From what I can find, the number of EV's registered in the UK increased 74% from 2020 to 2021. However, the number of charging stations only increased around 35%. Its this disparity that needs addressing

@keithhooper6123

2 ай бұрын

Maybe,but total EV s ,still under 200,000

That was a massively interesting review Ash, on several different levels. The review of the Audi, the charging infrastructure, a cost analysis, the dash cam, comparing Google Maps to the cars navigation system and more...all in one video. Brilliant!

@ashley_neal

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@ibs5080

2 жыл бұрын

@@ashley_neal I was watching during a 50 min workout on the stationary bike at home...and felt an extra surge of energy! Although I don't own an EV, If only I could charge such a vehicle via peddling on my stationary bike!

I didn't realise the charging stations were so busy and unreliable. What a great insight, thank you for your effort.

@chrisgale5634

2 жыл бұрын

100% agree.

@nikoscosmos

2 жыл бұрын

Not exactly cheap either!

Just a small correction kW is the measure of power and kWh is the amount of energy consumed/recieved. So if you charge at 100kW for 30min, you would recieve 50kWh of charge to your battery

@winkcla

2 жыл бұрын

Also the price per unit should probably be shown with a slash: £0.30 kWh => £0.30/kWh Then it should be easy to check whether the units match or not: kWh * £/kWh = £

@richardparke4105

2 жыл бұрын

Energy consumed*

@EndstyleGG

2 жыл бұрын

@@richardparke4105 Corrected :)

@marklittler784

2 жыл бұрын

50kw overall to battery not 50kwh surely.

@richardparke4105

2 жыл бұрын

@@EndstyleGG :)

One thing to note for those new to EV driving: it's often more efficient to stop more often and limit your rapid charging to between 20-80%. This is because the charging speed slows way down if the battery is above 80% or so, so you'll spend less time stationary if you make more frequent stops. This also helps keep the queues down at stations. Gridserve (the charge point operator at motorway services) will be upgrading their stations soon to allow charging on both cables per post, so that will also help a lot.

@nujjigram

2 жыл бұрын

You would be surprised to learnt that in india, tata Nexon EV owners have been advised to charge up the car to 100% every single stop It's fking annoying for the rest of us, because that car charging speed is limited to 25kw. They end up hogging the charging station for 2 hours each

Watching this after watching one of my favourite vloggers head up to Scotland with his Electric Taycan. I just don’t think the infrastructure is there yet for electric cars, they might be good to own if you never plan on leaving your town/city, but if you love to travel and explore, charging stations can add literal hours to the journey. I’ll stick with petrol for now.

@sykurpudi1

2 жыл бұрын

Iceland has an interesting alternative to this problem... Since we have a rather large amount of POI's in Iceland, just places in nature that are interesting to look at, the governing body has decided to plonk down an EV charger, or two, at a majority of the parking lots nearby those places. Since the parking lots often have lighting, or facilities of some sort anyways, it requires no additional infrastructure to place down a couple of chargers. This has the added effect that, whilst you make a stop at a POI, your car can be charging and thus won't have to make additional charging stops, provided your intention was to stop at those places anyways. Since a lot of people are, this works out in the favour of EV's and the government, who doesn't have to spend heaps of money getting infrastucture into the middle of nowhere, since *they already did*. Sadly, this is a rather unique situation, although rather interesting.

@andrewnorris5415

2 жыл бұрын

They are perhaps a good second car for people with driveways. Not sure Ash would have bought one otherwise (and for his channel of course - I think he said the EV should make it more interesting for viewers to learn about them).

@jackwatsonepic626

2 жыл бұрын

Until another 14 years

@ekhaat

2 жыл бұрын

Well, it seems to be fine for a lot of EV-owners. The joy of driving an EV easily makes up for those few times you have to spend waiting.

@gusbarber00

2 жыл бұрын

Could you provide a link to that video for me please or at least point me in the right direction. I am curious to check it out. Cheers

Exactly why it will be a very long time before I go electric, not that I could possibly afford a new car . When I go to the New Forest, from Bury , I have my break at Birdlip viewpoint, on the A417 , no chargers or coffee up there ! I go somewhere the way I want to go , drive the roads I want to drive , stop where I want to stop .

Charger rage, that will be the new thing. People having punch ups when someone pushes straight in to charge their car after others have been waiting around for an hour or more.

My 450,000 mile diesel van costs 13.5p per mile in fuel. Each refill gives me 600+ miles of range and only takes 5 mins and I can pay with cash. I hate card payments with a passion.

@benw-l7k

5 ай бұрын

The only reason to hate card payment is if you get payed in cash and don't declare all your income

@sahhull

5 ай бұрын

@@benw-l7k wrong and slanderous

@ThepPixel

2 ай бұрын

​@@benw-l7kor you just like holding onto cash because its physically in your hand and cannot be controlled by your bank or taken by fraud.

Great video. Poor charger maintenance will create massive issues down the line. How many new EVs will there be at the end of 2022 for how many working chargers? Well, if electricity prices carry on increasing like they do, that'll limit the number of cars using public chargers!

@woodstocknun

2 жыл бұрын

the future of private car ownership is designed fail.. they will ban ICE cars, push electric cars, but they will make less reliable energy(?), so if you can charge your car, it will be as much/more as a tank of fuel. doesnt make any sense. it will lead to owning a car will be a luxury item, a true luxury item. ridiculously expensive. car manufactures will make their money making less cars, but more expensive cars. the elite doesnt want us to have cars. the idea that there will be superchargers everywhere, and we will have electric cars in a seamlessly working EV architecture - is fiction, it will not happen. if that was a goal, you have to get the energy from somewhere. but they do not want any energy.

@CakeFine

2 жыл бұрын

@Advanced Driving Everyone doesn't fill up with petrol at the same time. Most home charging is done off-peak with flexible tariffs - i.e. at night when the national usage is at the lowest. Charging stations are getting there, it is a slow process but Gridserve/Ecotricity are setting up dedicated stations. It was always going to be the mid-point of switching. It'll get there, it was the same when petrol vehicles were new.

@jackwatsonepic626

2 жыл бұрын

@@woodstocknun well said

@EdwardVella

2 жыл бұрын

@Advanced Driving first it was the power grid making sure that they have enough power when people turn on their kettles simultaneously during the intermission of a big football game, now it will be people charging their cars.

