Charging EVs away from home: is queuing a problem?

AskAlice

This is one of the reasons I won't be buying an electric car anytime soon. Until the infrastructure is much more available and reliable it seems a bit pot luck!

Same here. I’ve just ordered a new car, it will be arriving in September. It’s a petrol car.

In the eighties and nineties, we drove from Scotland to Europe many times, covering hundreds of miles. I imagine this would be quite difficult in an electric car. Much more planning ahead would be required, curtailing ad hoc travel.

We've had one for nearly a year and I love it. In cold weather I can heat the car using my phone before I leave the house so I get into a warm car. We just charge it at home though as never go on long journeys. I go out to swim early morning. The screen shows the nearest charging points all the time. We tried the Asda one but it was very slow. There is a faster one at a Beefeater restaurant 5 minutes away. Not tried it yet. In an increasing area of London and the SE if you have a petrol or diesel car you pay to travel.

Using the heater, warm seat and steering wheel does use a lot of the power so it needs charging more often..

Sorry to say our new car will be petrol, although its been on order for 6 months and it's not being built yet. We can't have a charging point outside our house. The local Tesco (10 miles away) has a few charging points but none in our village or nearby town. I am also concerned about the short life expectancy of the batteries and the use of rare minerals found in poor, exploited countries. At the moment they seem to be a recipe for waste.

My stepson and his fiancee bought an electric car. Went on holiday with it to Elgin and spent the whole day stopping to charge it on the way home as the weather had turned really cold and they couldn't bear the car so cold. They had to stop three times to recharge the car. This was to travel about 250 miles so not far.

We bought an EV last year and it’s our only car. Lovely to drive and fantastic around town. Don’t have a proper charger but just use the outside power point which is slower but use it overnight. But we have serious concerns about long journeys having had a freezing ride home at Christmas from a family get together. Couldn’t find a working charger that fitted our car (hadn’t realised that different cars have different plugs) so didn’t dare have heating on. So I think we’ll swap cars with our son next time we need to do a long journey. Great for the planet but the infrastructure needs to be much improved before we’re all expected to switch to electric cars.

Efficient charging stations seem to be like hens teeth. Perhaps the best approach is new models with better overall emissions.

Old car's emissions remain higher over its lifetime than your new car's.

My son has had an ev for a number of years, and he toddles around all over the country. I think is does 300+ to a full battery. There are two types of top up apparently, fast and ordinary. However he has found it all easy and straightforward.

I was reading yesterday I think that the infrastructure is such that it is definitely worth buying one now. You can google to find out where you can top up.

From my point of view I am aware that motorway service stations have been busy renewing their infrastructure and have extended parking bays for ev enormously, and there always seems plenty of room and parking bays free.

It’s getting better, there are more places with multiple rapid chargers, at peak times there may be a queue, avoid lunch times in particular. Most chargers now accept contactless credit cards, but not all, there is a free app “Zap-Map” that keeps track of chargers, wether they are working, being used, cost and payment method.

I have a hybrid with no plans to switch to full electric because I visit my son 400 miles away. A friend has a new electric car and can’t use it to visit his mother a similar distance because when he tried it took so long to get there it just wasn’t practical.

Caramme

My son opted for an EV a couple of years ago, thinking he was doing the eco friendly thing. It’s a lovely car, big, smooth and comfortable, and plenty of power too. But every time they go any distance they all have to pile into my dil’s petrol Golf. Three big issues: the manufacturers lied about the range of the car which drops dramatically if using lights/heater or stuck in the endless tailbacks on the NW’s motorways; motorway chargers either not in use or with long queues, and poor charger provision outside cities - also commercial chargers are expensive; boot space barely enough for the weekly shop, never mind holiday bags, cos it’s all taken up by the batteries.
I’ll be hanging on to my trusty Spanish petrol car until one of us finally falls to bits.

Yes, our son has a large electric vehicle too. We're lucky and all share a holiday home in the South West, but he says that the range of his car is only marginally more than the distance. If there is a diversion or traffic jam, if he needs the heating, windscreen wipers or lights on, there is a very real risk of him running out of power. This means that he has to be towed off the road as they cannot be charged by the AA or RAC.
We are not able to install a charging point near our parking space so he has to go to local supermarkets where the chargers are often already in use or out of service. He hasn't found the motorway service areas much use, nor the app that directs him to the nearest charger - again they are often in use or out of service. And the charging obviously adds to his journey time.
My husband and I both needed new cars over the past couple of years because of ULEZ but both bought petrol cars as we don't want to risk a 150 mile journey with a battery car.

There’s now something called “Range Anxiety,” which is a real thing among many EV drivers. Two of my sons have EV’s, a VW Golf and a Tesla. One son kept the Golf a year. He has business in London quite often,and says the planning,the time queuing, air conditioning gobbled the battery power, so did heater. When going to London on business , he wants to get there, do stuff, and get back quickly ( Loughborough) not sit in queues adding much more time to journey, he sold it, went back to petrol. Second son has company Tesla. He also has to do long journeys to London and Manchester ( from Nottingham). He can charge for free at Tesla garages, but still loathes the endless waiting,adds to considerable time over weeks and months. My husband delivers cars to customers, as a retirement job, and has driven every EV brand! Up and down the country. Him,and the thirty other guys enjoy the cars, but hate the EV side of it.Technology has to create batteries that last as long as a tank of petrol does,and as that won’t happen in our lifetime, we are another big fat “no,” I’m afraid.

