Are you still on the fence regarding Electric Vehicles?
Are you unsure who to trust?
With a plethora of information either for or against Electric motoring that’s no surprise!
At D&D we have fully embraced the EV revolution and reap the many benefits of driving electric.
We not only have all our staff trained and equipped for repairing/servicing EV’s, we generally are excited by the EV revolution.
What we aim to achieve with this blog is help sort through the myths and
propaganda and deliver the facts, and hopefully encourage more customers to switch to electric ownership.
So, what is the EV revolution? Well, we’ve all noticed an increase in Hybrid/ Electric vehicles on the road. Every manufacturer advertises a new fully electric or hybrid vehicle, and by 2030 the UK government will ban the production of any vehicle that isn’t zero emissions. As I write this document it is 2022, that’s only 8 years away! The conclusion is that EV’s are coming whether we like it or not, but it’s not all doom and gloom.
At D&D we already drive electric so we can attest that it’s really a better form of transport. Now let me support this with some comparisons and facts.
Range and range anxiety – This might well be a statement you’ve heard before, the quick version of what it means is worrying about remaining battery range. 75% of commute distance in the UK is about 10 miles, most EV’s have a range of over 100miles. Obviously this doesn’t apply to everybody, some travel from place to place during a working day and could drive 100 miles before lunch! Again, this is all relative, a small EV like the Honda E with a 105 mile range wouldn’t suit a taxi driver doing airport runs or long distance pickups. But a Tesla Model 3 with over 300 miles of range would be suited much better to the task.
Owning an EV myself I was no stranger to the dreaded range anxiety, but there are big changes happening out on our roads. Charging stations are popping up everywhere, at motorway service stations, supermarkets and hotels. In fact, the number of fast charging points in the UK in 2017 was 6002. In 2022 that number has risen to over 19000! And that figure doesn’t include Ultra-rapid, Rapid and Slow chargers, this number will continue to rise with the continued investment in an all-electric future. So how can we use these figures to slay range anxiety? Well, the knowledge that our journeys will always have an abundance of charging stations available so that fear of looking frantically for a charger as the range drops to zero becomes very unlikely!
There is a brilliant App known as ZAPMAP available from the Apple/Android app stores. Using GPS technology, it finds your position on a map and tells you the location of the nearest charger. The app has really helpful additional information such as the make and charging speed of the station, a comments section for previous customers to add comments or reviews and live updates to let you know if the charging point is available or not working.
With this knowledge, it makes travelling in an electric vehicle far less frightening! With range anxiety covered, another frequent criticism I hear when discussing EV’s is the actual range. So yes, early electric cars did suffer from low ranges. For example, a first edition Renault Zoe could only manage around 120 miles with a full battery. This obviously compared to a small petrol engine car is about 180 miles short!
But it is important to remember that the improvement in Electric vehicle range is staggering. So the gen 1 Zoe could manage around 120 miles in 2012, the 2022 Zoe has ranges topping 250 miles! And the more premium brand vehicles have ranges much greater, for example the Mercedes EQS tops the board with 485miles of electric range.
Using electrical equipment on an EV such as the fan blower, wiper blade or radio has little to no effect on the battery range. The majority of these systems run on the 12 volt system, not the high voltage circuit.
Now using the heater on some models will have an effect on the remaining miles (though it’s very minor) This is due to a high voltage heater drawing current from the battery to warm the cabin. It’s important to note that the manufactures know this and are already developing alternative heating systems such has heat pumps, microwave heaters etc.
So with ranges covered we need to discuss charging. You may have heard “An EV takes over 24 hours to charge from home!” Now to counter this statement we need to understand the different chargers and charging KW (Kilowatts).
A 3 pin socket at home has roughly 3kw of charging capacity. So charging a 50kw battery is going to take some time, however there are other options.
Home chargers up to 7kw can be installed and will easily give your battery 80% with an overnight charge. Suddenly everything is becoming more manageable.
Granted not everybody has the space for a home charger but there is an enormous amount of innovation happening with not just vehicles and batteries but also charging options.
Some companies convert lamp posts into EV chargers and the conversions take about 30 minutes. We have other charging options available also, motorway service stations, hotel car parks, supermarkets and high streets have more and more charging points installed every day.
Normally we can use DC charging at a public changing point. DC charging is much much faster than the previous methods mentioned above.
And we can see 5% to 80% in about 35mins depending on the vehicle! Obviously using public charging points is considerably more expensive than home charging but in a pinch it can get us moving again.
As mentioned before with the constant investment and improvements in EV infrastructure these charge times will continue to decrease as new ways are discovered to get electrons back into the battery packs at greater speeds.
So with some criticisms addressed let’s discuss some of the great benefits of driving an EV. Compared to a petrol or diesel car the fuel savings are huge. Despite what you may have heard EVs are safer than their fossil fuel guzzling counterparts.
EV’s are exempt from the London congestion charge and the ULEZ charges.
If we are talking company cars – A VW Golf diesel has a benefit in kind tax of 30% an EV only has a 2% benefit in kind tax, and if you have an electric company van it’s 0%!
If you’re looking at private ownership there is no car tax to pay at all.
Lets not forget driving an EV is great fun. Even a relatively cheap EV benefits from instant torque and fast acceleration. All of this coupled with a greener and more environmentally friendlier form of travel.
So we hope from reading this article you can see the benefits from EV ownership, and that it has eased some concerns over the daily workings of EV driving.
And remember if your EV needs any niggles put right or maintenance carried out D&D will be happy to help.
