Why Electric Car Charging is so Different to Petrol — You can Even Do it in your Jim Jams!
Mostly, you could charge at home
Electric car charging is very different to what we’ve been used to. I realised this after a few people seemed aghast at the 25/30 minute time to charge on a rapid charger. But that concern may be because in a petrol car, you have to regularly go to a petrol station and fill up in order for the car to move. That’s not so with electric. For me, who works from home, has a driveway and doesn’t do super long trips very often, I’d say 99% of the time I could do it, along with remotely warming or cooling my car — in my Jim Jams! I charge at home, just from a normal electric plug, but you can have a slightly faster charger installed if you want.
Rapid charging — the one with a small wait — may only be occasional
With an electric car, you only need to actually go and charge with a fast charger if you’re en-route somewhere, or don’t have a driveway or way to charge from home or work. So that 20/30 minutes in such cases isn’t every time you need juice, but just when doing a longer trip — maybe once or twice a year in my case. I just did a 4 stop trip from near London to near Edinburgh in my 6 year old electric car which is a 30kwh, so the battery is not as big, nor the range as great as newer ones. I get about 90/95 miles range. Take a newer Volkswagen ID3 or even a 62kwh Nissan Leaf and you get about 250/300 miles range and only have to stop once on the same 350 mile trip — which you’d do in a petrol car anyway. I met some people en-route with a 325 mile range — and definitely had range envy as they hardly had to stop at all!
It’s sociable
Rapid charging is quite sociable! I often get chatting to fellow electric car drivers while charging and have met many different people. A fellow Nissan Leaf driver told me she has had some interesting discussions with Grant Shapps a couple of times at the Tesco chargers! So the time just flies by — between finding toilets, having a cuppa and chatting to fellow drivers. I met people who switched for the environment, others who switched because it cost less for lots of driving — because electric is currently, using fast chargers half the price of petrol roughly and when charging from home, half of that again. Plus you have £0 road tax. You all have something in common, as early people doing their bit, trailblazing and helping progress the infrastructure for the mass majority!
Our small inconvenience saves a lot of inconvenience for the planet
There is a satisfaction in knowing — for me anyway — that I am doing this for the environment. I’m doing my bit. My belief is that yes, at the moment, while we are in earlier adopter stage, longer trips require a little more planning and yes, you could end up waiting a bit — but equally, may not. But it’s a small inconvenience — and for me very occasional, compared to the inconvenience of wild fires, extreme heat, floods and the end of human life as we know it. I wrote this blog, as I think there is some concern from people considering switching, about chargers and times. I felt this needed clarifying. I was concerned before my first 4 stop trip. But I planned it on Zap Map — which shows chargers around the country and whether they are working correctly, are in use and the costs. And I planned each stop with a backup, which I never had to use as it all went smoothly. 8 stops in total, there and back and it didn’t feel like a long journey. If you have a newer car with a bigger battery, you won’t have the same number of stops!
I suspect the early petrol car drivers had to hunt around (without an app!), to find petrol. As more cars came on the road, that possibly became harder. It was early adopter stage, but soon petrol stations were everywhere. I wonder if one day in the future, maybe 10 years from now, young people will say to us, “What, you used to drive in cars full of petrol that was bad for the environment? You had to stop at petrol stations to fill up and couldn’t just charge from home? You didn’t chat to people while charging at fast chargers? Gosh. How awful!”
