Britain getting Screwed

[gordi]

Here's the thing...

The majority of Southern England (around London) is what I'd call "urbanised".
There are a large number of towns and cities within relatively short distances from one another.
(You'd never be too far from an Electric Vehicle Charging Station if you needed one, and most of the new charging points are rapid-charge which take (maybe) an hour or 2, rather than the 8-10 hours charge time for most "domestic" charging systems.)

The vast majority of Scotland (outwith the central belt) however, has large distances of remote wilderness between towns and cities.
You'd never be anywhere near a charging station (even if they were installed in EVERY petrol station) on many of these roads.

The electric cars which are currently available can't be used for travel between towns & cities which, in practical terms are more than 40 or 50 miles apart because their range is very limited. (see below)

MAXIMUM RANGE of ELECTRIC CARS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE in UK
(Data from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_el..._available)

RENAULT ZE 84miles
KIA Soul EV 93miles
NISSAN LEAF 107miles
BMW i3 114miles
VW E-Golf 118miles
MERCEDES B-Class Electric 124miles


ACTUAL DRIVING DISTANCES (One Way Only) between towns and cities in Scotland.
GLASGOW - DUMFRIES 76miles
GLASGOW - DUNDEE 81miles
GLASGOW - ABERDEEN 145miles
EDINBURGH - INVERNESS 155miles
GLASGOW - INVERNESS 168miles
DUMFRIES - ABERDEEN 209miles
EDINBURGH - ULLAPOOL 210miles

If I live near Glasgow, but have to visit.... let's say Aberdeen?
It's 145miles by road.
NONE of the vehicles listed above could even get me there (never mind back!) whereas in my diesel car or van I can be there in 2hrs45mins and drive back again (easily) on the same tank of fuel.
Am I supposed to drive my electric car to Dundee (81miles) and find a charging station... then wait a couple of hours for it to charge... before continuing to Aberdeen (66miles)... finding another charging station... waiting there a couple of hours... then returning home via Dundee again... finding a charging station... waiting.... etc ???
A 5.5 hr round trip becomes what...? at least 11.5 hrs??? (with 3 x 2 hr charging stops.)
That's IF you can find an available charging point among all of the other electric vehicles needing charged up...

IT IS MADNESS to even discuss the banning of "fossil fuel" vehicles UNTIL THE NEW TECHNOLOGY IS AT A STAGE WHERE IT IS PRACTICAL, AFFORDABLE AND FIT FOR PURPOSE.



BigG