Currently reading: 800 miles in a week in an electric car: 12 things I learned

Nice people, stupid people, Tesla lovers, strokes of marketing genius and the highs and lows of the charging network

Earlier this year, as part of a long-term test review, I had six months to discover just how good the Kia e-Niro is. But as the time neared its end, it became apparent that the car's real-world 250-300-mile range meant I hadn’t driven anywhere that necessitated the use of the UK's public charging network.

So it was that I took the plunge, adding further jeopardy by making this pioneering journey with my entire family in tow, off on our summer holidays to West Wales.

At worst, I wouldn’t return just on a flatbed truck but also divorced and with children who no longer wanted to know me.

The challenge was complex, because we needed to travel to and from Wales on the motorway networks, whereas we would be looking for every kind of charger available while we were there, from rural public spots to those provided by local car dealers and even, on occasion, three-pin plugs where we were staying.

However, 800 miles later and with two journeys of more than 250 miles under our belts, we were back home and still on speaking terms. It took some planning and there were fleeting moments of inconvenience and lost time, but it worked out just fine, a few ultimately minor dramas aside.

Here, then, are some of the lessons learned from a trip that proved to me once and for all that the capability of today’s EVs and charging network make the switch from a petrol or diesel car far easier than most people imagine.

Kia eniro tesco

1. Electric car people are nice people

I’ll be honest, I had my doubts. Social media is awash with virtue-signalling EV evangelists who jump at the chance to strike out at anyone who dare suggest even the slightest compromise of electrification. But everyone I met in an electric car was friendly, helpful and informative, and many went out of their way to help and educate me. This is the kind of advocacy needed to persuade anyone with doubts to switch to electric motoring, and it was a joy to discover a positive subject that bound people together in a common goal.

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Charging e niro

2. Some people can’t help behaving like idiots

Based on my journey, 'some people' is actually mostly made up of BMW drivers. The chap who parked his diesel BMW X6 in a charging bay and left its engine running for 20 minutes? Idiot. The BMW 5 Series plug-in hybrid buyer who dropped it in a charging bay but then got ticketed because he wasn’t smart enough to plug it in? Bigger idiot. The only upside was that they weren’t using disabled bays, I guess.

Tesco vw

3. The Tesco/Pod Point/Volkswagen tie-up is a stroke of genius

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Parked up in Tesco in Cardigan taking on a quick top-up, I must have encountered close to 100 shoppers wanting to know what I and my Hyundai Ioniq-driving neighbour were up to. It helps, of course, that there are big signs and a video screen to catch the attention, but for most people I spoke to, it was the prospect of free fuel that had them intrigued and - from the quality of the questions - off to research more about electric cars. Greater news for EV uptake, even greater news if you’re about to launch the ID 3.

Kia eniro ecotricity

4. 7kW charging on the motorway is useless

You don’t need big energy to charge overnight at home, but it’s all you want when you’re trying to get somewhere. Incredibly, I encountered numerous motorway outlets that could only trickle around 20 miles of range into the car in the maximum 45 minutes of charging allowable. That's nigh-on useless and underlines that as well as expanding the network, providers must focus on upgrading it where appropriate.

Ecotricity

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5. Ecotricity’s motorway network needs urgent improvement

I have pondered over naming and shaming, but the weight of evidence against Ecotricity is overwhelming, both from the fact that my only disrupted or failed charges came at its hands and the catalogue of complaints online. The company isn’t without its positives, but it's regularly providing the sort of experiences that would put off many people from making the switch to an electric car and prompt hugely damaging headlines. If it won’t improve its act, someone else should be asked to step in.

Electric charging in wales

6. Planning ahead isn’t that hard - but it helps to do it

It sounds obvious, but if you’re like me, the only planning you’ve thought about ahead of long trips previously is trying to avoid rip-off motorway prices. Driving an electric car requires more care, but not much, and of course you get better with experience. There are apps to tell you where chargers are, how fast they charge, whether they’re working and whether they’re available to use. Even if you hate planning ahead, you’re looking at five minutes of homework.

Dragon charging

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7. Charging needs to be simpler

That said, the infrastructure providers and legislators need to bang their heads together fast. I was delighted to discover a Welsh Government initiative trying to pull together the mishmash of providers under an umbrella scheme, so that users could access all the chargers using one app or card, rather than having to sign up to a patchwork of providers. Rumour has it there are more than 50 providers in the UK; someone needs to get the patchwork working together or make contactless payment easier, becuase it’s not unreasonable for people to reject anything that makes life harder.

