Recently, the Bays family took delivery of a new electric Nissan Leaf N-Connecta. It should have been a joyous experience, but soon turned into a nightmare.
The nightmare began when we decided it would be nice to take a half-term trip to our native North East to visit friends and family.
A journey that would normally have taken five and a half hours in our old petrol car ended up taking over eight hours in the new EV.
When we left home in the morning, we had 165 miles of charge available which should have got us to Nottingham, but we ended up having to stop early at Derby. Believe it or not, this was the least of our worries and the start of our travel nightmares.
Some of the card readers were not working on the EV chargers
KEITH BAYS
Charging points didn't work
The first problem we encountered came at the service station. Two EV charging stations were out of service, despite the Zapmap app telling us that they were available to use.
We wasted time and power going to a charge point that wasn’t even working.
Imagine if we didn’t have enough power to get to other service station - we would have been stranded and waiting on the recovery truck.
Not enough chargers on the motorway
The next problem we encountered was that the entire service station only had two EV charge points.
Each had the capacity to charge four cars in total, all of which were occupied, leaving us sat there with only 18 miles of charge left.
This resulted in a wait of more than an hour before a change point became available. So, instead of having a bite to eat while the car was on charge, we ended up loitering in the car park.
We feared that if we went for lunch, someone would jump the dreaded charging queue and take up the free spots. We then had to put the car on charge for more than an hour, so we were now at an additional two and a half hours of travel time.
We simply didn’t realise how unprepared the UK’s infrastructure was for electric cars
KEITH BAYS
Connector chaos
The next issue came with the EV chargers themselves. The variety is endless and you're constantly on edge hoping your luck is in that a suitable connector is available.
We have a CHAdeMO connector and only a few charge points have the required connector to fit. Some apps won’t even tell you how many charge points are available and what connectors they have.
To make matters worse, some only offer slow charging that can take up to 21 hours. Not something many want to factor into their journey.
Now I know you’ll all be saying “It’s your own fault you didn’t do enough research”, but we simply didn’t realise how unprepared the UK’s infrastructure was for electric cars.
Consequently, this meant we checked into our hotel later and had less time to spend with friends and family in the evening. I can say with all sincerity that it negatively impacted our journey and weekend away.
Significant charging costs
Then there’s the cost of the charges. Many pro-EV experts probably won’t tell you that charging an electric car is expensive.
We paid 79p per kWh. This cost us £47.80p for each of the two charges we needed to get to the North East. That’s £94.80 in total.
It would have cost a maximum of £70 for a full tank of fuel, so don’t be fooled by those who tell you it’s cheaper. In my recent experience, it was not.
On the way back, some charge points had prices as high as 85p per kWh.
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The high pre-authorisation fees could put a spanner in the works for some drivers
KEITH BAYS
High pre-authorisation charges
And if all that hasn’t put you off, the pre-authorisation costs are another major problem. If your family is on a tight budget during the cost of living crisis, it can really affect your cash flow.
The EV chargers all have pre-authorisation prices ranging from £1 to £45, so if you’re unlucky and need to stop at a couple of stations, you could pay hefty fees on top of the charging costs. However, this is refunded to you within two or three days on average.
Fortunately, we didn’t have an issue on this occasion, but it’s worth highlighting as many families planning trips won't be aware.
So, before you make the switch to an electric car, do think carefully, especially if you have a young family or run a business. Trust me I speak from experience and a bad experience at that.