Beware: your new electric car could run out of steam

Motorists are being urged to trade in petrol cars for electric replacements – just don’t try to drive from London to Edinburgh. By Lauren Almeida

Just one of the 20 most popular electric vehicles can make the journey from London to Edinburgh on a single charge, despite the Government’s attempts to persuade drivers to switch to greener vehicles.

More than 190,000 electric cars were sold in Britain last year and they accounted for about 11.6pc of total sales, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. However, there are still significant drawbacks to electric cars.

Many potential users have “range anxiety”: they fear batteries will run flat before the destination is reached. This could mean stopping for hours mid-journey to recharge. Almost twothirds of the population have concerns over the distance an electric car can travel between charges, according to Cazoo, a car website.

Research found that only six of the 20 most popular electric vehicles can make the journey from London to Newcastle on a single charge.

High- profile models that cannot make the 283-mile journey without a stop to recharge include the Hyundai Kona, BMW iX xDrive40 and Nissan Leaf, according to research compiled by the car website Auto Trader for Telegraph Money.

Cars that are able to make the journey include the Mercedes EQS, the Kia EV6 and the Ford Mustang MachE, according to Auto Trader. But only the Mercedes can make the 404-mile journey from London to Edinburgh on a single charge. The car has an estimated range of 419 miles.

While none of the most recent Tesla models – the 3, S, Y and X – were among the most sought-after on the Auto Trader website, as a result of their high price tag, none of these vehicles could make the trip from London to Edinburgh on a single charge, the research found.

However, Rupert Pontin of Cazoo said that while most electric cars struggled to make the journey from London to the North, the typical driver usually made much shorter journeys.

“While there are still a number of people with concerns over the distance an electric car can travel, the latest models coming to the market have a much better range – many cars are now capable of travelling more than 250 miles on one charge,” he said. “This may not take you to Edinburgh in one go, but it is worth remembering that the average journey in Britain is 8.4 miles.”

Auto Trader found that range anxiety remained a barrier to entry for most motorists: almost half of 2,000 car buyers surveyed indicated that the lack of charging infrastructure was their primary barrier to making the switch to an electric car.

There are around 28,000 chargers across the country, but estimates suggest that around 280,000 to 480,000 chargers will be needed to fulfil demand from drivers by next year.

Last month a report from the National Infrastructure Commission warned that there was a “real risk” to the plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 because of the slow progress of installing electric chargers.

It said that Britain’s charging network was “significantly behind where it needs to be” and that without more chargers, drivers “will not have the confidence to make the switch to electric vehicles”.

Another problem is charging time. While it takes a few minutes to fill up a car at a petrol station, EVs need at least half an hour to charge. It takes 34 min

‘There are still a number of people with concerns over the distance an electric car can travel’

utes to charge a BMW iX xDrive40 from 0pc to 80pc at a 150kW fast- charging station.

But there are big variations depending on what kind of charger is available. For a Hyundai Kona with a 64 kWh battery, it takes six hours and 50 minutes to charge from 10pc to 100pc with a 10.5kW charger. With a 7kW charger, the charging time jumps by 35pc to nine hours and 15 minutes. These times are so long partly because the final 20pc of charge is very slow. With a 50kW charger, and charging only from 10pc to 80pc, the same car would charge in 64 minutes.

For both a Fiat 500e and a Vauxhall Mokka- e, charging from 0pc to 80pc with a 100kW charger takes 30 minutes. These times double to an hour if you want to charge to 100pc. Manufacturers typically recommend keeping the battery charged between 10pc and 80pc.

Mercedes said this is the optimum level to protect the battery. Weather conditions and temperature can also affect charging times.