To wonder how people can be bothered with electric cars on long distances.

[dixeypeach]

We've had to rent a car for a week, only one they had ready was a fully electric Mercedes, never drove one but we thought they must be alright as loads of people have them. Dear god. Since Tuesday it's had to be charged 4 times and the nearest fast charging one from us is 12 miles away. Full charge gives you 200 miles (219 max miles) which I think is rubbish also if you can't find a fast charging one some take 7 hrs to fully charge 🤦🏻‍♀️ Got caught short yesterday trying to find a charger that wasn't in use or blocked by someone parked in front (not using) the whole thing just gives me bad anxiety😬 at 3:30 today we've got to do a 370 mile round trip to pick our daughter up, we haven't even set off and it feels like a huge effort to find somewhere near her to charge it up to drive home 😳 I mean yeah people have them at home if they own one but surely when doing long journeys you feel the same panic I do!?

Literally looking around at the moment for one, am excited to make the change. But we are a two car family and DH travels to a different city for work a lot, sometimes transporting important documents so he has to park where he needs to be. He felt he couldn't get an electric car for this reason as he would need to recharge on a round trip. So I'm ditching my diesel instead, I do 1 or two long trips a year to see family and don't mind a recharge along the way.

It's fine for us. We have a Tesla. 300+ range, and 40ish minutes to charge. Never not been able to find a Tesla supercharger en route. Usually a big bank of them with plenty available. Tbh by the time you've driven 250/300 miles you usually want a break, so fits well if you need to recharge.

Agree @JustFrustrated . We regularly travel from central Scotland to the Manchester area, stop at a Starbucks in Carlisle just off the M6 where there are TWELVE 350 kW chargers, by the time you've popped into the coffee shop for a flat white, the car has charged enough to get you to your destination.

We have an vw id4. It does 330+ miles (500+km). So a decent long range. Never have any problems with range. We charge at home usually as have 22kw home charger, but also no problem charging out and about on long multi day trips.

We often drive up to Scotland to visit my parents. That's 260 miles. Until I can do that without stopping I am not going to use an electric car. If we leave on a Friday evening we want to get there as quick as possible. Stopping for 40 or 50 minutes to charge it up en route ias not a delay I want.

Plus my parents don't have a charging point so I want to be able to get back again without the need to stop for lengthy stops to charge.

I think it depends if you are the sort of person who normally likes to stop on a long journey for more than the time taken to have a wee and grab a snack. I don't, so when I see the electric car owners sat there for ages waiting for their car to charge I just think thank god that's not me. I am not a stopper! But some people don't mind spending a bit of time at the services. I would have to go self-charging hybrid I think, until the range on electric cars and the charging speed is massively increased.

We have two cars - a petrol and a Renault Zoe (fully electric). We use the Zoe for short journeys, the petrol for long ones. I've had the Zoe for five years and have never once charged it anywhere but at home. I am a totally useless EV owner. I do love the Zoe though, it's a great car, just not for long distances (its max range is about 168 miles in good conditions).

They're fine if you're time and cash rich so can wait around at service stations, paying service station prices for coffee and electricity and are willing and able to pay the higher price of the electric car in the first place. Plus also have somewhere at home and/or work etc where you can charge it.

If any of the above doesn't apply, it's a significant downside.

I’ve had mine for 2 years and never had an issue with charging. It’s a different mindset though - you don’t charge to “fill up” like you do in an ICE car. You just need to plan your journey, although my nav will route me to a charger if one is needed on my planned journey. Zap maps are good, but I’d recommend ABRP if you want to plan a journey ahead of time.

We don't have off street parking, so would only consider self charging hybrid, however can't afford a new car, so will have to stay with my '04 petrol Vauxhall, which is ULEZ compliant!

I regularly do 5 hour journeys of 200 miles plus and the thought of having to add extra time for charging means that there is no question that my next car will also be an ICE.

