How Much Range Is Enough For Electric Cars?
for years we’ve said that you need no more than 250 realworld miles for an EV in this country in the UK So where does this come from and why Let me explain in this video Because if you believe the anti-EV brigade you will need at least 5 600 miles of range before they’re even willing to contemplate getting a full electric vehicle They’re essentially wanting to drive from Lansen to John Donnag without stopping which is something no one ever does always picking the worst case scenario So where do we get 250 mi from And just to be clear I mean actual realworld range now not manufacturer stated range real world range And yes this clearly isn’t one of them It gets to the point where a driver is the limiting factor with the car So the car’s range gets so far that it’s not the car that’s going to make you stop It’s you And that’s what I mean I’m talking about averages here So this video only applies to probably 95% of the people watching it The traveling salesman this is not for you you’re clearly an edge case an exception to the rule But when you’re you’re traveling again it gets to the point where well you have to stop not the car So let me give you an example of what I mean by that London to Edinburgh is roughly just over 400 miles and around 8 hours So that’s the center of London to the center of Edinburgh To do that without stopping would be absurd Not only would a professional driver be forced by law to stop just after halfway you would have to have one hell of a bladder you would have to eat at the wheel in the 8 hours plus that you’re driving And then there’s driver fatigue If you’re willing to drive for 8 hours nonstop then quite frankly you’re a danger to yourself people in your car and everyone around you If this car could do 250 miles in the real world then ultimately I could go from London to Edinburgh do that entire trip with one stop in a petrol diesel car From what I’ve just said again you’re doing it in at least one stop Practically you probably do it in two Certainly if you got kids or you know bladder issues or anything like that or just a normal bladder 8 n 10hour drives should not be done with no stops One stop at best two stops is likely especially with a family on board So this is where I mean that the limiting factor isn’t the car once you get past a certain range And for me that range is just over 200 miles 250 real world miles is what we say because you always need a bit of a buffer for degradation and of course for well you’re not going to arrive on 0% at a charger for example You’re not going to use the whole range of the car nor are you going to charge back up again to 100% It’s also something which typically is something that happens maybe once twice a year for most people So let me give you an example of a conversation I had with a work colleague about a month ago who was thinking about getting an EV and he went well you know we we go to Cornwall on holiday so that take us about I think it’s about 45 minutes he figured out longer than it would in the petrol car he’s got I’m like well how often do you go there Oh once a year for for holiday for summer You’re choosing a car on a once a year event a once a year drive where you’re going to spend 45 minutes longer than you currently do I can understand you saying that that would be an annoying thing but deciding on an entire car for a single annual journey is a bit odd because I’m lucky enough to charge from home I save way more time not having to visit the petrol station at least once a week or more because I’m just well I’m just going plug and walking in The car can charge when I’m doing other things Sleeping eating gardening filming Take your pick It’s charging now And look I don’t have to sit here doing that So yes petrol diesel is significantly quicker But you have to stand there and wait for it to finish And it’s what six seven eight minutes of your time You got to get to the petrol station There’s always some idiot doing shopping or something when you’re trying to pay It’s not just a 3minut fill up That’s the actual thing itself if you’ve got to get there and pay as well But as I said I’m lucky enough to be able to charge from home According to the RAC roughly I think it’s just over 50% of UK households not people households should have the ability to charge from home relatively easily So what about the other lot Because they often get forgotten about And ultimately as we always say on this channel we’re not ready yet I would not own an EV and have done for 10 years now if I couldn’t charge at home That’s a massive deal It’s one for another video but ultimately the majority of what I’m saying here in terms of range you’re going to have to charge from home for it to make sense Otherwise at this at the moment I I couldn’t I wouldn’t bother There are bits of the country that you could but we’re just not ready yet once the destination charging especially So that’s where you can charge relatively slowly but in most car parks Once that’s to a point where we need it to be then yes in the UK 250 real world miles should be enough because everywhere you’re going nearly you know workplace especially supermarkets cinema car parks council car parks wherever you still get you’re getting charge everywhere you are grazing on the charges You don’t wait till it’s empty You take it when you can that will still be enough but the destination charging again needs to be in place And at the moment it’s not even started for me It’s miles off Now to clarify I’m not saying that you need a perfect charging network if you can charge from home for this 250 real world range thing to be a thing If you can charge at home the rapid charging network is decent enough now so you can pretty much do a long journey anyway and you’re not going to definitely not get there The worst case scenario is that you might end up queuing for a little bit Depends on the network of course and where you are in the country but for the most part again most people are fine most of the time but the range of the car itself isn’t going to change whether you queue or not Yes having a 300 mile range EV would mean that you have to charge less But we’re clearly talking about four five 600 mile journeys here where you’re going to have to stop either way As I’ve just said I wouldn’t have an EV right now if I could charge from home So that’s the almost apartheide that we’re stuck with for now Whether or not we’ll get past that before the 2035 kind of deadline turns up is again for another video In this I’m saying that if you can own an EV easily charging from home essentially then anything above that is a luxury 250 real world miles is more than you’ll probably need especially if you got more than one car in your household But if it’s an only car then there’s very very few if any journeys a year that are going to be an issue compared to a petrol car According to government statistics 99% of journeys are under 100 miles And the reason people don’t want to go for an EV is for when they’re doing a 400 mile trip So it’s just putting it into context Some things you’re going to win out on easier to fuel this daily than it is a petrol car But on a long journey you’re going to lose out because it’s easy to fuel a petrol car than one of these That’s why if I’m staying somewhere you know when we went to Scotland I always chose somewhere where I could charge So we woke up with a full battery which meant the next day we didn’t need to charge and the next day we didn’t need to charge Essentially I spent no time refueling because we had destination charging which is why that is ultimately key If I could guarantee that which at the moment you can’t then 150 mi will probably be enough for me But for now let’s stick with 250 because people like to have a buffer They don’t like to see a counter ticking down With a petrol car you just kind of see 3/4 half quarter oh red lights come on with an EV it’s right in your face 100 miles left 80 miles left 20 miles left Start getting this anxiety people talk about Maybe if they just changed the uh the dash display so it just kind of was a bit more vague people would be less bothered So ultimately do you agree with what I’ve just said For 95% of the people again not all not saying you for 95% of the people a maximum range of 250 real world miles should cover every base Pretty much you’re going to have to have a unique pattern If it doesn’t the phrase we’ve always used is EVs suit most people most of the time So not all people all of the time most people most of the time But that’s at today’s level of technology In the last 5 years alone let alone 10 years look at where we’ve come from and gone to where are we going to be in another 10 years or another 20 years from now It’s going to be vastly different like it is with laptops and mobile phones and and other technological advances of which batteries are the key for this Electric motors have been around longer than the petrol engine It’s the batteries to carry the fuel around that have made them viable now So battery technology thanks to mobile phones thanks to laptops has now got to the stage where we’re here Not there for everyone yet but if you don’t want one just don’t buy one Thank you ever so much for watching I’m now on Instagram Please follow me on that if you are And oh the misses is back so I’ll get going Uh thanks for watching Uh see you soon And please do remember members get these on Sunday instead of Friday And the Driving Home podcast is on all the podcasty places as well as on the Driving Home YouTube channel itself So you can watch it not just listen And um well again thanks for watching See you soon Let’s watch a park shall we We’re going to all watch you park I’m going to pay for this later Brilliant little EV this thing Ah done in one You see Perfect like my beautiful wife
I get told all the time that people need to drive for 5billion hours before needing to refuel. However, in reality….
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