Kia eniro zoe

8. Range doesn’t just get you from A to B, it gives you options

For all the headlines about there being more chargers than fuel stations in the UK now, one of the electric car owner’s biggest fears must be crawling up to a charger only to discover it's either busy or broken. It actually happened to us, but whereas the 100-or-so-mile Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe owners were trapped in line, we could motor on to the next set of chargers. If you’re buying, don’t just consider what’s enough, consider what will give you freedom whatever the circumstances.

Tesla model 3 2019 rt hero front

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9. Everyone wants a Tesla

Every car maker is either launching or developing a so-called Tesla-killer, yet it only takes half a day on the road to realise just how lazy a line that is. Yes, Tesla has many issues to overcome and yes, it faces mounting opposition from the establishment, but be in no doubt that it remains the maker of the most desirable electric cars on the planet today, as well as garnering something of a cult status among children, the next generation of car buyers. It’s far from a perfect car company, but write it off at your peril. The Supercharger network is a major bonus, too.

Kia eniro three pin

10. Don’t underestimate the three-pin plug

It’s a crime that some car makers sell electric cars without the choice of what kind of cable you get with it. My advice would be to have both fast/rapid and three-pin options, as supplied by Kia. The latter may take days to fill a car like the e-Niro from empty to full, but it’s a great way to top up in remote locations and earn a few more options for where you can get to once you get going again.

Kia eniro jake

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11. The cars and the charging infrastructure are good enough today

I know there’s a mountain of obstacles still to overcome, but the number of mainstream media articles showing long-distance electric car journeys ending in disaster, prompting widespread disbelief at how the country will never be ready to switch, are nonsense. I know it’s possible because I did it and met tens of drivers who've happily taken on far more ambitious journeys without issue. Cars like the e-Niro with 250-plus miles of real range transform the capability, and there are more than enough performing chargers out there to keep most people moving. It’s not for everyone, I know, but I truly believe that for most of the people, most of the time, switching would be no barrier to their lives as they know them today.

Diesel price

12. Don’t forget what you’ve forgotten

As I write this, the e-Niro has gone to find a new owner, its loan having ended a week ago. Yesterday, I took my new test car - a perfectly brilliant diesel-powered seven-seat SUV - for its first fill. I’d forgotten how dirty fuel pumps are, how much time you end up spending at them and - above all - how expensive they are, to the extent one 500-mile tank cost me £75. That's precisely half what I estimate the e-Niro to have cost me over 10,000 miles, thanks to my access to some free and much relatively cheap home charging. Charging sounds a faff, and it can be, but 99% of the time I plugged in and forgot about it until it was time to get in the car again. That is an infinitely preferable experience to going to a fuel station and parting with wads of cash.

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johnfaganwilliams 18 September 2019

C'mon Jim

This is total bxxllox!

 "I’d forgotten how dirty fuel pumps are, how much time you end up spending at them"

I'll forgive you the recent Damoscene conversion to the three pin plug powered vehicle (3ppv)? - but it is beyond any rational thought that you'll spend less time hanging around driving a 3PPV than if you had a good ol' diesel. That's what I don't get about 3PPV enthusiasts. The ability to overlook the 'kin great heffalump in the room. If you want to go on a long journey you are going to spend hours at those lovely service stations. Drinking poor coffee and eating food that will send you to the lavatory in 15 minutes. Well, ok, they'll at least be nearby. Why would you want to do that? And pay £30k for a car worth £18k - even after the subsidy that the govt forces me to contribute to through my taxes?

I live in Spain and have solar panels for electricity. If anyone made a decent estate car EV I'd probably have one as a third car as then it would genuinely be free fuel - apart from the 50.000€ I paid for the system, of course. Until then it's madness as demonstrated by the zero take up. An increase of 6% on SFA is still SFA.

clive@citsuk.com 18 September 2019

The only bxxllox written on here is yours

johnfaganwilliams wrote:

This is total bxxllox!

