I’ve owned an EV for two years – the experience has been a nightmare & it’s making me lose the will to live
A DRIVER who has owned an EV for two years claims it has been a nightmare and it making him lose the will to live.
Lee, also known as the MacMaster, uploaded a clip to his YouTube channel in which he claimed some aspects of EV tech are “not fit for purpose”.
In the video, he was on his way back to his home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, from Cornwall after completing a mammoth 600-mile road trip from John O’Groats to Lands’ End in his EV.
However, he found himself stuck at a service station just outside the town after almost running out of charge on the way.
Standing in front of the supposedly “high-powered” chargers at around 10.30pm, he faced a 20-minute wait just to get enough power to carry him the roughly 18 miles home.
According to his car’s infotainment system, it would have taken until 1.02am the next morning to charge fully.
Lee said: “I literally went down to 1% on my battery.
“It’s now half past ten at night, I’m getting 28kW out of this charger.
“This proves that the infrastructure on the network here in the UK isn’t fit for purpose.
“A lot of these chargers aren’t pushing out enough wattage…what if you had a family in the back of the car?”
Not only that, but the bay he was parked in had a two-hour time limit on it, while he had to pay 69p per kW at the charging point.
This would mean a 100% charge from empty would have cost him around £64.40 for just 276 miles of range.
Fortunately, he only needed enough power to make it back to Mansfield, where he has a home charger that he could fill up from at a much cheaper rate.
He got home at 11.14pm and plugged in, only to be informed that it would take until 11.28am the following day to get back to full charge.
Lee added: “If this doesn’t prove 100% that electric cars are not the future, then I don’t know what does.
“I think what we’ve learned…is that electric cars are not fit for purpose and, to be quite honest, I’m losing the will to live.
“My advice to you would be, if you’re thinking of buying an electric car, don’t.”
However, it should be noted that it is still cheaper to charge an EV than fill up a petrol car, even if it takes longer and provides a lower range.
There are also rapid chargers in most parts of the country which can charge your motor up to around 80% in as little as 20 minutes, those these are more expensive to use.
Home chargers can be installed for an average of £800 and significantly reduce the cost of fuelling compared to both public chargers and petrol or diesel.
EVs also require less maintenance than traditional cars and so, barring any major faults, have lower running costs, excluding insurance.
Grideserve, the company that provide the charging points Lee used, has been contacted for comment.
It comes after a major supercar brand announced that it would launch its first ever EV, with a new factory already in the works.
Meanwhile, a driver who tested a Tesla-rivalling EV concluded that it was excellent, apart from two annoying features.