Streets ahead? What I’ve learned from my year with an electric car

I got an ev on New Year’s Eve.

I have had some mild range anxiety. Perhaps that is because it is new and I am still getting used to it. Perhaps it is because the range promised on the car appears to be different - considerably less - to the amount of miles left shown on the car. Mostly I think it is because I haven’t had my home charge point fitted yet.

The first two days I had the car were New Years Eve and New Years Day and the mileage and charge were reducing as expected. These were warm (relatively) days. After that it has come in much colder and the battery gauge on the car has shown, at least it feels, like only a small drop in charge, but the mileage remaining has dropped off a cliff.

The mileage is supposed to be 201. Real world the reviews were saying 170-180. Might drop to 150 on motorways and might drop when it is cold. Actually, for the first couple of warm days - warm for January not necessarily compared to the rest of the year - I was pleased that the range was if anything better than expected.

The first really cold night I woke up to find that overnight the remaining range had dropped by 30 miles. 30 miles is a lot! What’s more once I set off the mileage remaining was dropping way more than the mileage I was travelling.

I do about 50 miles a day, so I’d worked on probably charging up every three days. The way the mileage appears to drop and if it was going to drop 30 miles overnight just sat there, then I have been charging sometimes every day, sometimes every other. Of course, if I had my home charger this all disappears but when you are scared to go anywhere near your limit because you have to travel to a charger, which could in theory be in use or broken, it doesn’t.

What I haven’t had is charger anxiety. Well, I did because I’d heard of it and knew that the nearest one to me is sometimes out. However I haven’t actually had any difficulties and have only once found the fast charger I wanted to use already in use. It is a 30 minute charge but so far it’s something I’ve anticipated and spent the time either doing things in my car, shopping or grabbing a bite to eat. Once I have the home charger I doubt I will ever use them except on long journeys or an emergency. There is quite a price difference mind you, but they are all a lot less than petrol.

The charging is easy, but the way the battery and mileage increase during charging is still taking me a bit of getting used to.

When the battery is low and remaining miles low and you start charging the battery charge increases rapidly, but the mileage far less so. As the charge approaches 80%, the increase in charge slows per minute but the mileage shoots up. I don’t know if this will settle, I’m told over time the software adapts as it gets to know you and driving patterns. The dealer said to focus on the charge remaining rather than the miles, but that is not intuitively easy.

So, not perfect for me anxiety wise, but not bad.

I’m not a car person, so it surprises me how much I really like driving this car. Wouldn’t want to go back.

Right now I don’t think I would recommend someone get one if they couldn’t get a home charger unless the range of the car was over 300 miles real world. Maybe hang on two more years for the battery range and affordability equation shifts even more and the charging network develops even more, but the change is coming, you won’t regret it, won’t go back.

As an aside, I see the new Merc revealed this week, developed with the F1 team, has a real world mileage range of 620 miles, so range anxiety will soon never be an issue for anyone as the technology trickles down.
That drop is on a new car Lefty wait untill you have it a while and the battery performance drops off even more.
 
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I've had one for nearly 6 months now. Day to day driving is great and any time I know exactly what my itinerary is there isn't a problem but I've had a few trips where I have had "range anxiety". I wouldn't call it anxiety but it takes up a lot more of my consciousness than it ever would if I still had an ICE. Biggest problem I have had is visiting family that live a good distance away. I can get to their house in one go and then I have to use 3 pin plug at theirs which will get me back to enough to get home over the weekend. If I don't use the car all weekend that is fine, I can do the reverse journey no problem. However, in reality, I need my car for the weekend which means I'm either cutting it very close, going out for an hour during the weekend to sit on a charger or forcing me to stop on the way home which isn't ideal with young kids. This would also mean doing the trip there and back in a day would add a significant stop on which is a pain.

Also, I've had several lucky breaks on the first long trips we did which if it had swung the other way would have given me (and definitely the wife) a much more negative opinion. The first trip I had been stuck in traffic for an hour, 1st stop the 2 chargers were under maintenance so back on the road, got to a charger where there was only 1 point and the previous driver was just finishing an hour long charge. If I had got there any earlier we'd have been back on the road and the wife and kids wouldn't have been happy. 2nd trip I got to an empty charger and I came out to a big queue of annoyed people because even though the charger had 2 cables it could only charge one at a time. If I'd been 10 mins later would have hit that queue.