@UnipornFrumm

2 жыл бұрын

price of fuel will go up too dont worry

Another thing to factor in to your costings is the fact that with extra stops, you are also likely to wander into the services/local costa and buy something which you usually wouldn't buy, just to cure a bit of the boredom of waiting around.

@TheBendalina

2 жыл бұрын

Yes such a good point plus I’m sure you would put weight on. 🙄

@marklittler784

2 жыл бұрын

You can also usually get more out of your day taking rests without feeling quite so worn out at the end of it though especially the psychology of getting from behind the steering wheel, mind you even in the passenger or rear seat as opposed the drivers seat you would find far more relaxing.

@VespaT5

2 жыл бұрын

Also, the journey is longer than need be.

@scottvessey915

2 жыл бұрын

I normally stretch my legs, and if I've got the dog with me she can do the same and have a pee! I've yet to succumb to a Ginsters... I need a break after a couple of hours driving anyway, so it doesn't really make the journey any longer overall.

@marklittler784

2 жыл бұрын

@@scottvessey915 You don't end up lifeless at the end of the day either, charging encourages exercise, nobody usually sits in the car whilst its charging, you can do dried, tinned and bottled food shopping while you wait if its a supermarket.

Sorry to say it convinced i am not ready for electric, I cannot deal with the messing about at charging points, so many do not seem to work. I do not remember when I last went to fill up with petrol and found no fuel, that includes when we had the tanker driver shortage, for some reason we were OK in my part of the country.

Also there is the concern that most motorway service stations have a 2 hr limit on free parking. The whole thing seems fraught with stress and inconvenience.

@barrysmith7291

2 жыл бұрын

I’m with you this would stress my wife doing these kind of journeys with after that to charge so many times👍

that price breakdown was brilliant. I still remember running my Seat Toledo 1.9 TDi (130bhp) on chip fat at 2 ppm. Those were the days!

@philhartley7564

2 жыл бұрын

Under certain charging conditions my etron will do 0p per 200miles (destination charging and free). 1.78p pm off peak home charging, 5.36p pm normal tariff home charging (never needed to do this) and 15p pm at the most expensive public charging. The average cost I pay on long trips being around 10.3p pm for 35% home charge and 65% public. A petrol/diesel car would have to get 63 mpg to be as economical as my thirsty eTron (on supermarket priced fuel and on long trips, 70mph on m'way). For trips where I home charge only at the cheap rate, a petrol/diesel car would have to do 365 mpg to be as economical as my car. Over Xmas, when I didn't do long distances, the 420 miles I travelled, used electricity which cost me £8.05, in my previous car, a petrol Discovery Sport, it would have cost me £101.11. I'm very happy with my choice :-)

@brantnuttall

2 жыл бұрын

@@philhartley7564 Nice!

The main point is... weak charging infrastructure. Regardless the push from governments, and yet reasonable price for power, that and high price for new EV's are the no-go's for the most.

@piciu256

2 жыл бұрын

They are a great option for commuting, however not so good for road trips with current infrastructure.

@PaulL42654

2 жыл бұрын

@@piciu256 yep I think for commuting they're a brilliant idea, especially if you have a home charger. Not quite a ice replacement yet though for longer journeys!

@JohnR31415

2 жыл бұрын

Charging infra isn’t all bad - you do need to know how to use it. I tend to stop slightly early, so that if there is a queue I can go to the next one…

@roaduser6438

2 жыл бұрын

@@piciu256 That's why I bought a plug in hybrid. Skoda superb iv estate. £10k or so less than a full electric vehicle. It does up to 40miles which is fine for my 24 mile commute. And when I get to work I plug in and charge up for my journey home. Which means I only pay for one way. As another bonus when the low oil light lit up the other day I could still happily drive it as I'm not using the engine. I know it's a bit of a cop out, but it's a fast, roomy and efficient one.

@piciu256

2 жыл бұрын

@@roaduser6438 plug in hybrids are pretty much the worst of both worlds, heavy and inefficient with low range, but I guess it beats having 2 separate cars, one for commuting and one for road trips.

I drive an eTron 55 sportback, 21,000 miles in 10 months. Today, I went to south London and back home, 430 miles round trip, 55 minutes charging en route, set off with 90% charger got home with 15%. I stopped at Gridserve Rugby, 12 chargers, 10 working, 140+kW. Having done a lot of long trips in that time, I disagree with you and feel that EVs can easily be used for a long trip as longs you are sensible. I would steer clear of Ecotricity and charging points where there and only 1 or 2 chargers etc. I would have stopped at Banbury on the way down as well as on the way back, rather than Cherwell Valley and the Shell recharge. 8 chargers at Banbury with another 8 planned for spring (if you share two linked chargers at Banbury, my experience suggests that the second charger will get in the 60's and the first charger will get in the 80's, 150kw shared). If you are on your own, you only get 80+ not 150. Economy depends on what you are comparing it with. My eTron replaced a petrol Discovery sport which got around 27mpg. Trips using home charging cost me about 10% of the petrol costs. Starting off with 80% home charge and the rest public charging, trips costs me around 25%-30% of the petrol costs, overall in fuel alone, EV saves me around £4,500 a year (not including any other tax advantages). That is based on around £1.45 a litre but when you are charging on a motorway, most fuel stations are around 10% to 15% more per litre, so you need to compare "motorway" public charging with motorway fuel prices not supermarket fuel prices. I have many experiences of long trips, including public charging, home charging and destination charging and all it takes is a little bit of common sense. I'd stop after a couple of hours driving on any trip, anyway so charging time is not an issue, i just avoid single or dual chargers. And just for the petrol heads, i'm not a complete EV nut, that is my daily and my fun car is a 450bhp v8 convertible :-)

@pprreejj

2 жыл бұрын

Great comment. What range are you getting from your Audi?

