Recently, I drove the Dacia Spring, a small electric car with a 140-mile range when new (and warm and not on a motorway).
Also last week, my munchkins climbed into a 16-year-old small car and drove 140 miles to camp at a wet music festival. When they had to stop to refuel (once, on their way home), it took them only a few minutes.
Fast forward to 2040 and their equivalents might still be tooling around in a combustion-engined city car or supermini – or they could find themselves instead driving an old small electric car, more tired and less rangy than it is today.
Having such a weekend away will still be doable, of course, but it will take longer. One might stop to shop while charging on the way, maybe, rather than buying instant noodles and Jaffa Cakes the night before.
The impromptu freedoms we’ve taken for granted – throwing some kit into the car on a spare weekend and taking a spontaneous long trip to the Lakes or Devon or wherever – will be more daunting in an old Spring than they are now in an old Citroën C1. Maybe prohibitively so.
I genuinely think that by 2030, we will look back at today’s cutting edge and think it wasn’t good enough. Not a reason to give up eradicating tailpipe emissions but enough to wish solid-state batteries, which promise double the energy density and triple the charging speed, into the mainstream as soon as possible.
Because there’s lots to like about the idea of heading into the sticks in an EV. Mooching down a green lane with the windows and roof down, accompanied by only birdsong, the breeze and the scrunch of tyre upon dirt, is something that I’ve done in a plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler, and it’s really compelling.
Then when you get to where you’re going, you can set up shop and plug things into the car: lighting, devices, a kettle, a stove, a fridge, a tent heater on which to dry your socks.
In selling the electric dream, particularly with lifestyle-oriented cars, I wonder if manufacturers make quite enough of this. It doesn’t have to be the wilderness, it could be just a day out, but you can keep your sandwiches colder, your tea warmer and your feet drier.
Mighty Convoy and sending ambulances to Ukraine
My friend Simon Brake, who runs Mighty Convoy, a non-profit organisation that has so far raised £160,000 to take 24 ambulances to Ukraine across seven trips, has called to say that his Ukrainian charity contacts wonder if he’s able to bring 4x4s the next time Mighty Convoy drives to Lviv to donate vehicles, this October.
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I always stop for a break when driving long distance and now regularly end up standing next to the car with my cup of tea, because it finishes charging before my tea is cool enough to drink. So the car charges quicker than I need it to. I also have a combustion car and find the refuelling process much worse in that vehicle. Petrol stinks, the pumps are always filthy and then you have to pay a fortune for it. It was even worse recently when I hired a diesel van. The pump handle was covered in diesel and the guy behind the till sprayed my hands with detergent and gave me paper towels. You may think that is a good experience Matt, but I don't. Plus, at the end of the day, when I charge my EV overnight I am using clean UK wind energy. When I fill my petrol car full of 'toxic death juice', the money goes straight out of the country and into the pocket of a despot. Why is that a good thing? Honestly, electric is much better in every way.
You have valid points but are describing an idealized scenario. Too often, there are cars waiting to charge however, which takes a lot longer than an ICE car of course, and finding a charging sttaion that works properly or at all is hit or miss, speaking from expreince.
When solid state batteries and 10 minute charge ups on an extensive, well maintained and reliable chargins network is a thing, then it will all make sense for everybody, not just a few.
Yes, that's longer than 2 minutes or takes to refuel, but after 300+ miles of driving you don't just stop to refuel and leave. You use the toilet, grab a bite and a coffee. So that's hardly a problem.
The only problem is the charging infrastructure - it has to become at least as good as the refueling one.
When we used to do 300-400+ miles and we had a fuel stop, that morning we made up some Sandwiches, a few bags of crisps,maybe a Flask of Coffee/Tea plus stuff for the Kids, these pit stops nowadays can be an expensive business,EV's for the most of us aren't Polestar solved.