I presume as a Tesla driver this isn't an occurrence so I get why you wouldn't suffer any range anxiety. The infrastructure is much better for a Tesla. I do really like my electric car and the finances make it a no brainer but there are definitely not "no concerns" about owning one. An ICE definitely feels less hassle.
 
I've had one for nearly 6 months now. Day to day driving is great and any time I know exactly what my itinerary is there isn't a problem but I've had a few trips where I have had "range anxiety". I wouldn't call it anxiety but it takes up a lot more of my consciousness than it ever would if I still had an ICE. Biggest problem I have had is visiting family that live a good distance away. I can get to their house in one go and then I have to use 3 pin plug at theirs which will get me back to enough to get home over the weekend. If I don't use the car all weekend that is fine, I can do the reverse journey no problem. However, in reality, I need my car for the weekend which means I'm either cutting it very close, going out for an hour during the weekend to sit on a charger or forcing me to stop on the way home which isn't ideal with young kids. This would also mean doing the trip there and back in a day would add a significant stop on which is a pain.

Also, I've had several lucky breaks on the first long trips we did which if it had swung the other way would have given me (and definitely the wife) a much more negative opinion. The first trip I had been stuck in traffic for an hour, 1st stop the 2 chargers were under maintenance so back on the road, got to a charger where there was only 1 point and the previous driver was just finishing an hour long charge. If I had got there any earlier we'd have been back on the road and the wife and kids wouldn't have been happy. 2nd trip I got to an empty charger and I came out to a big queue of annoyed people because even though the charger had 2 cables it could only charge one at a time. If I'd been 10 mins later would have hit that queue.

I presume as a Tesla driver this isn't an occurrence so I get why you wouldn't suffer any range anxiety. The infrastructure is much better for a Tesla. I do really like my electric car and the finances make it a no brainer but there are definitely not "no concerns" about owning one. An ICE definitely feels less hassle.

A big part of my consideration was also having a petrol car in the household for those kind of 2 or 3 times a year long trips. Although so far the fast (50KW) chargers have got me to 80% in 30-40 mins which I think I'd factor in to a long trip as you ought to stop every 2-2.5 hours anyway, so I'd probably be stopped 15-30 anyway.
 
A big part of my consideration was also having a petrol car in the household for those kind of 2 or 3 times a year long trips. Although so far the fast (50KW) chargers have got me to 80% in 30-40 mins which I think I'd factor in to a long trip as you ought to stop every 2-2.5 hours anyway, so I'd probably be stopped 15-30 anyway.
Yeh, we've also got a petrol car still if needed but it's smaller so not as good space wise.

To be honest, 2.5+ hour journeys are not the problem because we would usually stop on that sort of journey anyway. That would only be a problem if we couldn't find a free charger which hasn't happened yet. It's 2 hour, or less when battery isn't full, that a forced stop feels like a huge inconvenience.

I'm also aware that by the time my 3 year lease is up this sort of complaint will be less likely to be an issue as infrastructure improves.
 
What I don't like about EV is nobody seems to care the destruction caused because of batteries. That is a developing environmental disaster in itself. There's little doubt EV is the future, but it has a dirty element to it as well.
I would say that isn't true (the nobody caring bit). Lots of companies are looking to develop better batteries that use fewer rare earth metals.

What I always find crazy about "oh but think of the lithium mines" arguments is that they all ignore the fact it's much better than the processes for getting the fuel for ICE vehicles. It also ignores that manufacture of ICE vehicles also has an environmental impact.
 
Yeah, the podpoint app and zap-map are really good, as is the sat nav in the car, so they really quickly, once I saw how accurately and quickly they responded in the real world, have removed most of the anxiety really quickly. Once the home charger is installed I don't think I'll have any. I've already worked out charge points when I travel to Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester for gigs so I'm actually looking forward to it.