@philhartley7564

2 жыл бұрын

@@pprreejj at the moment, winter in the UK, temperatures around 0˚c - 7˚c, winter tyres, often wet, I get around 211 miles. In summer I get in excess of 230 miles. The problem is, nobody wants to hear this, they would rather read "EV's are ****" or "I won't drive one until I can go 500 miles without charging" or "it has to full charge in 3 mins". That sort of attitude is not really worth responding to but often I don't get any reply to my comments giving detail, based on actual experience, because it works and it doesn't fall in line with common misconceptions. Sunday/Monday, I did 400 miles to East Anglia, left home with 95%, destination charged at my hotel, didn't need anymore, it cost me £3.70 compared with £96.29 in my old car. I didn't need to stop to charge on the way there or on the way back (I did but for other reasons such as food). There is no real argument against that, that I can see.

@ahbdesign

2 жыл бұрын

Perfect comment and very sensible approach

@MasterOfMisc

2 жыл бұрын

Really great and informative comment. Thank you.

@videomania666

2 жыл бұрын

@@philhartley7564 The main argument I hear is when the battery goes in the car then the car goes as well as they are far too expensive to replace.

I did a 195 mile return trip last weekend in my Kia e-Niro 4+ and averaged 4.1 miles/kWh in similar weather conditions to your drive to Southampton. It was 95% motorway at speeds of 60 to 65 mph, so used 47.56 kW of electricity. As I charged at home using the Octopus Go Faster rate of 5.5p/kWh, this equated to a cost for the 195 mile journey of £2.61. Obviously I was within the range of the car, if I had had to do your trip and I had to recharge at Southampton for the return trip back it would have been more. However, a lot cheaper than you paid - I would estimate a total cost of £12.40 assuming a cost for rapid charging at 45p/kWh.

That was really interesting Ashley, and a report many of us have been wanting to hear. Thank you.. Interestingly, I was chatting to someone a couple of days ago with a Model 3 Tesla, who travelled from Tayside (Scotland) to Cornwall and back last year with ease.. The car system took him to all the Tesla charging stations, and the time it took the car to charge, loo, food and short rest passed the time before heading on.. Setting up an effective charging network first was definitely the path to take.. Having put a fair mileage on an i3 a while back, I know the other charging points can sometimes be a bit hit and miss..

@michaelnjensen

Ай бұрын

Just use the Tesla charging stations with a non tesla car then, I just don't know why people make their charging network a selling point for going with a Tesla, when the same chargers can be used by anyone.

2.95 miles/kWh isn't bad, especially knowing what the weather was like just before Christmas, low temperatures can have a huge effect on consumption. I did London to Birmingham a day or two before your journey in my iD3 and had to stop part way for an 80% charge to be able to make it. On the return journey a few days later when it was 8-10 degrees warmer, I did the whole journey on a single charge.

The cost breakdown on say an average of £60 for the whole journey is roughly ten gallons of diesel, the size of my tank. I get between 44 and 56mpg so average that to 50mpg and the cost is more or less the same without the hassle and long delay of finding a working charger and charging the battery several times. We have an electric car as well but we find it is only really good for local journeys where we can charge it from the house.

@MrKlawUK

2 жыл бұрын

charging at MSAs etc isn’t cheap, but neither is MSA petrol/diesel. Overall if you can charge at home, then 90-95% of your miles will be much cheaper. Whereas with Diesel/Petrol all your miles will be that price

@TechItOut

2 жыл бұрын

@@MrKlawUK True but this example was of a long journey.

Another very informative video you've done. Yet again though, this just highlights the existing electrical infrastructure we have isn't up to the demand that's needed. I wonder at which point will this actually be accepted by the powers that be and something done about it?

@steve00alt70

2 жыл бұрын

remember this was Boris's idea just let that sink in

@davidrumming4734

2 жыл бұрын

We are at the Betamax stage. We need proper refilling stations with 12 ultra fast outlets, as per the p.type in Essex. We need those everywhere. We need even better range (despite recent improvements). We need faster changing. We need cheaper electric cars-not compromised by tiny battery. We need more universality between charging plugs. But we have made progress, maybe 25% progress. That leaves a lot more to go. I expect during that, some current electric cars will need adapters or software updates to work with near future improvements to the infrastructure and a few may not be able to make that leap, as i said, Betamax.

Good breakdown of the figures at the end. I do the majority of my charging on my overnight rate at 5p/kwh and my car is more efficient too. This works out to around 1.6p/mile for me, which is about 1/10th the cost of my previous diesel Mercedes!

@genuine_legend

2 жыл бұрын

yeah but some of us dont live in the 1970s world of double meters

@MrGrumtastic

2 жыл бұрын

@@genuine_legend that's using a smart meter, most energy companies will have a time of day tariff which allows for cheap overnight charging within certain hours

When more people adopt ev and it starts cutting into gov fuel duty that pays for road infrastructure, electricity is going to become heavily tax.

@nettlesoup

2 жыл бұрын

Electricity is already taxed at 20% VAT for public chargers! They can take the rest off the cost saved on funding the NHS for treating asthma and other conditions by reducing fossil fuel combustion emissions when driving EVs.

@jasonnoble9315

2 жыл бұрын

I have solar and wind so it's always free.

The common etiquette has always been to charge to 80% max on a rapid if people are waiting. That's because the last 20% can take longer than 0 - 80% If everyone goes to 90%+ there would be even longer queues.

Whilst regular breaks are a must, I still believe the sweet spot for range is 350-400 miles. This enables you to do a 200-300 mile trip over 4-7 hours and only worry about charging once the trip is over.

The infrastructure, at this time, cannot cope with the demand. Far too "hit or miss" and the ££ variable makes it impossible to accurately budget the costs for a journey... assuming you can even find a working charge point. Despite the huge fuel bill, my old classic V8 is here to stay; once I get it running properly 🤔. Good informative upload. TY for the emailed advice last night - it has been forwarded. Stay safe everyone 👍

I will never get an electrical car untill we are literally forced too. Spending most of your day looking for a suitable charging point just isn't simple really. Plus as a car enthusiast having no engine noise or gear change is something I'm not a fan off 🤣

@JdeBP

2 жыл бұрын

Conversely however: noise means inefficiency, and before the days of "all grades at all pumps" looking for who sold 2 star petrol and who sold 4 star and the queue lengths at the correct pumps was a similar problem.

@David-bl1bt

2 жыл бұрын

I'm guessing... but I don't think many people are a fan of injesting the carcenogenic pollutants from your car exhaust.

