Is range anxiety still a real issue?
Discussion
It's not necessarily range anxiety as such.
I've got a Leaf and when I go down to London for a weekend, I will sit in lane 1 cruising merrily with the lorries (not causing any to have to overtake me).
I haven't got range anxiety, but it does mean I can do the trip with 1 charge stop instead of 2, or 2 instead of 3 etc. On most days when I'm not in a rush and when there's traffic, you don't actually lose much time on the road, and get more than that back by saving charge.
Range anxiety is when you don't know when you'll ever reach the destination or a charger and drive with heater and wipers off and wing mirrors folded in, listening to the shipping forecast to try and get the wind on your side.
I've got a Leaf and when I go down to London for a weekend, I will sit in lane 1 cruising merrily with the lorries (not causing any to have to overtake me).
I haven't got range anxiety, but it does mean I can do the trip with 1 charge stop instead of 2, or 2 instead of 3 etc. On most days when I'm not in a rush and when there's traffic, you don't actually lose much time on the road, and get more than that back by saving charge.
Range anxiety is when you don't know when you'll ever reach the destination or a charger and drive with heater and wipers off and wing mirrors folded in, listening to the shipping forecast to try and get the wind on your side.
I think part of the EV experience is wafting along in silience with no stress. Best way to do that is lane 1.
Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
It's actually really interesting. I'm back in the petrol for a few days (MoT time so flushing the old fuel out).
I'm overtaking and booting it in a way I really don't feel the need to in the Leaf. I think it's, as noted, the EV is such a stress-free experience you don't feel the urge to make progress in the same way.
I would say I have made more overtakes in the last two days (petrol) than in the last six months (electric).
Same route, same time, same driver. Just don't feel like I need to rush so much.
I'm overtaking and booting it in a way I really don't feel the need to in the Leaf. I think it's, as noted, the EV is such a stress-free experience you don't feel the urge to make progress in the same way.
I would say I have made more overtakes in the last two days (petrol) than in the last six months (electric).
Same route, same time, same driver. Just don't feel like I need to rush so much.
Phunk said:
I think part of the EV experience is wafting along in silience with no stress. Best way to do that is lane 1.
Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
Not being an EV owner (yet), what is the ettiquet for leaving your car at a charging point....stay with the car and off as soon as done, or as this person did, plug in wander off. It worries me re trying to charge in large cities were parking of any sort is at a premium, so a charging car could be left for hours.Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
rswift said:
Phunk said:
I think part of the EV experience is wafting along in silience with no stress. Best way to do that is lane 1.
Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
Not being an EV owner (yet), what is the ettiquet for leaving your car at a charging point....stay with the car and off as soon as done, or as this person did, plug in wander off. It worries me re trying to charge in large cities were parking of any sort is at a premium, so a charging car could be left for hours.Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
IKEA chargers, and other ecotricity fast chargers will turn off after either a full charge (rare, since it slows down the rate after 80%) or approx 45 mins of charging. After that, anybody can come and take the plug out of your car to use the charger, so you can't actually hog it when you're not charging. All the IKEA's I've been to have two spaces per charger, so you can park in space 2, and assuming the other car has finished charging, you can plug yours in.
I'll be honest, I've done many miles up and down the country, and have had only two times when the services charger was out of action (one was just dodgy and would only do 5 minutes at a time before cutting out, the other was disconnected while they were installing additional chargers). Neither was a show stopper, but yes in theory if you arrive at a services with 0% to spare and haven't checked whether it's live or not, you might get stuck.
Also had to queue only once, on M4 while some taxi dude with a Chinese BYD thing and was charging it. It's got like a 60kwh battery in it so he was properly draining the entire grid for ages. Eventually let me plug in, even though he was nowhere near done.
rswift said:
Not being an EV owner (yet), what is the ettiquet for leaving your car at a charging point....stay with the car and off as soon as done, or as this person did, plug in wander off. It worries me re trying to charge in large cities were parking of any sort is at a premium, so a charging car could be left for hours.
Hmmm its a little unclear at the min. It's a pretty small community so pretty friendly but there's a real problem in working out how to contact the owner. Ecotricity rapid chargers currently only allow 1 car at a time despite 2 parking spaces and 2 or 3 connectors. For busy sites they should limit charging sessions to 20min at peak periods.
I turned up at an ikea (think the same one phunk is referring to) and there was a leaf already there and was only 5 min into a charge. Luckily by the time I came back after a coffee they were away and I had a quick 15 min top up.
I'm working on a new service that should help these things but it will be a while yet. In the states people are leaving their Twitter names on their dashboard so you can tweet the owner to alert them to someone wanting the charger - better than handing out your mobile number to strangers I suppose!
It would still be a huge issue for a lot of drivers.
Check out any thread on here where diesel owners explain why they are better than petrol - obsessed with not having to fill up so often. Tell those people it's OK to wait around for half an hour on any long journey and their heads would explode.
