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!?

It's really not a ballache - just requires a change of mindset
Both DH and I drive fully electric and both drive long distances. Neither of us have had a problem.
This summer we went from Scotland, to Wales and then on to Yorkshire on holiday - and only had to wait once to get on a charger, and that was our very last charge to get us home
OP mentions a round trip of 370 miles, but no sensible person would drive that without breaks. So when you stop you charge. And you plan your trip so you know where your going to be charging, and read reviews to see how busy places are, if the chargers tend to be broken etc

I hate stopping for ages, but the main thing that puts me off an EV is having nowhere to charge at home. I don't see how that problem will ever be overcome.

The kids were really impressed when their dad got one....until the first long journey

YNBU

I would have a break, but that break would be around 10 mins max, while I go to the loo and get back in the car and go, or fill up if I need to

I wouldnt have time to fanny about finding a charger thats free, messing about on my phone organising it all then waiting for 40 mins or whatever.

@DeathStarCanteenGal it's all well and good saying you just need to change your mindset and plan. I have bpd I can't even plan what to cook for tea 🫣 I'm the most unorganised person that ever lived and everything's last minute and spontaneous. I couldn't plan where to stop my brain doesn't function like that.

I love mine. It has 300 mile range so only need to plan on longer trips, usually charge at home overnight (ev electricity tariff) if we travel over 300 in one go we plan to stop and charge and get a coffee, usually 30-40 mins. It's brilliant to drive and so cheap to run. Appreciate it is harder if you don't have home charger.

@bellac11 I'm exactly the same I'm in and out. Some people have all the time in the world (like Sunday drivers) the faffing would drive me insane, I'd leave the car and taxi it home 😳

Bloody expensive too just over £60 for full charge (200 miles) £60 would get me nearly 400 in my diesel 😬

Yeah it’s this whole take a 40 minute or so break thing that means dh would rather run the car into the ground.

Even when we go to places like wales, it’s a quick pee stretch legs back in. 10-15minutes tops. I don’t want to add nearly an extra hour onto an already possibly 5 hour trip one way then god forbid you get stuck in that slow rolling traffic just above walking speed.

Add in that in winter they lose how far they can go as well. The battery is not changeable which kinda kills a lot of the be more eco anyway, and swapping a “bad” but working car for a “eco” car isn’t very eco either.

It all happens on the dashboard screen - it’s built into the car itself.

No a VW. It is just an amazing car. I don’t have a fast charger at home. I don’t like Elon Musk.
I walk a lot and use public transport when I can.
Because I would like my kids to have some chance of a relatively decent future.
I do think that mumsnet is full of accounts who are just here to downplay climate change and to moan about EV’s.

The problem is that if google tells you a journey is about 5 hours, you can add another 2 on at least for traffic, speed restrictions, accidents, stopping for the loo etc etc

We do a lot of long journeys, I really dont want them any longer than they already are

Somebody told me last week that in some countries they have charging strips on the motorway that charge as you drive. That won't be happening here anytime soon as we've only just installed smart motorways and they won't be tearing them up. A lot of motorway work is still ongoing.

If there's really slow traffic the electric car is way more efficient than the ICE. The local commute (usually crawling) is super efficient in the EV. So traffic queues tend not to make range worse, unlike in an ICE car.

My bladder/back like a decent break more often than the car does. I have done the odd 4 hour drive after DH gets back from work on Friday without a break but I get stiff/bored and usually need to break that same journey at least once on the way back...

It's almost certainly better for road safety to force breaks every 200 miles or so which is around 2.5 hours!

I had one for local trips and loved it. They are a pita for long trips though, I sometimes have to take work EV and at least the stopping for charging/coffee/lunch is in works time and on expenses- I’d resent it much more otherwise!!

I felt like that at first but used to it now. Now I know where the chargers are that have good cafe or walk. It takes a bit of planning but we quite like the enforced break on a long journey.

ZapMap is good. It tells you where there are chargers.

Likewise. Climate change is the only thing keeping me awake at night.

Where the hell did you go to pay £60 for a full charge in a car with a 200 mile range?! The most I’ve ever paid for a full charge on mine (at an expensive service station) was about £30, and my range is over 300 miles. You were either royally ripped off, or your mistaken!

Love my fully electric car too. I do get range anxiety but not very often as it does 300 miles. It's the future. The charger situation does need to improve massively though.

Totally agree with you.

I'd love an ev but I'm another who has nowhere to charge it at home and I'm reliant on onstreet parking a long way from the house. I was expecting councils to start putting chargers in lampposts and every space in the public car parks. Ha! We have 2 in each of 2 car parks for the whole town and they are all slow overnighters. The supermarket has doubled this capacity but at horrendous cost.

Nope. And that's before I even start on my regular long M1 journeys... maybe when I retire, as I doubt the Govt (whichever flavour) will have its act together before then!

No good for long journeys

Our most common road trip to see family is 600 miles one way and we always try to do it in one day. There are spots we have to worry about timing petrol and bathrooms because there are long gaps with absolutely nothing. I don’t see how we could make it happen with an EV.

Exactly this - climate anxiety is a fair bit worse than range anxiety.

To be honest I get the point about having no off street parking - it's hard for those people to make an EV work. Everyone else just needs to (slightly) change the way they go about long journeys but people don't like change I guess.

Just go on the Better Route Planner app and test it.

I drive electric, and had an electric in 2019 for a year. It was much easier back in 2019 because as a previous poster said, the infrastructure hasn't caught up with the amount of electric cars on the road. It was also way cheaper to charge 4 years ago. My car doesn't get anywhere near its range once you get on the motorway and if using heat/ac. It's great for a city drive but not long distance. I would like to get rid of mine and get a hybrid but at one year old it's worth around half what I paid for it. I was told by salesman last month that the electric car market has taken a real hit.