Out of order charging points - welcome to the future......extremely complex, very high current devices - which means failure rate will be high over its operational life, requiring lots of expensive repairs with chargers frequently being out of order whilst awaiting repair. I'm an electronics engineer, with power electronics being my primary focus - the current designs have limited to no redundancy, for many systems all it takes is one mosfet to fail and the whole system is down. The high current chargers are very expensive, the design very complex and they're pushing today's power electronics technology to its limit. With the, what will be, constant lack of enough chargers on the network to serve the ever rising demand, they will always be occupied and running flat out for most of the day - increasing the likelihood of failure. Your video highlights this, service stations on a motorway and hotels where charging points are going to be in high demand, are frequently out of order. Making every car on the road electric is not going to work, not in the governments desired timeframe, not in twice that time. This is just one reason amongst many reasons for the whole thing to fall flat on it's arse.

There is a case for a plug in hybrid, which runs on electricity for local trips and uses the ICE for longer trips. That way you can charge at home cheaply, but only use petrol or diesel for longer trips.

@CarolSteele

2 жыл бұрын

Hybrids normally have a very small battery which will only do about 30 miles before going flat. On a road trip such as this the petrol engine is less efficient as it is lugging around a heavy battery, so virtually no cost savings over a pure fossil fuel car. The only advantage would be a comparatively small saving in the anount of GHGs emitted.

@Trevor.Adams640

2 жыл бұрын

But a lot of the time, 30 miles is all most people need, unless you are doing a long commute.

@CarolSteele

2 жыл бұрын

@@Trevor.Adams640 why would you carry a huge, heavy engine around with you making the electric motor work so much harder and hence less efficient - especially when modern EVs can easily attain over 300 miles in summer and around 260/270 miles in the coldest, wettest months at much less cost.

Great video Ashley very informative. A friend of mine has a E-tron and he loves it great family car. He drives from Hull to Leeds every day in it for his work (round trip of about 130 miles) charges it at home and work he's saving a fortune to spend on his family. But a concern was he took it across to Blackpool for the illuminations last year and did as you did let it pick its own charging points, it ended up in Preston and found the first two charging points he went to was broken and when he did find a working charger he had to queue to charge then had 45 mins whilst the car charged and to keep two children under 7 occupied at a petrol station that he described as middle of no-where. Other than that his experience has been very positive with his car.

I've had that exact experience you had at Costa! A stop I was already annoyed I had to make, because the promised destination charging never materialised. The first place we stopped was busy, and I found an Instavolt at McDonalds. Had to move the car again because the first unit wasn't working. Got charging, and then walked over to the restaurant to find they were drive-thru only. By the time we'd unplugged, driven round, ordered a McDonalds I didn't really want, got back to the chargers, plugged in for the fourth time, and discovered that they'd given us the wrong order, I was a broken man.

I got a azdome m550, you can hold the up arrow button for 2 seconds to protect the recording

I suppose the long term idea here is that (where possible) you have solar/wind (microgeneration) at home where you would charge your car which (if you remove the investment cost) means that it's effectively free as a best case scenario. I recently did a road trip in my diesel car which averaged only 12p a mile, still quite hard to beat by the looks of it!

@tomsixsix

2 жыл бұрын

Off-peak charging at home for my PHEV is about 1.5p/mile. If I could retain that for 90% of my driving when I get an electric car, I'd be very happy indeed.

@ivanhowlett4907

2 жыл бұрын

Don’t forget the large amount of tax / vat on petrol / diesel, with all cars going electric the government is going to have to recuperate the loss of revenue from somewhere which could be increased VED and or road pricing, when that happens electric vehicles won’t be quite so cheap. Also on a a 250 mile journey I would want to cover that with just one comfort break 10 to 15 minutes and no faffling around looking for places to refuel. I will stick with my Toyota hybrid for as long as possible which is averaging 70 mpg which at current prices works out at about 10p per mile.

@mattwalker6133

2 жыл бұрын

My home charging is under 2p per mile. Car less than £10k won't be long before the previous fuel cost pays for the car

I am impressed with the amount of time that you have available to run around looking for a charging point, and then wait to que up to use it and then wait again while it actually charges up. For most people time is money, I use my car for business use and if I had to faff about like this I would go bankrupt. For me the hydrogen engines look like they have a lot of potential.

@tomsixsix

2 жыл бұрын

Hydrogen infrastructure is worse because there's no way to 'charge' at home. No doubt we need more fast EV chargers on the road though!!

@sahhull

2 жыл бұрын

@@tomsixsix Most people in the UK cannot charge at home

@ZJS0113

2 жыл бұрын

@@tomsixsix hydrogen can be put in your car like petrol, so why would you need to "charge at home"? 🙃

@tomsixsix

2 жыл бұрын

@@ZJS0113 nice to not have to go out to get fuel, my car “refuels” overnight

@ZJS0113

2 жыл бұрын

@@tomsixsix yeah, that's great if you don't drive far. Lol

Great video Ashley. Some excellent points raised. I think even with the small problems you've encountered so far if you have the ability to charge at home going EV is almost a no brainer at this point for most peoples journeys. Dashcam footage looks good too.

I won't be buying an electric car or van but will be buying shares in Costa coffee. Every time I watch these 'how far can I go in an electric vehicle' everyones always sitting waiting for ages while having coffee etc.

Thanks for another great review. Your review of the Leon PHEV has already helped make up my mind that a plug-in hybrid will be my next car, and this long distance EV test has helped cement that decision. I see what you mean about the Audi. Many of the “appliance” & “jack of all trades” type cars have often initially met my already low expectations, only to warm to them over time as they can make an overall ownership experience much more enjoyable. Something more special, but compromised, usually becomes annoying after a while. I was given a boring VW Touran loan car a few years ago for 3 weeks while my much more premium car was out of action and after a couple of days I went from hating it to wishing I owned one as it was so easy to live with for a father of three like me.

Welcome to my world since 2014, glad to see you've adopted an EV. I've ordered an Audi Q4 e-tron to replace a Tesla Model S - the Tesla hasn't lived up to the hype, it's energy hungry and the Audi is better built and far more efficient, and its only advantage is the Supercharger network. My advice is to charge up little and often on long journeys until the UK charging network is on a par with that in Europe.

Seeing this is a real eye opener, I'd love an EV, but seeing that there are constant queues for the chargers is a real turn off. My diesel gets around 65-70mpg on motorways and it's literally a 5 minute fill up at the petrol station and you're off again... hopefully the infrastructure is majorly improved before we're all forced to go EV.

