumpy_chap

This thread is no more of a question than "Have you ever run out of fuel in your car?"

What did you do ?

Did you call your breakdown service ?

It does not make any difference between running out of petrol / diesel in an ICE or running out of charge in an EV.

What is the point the OP is trying to make?
Is this just another DT thread?

kimwp

Grumpy_chap said:

This thread is no more of a question than "Have you ever run out of fuel in your car?"

What did you do ?

Did you call your breakdown service ?

It does not make any difference between running out of petrol / diesel in an ICE or running out of charge in an EV.

What is the point the OP is trying to make?
Is this just another DT thread?

Running out of charge is something that makes me nervous about switching to an EV, so I'm definitely finding this thread useful and interesting.

MacPingu1986

kimwp said:

Grumpy_chap said:

This thread is no more of a question than "Have you ever run out of fuel in your car?"

What did you do ?

Did you call your breakdown service ?

It does not make any difference between running out of petrol / diesel in an ICE or running out of charge in an EV.

What is the point the OP is trying to make?
Is this just another DT thread?

Running out of charge is something that makes me nervous about switching to an EV, so I'm definitely finding this thread useful and interesting.

You avoid running out of charge the same way you avoid running out of fuel in an ICE car - It really isn't a problem, and if you're one of the very, very small proportion of people who's EV runs out of charge, or their ICE car runs out of fuel - you call your breakdown company.

MX5huggy

You’d have to be completely incompetent to run out of power in an EV. Telling you how many miles you have left instead of a vague arrow pointing between 1/4 left and empty. 

WellKnownSid

The 20 mile round trip to the nearest petrol station run used to be a PITA.

Now we pull off the drive with a full tank every time, so range anxiety isn't an issue.

I always like to keep plenty of spare charge when I'm out and about in these lighter evenings in any case because there is nothing more satisfying than leaving a PFY in their straight-piped A3 sat at the lights

Petriix

Unlike a fossil fuel car, it's possible to drive an EV very economically simply by reducing speed. With much more precise information about your remaining range it becomes trivial to know when there's a chance of running short and taking action well in advance. 

Here's a practical example: on leaving the ferry terminal in Dover we had 90% battery remaining and 174 miles to get home to Norwich (in my ~ 49kWh MG5). Sticking a little below 70mph meant we got to Birchanger on 42% with 80 miles left to go. A tiny bit of mental arithmetic showed that we were using almost exactly 1% every 2 miles so we would likely get home on 2%. That felt a little too close so we plugged in for about 3 minutes to add a 5% buffer.

On the way home I took the "idiots' corridor" (missing my junction on the M11 so picking up the A505 at Duxford) adding 3 miles to the journey. By monitoring the remaining miles on the sat nav vs the remaining battery percentage I was happy that I had enough charge to make it home without worry but knew I had to be reasonably conservative. I also knew that I would be passing a number of reliable charging options should it be required. Limiting myself to 67mph I comfortably made it home on 7%.

If there was any chance of running out then I would have simply charged more but, because home charging is 10% of the price of rapid charging, I preferred to minimise the cost.

Ultimately you have sufficient information and control to never run out.

Bigwheels1111

My friend purchased an MG ZS EV about 30 miles above Hull.
It was at 100% when he started his journey to SE London.
Drove at a max of 60 mph, to max out his range.
All was fine until he needed to recharge at Peterborough April 2021.
All the changes at the main services were not working, he had 8% charge left.
He called me and I got online to find chargers nearby.
Found 2 about 5-7 miles away, got there and they were working, he had 4% left and was in a bit of a panic.
All went fine from there.

Price and info structure make it out of my reach.
My last journeys in my 5008 euro 6 diesel.
567 miles, 150 miles on 2.5 miles cold starts to the hospital and back and 417 miles to Sheffield and back with 
a bit of local milage.
Worked out at 14.1p a mile as fuel has gone up.
The only local charger is a bp, at 79p per kWh, and only allowed 1 hour charge per visit.
My friend gets 3-3.5 miles per kWh, 26.3333p or 22.57p at best per mile at bp rates.
Then the extra cost to upgrade 15k or more.
Third floor, not charge possible, so no cheap Octopus tariffs etc.
Not a viable option for me.

My friend has done 10k miles for free using Sainsburys charging point.
Parks it there on way to work, wife picks up the car 3 hours and 50 minutes later after walking kids to school.
Twice a week.
He has only spent £80 ish while on holiday trips for charging.
Now that’s a cheap car to run, under ideal circumstances.

boxosox

What's the techinical/mechanical reason an EV can't be towed?