Channel 4, Dispatches: The truth about electric cars

[Mr Gus]

Make your own mind up, I've only just found this programme & am yet to watch it..
However the introduction does strike me as theatrical BS, & likely non regular BEV driver trauma, likely all conducted in a charger pock marked city, & definitely not a living in the country piece of programming, maybe the 300 mile "out of the way" trip to add impact? ...if I had to play non reality tv bingo, these are the well worn tropes to follow right!?

(I hope it does better than that, but the jangly xylophone music with non operational chargers seems to imply "anything but" )

[Moxi]

I wonder how many of these are underwritten by big oil ?

Moxi

[Oldgreybeard]

We've been "electric" for several years now. Almost all of our charging is at home, quite a bit from solar now. We haven't had any problems at all charging, go on holiday in the car a fair bit, and the only thing we do differently than we used to when running a petrol car is to spend a bit more time checking the route and any charging facilities around.

TBH, it's not very often that we have ever needed to stop on a drive somewhere to charge the car. Mostly we charge overnight at wherever we are staying, and that, combined with charging at home, means we rarely have to encounter some of the problems with chargers that are so often reported.

I have noticed that there are a lot more chargers around now, though, and some that we have driven past in the last year or so look to get busy, which never used to be the case a couple of years ago. We stopped for a comfort break at Exeter services a few weeks ago and every charger was in use with several cars in a queue to charge, something I'd not seen there before.

[dan_b]

I'm always immediately wary of any video package that has "The truth about..." as its title - invariably they're telling anything but.

I just ignore this kind of guff these days.

34k miles in my Tesla 3 now at a lifetime average of 269Wh/mile (MPGe of 150) tells me all I need to know.

[Mr Gus]

Wife's average is 259, occasionally under 249 watt-hours per mile, we try to ascribe to lessons learnt with the leaf & recommend that as a base line of normal type driving with a few overtakes (likely getting us to max 80 or 90mph) in our country setting.
its harder in a tesla to do that, we miss the "leaf gathering" icons for trips in the leaf.
our local council (twats) have recently installed new chargers in a variety of places (well, appointed companies like pod-point & soliz) !? ..& whilst there are 7kWh units, there are also 3kWh units, akin to the originals that were put in more than 10 years ago & didnt work ((not turned on in the main)) ..which bearing in mind the amount of flats & no parking being built on once green space of a troubled estate creates yet more problems because: battery size & parking charges.

No consultation with community centres to utilise nearby supply & parking that may be only a few hundred metres from where people live, all in the town centre car parks including a barrier restrictive multi storey.
this makes me think that the big solar car parking canopy in St Ives, may well only have a low number of low power chargers that people simply park & leave conected all day...when given its proximity to the A14 ought be a modern hub encouraging taxi drivers etc to switch, & enabling long distance driving coverage (it might want to upgrade the loo's whilst at it)
anyhow, time to catch some c4 (its a potentially explosive subject)

[Mr Gus]

ok, watched it, nose to tail.

Reporter, drives BEV, 5+ years.
Clueless "woodland owning" couple mentioned multiple times bought a jeep hybrid, shocked at the pollution when put under test conditions, ...simple analysis, owners don't analyse needs vs desires, vs science & knowledge out there prior to purchase.

compounded by big mg bev owner who doesn't understand the limitations of the battery type he bought into.
said big mg bev owner & reporter drama ensues when they compete against each other in 2 cars from 80% downward in a maximising battery lifespan potential long term.. the other car geing a 9 year old nissan leaf showing 39 odd miles range.I

Soundbyte from never to be seen again bloke on camera stating long distances in an ev are a nerve wrcking nightmare, ..naff all context.

No real talk (boring stuff) on seasonality & range, no clue as to when things were being discussed / trialled, but jackets being worn ...hmm

No discussion of more than one battery tech being used / available.

& that's your starter for ten.