Charging my EV at home is a nightmare because my neighbour blocks my drive… but there are TWO even bigger problems
A FUMING EV owner has blasted how hard it is to charge his motor – after his neighbours blocked him from doing so at home.
Chris Dorney is forced to drive to the closest service station near his home in Ramsgate, Kent, to top up the battery on his Vauxhall.
Chris, 53, has a home charging point but claimed that inconsiderate neighbours keep parking across his driveway, meaning he can’t access it.
He told The Sun Online: “I’m fortunate that I can charge my car at home, but even that has its problems.
“My neighbours regularly park across my drive so I can’t get to it.”
However, that’s not even the biggest issue he faces.
The dad-of-two went on to say that he struggles daily with his car’s range, while the costs are beginning to mount up.
Chris explained: “The roll-out of more charging points hasn’t been brilliant. The infrastructure is just not there at the moment.
“The moment I go up a hill or turn the heating on, the battery percentage drops. It’s so inconvenient.
“You have to change the way you drive with an electric car and you have to plan ahead.”
And with that relatively low range, he is forced to charge up regularly, which comes at a premium when he can’t use his home charger.
Average prices for EV charging have now reach between 60p and 70p per kWh, compared to just 44p last May.
This is effectively equivalent to the per mile price of a petrol or diesel, where a key selling point of electric cars used to be that drivers could go green on a budget.
Chris added: “There’s no incentive to go electric anymore either because it costs almost as much to use the charging points at motorway services, as it does to fill up with a tank of petrol or diesel.
“And I don’t feel safe spending hours sitting in my car at while I wait for a space to become free to charge it up.”