I bought an EV – but now I’m trading it in for a diesel…here are the three reasons I made the change
AN ELECTRIC car driver has revealed three reasons why he's giving it up and going back to diesel.
Carlos Alba was lavishing £500 each month on an EV (electric vehicle) he "loves" but can no longer justify despite its eco-friendliness.
He feels he has "no choice" but to trade in the Mercedes 250 EQA he had opted for 14 months ago in place of his old diesel automatic.
He blamed a perfect storm of problems - a shortage of charging points, unreliable EV batteries and parking costs.
He told The Herald: "My experience of driving an electric car has persuaded me that we’re still a million miles away from making them available, affordable and driveable for the average motorist."
Carlos said he felt "conflicted", as a supporter of green measures, while calling his EV a "beautiful car" but "significant investment".
The Scottish writer told how the first setback came when he realised his tenement home in Glasgow was unsuitable for a home charger.
It would have cost a hefty £4,000 to install anyway, he says - and even a private rear lane behind the property was unsuitable because it needed to be kept free for emergency services access.
He then realised how few public charging points there were.
This became even more clear when he discovered that the promised range of EVs can be deceptive.
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He said a 285-mile journey from Glasgow to Derby which took five to six hours in his diesel now dragged on for 10 hours there and 12 back.
While the car's battery is meant to last for 250 miles he found in cold weather that could drop to as low as 170.
He said: "The moment the battery starts to drain, you’re already fretting about where and when your next charge stop will be.
"There’s even a term for it – it’s called ‘range anxiety’.
"In many cases, finding another charge-point forces you to divert from your route, often taking you miles off the motorway."
Short journeys around his home city have also proved a problem, with a lack of charging points.
There are six in a car park a mile from his home, which he has been using for the past six months.
But Carlos has received a £60 parking fine for failing to pay there.
He has an annual car parking permit for Glasgow but this venue falls just outside the boundaries.
He says he is now making the switch back to diesel "reluctantly and against all my instincts" because his "£500-a-month relic" sits "idle" on the streets where there are so few charging points.
And he urged manufacturers and authorities to "get their act together" to make it easier for people to drive electric cars.
EV drivers have just been issued an urgent warning after it emerged that the majority of UK council areas have no roadside chargers.
More than two-thirds of local authorities have failed to install residential charging infrastructure, according to a new study by manufacturers Vauxhall.
Large areas of Somerset, Cumbria and Yorkshire were revealed to be complete blackspots for EV charging.
This means that drivers in those areas have to rely on home charging points, which can be expensive to install and run.
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