Chairman's Rant, July 2019

[Griff]

Paul,
All your comments about the performance/range of your soon to be delivered Tesla are really valid, but you miss the essential point: (info from Tesla)

How long does it take to charge a Tesla Model 3 at home?>>
Level 3 Superchargers can take a Tesla from 0-170 miles range in just 30 minutes. It can get to 80% full in just 40 minutes.>>
How long does it take to charge a Tesla Model 3 on a supercharger?>>
They take about 20 minutes to charge to 50%, 40 minutes to charge to 80%, and 75 minutes to 100% on the original 85 kWh Model S.

which brings me back to the point, the difficulty is energy density, it only takes a couple of minutes to refuel a petrol/diesel vehicle and have a 300+ mile range, to do that in a electric car takes at least an hour, so your average service station can refuel 20+ cars per hour x number of pumps, whereas you can recharge 1 electric car per hour x number of charging stations. So the major drawback to journey times will be as the number of pure electric cars on the road increases. What happens when you arrive at your charging point, and you are fourth in the queue to use it?

It is for that reason that Fingers and I are in agreement, Phevs' (Petrol hybrid electric vehicle) are the immediate future, the current infrastructure, when combined with the range of current EV's, will not allow or support the immediate and wholesale transfer from hydrocarbon to purely electric propulsion. When I say infrastructure, I also am including the UK electrical generating capacity, We don't as a country generate enough electricity to power all the vehicles on UK roads if they are solely electrically powered.
Once the range for the average EV is beyond 400miles, then a EV will be a viable choice in a rural environment, and allow the vast majority of long journeys without stop. To visit friends and family in either Cornwall or The Lake District from here is 330 miles, I can just about manage it in a hydrocarbon car, and a fuel stop if required takes a matter of minutes. In a Tesla I could get to about 300 miles, an then need a recharge, I can't getter anywhere near that in my Nissan Leaf/VW Golf e, and will need to make at least two intermediate stops of an hour plus (assuming I'm not fourth in the queue-otherwise it'll be longer) for the same journey.

With a Phev, you use the current highly developed and available infrastructure, energy density is very high, it takes a very short time to refuel, and you get most of the environmental advantages to boot. I should add that during the 2012 London Olympics I had the opportunity to drive home in both experimental BMW 3 series and a Mini electric vehicles (55 mile round trip) leaving the Olympic site with a full charge, in summer daylight and fine weather, it was touch and go whether I got back to the site the following morning, to the extent that I turned the air-con and radio off to save electricity. Which illustrates how quickly things have improved around battery technology/energy density, and the consequent improvement in potential range.