@honesty_-no9he

2 жыл бұрын

It is not 5 minutes at a petrol station you have to wait at Motorway Services. The 5 minutes thing is a myth. This is the experience for non TESLA charging by end of year TESLA network will be open to all CCS2 cars and other networks are expanding. That GIRDSERVE locale with only two chargers in a place that busy is a disgrace other companies are doing a much better job. In short there is still no substituted for driving a TESLA and charging on the TESLA SUPERCHARGER network.

@smc812

2 жыл бұрын

@Jim Bob You've kind of got everything backwards there Jim. 1. EVs do not break down more, there are far fewer moving parts so they work more reliably and need little to no servicing 2. Green electricity is the cheapest electricity, it's gas prices that are increasing the cost.

@smc812

2 жыл бұрын

@Jim Bob OK, but you are wrong, the reason your energy bill is increasing it entirely because the price of gas is increasing. China has lots of renewable power, they added enough new wind turbines to power the whole of the UK in the last year.

@chazsach6594

2 жыл бұрын

@Jim Bob I agree on every point you have made.

@mattwalker6133

2 жыл бұрын

12v battery can be an issue for some if not used often. For most local journeys running will be cheaper, constant public Rapids not so much.

.... Car sat nav took to me to a charger that was in a hotel. Hotel was a quarantine place for covid and had security at the entrance....turned around...next charger two miles down the road was a bp pulse took a bit to find (most off drove past it a couple of times) and finally found it at the rear of what looked to be an abandoned holiday inn (deserted). The single chargers not accepting contactless (faulty)so had to phone the bp helpline and they told me to download the app, charge the app with credit then charge the car. A week or so later I get a hefty parking charge request from Parkingeye which operate through most holiday inns. This was for a car the I went to buy for my daughter and we took our model 3 to do so. It was a nice easy trip for the tesla not having to visit the unreliable, hard to find chargers... Some might think this is a long comment but Im actually cutting the story short!

That was an excellent video, it's good to see that you can use cardless payment as opposed to an app on your phone, petrol stations at the moment have to display the price of fuel on signs, it should be the same for electric charging stops Thankfully at the moment I don't own an electric vehicle, there is a lot of room for improvement

15:04 It's only when I started driving an EV that I realised how much energy can be saved by driving 60 or 70mph instead of 80mph (legal where I live). And with the big issue of range, turns out I get to my destination faster by driving 60mph than if I drive 80 and stop to charge to get back to a battery level sufficient to get where I'm going. Basically, it is faster, it is cheaper and there is no fear of having to queue to charge or not finding a charging station since you don't need to stop.

@JdeBP

2 жыл бұрын

It's the same with non-electric vehicles. From a lot of measurements, the sweet spot, of lowest fuel consumption rate, for one of my vehicles was between 55mph and 60mph (which I suspect not to be a coincidence). As a result, I ended up frequently driving it as M. Neal talks about doing, with the lorries in lane 1.

@PPT75019

2 жыл бұрын

@@JdeBP of course, the same principle applies to combustion engines, but finding a petrol station was never an issue so it didn't seem that important to me. And I always felt it was more difficult to drive slower than th rest of traffic. It takes a lot more planning to pass lorries without slowing other cars down

Great video. Picked up my first EV, a Kona Electric, back in September and I've yet to do a proper long journey in it where I've had to use the public chargers. All my charging is done at home. Think I'll need to carefully plan our holiday trip this year to find where all the chargers are. On the semi-regular long journey that we do make which is about a 150 mile round trip, I see a big difference when traveling on the motorway at 60 vs 70. If I do the journey at normal motorway speeds, 70mph, I average around 3.2 to 3.5 miles per kW, where as at 60 it's more like 4.0 to 4.2 miles per kW. What also makes a massive difference to efficiency, I find, is having the full heater on, even for around town journeys. If it's just me in the car then I tend to just turn on the heated seat and heated steering wheel and leave the main cabin heater off. It's just more efficient. Having an electric car does change your mindset a bit when driving. I do find myself trying to drive the car as efficiently as possible where as I would never have given it a second thought in my petrol car. I'm wondering if that's partly due to the fact it gives you the numbers right in front of you on the dash which almost makes it a bit of a game?

@gravemind6536

2 жыл бұрын

Any car with a trip computer will tell you what fuel economy you're getting this is not exclusive to EVs

@robertovers1863

2 жыл бұрын

carefully planning a holiday sounds like massive fun, the hours must just fly by

I’ve been looking at new cars recently and I do like the Mercedes A250e. Most of my journeys are under the 40-mph range which would allow me to use battery power only, and charge at home for the cheapest possible cost. Then there’s also the ICE for longer journeys, with no need for range anxiety. That seems to be the best of both worlds at the moment. Very low cost, “unlimited” range, and no mid-journey waiting around.

@ZJS0113

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, it boggles my mind that people aren't just buying hybrids

For those who are not yet used to rapid Charging an EV. it takes about the same time to charge from 0% to 80% as it will take to charge from 80% to 100% our poor infrastructure is struggling as it is and new owners determined 'brim' the battery are not going to earn any friends past 80% if there is a queue.

@MikeHarEV

2 жыл бұрын

Not saying that Ashley brimmed the battery but I wander how many cars on charge through this trip especially at that final instavolt station were well above 80% and would be better suited continuing on their way and charing faster further on their journey when the battery is low.

@sib4897

2 жыл бұрын

@@MikeHarEV Exactly right Mike. We always charge to 80% and then move on. A better use of our time, and keeps those waiting to charge happy. There's nothing worse than watching a car charging frustratingly slowly because they're trying to brim it. People need to have a mindset change from what they've been used to over many years when fuelling a petrol or diesel vehicle.

Great, interesting , informative video.. the queue as you were leaving the last charge station just reminded me of fuel panic buying queues and all the stresses that go with that! With the growing amount of drivers switching to electric vehicles this is just going to get even worse as I’m pretty sure the infrastructure isn’t growing at a pace to match vehicle uptake pace! So the quick stop to charge and refresh yourself becomes a stressful “fight” and possibly a long wait ! Think I’ll stick to my lil MX5 for now where I know I can call at a fuel station, fill up, and be on my way quickly!…for now at least..