I've been using the heated seats and steering wheel anyway and found I didn't need the heater on (after the fast clear for the windscreen). I didn't realise it uses less battery so (y)

Mine does have a facility to heat the cabin up, you can do it from the app say 20 minutes before setting off, and if it is still connected to the home charger it won't use any of the car battery. I've got to say, although the EV version is a lot more to buy than the Petrol version of my car, the stuff it comes with as pretty much standard, is really impressive.

I'm only 10 days in and despite still having to get used to some stuff, giving it back, which I could do, has not even remotely entered my head. I love it.
Yeah I was shocked that heated seats use less battery than the heater. I guess because you're only heating yourself rather than the empty cabin too. It is useful to know, although I still tend to have the heater on for most journeys. It's only my trip up north that makes me worry about saving fuel.

Look, I know the pitfalls, I've come across far too many broken chargers, especially on my last trip to Stockton. And you do have to think a bit more about long journeys. Conversely though, if you have a home charger, you think less about short journeys as you're always fueled up.

It's not perfect but it's getting there and it's certainly less bleak than the big auto manufacturers and the people who just want to shoot down new technology would have you believe.
 
Yeah I was shocked that heated seats use less battery than the heater. I guess because you're only heating yourself rather than the empty cabin too. It is useful to know, although I still tend to have the heater on for most journeys. It's only my trip up north that makes me worry about saving fuel.

Look, I know the pitfalls, I've come across far too many broken chargers, especially on my last trip to Stockton. And you do have to think a bit more about long journeys. Conversely though, if you have a home charger, you think less about short journeys as you're always fueled up.

It's not perfect but it's getting there and it's certainly less bleak than the big auto manufacturers and the people who just want to shoot down new technology would have you believe.
As per the OP
 
As per the OP
Not really no, he's the worst for repeating the common lies about EVs.

Good trip today: into Central London, no congestion charge, no ULEZ, parked at a source london charger and paid £7 for fuel and £0 for parking.

I'm aware the rest of the country isn't this far ahead but in London it really is a no brainer to go electric
 
I got an ev on New Year’s Eve.

I have had some mild range anxiety. Perhaps that is because it is new and I am still getting used to it. Perhaps it is because the range promised on the car appears to be different - considerably less - to the amount of miles left shown on the car. Mostly I think it is because I haven’t had my home charge point fitted yet.

The first two days I had the car were New Years Eve and New Years Day and the mileage and charge were reducing as expected. These were warm (relatively) days. After that it has come in much colder and the battery gauge on the car has shown, at least it feels, like only a small drop in charge, but the mileage remaining has dropped off a cliff.

The mileage is supposed to be 201. Real world the reviews were saying 170-180. Might drop to 150 on motorways and might drop when it is cold. Actually, for the first couple of warm days - warm for January not necessarily compared to the rest of the year - I was pleased that the range was if anything better than expected.

The first really cold night I woke up to find that overnight the remaining range had dropped by 30 miles. 30 miles is a lot! What’s more once I set off the mileage remaining was dropping way more than the mileage I was travelling.

I do about 50 miles a day, so I’d worked on probably charging up every three days. The way the mileage appears to drop and if it was going to drop 30 miles overnight just sat there, then I have been charging sometimes every day, sometimes every other. Of course, if I had my home charger this all disappears but when you are scared to go anywhere near your limit because you have to travel to a charger, which could in theory be in use or broken, it doesn’t.

What I haven’t had is charger anxiety. Well, I did because I’d heard of it and knew that the nearest one to me is sometimes out. However I haven’t actually had any difficulties and have only once found the fast charger I wanted to use already in use. It is a 30 minute charge but so far it’s something I’ve anticipated and spent the time either doing things in my car, shopping or grabbing a bite to eat. Once I have the home charger I doubt I will ever use them except on long journeys or an emergency. There is quite a price difference mind you, but they are all a lot less than petrol.

The charging is easy, but the way the battery and mileage increase during charging is still taking me a bit of getting used to.

When the battery is low and remaining miles low and you start charging the battery charge increases rapidly, but the mileage far less so. As the charge approaches 80%, the increase in charge slows per minute but the mileage shoots up. I don’t know if this will settle, I’m told over time the software adapts as it gets to know you and driving patterns. The dealer said to focus on the charge remaining rather than the miles, but that is not intuitively easy.

