CR5 Issue 157 June 2018

Motoring
10 Electric Vehicle Myths Busted
by James Baggot
The age of the electric car is
very much upon us. However,
with cutting-edge technology
packed into each vehicle, it
can be tricky to understand
how they work and what the
benefits of owning one are.
Here, we try and debunk some
of the key myths surrounding
electric cars.
1. You can’t boil the kettle while
charging an electric car
A National Grid report warned
last year that home networks
might struggle to cope with
high-capacity car charging.
While this is theoretically true,
EV owners with a low-capacity
home network wouldn’t have a
high-capacity charger, meaning
that there’s little chance of the
network being overloaded.
2. EVs are more expensive than
petrol and diesel cars
While it’s generally true that the
base price of an EV will be a bit
more expensive, manufacturers
make up for this by offering
a generous specification so
that once you’ve taken the
government’s £4,500 zeroemission
vehicle grant into
account, they’re actually a
pretty good deal, and that’s
before you even look at the low
running costs.
What’s more, as EV technology
becomes more prevalent,
R&D costs will be more evenly
spread across manufacturer
fleets, so the cost of EVs will
come down – the new Nissan
Leaf starts at £1,500 less than
the old one.
3. They’re more likely to catch
fire in a crash
Many people have concerns
about crash safety with electric
cars. It was largely driven by
a couple of high-profile Tesla
Model S fires in 2013. The
EV maker upgraded its
underbody battery pack
protection in 2014 but also
noted that the odds of fires
in its cars were “five times
lower than those of an
average gasoline car”.
4. You can’t drive them in
car washes or when it’s
raining
We all know water and
electricity don’t mix. That’s
why manufacturers are
really careful to seal all of
the electrified components
to make sure there aren’t
any problems when
driving through puddles or
charging in the rain.
And if you couldn’t even
wash your car there would
be a lot more dirty EVs on
the road than there are!
5. You can’t go very far
That may have been the
case a few years ago, but
now most electric vehicles
have a range in excess of
150 miles, with 200 miles
quickly becoming the norm.
With the average journey
less than nine miles, that’s
more than enough for most
trips.
6. There’s nowhere to
charge them
Fear of running out of
electricity is known as
‘range anxiety’. Long trips
do require a bit more
planning as you can’t rely
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