This is basically another massive indication that are as a nation are not ready to make the switch to EV. I for one will not be making the move over to full electric from my m340i in a couple of years. Will either be looking at going back to diesel in a couple of years or plug in hybrid. This was absolutely shocking to watch if you pardon the pun. Speaking as a brexiteer it pains me to say that Europe are lightyears ahead of us in this dept. They still back the petrol and diesel cars but have good infrastructure for charging. Ashley this was a really good video, its definitely confirmed my notions that EV just is not worth it, well unless your happy charging your car solely at your own house.

Brilliant video Ashley on showing us the future of electric cars. I do hope you and your lad had a nice night away and I do hope you got some beers down you.

I feel that the first few times you do a road trip in a ev that planning the route via chargers and ever queuing for a chargers may even be exciting? But I’m sure that would wear off very quickly! Great video.

Ashley, this has been an awesome video! Thank you to you and your lad for making the video during your long journey. It’s been very enlightening! I have the new Mini Countryman EV on order and will be getting early 2024. I live in Kent on the south coast. My partner lives in Surrey. ATM she is the one that makes the 100 miles trip down to see me and back home again every other weekend. I’m looking forward to doing the journey myself in my new Mini from next year onwards. So your video has been helpful - your lads point about the safety aspect and longer breaks helping with fatigue is an awesome point! Hadn’t considered that before. Although I don’t personally use an EV atm, from the little bit of knowledge I have about the current grid coping with the growth of EV ownership, I totally agree with you that the current state of the grid is insufficient and inadequate. A major overhaul is required, for sure. But it’s a classic case of chicken and egg. The infrastructure needs to be improved but only when the demand is there to supply it, but we need more EVs to encourage the infrastructure to be put in place. I feel we are some way off from being a nation of combustion-free engines and so way off from meeting the government’s 2030 target of having a sufficient system in place. The other factor to consider of course is who will pay for that infrastructure. It’s already been reported that the government are likely to start taxing EVs from 2025 onwards, which I’m actually in favour of, but ONLY if I know that the money will be well spent. Time will tell… great video!

Unfortunately for those of us that live in built up cities with no driveway expensive public charging will be our ONLY option

Very similar trip you guys made in a Kia ENiro. Cherwell Valley arrived and 4-5 vehicles queuing. Then arriving at the Instavolt Banbury, they have doubled the amount of chargers meaning I didn't have to queue and the costa was open for me 😂.

That was very helpful and really interesting. Insightful.👍

Very interesting Ashley as we went for a full electric car in October. The wife has only tried charging when she was out at Bakewell and Chesterfield neither charging point was working, so, so far we have only charged on our home electric but we are installing a charging point which has meant running a mains cable through the house to get electric to the front to connect with a charge point. We have already decided that any long trips will be done in a diesel vehicle.

It’s not just about availability of chargers and how long to wait using one- it’s how long to charge. You can be in and out of a petrol station in 5 minutes and be on your way. 52 minutes ( including waiting for the charger to be free obviously) is unacceptable I’m afraid. As for charging for 10 minutes and then charging 58 miles later, how many stops do you normally make on a journey??? Regarding the 60mph argument, Fuel consumption at 60 or 70 in a diesel or petrol vehicle depends on the number of revs. In a 2.0 diesel you can use 5th or 6th gear and probably get the same mpg.

Infrastructure is definitely still a huge issue. Between having to wait for an hour to get a free spot and not being able to charge the car at all because the station is out of order, it is just unbearable to drive any distance which cannot be done in one go. In 5 years of owning a petrol car, I only came close to running out of fuel once, and it was because of poor planning. Now I plan every inch of my journey and chances are I'm still going to come close to breaking down on the side of the road... The car I bought was suppose to drive 300 miles with a full charge in ideal conditions. On the motorway at 70mph in the winter, it barely reaches 120 miles. So I'm leasing a car because it is supposed to have a reasonnable range, but I can't use for long distance and just resulted to take the train. Huge waste of money.

Although not the subject of this video, I wasn't too impressed by the dark coloured Mercedes C class coming out of the side street to the right, from around 15:07 to 15:23. During that entire time it was blocking the oncoming lane, having just pulled out in front of another car. Mercedes driver could have steered a much wider arc out of the side street, perhaps even using the dropped curb on the opposite side of the main road to straighten up and be out of the way whilst waiting for the queue ahead to get moving again. I realise they likely wanted to seize the opportunity to at least get half way across whilst they could but there are ways of doing it!

@johnduheaume6650

2 жыл бұрын

The Mercedes C class driver was not one of Ashley's students!

@marklittler784

2 жыл бұрын

When going out into a main road I now specifically make sure I can do so without blocking cyclists and treat the side of the road as a yellow box, cycle lane or no cycle lane when emerging, still most drivers are wondering why I don't at least partially move out when they give way.

@ibs5080

2 жыл бұрын

@@marklittler784 Yes I do similar. I generally take the approach of "Don't begin a turn that you can't clear in one go".

@jacob8949

2 жыл бұрын

That's just par for the course on St Cross I'm afraid, especially when you add bus stops, awkwardly parked vans and (I can only assume) suicidal pedestrians into the mix. This also has the unfortunate side effect of backing up the one way system so, especially during rush hour, making any progress is a bit excruciating. So glad I don't work in Winchester anymore, 'tis a silly place.

Engines will definitely make a comeback

Brilliant video Ashley yet again, loving your work. I am a Consultant, and so I do a lot of driving, and I am concious of my carbon footprint and the carbon footprint of my company, and would of course like to reduce my fuel bill. From everything I have seen, not just from yourself, I just cannot see it being a practical solution for me currently. As we know the infrastructure just is not there, and I can see myself and my collegues not favouring the charging time adding to our already long days.~ On top of that the prices you are paying to charge is ridiculous.

Great review. I was sceptical at first at how biased this review may be, however you won me over with the details at the end on charging cost, where some reviewers who favour ICE vehicles fail to include an equivalent charge-at-home cost. Good job. For those who bemoan the price of the public charging; if you're going to primarily do motorway journeys, and not charge at home, the cost vs. ICE definitely isn't worth it yet. Unless that is, if it's a company car, where you'll save on company tax - and that's where I think the majority of EV sales are and will be for the next couple of years. Tootling around at home and charging on an overnight tariff of 5p / 7.5p per kWh is where the most savings will be made. I can do 95+% of charging on my driveway, so paying a premium for motorway charging etc. is just one of those things. EVs are definitely the future, and hopefully in a couple of years the number of public chargers available will increase hugely so that wait times will reduce at these more public charge locations.

