Everybody’s obsessed by how far any given electric car can go on a single charge, but in the UK are we missing the point?
You could argue that the UK is essentially perfect for EV adoption compared to most other countries also making the switch, given its relatively compact and dense layout compared to much larger countries like the USA or Australia, or even France.
Even if you go from one end of the UK to the other you can’t hit 1,000 miles without a diversion. The legendary Lands End Cornwall to John O’Groats Scotland journey (which people only really cover for charity events) is 837 miles.
To take a few more likely inter-city examples, Birmingham to Sheffield is 85 miles, London to Bristol is 117 miles, Cardiff to Dover is 233 miles and Leeds to Glasgow 238 miles, according to the AA Route Planner.
We don’t drive long distances as often as we think we do
At least, not very often, leaving aside company car drivers who are pounding the motorways daily, and going on summer holidays.
Over nearly 20 years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic (2002 to 2019), the average car trip made in England in 2019 was consistently about 8.4 miles, according to the Department for Transport.
The DfT’s 2023 UK National Travel Survey is the primary source of data on personal travel patterns by residents of England within Great Britain.
It says that the annual private mileage covered by cars in 2023 was 4,400 miles – 200 up from 2022. Divided by days, that’s 12 miles per day. Commuting was 2,300 miles – up 100, so 6.3 miles a day. In 2023, 69% of the trips people took of between one and five miles were made by car or van.
The 2023 UK National Travel Survey says that there has been a gradual decline in car driver and passenger trips since 2002, with 23% fewer trips on average respectively in 2023 than in 2002. The most common trip purpose in 2023 was for shopping with 169 trips per person – and think of how much is delivered to the door these days.
Home chargers need never run out
Two-thirds of UK drivers have access to off-street parking, so potentially can charge at home. It’s estimated that there are about 850,000 private home charging points in the UK, which is highly favourable for the 1.2 million EVs currently on UK roads.
The average household car covers about 100 miles a week, so if they’re using an EV for shopping or school runs most can charge once a week and still never have to worry about running out of electricity. Every new EV on sale now shouldn’t dip under 100 miles without needing a charge, no matter what the conditions.
And if you need to top up during a longer journey or can’t charge at home, as we recently reported, the availability of public chargers is now rising faster than the number of new EVs coming onto the market. If current growth continues, the UK will have more than 300,000 public chargers by 2030, which is the government target.
According to Professor David Greenwood of the Advanced Propulsion Centre, the ideal combination that would make people comfortable with buying an EV is 150 miles of real-world range (so a claimed official 200 miles in ideal conditions) and the ability to charge quickly once they are confident in public charging.
Should we embrace smaller batteries and ranges?
Over the last few years, some carmakers have launched new EVs with what’s considered a small battery range (less than 150 miles), which appears to have been a big-time slip-up.
The 2020 Honda e was admired by many for its high-tech interior and cool styling then pilloried for its low range (137 miles on a good day with a very specific wheel size) and big price (around £37K). Sales proved so dismal that it was dropped at the start of 2024.
The Mazda MX-30 is larger than the Honda e and still on sale at £28K. Mazda says it has a ‘right-sized’ 36kWh battery for fast charging. But a maximum combined mixed maximum of 124 miles seems to have put buyers off to the extent that a range-extender version with a small petrol engine has been added.
Many people will remember that the pecking order of petrol cars used to be by engine size. With electric cars, it’s battery size and range. To get more range, you need a bigger battery – therefore it has to be put in a bigger and more expensive car. The Dacia Spring is a city-sized EV with a 27kWh battery, at best a 140-mile range and is the cheapest EV you can buy at £15K. To get over 100 miles more (theoretical) range you’d need a car like the slightly bigger 51kWh Peugeot e-208 with 248 miles, costing £30K.
But the smaller the battery, the quicker it is to top up the charge away from home, as long as the car can use rapid and ultra-rapid public chargers (which are becoming easier to find). Professor Greenwood sees the key point of EV acceptability being the ability of the car to charge from 20-80% in 15 minutes (or in simpler terms, the time to grab a coffee), which is made easier if the battery is smaller.
But there might be a turnaround in thinking coming with the advent of a host of more reasonably priced EVs with reasonable range. Above the Dacia Spring in range (if not in size) the new Leapmotor T03 city car is £16K and 165 miles. Usefully bigger than both these two, the £22K Citroën ë-C3 (199 miles is) followed by the new Hyundai Inster billing 203 miles in its basic form at £23.5K. Is that the kind of range and price you need?
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