For others, like me, I would not want to set off on a journey knowing that I would run out of juice unless I stayed at low speeds and didn't overtake. To me, that would cause anxiety; but others wouldn't care at all.
People like me, however, wouldn't buy an EV until the tech improves anyway, so maybe range anxiety isn't putting off people who would otherwise buy. The bigger problems, to my mind, are how dull, ugly and slow EVs are compared to petrol cars at the same prices.
A £30k electric car with decent steering, brakes and power delivery would win me over in a second, even if it could only do 100 miles.
Check out any thread on here where diesel owners explain why they are better than petrol - obsessed with not having to fill up so often. Tell those people it's OK to wait around for half an hour on any long journey and their heads would explode.
For others, like me, I would not want to set off on a journey knowing that I would run out of juice unless I stayed at low speeds and didn't overtake. To me, that would cause anxiety; but others wouldn't care at all.
People like me, however, wouldn't buy an EV until the tech improves anyway, so maybe range anxiety isn't putting off people who would otherwise buy. The bigger problems, to my mind, are how dull, ugly and slow EVs are compared to petrol cars at the same prices.
A £30k electric car with decent steering, brakes and power delivery would win me over in a second, even if it could only do 100 miles.
I find because EVs have a digital read out showing you how your using up energy a lot faster, for most of my daily A to B drives I just aim to be as efficient as possible. I ran the battery down to 11% today before filling up, 85-90 miles a charge is doable in the Leaf without going too slowly 
Imagine if you had such a read out in your ICE car, and you could than see your £££ literally going up in smoke before your very eyes....Its crazy I use to think running a car that cost me all-in £1/mile was 'normal'....I still love my cars, but the Tesla S shows that you can have just as much fun, but it a lot less cost!!
BUT the rapid charging (not Tesla superchargers) network need to be more reliable. At least 50% of rapid chargers maintained by Ecotricity don't seem to work, that's along the M1 corridor, from Leicester to London.
Imagine if you had such a read out in your ICE car, and you could than see your £££ literally going up in smoke before your very eyes....Its crazy I use to think running a car that cost me all-in £1/mile was 'normal'....I still love my cars, but the Tesla S shows that you can have just as much fun, but it a lot less cost!!BUT the rapid charging (not Tesla superchargers) network need to be more reliable. At least 50% of rapid chargers maintained by Ecotricity don't seem to work, that's along the M1 corridor, from Leicester to London.
gangzoom said:
I find because EVs have a digital read out showing you how your using up energy a lot faster, for most of my daily A to B drives I just aim to be as efficient as possible. I ran the battery down to 11% today before filling up, 85-90 miles a charge is doable in the Leaf without going too slowly Imagine if you had such a read out in your ICE car, and you could than see your £££ literally going up in smoke before your very eyes....Its crazy I use to think running a car that cost me all-in £1/mile was 'normal'....I still love my cars, but the Tesla S shows that you can have just as much fun, but it a lot less cost!!
BUT the rapid charging (not Tesla superchargers) network need to be more reliable. At least 50% of rapid chargers maintained by Ecotricity don't seem to work, that's along the M1 corridor, from Leicester to London.
I must say, I've never had a single issue with Ecotricity. They've become a sort of Mecca when travelling down to the folks. Imagine if you had such a read out in your ICE car, and you could than see your £££ literally going up in smoke before your very eyes....Its crazy I use to think running a car that cost me all-in £1/mile was 'normal'....I still love my cars, but the Tesla S shows that you can have just as much fun, but it a lot less cost!!BUT the rapid charging (not Tesla superchargers) network need to be more reliable. At least 50% of rapid chargers maintained by Ecotricity don't seem to work, that's along the M1 corridor, from Leicester to London.
SuperPav said:
rswift said:
Phunk said:
I think part of the EV experience is wafting along in silience with no stress. Best way to do that is lane 1.
Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
Not being an EV owner (yet), what is the ettiquet for leaving your car at a charging point....stay with the car and off as soon as done, or as this person did, plug in wander off. It worries me re trying to charge in large cities were parking of any sort is at a premium, so a charging car could be left for hours.Another issue is it's a real lottery if the charge point you are going to is: Actually there, turned on yet (we have a rapid near me that hasn't had power since it was installed over a year ago), ICE'd or EV'd, like the Zoe that hogged the Rapid at IKEA for over 90 minutes last week.
IKEA chargers, and other ecotricity fast chargers will turn off after either a full charge (rare, since it slows down the rate after 80%) or approx 45 mins of charging. After that, anybody can come and take the plug out of your car to use the charger, so you can't actually hog it when you're not charging. All the IKEA's I've been to have two spaces per charger, so you can park in space 2, and assuming the other car has finished charging, you can plug yours in.
I'll be honest, I've done many miles up and down the country, and have had only two times when the services charger was out of action (one was just dodgy and would only do 5 minutes at a time before cutting out, the other was disconnected while they were installing additional chargers). Neither was a show stopper, but yes in theory if you arrive at a services with 0% to spare and haven't checked whether it's live or not, you might get stuck.