In a couple of years with the number of ev's on the road by then there are going to be fist fights at charging stations

@tectorama

2 жыл бұрын

That wouldn't surprise me.

@winkcla

2 жыл бұрын

As the EV fleet grows, so will the charging network. New competitors will likely also appear as the market for fast charging becomes bigger and bigger.

@dcb01

2 жыл бұрын

@@winkcla :) :):) loooooooool. Your funny

This is ridiculous a main service station on a motorway and next to no charge points. I think I will stick will internal combustion I just don't want the hassle of having to wait or hunt down another charge point then finding it's not working, we have growing electric cars sales but the infrastructure is about 10 years behind.

The only figures not included are the total journey times (Inc stops) from Liverpool to Southampton and from Southampton to Liverpool compared with what may have been achieved with only a 20 min pit stop each way. I suspect the total world be approx an hour longer each way. Can you add a note with the info please. Thanks.

I looked away for a moment and totally lost it when I looked up again at 5:04 🤣🤣🤣

With current electric ranges, it’s like buying a conventional car with a 20 litre fuel tank that’s filled using a syringe. Even the car companies consider it an evolutionary cul de sac at present. Hybrids are the sensible path. They remove the most polluting element of ICEs, the acceleration from rest. It can be fully electric in city environments but also have the range for long journeys.

It's also worth noting that not all charger issues are to do with the unit itself (like that Lidl/PodPoint rapid you had issues with). The CCS charging protocol is notoriously "flexible" and every manufacturer does things a bit differtly both car and charger, so there can sometimes be communication problems with certain combinations of car and charger. Some networks are better than others at keeping their chargers updated with software compatibility changes, and most major networks are getting better at it as time goes on.

The little indicator light on the inside of the mirror is a good idea!

Even if I could afford an EV, it's a no-go living in a terraced house with no off-road parking, on a street where are lucky to get parked in the same post code, never mind outside your own house.

Great video you had me hooked. 🚙🚘

Interested to get your thoughts on the steering wheel (or yoke) in the Model S Plaid Ashley… do you think it’s as safe as a wheel bearing in mind we are taught to feed the wheel as we turn it?

Great video. Completely agree. The network isn't good enough yet for longer journeys unless you have a Tesla

Yeah that's a very important point its just a few days before Christmas so not quite normal scenario charging conditions. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

I've had the 'EV crowd' tell me I'm wrong, but this is why for me 300+ mile range is a must. You could do this trip to Southampton and not worry if there are charging points free on the way and find somewhere in the Southampton area.

@olii9062

2 жыл бұрын

Problem is a 300+ mile wltp ranges are based off a mix of town driving and motorway driving, whereas driving long distances you're going to be driving most of the time at 70-75 mph with the climate control on and probably using other electronic stuff like the radio or music. The advertised ranges are more accurate for commuting to work but you get far less distance in the real world on road trips

@smc812

2 жыл бұрын

300 miles would take you at least 4 hours, that's far too long to drive without a stop, highway code says you should stop for at least 15 mins every 2 hours. So take your break and plug in to charge.

@olii9062

2 жыл бұрын

@@smc812 15 minutes wouldn't get you very far on a typical charger

@smc812

2 жыл бұрын

@@olii9062 On my Tesla it would get me over 200 miles, they are more efficient that the Audi.

@ianm408

2 жыл бұрын

@@smc812 as long as one is working and you aren't delayed further by a queue. When I'm doing an away trip to watch my football team sometimes 4/5 hours each way which often leads to very early departure times I really don't want to be building in extra time to charge enroute. How much would I add? The issue seems to be that this figure is not quantifiable. Sometimes it might be really quick and you'd arrive way too early and sometimes you'd arrive after kick off.

Took my first road trip as a passenger in an EV just before christmas (Liverpool-Watford). Similar story though I can recommend Rugby services as there are quite a lot of stations, 30p/kwh and simple swipe to pay. Unlike our destination, Leavesden studios, whos chargers are a load of faff and barely put any charge in at all.

Zap-Map reports the Ibis hotel chargers as being out of service over at least the last few weeks. It also shows intermittent issues with charging via the CCS plug at the Lidl in SO15 - there's another Lidl about the same distance away from the hotel in SO17 which seems to have a much more reliable charger. Definitely best to check in advance, and always have a Plan B - you live and learn 🙂 I've had one instance in 15 months where I've not been able to charge at my first choice stop, my Plan B was a bit further along my route and worked perfectly.

My work colleagues drive Jaguar ipace and Audi e-Tron 55 and while they are very well built, they just don’t have the efficiency or the range to warrant the premium prices. Tesla remains my preferred option as I’m averaging 800 miles per week in my Model 3 LR. Great video.

Spot on with your analysis, Also 3kwh/100klm at 70mph, at this time of year and ambient temperatures is very good efficiency, I’ve been getting 3.9 with my Renault Zoe, but that’s a smaller car, and on a long trip I tend to keep it around 60-65mph. In the summer months I’m expecting around 20% better efficiency, so high 4’s, but we’ll see in a few months. I’m the same mindset as your son, it’s more about charger anxiety, than range anxiety, now there’s a lot of EV’s out there, but I try and mitigate that by having a couple of back ups where practical, but it is an ever increasing issue for the moment if you’re planning a lot of public charging. Thankfully mine are few and far between now I’m retired.

Nice one Thanks

Currently sat in my Q4 at a charging station watching this video. Agree around comfort and practicality. However I have found longer journeys a real pain due to charging network currently. We also have a Tesla Model 3 and that is our go to vehicle. So Q4 is Ok, but I am selling mine (ironically to an Audi dealership), as I have a Model Y coming in Feb.

