Slow-charge electric cars ‘taking too long to top up’

SOME ELECTRIC vehicles should be banned from using motorway chargepoints because they take too long to top up, according to a new report.

Slower-charging plug-in hybrids are blocking equipment which is essential to battery-only vehicles making long journeys, a study for the RAC Foundation warned. The latest battery-only cars need just five minutes at the quickest chargepoints to add 15 miles to their range, compared with an hour for almost all plugin hybrids to achieve the same benefit.

Battery-only cars have no combustion engine, while plug-in hybrids can operate in full electric mode, using conventional fuel or a combination of both.

Report author Harold Dermott, who has more than 35 years in the motor manufacturing industry, claimed confusion over how fast different electric vehicles can be topped up could undermine efforts to provide an adequate public charging network.

He recommended that chargepoints at motorway service areas should be reserved solely for battery-only cars until plug-in hybrids can accept electricity at a faster rate.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “Ever-faster and more powerful chargepoints might sound like the answer to creating the electric car recharging network we need, but if the cars themselves can only be recharged at a certain rate then at best we’re going to be disappointed and at worst we’re going to waste money.”