So, not perfect for me anxiety wise, but not bad.

I’m not a car person, so it surprises me how much I really like driving this car. Wouldn’t want to go back.

Right now I don’t think I would recommend someone get one if they couldn’t get a home charger unless the range of the car was over 300 miles real world. Maybe hang on two more years for the battery range and affordability equation shifts even more and the charging network develops even more, but the change is coming, you won’t regret it, won’t go back.

As an aside, I see the new Merc revealed this week, developed with the F1 team, has a real world mileage range of 620 miles, so range anxiety will soon never be an issue for anyone as the technology trickles down.
Which one did you go for?

The range will go down quicker if you're not using regen, doing lots of high speed miles, or it's cold, it's also worth using Eco mode and not having the air con on in winter etc. Dec and Jan are the worst months, but it will be better in spring/ summer.

If you're not getting within 80% of the WLTP figure for average driving, then I'd maybe get it looked at.

You need a home charger mind, if your WLTP range is 200 and you do 50 a day, at quite high speed.

The miles remaining should be accurate once it adapts to what you've done, as if it's new it's probably not been on a motorway in the cold, which is the main thing which hurts the range the most.

Saying that, the milage on mine dropped off a cliff the first few weeks, but then it picked up, even though it was getting colder. I suppose it's probably the change in driving style, and not using the brakes, just using regen.

I hammer mine on short trips and general driving, as it's so much fun and electric is dirt cheap compared to fuel, but when driving long distances I use Eco/ cruise control more, and just chill out, rather than driving manic, it's more relaxing.

I had anxiety on the first long trip I took out, and the charging stop choice I made was ridiculous to be honest, since then it's been fine, and now I don't bother charging it passed 80% at home, as I suppose I trust it more, and have learnt a lot about the miles I do, rather than thinking I knew what miles I was doing.

If you do a long trip, plan to stop at the fastest chargers (use zap map), when convenient for you, don't bother with the suggested stops (which will be targeted to when you're near 10-20% battery), mine has me going off the beaten track, to obscure slow chargers.

There's 100kW-150kW (depending on car voltage) chargers down near Chesterfield way, I often use those on long trips, it's a bit of an earlier stop than I would normally do, but the faster charging makes it a quick top up, and it's often a good place to stop on the way back.

There's 350kW at Peterborough and Rugby, which are both unreal and where the future is heading, they're good services too.
 
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It’s not awful, and especially not around London where it’s 100% the right thing to own. Chargers everywhere.


Interesting the gent troll seems obsessed with a verified account of EV ownership but fails to read the verified EV owners on here. Shows he’s just flat trolling now
That article is mad, it's written in 2022, yet there's legislation that you don't need an app, to use new EV chargers from spring 2020, and the old ones should all be changing over. They're just contactless tap and go, and every single one I've used has been, from pretty much every provider that exists.

Bit of a bad example too, buying an EV, with no permanent infrastructure at their house, or available infrastructure to use in the street (did they not check this?). God knows why they mentioned so much about France, how many people buy a Leaf (or smaller car) and plan to go on regular drives to France, they have adopted the European charging standard for one (CCS, not Chademo like the leaf).

Sounds like some of her problems are to do with the seat to steering wheel interface. Examples such as not realising they were in eco mode for ages, and then messing up on a long trip (which most do at first), not realising to just use contactless etc.

Personally if I didn't have a home charger, had little chance of charging it in the street and wanted long trips (to france) then I would have bought an ICE, or a car with a better range, not a Chademo Leaf. It's horses for courses and looks like they've jumped in to soon, been nieve, and made a bad car choice for them, but for most others it's not the case. I don't know anyone who's regretted getting an EV, it won't be for everyone yet, but soon will be, and pretty much has to be within 5-8 years if people want newer cars.

Not one mention of total cost of ownership either (which is the main positive for me), likely as they've probably not, or could not work it out. They mention being green, but that wasn't even really a consideration for me, just a welcome bonus (which also saved me a load of money with incentives).

