Should I buy an EV?
With a growing change in travel habits, now could be the time to make a switch to an electric car
The term “electric car” is a pretty broad one these days. You can pick up a used Renault Zoe, with a 100-mile battery range and a top speed of 84mph, for less than £5,000. Or for just shy of £140,000, you can buy a Porsche Taycan Turbo S, which can do 162mph and 256 miles on a single charge.
Most people in the market for an electric vehicle (abbreviated to EV) fall somewhere between these two extremes. If there was such a thing as an “average” EV it would be something along the lines of the Kia e-niro 64kwh, a battery-electric SUV with a range of around 280 miles. This costs £30,000 new – about the same as a lot of other SUVS.
For a family of four, who spend most of their time within 100 or so miles of their home, it’s a fantastic choice – it’s quiet, comfy and clean, emitting no pollution at the tailpipe and earning various privileges as a result. And best of all, it charges up overnight, on your driveway, for a couple of quid.
The downside? It’s less practical on longer trips. Charging an electric car while out and about can still be more complicated than filling a petrol or diesel car with liquid fuel. It isn’t impossible, but it can require five minutes of working out a plan B before you start your journey, and many people aren’t prepared for this uncertainty.
The Kia e-niro’s range means a comfortable round-trip distance of 240 miles – any further than that and you’ll need to stop to charge up for half an hour. It’s no great hardship, and many drivers of EVS are managing longdistance travel quite well.
And let’s be honest. The world is changing, especially our travel habits. How many times have you driven your petrol or diesel car more than 100 miles since March? If you’ve been making many long trips or if you reckon you’ll be doing more as normality resumes, then maybe you should stick to fossil fuels. But if, like millions of Brits, you’re spending most of your time within a few minutes of work or home, now could be the perfect opportunity to make “the switch”.