I get up at 4AM to charge my EV because I’m sick of queues at stations – but now I’m taking even more drastic action
A FED-UP driver gets up at 4AM just to fuel his EV – as charging point queues spark chaos.
Ray Lee, 72, pulls himself out of bed in the early hours of the morning just to avoid battling with other electric car owners.
The fuming Uber driver, from Grays, Essex, is so frustrated with constant charging point fights, he is handing in the keys of his MG next week.
The dad-of-four explained there isn’t enough infrastructure to make owning an EV worthwhile, and said he actually returned his last one for the same reason.
He told MailOnline: “There’s one [charging point] in Grays, and two near the Sainsbury’s, so when people say there are taking too long they start fighting.”
Ray claimed he’s had to travel up to 15 miles to fuel his car due to charging queues and once waited from 7.30pm until 4.30am.
“Sometimes I had to get up at four or five am just to charge the car, because I knew it would be busy in the day,” he added.
The Uber driver said while his MG claims to offer him 165 miles, if he uses basic functions such as air con or heating, it really only gives him about 140.
He continued: “I am giving it back next week because of the stress. I will go back to my diesel car because it’s easier.”
Another raging EV driver, Nav, also hates the slug of having to wait for hours to charge his Volkswagen.
He claimed a fellow angry motorist once ripped the cable from his car, in order to top up theirs.
Meanwhile, a taxi driver, who transports customers in a Mercedes E-van, agreed he has also witnessed scraps.
Olu Sodipo, 50, said Heathrow Airport charging points are particularly bad.
“When you go there you don’t know who’s queuing and who’s not, so when you try to move into an empty space some people say, “I was here first,” he said.
“Other people sometimes mitigate and it doesn’t get violent, but it does happen.”
Elsewhere in the UK, car transporter Nigel, slammed EV’s for delaying journey times.
The 55-year-old said: “Because I have to charge the car I will be late picking up my next car and late getting home.
“When I came back from Glasgow I waited two hours to put a car on charge for 40 minutes.”
This comes as rows between furious electric car drivers are becoming so bad, marshals are now being forced to keep the peace at motorway service stations to manage “charge rage”.
New data from the Department for Transport revealed the necessary infrastructure is far from readily available.
While large areas of Somerset, Cumbria and Yorkshire have none at all.
Moto chief executive Ken McMeikan told The Sunday Telegraph: “What I’ve been saying to them is that the grid does not have sufficient capacity, now, to deliver the power we need at the time we need it.
“If we don’t get that amount of power, guaranteed, then in coming years every Christmas, every Easter, every summer holiday and peak bank holidays, will be the equivalent of when we have a fuel crisis on petrol and diesel.”
Meanwhile, an EV expert has revealed four tips to help drivers beat the queues at charging stations.
And, a motors expert has listed the worst electric cars to invest in as second-hand prices hit the floor.