My work road trip turned into a 13-hour nightmare when my EV and public chargers completely failed me – I’m furious
Electric car newbie Matthew Swan was left seething when what should have been a routine road trip for work, turned into a crazy 13-hour ordeal.
Back in January 2023 Mr Swan, 24, had to travel from Saffron Walden in Essex, to Newquay on the Cornish coast using an electric car.
“My work arranged for me to have a loan car. It was a MG ZS EV, and the internals of the car were great, with a load of features to make it very easy to drive”
“However, the whole electric vehicle aspect of the car was a nightmare. A journey that would normally take 5 hours took around thirteen hours – and that was before I hit traffic.”
Matt was extremely frustrated with the car’s overall range and the expensive cost of public charging: “The EV forced me to stop at inconvenient locations due to its poor battery life and the need to recharge.”
“The cost of charging the vehicle at electric plug-in points ended up being more expensive than what it would be for my own car.”
“I think the biggest issue I faced was the infrastructure – the chargers were easy enough to find in more urban areas, but as you get to more rural areas they’re impossible to find without downloading different apps and looking on a few different websites.”
This situation led to the all-too-common feeling of serious ‘range anxiety.’
Matt explained: “I had to drive around for an hour in Newquay with low charge just to find a plug-in point – only to find that the plug was out of order. This was usually the case during my time with the car.”
“There was a long queue for the one and only charge point I could find, but I’d have to wait over two hours for the people in front to finish charging before I could start – it was ridiculous and of course not forgetting my own charging time took around 40 minutes.”
There was also another issue which irked Matt: “Every EV plug in point demanded payment at the start.”
“This was an issue because if I wanted to top-up at a service station while I stretched my legs it would charge me around £50 for just 5% of charge.”
“The experience with the EV made it the hardest part of my week. All of it is completely unnecessary. I’d have to say the infrastructure is the biggest issue at the moment and then the battery life of the electric vehicles – I couldn’t possibly recommend one to anyone else.”