If i was just pottering around town then I might think differently but an EV is just not suitable for us at the moment

You are allowed to leave the motorway you know.... There are loads of supermarkets, retail parks, business parks and places with chargers within a mile of the motorway. A 20 minute fast charge in Carlisle boosts the car to 80% and plenty of juice to complete our journey.

Apps like ZapMap, ChargePoint make it really easy to find fast charging.

fif do you have a home charger? There's your answer why it's easy.

Oh no I cant deal with that level of anxiety. The infrastructure is just not there yet. Friends and families who have EVs seem to become slightly obsessive about charging points, best routes, range etc. One friend has to plug her ionic in everytime she stops.

We have one and it's fine but we have a charger at home so it's easier than making a specific trip to fill up the ICE car. Especially as we only have a £££ Shell garage in town... 200 miles does most of what we ever do but we do have an ICE for long journeys. I'd also say that we should (with kids in tow) always plan to stop every 2 hours as we always end up with stress to find a toilet when we don't...

Try not to charge up to 100%, it's slowest charging from 80% to 100%.

Also stick to 70 on the motorway, range gets shocking above that, really drops fast if you're shifting. Quicker to go slightly slower but further.

I'd happily have a long range EV if we didn't live a LONG way from aging in-laws... Having the ability to do 4 hours in 1 stint is useful sometimes but could be planned around if we didn't have the big diesel.

I think we are a long way off the whole country being able to have fully electric cars. It works at the moment because not many do.

it would cause me massive anxiety. What happens if you get stuck in a massive traffic jam? Or there's a huge queue for chargers at the services and you miss your appointment?

I have had fully electric for 2 years and have driven from the SE up to the Scottish borders and over to West Wales and a lot more regularly to South Wales and it's fine, but I have a 250+ range on mine. I don't think I'd enjoy long distances in a shorter range vehicle. I've also had to get used to heating / cooling just the driver (if I'm on my own), rather than just switching on climate control for the whole vehicle to save power.

We’ve recently got rid of ours for exactly this reason. When we first got it, 4 years ago, there were fewer EVs on the road and charging was never a problem. 3 years on and there just isn’t the infrastructure. We have elderly parents 300 miles away we visit every 3 weeks and DH drives all over for work. He was sick of having to add 1.5 hours on to every journey, in case he couldn’t find a charger that worked or wasn’t busy. We’ve gone back to hybrid.

A Tesla does 320+ miles on a full battery. A supercharger takes 20-30 minutes to bring you back to the 80% of charge you're allowed. The navigation directs you to the nearest bank of chargers as appropriate - & will divert you to a different one if the initial one gets busy. Everyone should be taking a break from sitting in the car every couple of hours or so for health reasons anyway.

We've travelled long distances in England & Wales in ours and have thus far had no problem with charging. Holiday cottages are increasing starting to fit chargers. Some places give you free parking if you're charging, so if you're going for a day out somewhere, it's not a problem.

I can see that charging them at home could be an issue, if you don't have your own Zappi and have to use on street - and some of the supermarket ones can be slow and not much use. But there will have to be a solution because fossil fuels aren't the answer either.

I'm not sure what you think happens in a traffic jam? It would have to last hours and hours for the heating/cooling of the vehicle to have much of an impact on the battery power. Nothing else is running if you're not moving.

You absolutely should not be doing 260 miles without stopping for 10 minutes.

Having done a trip to Glasgow the other week, 256 miles I got there without a need to charge, however I did stop at 150 miles in to the journey, because that's how you stay a safe and alert driver.

I like mine, but the long distance driving definitely comes with caveats that might not work for others :

• Mine has a long range of 280 miles
• I only really do one long journey regularly, with charging on the M1, which is well served

-We waited until our children were older so we have the option to take the train and they can carry their own bags

I still think there's a long way to go before EVs are accessible to everyone.

That's appalling and actually illegal if you were an HGV driver.

This is why we are going to run out petrol one into the ground for at least another 5 years before even contemplating electric. Also replacing a working car with one made and shipped across the world seems worse for the environment than us using our petrol one for a few more years.