Also had to queue only once, on M4 while some taxi dude with a Chinese BYD thing and was charging it. It's got like a 60kwh battery in it so he was properly draining the entire grid for ages. Eventually let me plug in, even though he was nowhere near done.
I understand that Ikea chargers turn off after a full charge, however the Zoe that was stuck on 99% from when I turned up at 60 minutes till when I got fed up at 90 minutes. I tried unplugging it, I even tried calling eccentricity to see if they would remotely stop it - no luck!
Despite several chargers in the Glasgow Area, the nearest one to me (transport museum) I've seen a Queue of 4 leafs, the Braehead charger constantly breaks (had a broken handle for over a month), the IKEA charger is normally ICE'd/EV'd, the Hydro charger has been broken for nearly 6 months, the Glasgow city centre SSE charger is office hours only and the Shields Road Subway rapid requires a £5 smart card for parking plus £1 / hour.
Edited by Phunk on Friday 1st May 23:49
The Badger said:
I must say, I've never had a single issue with Ecotricity. They've become a sort of Mecca when travelling down to the folks.
You have been very lucky!!I'll list the Ecotricity Rapids I used last weekend and their status:
•NewPagnell - south bound: Both chargers worked.
•London Gateway - one charger 100% dead, other charger wouldn't read my card
•Toddington - North bound: Charger stuck on one screen
•Leicester - North bound: One charger broken, other worked.
So 57% of the rapid chargers I tried to use were not working. Reading around other forums, 50% success rate with Ecotricity Rapids is about average. If your getting more than that, count your self lucky!!
gangzoom said:
You have been very lucky!!
I'll list the Ecotricity Rapids I used last weekend and their status:
I would agree with that. We are lucky that our Zoe only get used for local trips and we can drive into central London and back on one charge. Ikea? Forget it ICED usually. Rapids? Broken. Ecotricity support? M-F 9/5. I'll list the Ecotricity Rapids I used last weekend and their status:
Basically turn up with 10 miles range at a rapid, find it is out of order, onto the back of a truck.
I've had my car since January and just coming up to 12,000 miles (including a day drive to Geneva for the motorshow, day at the show and then a day drive back).
I had one scare with 16 miles of range left, 2 chargers in Basingstoke not working and 16 miles to the Reading charger. Drove within the speed limits and got to the charger with a range indicator reading 0 :-)
Otherwise no real issues with range so far.
I had one scare with 16 miles of range left, 2 chargers in Basingstoke not working and 16 miles to the Reading charger. Drove within the speed limits and got to the charger with a range indicator reading 0 :-)
Otherwise no real issues with range so far.
Phunk said:
I have a Leaf Tekna company car and my mum drives a Zoe. I also have driven the eGolf, eUp, i3 and i8 through work, so I'm very clued up on ev's!
I understand that Ikea chargers turn off after a full charge, however the Zoe that was stuck on 99% from when I turned up at 60 minutes till when I got fed up at 90 minutes. I tried unplugging it, I even tried calling eccentricity to see if they would remotely stop it - no luck!
Despite several chargers in the Glasgow Area, the nearest one to me (transport museum) I've seen a Queue of 4 leafs, the Braehead charger constantly breaks (had a broken handle for over a month), the IKEA charger is normally ICE'd/EV'd, the Hydro charger has been broken for nearly 6 months, the Glasgow city centre SSE charger is office hours only and the Shields Road Subway rapid requires a £5 smart card for parking plus £1 / hour.
Phunk, apologies, didn't mean to come across as arsey as my post might have been construed, it's just at work a lot of people tell me about problems of living with an EV when they drive a Skoda diesel I understand that Ikea chargers turn off after a full charge, however the Zoe that was stuck on 99% from when I turned up at 60 minutes till when I got fed up at 90 minutes. I tried unplugging it, I even tried calling eccentricity to see if they would remotely stop it - no luck!
Despite several chargers in the Glasgow Area, the nearest one to me (transport museum) I've seen a Queue of 4 leafs, the Braehead charger constantly breaks (had a broken handle for over a month), the IKEA charger is normally ICE'd/EV'd, the Hydro charger has been broken for nearly 6 months, the Glasgow city centre SSE charger is office hours only and the Shields Road Subway rapid requires a £5 smart card for parking plus £1 / hour.
Edited by Phunk on Friday 1st May 23:49
Guess I've been lucky, and despite there not being too many chargers around where I am, I've always managed to plug in. Although ironically the other day I did have a bit of a close call because the southbound M40 chargers are offline.
As for chargers not unlocking, that's unusual. I'll be honest, when I park in Ikea, I do not return to check/unplug my car because on all the occasions I've been there, someone else had unplugged it for me once it had unlocked. Will keep in mind though when going to new Ikeas though, so some poor sod isn't waiting for me to pick out a toilet brush.
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