Photo: Linda Barnes via The Guardian
When it comes to buying, owning, and daily driving an electric vehicle, we often hear two words. “Range anxiety” is one of the biggest problems of EVs, and part of that anxiety comes from the charging infrastructure.
Linda Barnes and her husband had to visit six charging stations, wasting nine hours in total on their 130-mile drive from Bournemouth to Kent. Had they owned an internal combustion-engined vehicle instead of a Porsche Taycan 4S, the journey would have taken the couple roughly two and a half hours.
Linda and her husband left Bournemouth with 45 miles of range left, hoping to charge their vehicle at the first station on their route. “We plugged it in, but nothing happened,” she told The Guardian. Worse still, “a parking attendant told us the charger had been out of action for weeks.”
After touring several more chargers, a helping hand came from a nearby garage with an exasperatingly slow charger. They didn’t stay too long, hoping to be a little luckier at the next motorway services. Upon arriving, a woman told them the charger didn’t work until she called the helpline.
Because the call center was about to close, Linda decided to pass this station as well. At the next stop on their already frustrating journey, the protagonist and her husband were given a choice. They had to either queue in order to use a 7-kW charger with a 45-minute time limit or drive to a nearby hotel that had charging points. On the phone with hotel staff, the couple was told that “they had no idea what type it was or if it was even working.”
Fast-forward to a selection of Tesla Superchargers at a motorway services, and they were surprised to find out that Superchargers can’t be used to fill up the Taycan. Fortunately for Linda and her partner, a nearby fast charger was available and they were finally able to charge the vehicle.
What can we learn from this story? For starters, never leave home in your EV with a low charge, expecting the first charging station on your way to be operational. Secondly, the EV charging network in the United Kingdom is a mixed bag of sockets, charging rates, and payment methods. Without proper involvement from the government’s part, these problems will surely get worse as more and more people trade in ICEs for electric vehicles.
And the British government has to act very fast. Lest we forget, the sales ban on new gasoline and diesel vehicles will go into effect in 2030.
Linda and her husband left Bournemouth with 45 miles of range left, hoping to charge their vehicle at the first station on their route. “We plugged it in, but nothing happened,” she told The Guardian. Worse still, “a parking attendant told us the charger had been out of action for weeks.”
After touring several more chargers, a helping hand came from a nearby garage with an exasperatingly slow charger. They didn’t stay too long, hoping to be a little luckier at the next motorway services. Upon arriving, a woman told them the charger didn’t work until she called the helpline.
Because the call center was about to close, Linda decided to pass this station as well. At the next stop on their already frustrating journey, the protagonist and her husband were given a choice. They had to either queue in order to use a 7-kW charger with a 45-minute time limit or drive to a nearby hotel that had charging points. On the phone with hotel staff, the couple was told that “they had no idea what type it was or if it was even working.”
Fast-forward to a selection of Tesla Superchargers at a motorway services, and they were surprised to find out that Superchargers can’t be used to fill up the Taycan. Fortunately for Linda and her partner, a nearby fast charger was available and they were finally able to charge the vehicle.
What can we learn from this story? For starters, never leave home in your EV with a low charge, expecting the first charging station on your way to be operational. Secondly, the EV charging network in the United Kingdom is a mixed bag of sockets, charging rates, and payment methods. Without proper involvement from the government’s part, these problems will surely get worse as more and more people trade in ICEs for electric vehicles.
And the British government has to act very fast. Lest we forget, the sales ban on new gasoline and diesel vehicles will go into effect in 2030.
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