Journey's end?
26 November 2021
After eight months, 18,000 miles and a willingness to embrace eco-friendly motoring, Pete Beach has finally decided to call it a day with his electric vehicle.
Pete, who as sales and marketing manager with welfare cabin supplier Genquip Groundhog would typically drive 40,000 miles in a non-Covid year, believes that the charging infrastructure is not yet good enough to make the car practical on a day-to-day basis.
As regular blog followers will know, the Site-Eco section has reported frequently on Pete’s EV journey since he acquired his Jaguar iPace (above) earlier this year. You can read the first post about it here.
“The car is excellent and I’m sure that EVs are the future, but I have found that the charging network is not yet as extensive as it should be and not reliable enough,” Pete told me as he drove back from Genquip’s Neath HQ to his home in Sheffield.
“Some people say you just have to plan ahead, but take today. I had to get to the factory and back so I left home at 5am. It’s 200 miles each way and the system initially said I had a 242 mile range, which should have been enough to get me there.
“But by the time I reached Ross-on-Wye on the M50 after 130 miles, I’d ‘lost’ 40 miles just from driving. So I needed to charge up.
“I checked the app which told me that a local supermarket had a charge point available. When I arrived, the charger was there all right – but the cable and connector weren’t! They had been removed with no sign or explanation.
“The next nearest charge point was 15 miles away in Hereford, so I drove there - through rush hour traffic now - to find someone already using it. So I waited 20 minutes to quickly top up with just enough to get to the factory. In all it was a five hour journey door to door, and it would normally take me just over three.”
So for anyone who has to be somewhere at a certain time for an important appointment, that kind of uncertainty is hardly ideal.
“You can plan as much as you like,” says Pete, “and it’s obviously all right for people commuting relatively short distances or whose timetables are flexible. But the inconveniences and stresses made me decide finally today that I’ll be swapping the car for a diesel or a hybrid model.
“I’m disappointed because I really did want to make this work. I’ve given it a good go but for me it is just not worth the uncertainty.
“There are some other issues, too. Charging today cost me 41p per kWh, whereas at home I pay 7p. But what can you do?”
Pete’s return journey was equally eventful. Needing to charge up en route, he found five drivers waiting to use the charge points at a motorway services, which could have meant a delay of up to two hours.
“The app found another charge point at a supermarket nine miles away and when I arrived someone was using it. I got talking to the driver who told me he took delivery of his Peugeot three weeks ago and he described it as the worst mistake he’s ever made. He’s a high-mileage company car driver like me, away from home a lot and he’s had similar issues.
“So to sum up, the car is great and the concept behind EVs is sound but my experience suggests they are not suitable for everyone yet.”
Given supply chain issues and delivery disruptions, Pete probably won’t actually be able to exchange the car any time soon. So I’ll continue to keep you posted on his EV journey.
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