The Diary of an EV Virgin - Fully Charged

The car charge has been very impressive, and I have used it over the weekend, covering roughly 50 miles and commuting to and from work (round trip 40 miles) for the past three days. The battery still has 34% capacity; however, I need to get to Blackburn on Thursday morning for business, so I need to charge the car to ensure I have enough power until I return the car on Friday morning.

As stated, this electric vehicle belongs to my employer, and my challenge is to drive it and become an EV owner for the week however, I don’t have a home charger. Of course, most people purchasing this type of vehicle will have a fast-charging unit installed before the car arrives. EV owners rate charging at home as one of the top benefits as they no longer need to visit a petrol station, saving them time and fuel costs.

Another huge benefit is if you select a smart charger with a participating energy provider such as the Octopus Intelligent tariff, you can have the vehicle automatically charge at night and take advantage of the significantly reduced rate of 7.5p per kWh instead of the standard day rate of 39.48p per kWh. What does that equate to in real terms? I hear you cry! Well, it would roughly cost about 17p per mile in a petrol car versus around 3p per mile in an electric car – now that’s miles better!

Anyway, back to my predicament, I must find a public charger. Now this was something my boss was keen for me to do as he believes public charging is straightforward. Was he correct though? Would it be easy for me to charge? On Thursday morning, I used the car’s inbuilt sat nav to find a charging point in Blackburn and came across an Ionity charger at the services. I chose this charging point because it claimed ‘very fast’ charging. Here we go….

I felt nervous about the services as I have never charged an electric vehicle. Where was the fuel cap? Where do I put the fuel? Why doesn’t it take fuel? Of course, the charging point cover was where you would expect to find a normal fuel cover and the charging plug on the unit was foolproof as you can’t incorrectly plug the car in. The charging unit was simple; all I needed to press was start and present my card to initiate charging. Easy!

As I left the car charging, it was at 12% battery, so I decided to have a quick rest break and grab a coffee. I could have been no longer than 15 minutes from leaving the car to returning, and the battery had charged to 53%. Now I was expecting it to be quick, but that was rapid! At this point, I could have taken the car off charge and completed the business journey and got home comfortably. However, I decided to continue charging at warp speed! The whole process was easy and pain-free.

Again don’t forget that most EV owners won’t need to charge publicly unless on a significantly long journey as they will have a home charger fitted for convenience and cost saving. Should you be looking to purchase an electric vehicle and considering a home charging unit, may I be bold and suggest you visit the best in the industry at www.charge-m8.com. The expert team will be delighted to support you with the best unit for your needs. My apologies for the shameless plug; as I am new in my role, I am trying to win good favour with my employer ☺).

And there we go; in just over 40 minutes, I charged the car to 90% for a total of £19.51 which would give me a total of 220 mile range. This is roughly half the cost of filling a petrol engine to achieve the same mileage despite the increased cost of public charging. I had no issues locating an available charger, and the process was quick and relatively cheap.

To be continued…