Informative and enjoyable to watch. I’m having a Q4, it think adding to peoples range anxiety, now there’s charge station available anxiety to add !! Infrastructure just isn’t ready yet clearly! Ps - dashcam looks great, my only gripe is why anyone hasn’t developed a cordless one yet?? As the wires all over won’t wash with me I’m afraid. Plus I’m not going to start pulling Trims off my car to achieve either, they’ll never go back right I’m sure! 😩

Just beginning the vid, thank you Ash for this.. also check out Guy Martin's experience with doing a weekend trip up to John O'Groats and back to his home... cheers from canada!

Just bought an Audi Q4 50 Vorsprung. To be delivered in September! I will def miss my Q8 55 Vorsprung.

I work in front line homeless services for a local authority. We have one electric Renault Zoe in our team. Max range is 170 miles when 100%. We have 5 charging stations outside that are open to the general public. 4 of them haven’t been working for over a month and Charge Place (the owner/supplier) say they are waiting on parts. We have had to double up, go miles away to find working charging stations, plug the car in and then arrange for pick up again. It’s all too frequent and it impacts on the service delivery. This country and large organisations have committed to migrating their fleets to electric without proper foresight imo. We are now going back to getting business insurance and using our own cars for work visits etc as we need to see our vulnerable clients. In our petrol/diesel cars.

Thankfully, they’re doubling the capacity at the Banbury in a few months (to 16 units) and also there’s another 12 being added from another provider a little further from the motorway in Banbury

Great video. I regularly drive from West Sussex to my daughter in Ellesmere Port. Normally stop at Cherwell Services in my petrol car. However the EV charging points look woefully inadequate. ID.3 on order-I’ve already earmarked Instavolt Banbury as my waypoint when it arrives.

Very interesting video thanks Ashley. This has convinced me that a Tesla with the Supercharging network is the only way to go for EVs at the moment. It would have been so much easier for you using Superchargers in a Tesla. As well as the number of locations, charging speeds would have been at least double My Model X 100D averages around 400wh/mile, or 2 ½ miles per KWh. I am also lucky enough to have free Supercharging with this car, so zero cost to me on a road trip😀

Great video Ashley. As others have said very informative. I cannot add anything from my experience as I am yet to decide whether to dip my toe into the whole EV thing or not and this was a good insight into what it all entails. I agree with what you and your son said about rest breaks in a four hour journey and whilst that gives you an opportunity to charge the battery if a station is free it does need to be planned very well by the look of it. Aside from the cost which as you say put it close to your diesel BMW on a long trip I think the planning and added time to a long journey at the moment would put me off full EV. I agree at the moment it looks like shorter journeys or even city use are ideal but longer ones for me would be out of the question until the charging situation improves.

@mattwalker6133

2 жыл бұрын

If you do

I've had a Polestar 2 for a year. One thing I've learnt is try look for 150kw chargers, with multiple stalls and a little off the motorway. I'm not saying that's possible in all situations, however the main problem Is that most people are used to using motorway services (so often full)... And GridServe took over eccotricy at these sites, but these are 10 years out of date. Now waiting for the mega stalls like the Rugby Services. So motorway services should be avoid for now imho. Instavolt and Osprey are my 2 preferred chargers even if a minor detour is needed. MGF and BP (new 150kw ones not the old the 50kw) are also good bets.

Interesting video, was nice to see some footage from my home city of Winchester. You likely drove right past me!

I don't have the ability to charge at home, (home electricity supply not good enough to install a charger, plus I live in a flat, so unable to secure wallbox near enough to my EV) but my Kia Soul charges at work. At work, we have 3 phase charging, 22kw per bay. We have 2 Maxus E deliver 9 vans, an LDV ev80 cage truck, 4 Renault Kangoo EV vans and 5 Renault Zoe cars, converted to small vans. The times I've used any of these, I'm always impressed with the relaxed and quiet nature of the drive. I have more experience with the Maxus E Deliver 9's (they are attached to our department of jetwash and graffiti removal) and I'm hoping to do some videos with these vans in the coming few months. On public charging, In general, I don't usually find issues with the various networks, however, I used to regularly have issues with the old Ecotricity Electric Highway chargers at Pease Pottage. If there was the ability to tap a contactless Credit/ Debit card to pay for the charging, It would make the whole process much less convoluted and would appeal to MANY more drivers.

Interesting video. As you're only borrowing this Q4 you may not be able to answer this, but Audi has an e-tron charging service (ECS) card that lets you charge more cheaply on a variety of charging networks. That should reduce your trip cost. Audi also says the car navigation can route you to ECS chargers. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Tesla trip compares...

It’s a shame popular car programs such as top gear & fifth gear don’t do this real world stuff.

Gridserve are waiting on a software update to enable sharing the chargers. Of course it will reduce the max speed the first person will get

Public charging are probably the main thing holding up wide scale EV adoption in the uk, along with a lack of cheap cars. This video tally’s with my experience driving long distance in my parents EV several times now.

I'm interested in this myself to get an idea what driving an EV will be like when it becomes practical in maybe 3-5 years time. However, reluctant to send it to my EV-sceptic friends after hearing "in the end it only took 10 minutes" waiting for the charger, not counting charging time! FWIW, my £500 used petrol car costs around 13ppm at current fuel prices. My home electricity is a bit more than yours so I'll assume 7ppm. If I bought an EV and only charged at home it'll still take years to break even, despite the tax break.

Stuff all that waiting about - just imagine when there are ten times the cars - lol

We recently bought a Seat Mii Electric as a second car which I've calculated does about 4m/Kw and costs about 5p/mile if charged at home. This seems to show there's still an advantage in getting a smaller car if you're only using it locally, I've only charged it once away from home at our local Tesco just to check the cable worked. Our main car is a Honda Crosstar self-charging hybrid which can do over 500 miles on a tank of petrol at 60+ mpg, but it drives just like an EV so it's easy for me and my wife to swap cars when required, I think at the moment the hybrids are better value for money as you get nearly the same driving experience as the EV for much less outlay and don't have the range issues but I imagine as more people buy EV's petrol stations will close down and fuel will become more expensive which will accelerate the move to EV's.

Should have gone to the hotel where the InstaVolt are. You’ll often find coffee areas in the hotels and they don’t deny you using the toilet and you can grab a coffee as well

It's a smart save function that doesn't need a button because it's activated by the horn or by profanity, allowing the driver to keep their hands on the wheel.

Depends also on average speed. Our roads typically run 70 mph with usual average between 75 to 80