Electric Vehicles - Real World Experiences

sunny-dave | 10:56 Tue 17th Aug 2021 | Motoring

13 Answers

A thread for sharing of full/phev electric car experience.

Following on from some discussion in this thread

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/How-it-Works/Question1762304.html

I thought it might be useful to share some real world experience - I'll start :

1. We have a Kia Niro PHEV rather than a full electric (charging points are as rare as rockinghorse poo in Kerry) - this means we have no 'range anxiety' at all - when the leccy runs out it switches to petrol for the rest of the journey.

2. The vast majority of our trips are local and pretty much entirely battery powered - cost is about 80p for 35 miles - equates to approx 280mpg

3. An entirely petrol powered trip (very unusual as we'd need to be starting away from home with no charge in the main battery) will be about 70mpg - still better than an equivalent diesel as the car automatically switches to 'mild hybrid' mode when the leccy runs out.

4. A mixed run (say our occasional trips to Tralee) of 100 miles will come in at around 4 litres of petrol plus the electric charge - equates to around 100mpg.

None of this is 'dawdling' or playing at 'Mobil Economy Run' tactics - I drive normally (indeed enthusiastically at times) and use the 'Sport' mode for better performance as needed.

Full electric is not always viable (yet) but PHEV is a great option if you have the space for your own off-road charging point.

Petrol In A Diesel Car?

Billing For Car Charging.

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davebro

Rows of terraced houses / blocks of flats. Full electric not gonna happen. If petrol & diesel (even hybrids) are phased out the only option for personal motoring will be hydrogen.

237SJ

I agree with davebro. My neighbour agrees re hydrogen and he has an electric Merc. Seems to take ages to charge up and he has to put a lead with hazard signs across the pavement. Luckily, nobody has tripped over it and sued him yet. Not sure what will happen when everyone's got one - masses of leads across the pavement I suppose, and that's if everyone is lucky and can park just outside their house.

sunny-dave

Question Author

As I said, at the moment you need off-road space for electric/phev to be viable.

But, battery charging speeds are improving all the time, davebro - the current fast chargers run at speeds that were unimaginable even three or four years ago.

With improved battery technology there is no reason that a decent charge could not be added in 10-15 minutes - supermarkets and shopping malls have empty car parking for much of each 24 hours and could well see a 'nice earner' in becoming charger farms.

In areas where even this is not feasible, you could argue that no-one should be owning a car 24/7 anyway - shared/rental vehicles are the way forward alongside cheap/free low-emission public transport.

douglas9401

Have they solved the problem of the scum who lift anything that isn't nailed down yet?

sunny-dave

Question Author

The cable is captive at both ends, Doogie - so the remaining option is to try cutting it and see what happens ...

douglas9401

Captive is it?

There are experts out there who will set them free.

davebro

A friend was staggering home from the pub & tripped over a cable that was charging a (normal) car battery. He smashed his elbow & had to have several operations. He tried suing the guy whose cable it was but got nowhere as the chap had no money or insurance cover.

The Builder

As an aside, Dave, I really dunno why people spend so much on gym memberships.
Fred Flintstone had the right idea with the Rockmobile.
Perfect Hybrid. Plenty of spare pedallers............
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https://ibb.co/nrGKRCf