I thought long and hard before going full EV. I sat down and worked out roughly how many miles we did a week and more importantly how often we travelled more than about 250 miles in one trip as the car we decided on had a battery full mileage claimed by the manufacturers of 280 miles. My partner works from home 3 days a week and travels into the office twice a week 21 miles each way. The town near us where we do most of our shopping is about 2 miles away and the large city of York about 13 miles away. I then looked at visiting family in Oxfordshire which we do about 4 times a year which is 179 miles each way.
We had a home charger fitted and when we first got the car two and a half years ago it was costing me £1.46 to put about 118 miles on an overnight cheap rate 4 hr charge. The cheap rate then was 5p kWh and is now 10p kWh but Octopus have extended that from 4 hours a night to 6 hours. So, I get plenty of charge for just over £4.
I use public charging only when I go to Oxfordshire or am planning on doing over 250-60 miles on a round trip which is not very often. Yes I plan where to stop and so far fingers crossed I have only once turned up and the charger was not working but still had plenty left to move on to another. Zapmap is crutial to being able to plan any long journeys and plotting where to charge and info on what is available. I know I didn’t have to do that when I had my deisel but as I am not travelling over 250 miles in one journey every week or even month, when I do it is not an issue.
At present with cost of public charging and poor infrastructure (although we have noticed a big improvement since we got our EV) EV’s are not for everyone, but for us the EV is perfect. I will however, admit my one gripe is the charging time. When at home it doesn’t matter as it is being charged when I am asleep through the night, but public charging, sitting for half to three quarters of an hour depending on how much charge you need, is a pain. But like everything you learn to adapt.
One other thing and yes I am gloating….
My partner’s employers have got EV’s for thier company cars and have electric charging points installed in ther carpark. She has been allowed to use them so getting to and from work for those two days has cost us zilch. In fact, we recently did a trip to my father-in-laws in Oxfordshire a couple of weeks ago and had to top up from our home charger the night before. When I looked at my charging app I noticed it was the first time I had to use that in 99 days because we always had more than enough to run around using her chargers at her work.