What we must remember is that the technology will improve rapidly

I don't think they are all that good for the planet. Lithium mining is a dirty business. Also I notice that in Germany electric cars are not allowed in underground car park or on some ferries due to the fire risk. I expect it's rare but, along with the problems finding charging points they're just not for me.

We did consider buying electric cars, but (apart from the charging problems at the moment) one friend is already on his third as earlier models had relatively short lives and poor batteries. When you look at the environmental cost of making these three cars I find it hard to imagine that they would better for the environment than one very efficient petrol car which could last well for 20 years if properly serviced and maintained.
I'm sure that in time this situation will be remedied, but probably our new petrol cars will last as long as I need a car.

Whitewavemark2

What we must remember is that the technology will improve rapidly

But sadly not quickly enough for those of us who need new cars NOW because of ULEZ or similar zones. We need them immediately, not in five year's time.

cc I really don't understand this. As I said up thread regenerative breaking means EVs gain range in slow moving traffic and traffic jams. Yes heating and air conditioning reduce range, but you can minimise this by using eco mode.
The charging network is not as good as it should be but it isn't bad enough to stop you travelling, if you use the apps and do your planning properly. Yes you have to factor in 15- 30 mins to charge if you don't have the range, but stopping for a break every couple of hundred miles seems sensible to me.
It does make it harder if you can't have a charging point at home, but I know plenty of people who don't. Is your son on the Speak EV forum? It sounds as if it might help.

For the vast majority of journeys, home charging is sufficient. There's rapid development of fast charging stations now - due to demand, so, unless you live somewhere really remote, there won't be a problem.

Availability
It’s lunchtime Sunday, we often travel the M5, I’ve just checked availability on Zap-Map, all took contactless, plenty of chargers free maybe 1 in 5 is occupied.
It’s not just service stations lots at restaurants or retail parks close to motorway

Mamie

cc I really don't understand this. As I said up thread regenerative breaking means EVs gain range in slow moving traffic and traffic jams. Yes heating and air conditioning reduce range, but you can minimise this by using eco mode.
The charging network is not as good as it should be but it isn't bad enough to stop you travelling, if you use the apps and do your planning properly. Yes you have to factor in 15- 30 mins to charge if you don't have the range, but stopping for a break every couple of hundred miles seems sensible to me.
It does make it harder if you can't have a charging point at home, but I know plenty of people who don't. Is your son on the Speak EV forum? It sounds as if it might help.

I gather that the problem is worst is if you are travelling at night, with the lights and maybe the heating on. If you are barely moving it simply won't recharge much as the motor turns off whilst you are stopped. And the charging time is way over 15-30 minutes for a decent charge of a larger car - especially if you have to leave the motorway to find a working or free charger.
He has a charger at home and obviously he plans his journey carefully but it does make the journey time much longer and increases the mileage if you have to leave your planned route for any reason, as has happened pretty regularly to him. He travels with children, often at night after school and work finish, so a 150 mile journey takes long enough without these delays.

cc our battery has a ten year guarantee. It seems very unlikely that anything else could go seriously wrong as there are far fewer component parts than an ICE car!
France is opening a factory to provide 700,000 lithium car batteries a year. There is a lot of work going on to recycle older ones for solar energy storage.

I’ve now had my id3 for two years, I absolutely love it! I have never rationed my use of heaters etc and the advantages of having a fully defrosted car good to go in colder months is a real treat.
I’ve also used it several times to visit our family in London (297 miles) without any problems.
Charging points have always been available, I charge approximately half way, the longest time to fully charge has been 50 mins- enough time for a comfort break, walk the dog and have a sandwich.
I wouldn’t go back to a Petrol or diesel car EVs are definitely the future and can only improve.

Is he charging beyond 80% CC? That is what slows it down. We tend to charge up from 20 to 80% which can be done in 15 minutes on a fast charger. We certainly don't see any great loss from heating and cooling, but ours is a fairly new model, so perhaps more efficient.

Mamie

cc I really don't understand this. As I said up thread regenerative breaking means EVs gain range in slow moving traffic and traffic jams. Yes heating and air conditioning reduce range, but you can minimise this by using eco mode.
The charging network is not as good as it should be but it isn't bad enough to stop you travelling, if you use the apps and do your planning properly. Yes you have to factor in 15- 30 mins to charge if you don't have the range, but stopping for a break every couple of hundred miles seems sensible to me.
It does make it harder if you can't have a charging point at home, but I know plenty of people who don't. Is your son on the Speak EV forum? It sounds as if it might help.

That sounds exactly like my sons experience. He never mentions it in fact, because he has no difficulties - and believe me I would know if he did😄