I missed this was originally posted by JTG, but not surprised, he's probably been digging for a bad example for ages.
 
Not really no, he's the worst for repeating the common lies about EVs.

Good trip today: into Central London, no congestion charge, no ULEZ, parked at a source london charger and paid £7 for fuel and £0 for parking.

I'm aware the rest of the country isn't this far ahead but in London it really is a no brainer to go electric
Super rapid chargers are a bit sparse in the North East, but that's irrelevant to me with home charger. There are a few under construction mind.

Long trips are getting better and better, especially with the introduction of these massive services with loads of 350kW chargers, looking forward to taking full advantage of those, and 20 min 300 mile charges.
 
Which one did you go for?

The range will go down quicker if you're not using regen, doing lots of high speed miles, or it's cold, it's also worth using Eco mode and not having the air con on in winter etc. Dec and Jan are the worst months, but it will be better in spring/ summer.

If you're not getting within 80% of the WLTP figure for average driving, then I'd maybe get it looked at.

You need a home charger mind, if your WLTP range is 200 and you do 50 a day, at quite high speed.

The miles remaining should be accurate once it adapts to what you've done, as if it's new it's probably not been on a motorway in the cold, which is the main thing which hurts the range the most.

Saying that, the milage on mine dropped off a cliff the first few weeks, but then it picked up, even though it was getting colder. I suppose it's probably the change in driving style, and not using the brakes, just using regen.

I hammer mine on short trips and general driving, as it's so much fun and electric is dirt cheap compared to fuel, but when driving long distances I use Eco/ cruise control more, and just chill out, rather than driving manic, it's more relaxing.

I had anxiety on the first long trip I took out, and the charging stop choice I made was ridiculous to be honest, since then it's been fine, and now I don't bother charging it passed 80% at home, as I suppose I trust it more, and have learnt a lot about the miles I do, rather than thinking I knew what miles I was doing.

If you do a long trip, plan to stop at the fastest chargers (use zap map), when convenient for you, don't bother with the suggested stops (which will be targeted to when you're near 10-20% battery), mine has me going off the beaten track, to obscure slow chargers.

There's 100kW-150kW (depending on car voltage) chargers down near Chesterfield way, I often use those on long trips, it's a bit of an earlier stop than I would normally do, but the faster charging makes it a quick top up, and it's often a good place to stop on the way back.

There's 350kW at Peterborough and Rugby, which are both unreal and where the future is heading, they're good services too.

Vauxhall Mokka.

I am using the regen and eco mode now.

About half my normal journey is urban and the rest dual carriageway.

I'd just ordered the Mokka before Christmas and it was a 3-4 month wait, so I intended getting xmas and the New Year out of the way, then sort the home charger out, which is free with the car. Then the dealership took delivery of one but the customer had disappeared, so the offered it to me. Hey presto I had one on New Years Eve, so the home charging not sorted. Supplied pod point with all the info so they should be in touch within 4 days to arrange the fitting.

I've got to say, I'm pretty relaxed about the charging point availability (even in the north east) so far.
 
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Vauxhall Mokka.

I am using the regen and eco mode now.

About half my normal journey is urban and the rest duel carriageway.

I'd just ordered the Mokka before Christmas and it was a 3-4 month wait, so I intended getting xmas and the New Year out of the way, then sort the home charger out, which is free with the car. Then the dealership took delivery of one but the customer had disappeared, so the offered it to me. Hey presto I had one on New Years Eve, so the home charging not sorted. Supplied pod point with all the info so they should be in touch within 4 days to arrange the fitting.

I've got to say, I'm pretty relaxed about the charging point availability (even in the north east) so far.
Had mine since June and have never had any range anxiety. Drove to MK in the summer, charged at Tescos while having a coffee and then drove onto Stratford upon Avon.

The local shopping centre has a free charge which is rarely in use. Plug in there when we go shopping and within an hour I have 50 extra miles.
 
Vauxhall Mokka.

I am using the regen and eco mode now.

About half my normal journey is urban and the rest duel carriageway.

