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Myths & Misconceptions
‘Electric Vehicles don’t go very far’ (The Range Anxiety Illusion)
EV’s once struggled to offer enough range for the needs of most drivers but with the typical range available sitting at a comfortable 250 miles (and with many more EVs reaching the 300 mile+ mark) the ‘EVs don’t go very far’ is a firm myth.
It’s also worth noting that the average mileage for a vehicle in 2019 in the UK was less than 18 miles a day which equates to only 6,500 miles per year.
With Tesla announcing they will have a vehicle with over 500 miles of range later in 2021 and 650 miles by 2022 it isn’t much of a stretch to expect EVs capable of outperforming ICE vehicles very soon.
‘There aren’t enough charge points’ (UK Charge Point Infrastructure)
Most EV owners charge their vehicles overnight, waking up to a full charge every day just like you would with your mobile phone.
When it does come to the time you might require public charging (for example on a long trip) it’s worth noting that there are already more than twice as many public charge points for electric cars in the UK than there are petrol stations.
If you’re on the road you can charge at one of the 37,000 public charging connectors with 500 more being added each month. Visit Zap Map for a live map.
‘It takes a long time to charge’
Charging technology is constantly evolving and although most people just plug in overnight with their 7kW home charger (which typically takes under 8 hours) you can now also charge at rapid chargers (up to 350kWh) which can take as little as 30 minutes!
More information on charging can be found here. (link to charging guide)
‘They’re expensive’
If comparing pure retail list prices then electric vehicles are frequently higher in cost (although battery production costs are coming down rapidly and cost parity really isn’t very far off)
However, the list price is far from the whole picture when it comes to understanding the true costs of EV ownership. According to new research from car insurance specialist Direct Line, EV’s are already cheaper to own when compared to internal combustion cars over their whole lifetime. Finding annual tax and maintenance costs (including MOTs and servicing) for electric vehicles were 49 per cent lower than for petrol models, with refuelling costs a whopping 58 per cent less!
Couple this with the generous grants and incentives encouraging EV adoption and you might find electrification is exactly the right route for you to put money back in your pocket.
‘EVs are bad for the environment’ (The Production Myth)
Research has now unequivocally proven that electric cars are better for the environment and not just on the basis of electric vehicles having zero tailpipe emissions.
To really make the comparison between your petrol or diesel vehicle and an EV you also need to consider the emissions associated with electricity generation and the conversion to miles within the vehicle. Figures from a 2017 UK Government study showed that petrol vehicles produce the highest carbon dioxide emissions at 211g per kilometre, while diesel vehicles emitted 179g. Comparing this to an electric vehicle it was found just 73g of carbon dioxide emissions per kilometre were produced.
Even if a battery became no longer fit for use in the car, it can either be recycled or given a second life as an energy storage unit for homes or businesses.
The grid cannot support an increase in electric vehicle charging
First of all, the main switch to EVs won’t all happen overnight and second of all, there are already huge innovations already being implemented which will help manage the load, Smart charging, Vehicle to Grid (V2G) battery technology, agile energy tariffs, plus solar and battery storage.
In the National Grid’s own words, “Even if the impossible happened and we all switched to EVs overnight, we think demand would only increase by around 10 per cent. So we’d still be using less power as a nation than we did in 2002 and this is well within the range of manageable load fluctuation.”