 "I’d forgotten how dirty fuel pumps are, how much time you end up spending at them"

I'll forgive you the recent Damoscene conversion to the three pin plug powered vehicle (3ppv)? - but it is beyond any rational thought that you'll spend less time hanging around driving a 3PPV than if you had a good ol' diesel. That's what I don't get about 3PPV enthusiasts. The ability to overlook the 'kin great heffalump in the room. If you want to go on a long journey you are going to spend hours at those lovely service stations. Drinking poor coffee and eating food that will send you to the lavatory in 15 minutes. Well, ok, they'll at least be nearby. Why would you want to do that? And pay £30k for a car worth £18k - even after the subsidy that the govt forces me to contribute to through my taxes?

I live in Spain and have solar panels for electricity. If anyone made a decent estate car EV I'd probably have one as a third car as then it would genuinely be free fuel - apart from the 50.000€ I paid for the system, of course. Until then it's madness as demonstrated by the zero take up. An increase of 6% on SFA is still SFA.

I guess the 3rd best selling car in the UK (not just EV but CAR) is SFA then.

I live in the UK and have solar panels. Less than 10% the cost of yours, powers my EV. Car, less than 10% of your 30k. Never had to wait hours for a top up (roughly 15 minutes) even to go 200 miles but normally don't need to do that. To my mind, much better than paying 40 quid a week just to go to work.

Phil R 26 October 2020

Jim's right

As an EV owner and a biker, it's incredible how something that didn't seem to take up much time before and you never thought as dirty then does. Every day I set off with a full battery in the i3, but when I take the bikes out, normally running only just on time, you suddenly then have to factor the extra 5 minutes in to fuel up and sure, it's 5 minutes, but it does make you realise the convenience of having a full tank every day. Similarly, I never noticed how much dirt and crap accumulates around a fuel filler cap, and then gets transferred to the top box as that's on the same key. Don't get me wrong, neither are big deals, but you do notice once you've switched. 

Cobnapint 18 September 2019

No.13

I still don't need that shit.
Having a plan is all well and good, but what about those unforseen moments/events which require a dash somewhere as a matter of urgency - you'd be up a certain creek without a paddle.
And you must have gone out of your way to find the UK's dirtiest diesel pump, they aren't all like that and I'm sure over time electric charging cables will become similarly covered in scratches, germs and ground muck as they get dropped etc (or covered in BMW diesel fumes).
Vertigo 18 September 2019

Cobnapint wrote:

Cobnapint wrote:

I still don't need that shit. Having a plan is all well and good, but what about those unforseen moments/events which require a dash somewhere as a matter of urgency - you'd be up a certain creek without a paddle. And you must have gone out of your way to find the UK's dirtiest diesel pump, they aren't all like that and I'm sure over time electric charging cables will become similarly covered in scratches, germs and ground muck as they get dropped etc (or covered in BMW diesel fumes).

Having to dash more than 200 miles without warning as a matter of urgency? That has literally never happened to me.

You'll be more likely to reach urgent locations quicker with an EV as you don't need to stop for fuel if you've been charging from home.

Cobnapint 19 September 2019

But...

Vertigo wrote:

Cobnapint wrote:

I still don't need that shit. Having a plan is all well and good, but what about those unforseen moments/events which require a dash somewhere as a matter of urgency - you'd be up a certain creek without a paddle. And you must have gone out of your way to find the UK's dirtiest diesel pump, they aren't all like that and I'm sure over time electric charging cables will become similarly covered in scratches, germs and ground muck as they get dropped etc (or covered in BMW diesel fumes).

Having to dash more than 200 miles without warning as a matter of urgency? That has literally never happened to me.

You'll be more likely to reach urgent locations quicker with an EV as you don't need to stop for fuel if you've been charging from home.

That's if your emergency happens when you happen to have a full battery.
What happens while you're creeping towards your next 'planned' charger with 10 miles remaining battery on the dash and you need to be somewhere else sharpish. You're fooked, that's what.

gavsmit 18 September 2019

Self sufficiency

Until electric cars have enough range to allow me to never have to charge anywhere but my own house, I'm out.

It's bad enough queuing / dealing with impatient, arrogant, selfish drivers going to petrol stations at some times of the day, let alone queuing for a handful of over-priced electric charging bays, sometimes being illegally used by a selfish/inconsiderate moron with their ICE car (usually with a prestige German badge on the grill).

Oh, and the car itself needs to cost sensible money, not around £40k for a modest small family hatchback.