I'd just ordered the Mokka before Christmas and it was a 3-4 month wait, so I intended getting xmas and the New Year out of the way, then sort the home charger out, which is free with the car. Then the dealership took delivery of one but the customer had disappeared, so the offered it to me. Hey presto I had one on New Years Eve, so the home charging not sorted. Supplied pod point with all the info so they should be in touch within 4 days to arrange the fitting.

I've got to say, I'm pretty relaxed about the charging point availability (even in the north east) so far.
They look smart they do (y)

Does it have varying modes of regen, or is it just off and on?

How does it list your consumption, miles per Kw/H?

So what mileage are you getting and what is the WLTP? Mine is pretty normal I think, but by normal that's about a 20% loss in winter (can even be 30% on bad days/ trips) and 10% in summer. It's hard to hit the WLTP figure mind, and I think I've only gone over this once.

Mine can get about as low as 2 miles per kw/H when I'm caning it everywhere, but for an 80kw battery that's only 160 miles, from a WLTP of 240, but on some trips in summer it's up to 3.8 mp kw/H, and most of the time around 3 m p kw/H.

To be fair mind, I don't think they should only be allowed to quote WLTP figures, they should have to give examples at different speeds and different conditions.

You'll be fine once you get your home charger, it's a game changer. If you can, one thing which does help is pre heating the car and seats before you get in it, when it's plugged in to the charger, most of them can do this. It saves running the battery down, and obv means you'll never have to de ice a car again, or get in a cold car, small perks.
 
I presume as a Tesla driver this isn't an occurrence so I get why you wouldn't suffer any range anxiety. The infrastructure is much better for a Tesla. I do really like my electric car and the finances make it a no brainer but there are definitely not "no concerns" about owning one. An ICE definitely feels less hassle.

I'm probably going to get a EV later in the year, and replace my current petrol car. I know very little about them at the moment, but interested in the comment about the infrastructure being better for a Tesla - why is that, and what do you mean ?

I think Tesla's are ugly (no offence to those who own them), so not really considering them at the moment, but interested if they're more attractive because some of the other benefits and whether I should add them to my list.
 
Had mine since June and have never had any range anxiety. Drove to MK in the summer, charged at Tescos while having a coffee and then drove onto Stratford upon Avon.

The local shopping centre has a free charge which is rarely in use. Plug in there when we go shopping and within an hour I have 50 extra miles.
50 miles an hour, that's pretty decent to be fair. is that a 22KWh charger? I get really slow charger speeds at supermarkets. However, as Bjorn Nyland will tell you: ABC Always Be Charging
 
I presume as a Tesla driver this isn't an occurrence so I get why you wouldn't suffer any range anxiety. The infrastructure is much better for a Tesla. I do really like my electric car and the finances make it a no brainer but there are definitely not "no concerns" about owning one. An ICE definitely feels less hassle.
I genuinely and truly don't believe Range anxiety is a thing. I know the phrase was made up by GM when their EV1 failed as a way to push people away from other EVs.

You've hit upon a good point though. Charger anxiety does exist. On my last trip to the Norah East I went away from my "walled garden" supercharger network. I did no trip planning and literally just stopped to charge wherever me or the OH wanted a Wee or a drink. This led to a broken Shell recharge charger on the way up (there were 4 chargers, 2 broken and 2 in use) Luckily one of the guys charging was leaving so I could swap stalls.

On the way back I stopped at a welcome break. I didn't know until afterwards that they won't let Gridserve/Ecotricity on site to repair their chargers so they are pretty much all broken. This is obviously something that needs sorting out sharply.
 
Not sure ST I did it at the weekend and that was roughly what I got.
That's good that. And that has to be the future of refuelling. Destination charging has to be ubiquitous. I think eventually market forces will make it so: Given the choice between two supermarkets, one with chargers and one without, its probably always going to be more economical to shop at the one where you can refuel at the same time. Destination charging is, to me, the hidden gem of EV ownership. Why drive to a separate building to refuel your car when you can just do it wherever you are going to anyway? That's why i think Teesside Parks big bank of chargers is a good idea. I've only ever seen such a volume of chargers at one other shopping centre, the wembley outlet mall.
 
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