Era of EVs

Electric vehicle enthusiasts can sometimes appear over eager to extol the virtues of the clean new technology, but they have a point about the myth around range anxiety.

For the vast number of car journeys, an EV or hybrid will cope without having to stop and recharge the battery.

With BMWjoining other manufacturers, such as Volvo, in announcing this week that they will have electric or hybrid versions of their entire range available soon, it is clear the motoring world approaches a tipping point, away from fossil- fuelled models towards EVs and hybrids.

Driven has a BMW330e plug- in model on long- term test, and you can read about it in next week’s edition. We are also testing the new BMW530e plug- in sedan.

Otago University released a poll this week from Flip the Fleet, a citizen science collaboration of more than 200 New Zealand electric vehicle owners who share data from their cars’ dashboards each month The poll showed 72 per cent of drivers experience no or extremely little range anxiety. TONY VERDON New EV owners quickly learn the performance of their EV and drive within its range.

Flip the Fleet has logged 447 randomly selected trips by full electric vehicle. The average return trip to home base was 54km. The median ( middle or 50 percentile) distance was 27km.

Around 8 per cent of trips have EV drivers going over 100km before returning to home base.

These figures are not much different from those for trips in conventional vehicles, the group says.

For the vast majority of people, one of the cheaper, entry- level EVs such as the Nissan Leaf will be good to drive for a day or two without having to worry about a charge.

And when you need to charge, it’s simply a matter of charging up at home while you sleep.

Anyone who believes EVs and hybrids are a passing phase should think again. ABOUT US