Time and Distance
Unraveling some of the anxieties about electric cars
15 years ago I started making a YouTube series called ‘The Fully Charged Show.’
In 2010, everything anyone might say today about how electric cars are not there yet, or they don’t have the range, they’re too expensive, there’s no charging infrastructure, they are just playthings for the super rich, all the endless and very tiresome lists of negative responses were 100% accurate.
So yadda yadda, that’s all changed and that is not what I am talking about here. Now there’s literally millions of places you can charge, the batteries will outlast the car, the electricity used to charge them is much cleaner, yadda yadda.
But the anxieties have been nurtured and maintained by the fossil fuel industry and their partners in the right wing press we are lumbered with in the UK. They can manufacture new and increasingly desperate reasons for us to keep burning oil.
The obvious anxiety that still does the rounds is ‘I don’t have time to stop for 5 hours while the car charges.‘
This gives us a clue to how we think. It’s often about how we perceive our time, and in particular, how men perceive the distance covered when it comes to car travel.
We always shrink down the time, and we always exaggerate the distance. But here’s a thing I just noticed after a few days pottering about in my MG4 electric car. This shot is of the trip meter on the dashboard.
Two things are instantly obvious, how far I’ve driven since the last time I plugged the car in, and how long it has taken to drive that distance.
To further clarify, this data is not from one journey, this is not me driving from my home to Harrogate in Yorkshire which is approximately the same distance, this represents 6 days driving on maybe 10 or 11 different short trips, between 12 to 40 miles, or (19 to 64 km) around our local area. To the shops, the post office, the gym, meeting friends up the road and going for walks, just normal, hum drum car use.
The average speed blew my mind, I know I don’t drive at 22 miles an hour all the time, but that’s the average speed. I have been surprised by average speeds before, once when I’d just driven 220 miles non stop on motorways (highways) I noticed my average speed had been 53 mph.
I know that I drove on a motorway using adaptive cruise control set at 70 mph (112 kph) for 3 hours plus. How can it say only 53 mph? Average speed, getting out of the car park, round the wiggly roundabouts, along the busy A road, onto the slip road and then, finally, getting up to speed, until the big truck that slowed everyone on the hill and the person towing a caravan overtaking the other person towing another caravan .
We had no idea how slow we drive and how long it takes before cars became computers on wheels. We also have no idea how long we need to take a break for when we are driving very long distances. If a car takes 20 minutes to top up on a rapid charger, that’s a GOOD thing. Get out, walk around, have a coffee. Use the facilities for pities sake, ask any doctor, no one should sit still, in a car, for 5 hours non stoip. That is REALLY bad for you, regardelss of anything else,
Nearly 9 hours in the damn car!! What a waste of time! How is that possible? The fact that this car is electric is utterly irrelevant, you could achieve exactly the same results in a petrol, diesel or petrol hybrid, the only difference would be the cost of the fuel.
I won’t make a big deal about it because I know it’s annoying, but every single electron, yes every single kilowatt hour I used to do all this driving came from my roof. Yes, of course, not possible in winter, but very easy to do at the moment.
So all the many excuses and anxieties around this new technology are now purely psychological, not technological. Believe me, spending 9 hours of my life in a car in a week is something I find very worrying.
I’ve also been for long walks. They take ages!
And I just want to remind you that I am releasing a new work of fiction on Substack. I think it’s really good. I know only 1 or 2 of you might follow this link, but it’s really worth checking out. 4 chapters available free and then one chapter released every Friday for subscribers. Chapter 9 coming this Friday.
On my trip from home to my mother's and back a couple of weeks ago (660 mile round trip), the car charged faster than it was possible to queue for and eat lunch. So basically charging takes no time at all because I'm doing something else essential while it happens.
I mostly work from home or mixed-mode bike-train-bike commute to office. If use the car it's invariably local for big supermarket shop, transporting elderly relatives, weekend outings, or 50/50 motorway/urban to city office in peak returning home mid-late evening after peak. My typical average speed over weeks of this sort of driving, 30-35km/h.