ELECTRIC VEHICLES — THE REALITY

Out of the millions of people around the UK who drive regularly, only a few thousand have actually driven a fully electric car, or “EV”. The reasons are easy to understand, although many people’s views are now out of date. I was, for many years, very sceptical about the ability of the EV to ever replace ICE cars (internal combustion engine).

I am sure most people will recall the damning report by the BBC, of someone attempting to drive from London to Edinburgh — which took 4 days. But since then there have been tremendous advancements in technology and savings from increasing scale of production. An EV then was likely to have had a range of roughly 70 to 80 miles. Now they are more likely to be approaching 200 miles with several approaching 300.

EVs are still very expensive options to buy, of course, and are only minimally affected by the government grant to reduce the capital cost. But the running costs are minimal, making their overall cost, over time, pretty close to an ICE car of the same specification and:

• Car tax is zero
• Insurance cost is relatively low
• Maintenance cost is very low — as there are far fewer moving parts to go wrong
• Fuel is around 2p per mile if you refuel at home, often free in many car parks, but can be more if using the high speed chargers now becoming more available

In addition the environment benefits enormously when moving from ICE to EV. Not just the effect on global warming, but also on a local basis, particularly in towns and cities where pollutants in the atmosphere are often dangerously high.

My personal experience shows even more of a saving through the use of self generated electricity, using PV solar panels; coupled with a Zappi EV charger. This combination enables the automatic redirection of surplus power into the EV battery. In such a situation the power costs nothing, although the time of year makes a big difference to the availability of solar power.

Even without PV panels, by using a tariff that works in a similar way to economy 7 but for EV charging can reduce the cost dramatically. So why are so many people unpersuaded about moving to EV driving. There are a few good reasons but some are simply myths.

1. Capital cost. This is a real concern and the government grant does not move the price category to one similar to an ICE car. But this can be resolved by leasing a car where servicing costs…