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PARNELL'S EV
ELECTRIC DREAMS
Neville & Natalie Parnell recently moved from
Eltham, South East London to Penn. They
wanted to give their daughter Nancy the benefits
of living in the countryside & fell in love with
the area. They decided to expand their
successful Bath based vehicle repair business &
Parnell’s EV was born. Based in Slades Garage,
Church Road, Penn, Parnells EV offers a
bespoke service. Primarily specialising in
electric & hybrid vehicle repairs & servicing &
converting classic cars to electric. Neville has
had a passion for all things car & electrical since
childhood (even being given a car engine for his
10th birthday). He is now IMI Level 4
Accredited in electric & hybrid vehicles.
So you convert classic cars to electric, why? As
classic cars & electrics are my passion it was the
obvious solution to combine the two; converting
timeless classic vehicles into modern day electrified
icons.
Is it only electric cars you repair & service? With
over 30 years’ experience, we carry out diagnostic &
general repairs & servicing to all makes & models not
only electric.
So you're thinking of switching to an electric car?
Although combustion engines still make up most of the
market, electric vehicles have been growing in sales &
availability over the past year.
What is it like to drive an electric car? It’s likely
you’ll enjoy driving an electric car, because they have a
few desirable characteristics. Firstly, they tend to feel
pretty quick, & that’s due to the way an electric motor
delivers its power. This means immediate acceleration
as soon as you hit the pedal. So, great fun scooting off
at the traffic lights! But just how fast are they? Well, an
affordable option like a Renault Zoe goes from
0-60mph in 8/9 seconds, but the performance actually
feels much faster than that because of the all-at-once
nature of the acceleration. A top-of-the-line Tesla
model S (P100D with ‘Ludicrous Mode’) meanwhile, is
one of the fastest accelerating cars on the planet, doing
the same sprint in just 2.5 seconds.
But isn't range a huge problem? Perceived range is
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the most cited drawback. There's no avoiding that even
the most basic petrol car will have a greater range than
most electric cars. However, unless you're doing a lot of
motorway miles, your daily or even weekly driving is
probably within the range of most electric cars. That's
the important thing to figure out: how much range do
you need for your regular driving, rather than how
much range would you need to cover a one off holiday
trip.
It's all about charging? For most EV owners,
charging overnight at home is the cheapest & most
convenient option. All electric cars will charge off a
standard wall socket. For most people, a 7kW charger
can be installed charging your car 3x faster than a
normal socket.
As another benefit, most electric-car drivers say they
find it much more convenient to just plug in at home
than to have to stop at petrol stations. The best thing is
that once you have a home charging pod, it will work
with any electric car, so if friends come for the weekend,
they can charge up too. It also means that you're often
leaving home with a full charge, rather than a
half-empty tank.
Public charging? If you can't charge at home, then
public charging is the way to go. Again, this isn't a
barrier to electric car ownership, it's just something to
be considered. The best public chargers are the fast
chargers. These come in various forms with increasing
speeds. There are 100kW chargers appearing in car
parks, restaurants, hotels & while they will charge you a
little more for the electricity, they'll likely charge your
car in about 30-60 minutes.
Aren't electric cars just really expensive? There
have been some expensive electric cars. The Tesla
Model S and X, Audi e-tron and Jaguar i-Pace are
examples. But as all the major manufactures are now
producing electric vehicles there is a lot more variety
appearing. It’s true that electric cars are expensive to
buy compared with petrol or diesel cars, but that’s not
the full story. If you think about how much your car will
cost overall during the lifetime of the car, then the
vastly reduced servicing, maintenance and running
costs could well make up that difference. Obviously, the
first saving you’re going to make is on fuel charging a
car up with electricity is much cheaper than filling it
with petrol or diesel.
Should I buy an electric car? There is no easy
answer to that, Parnell’s EV is here to help and offer
completely free and impartial advice on what cars may
be suitable for your needs. If you needed any help in
sourcing an electric/hybrid or a classic car for
conversion, Parnell’s EV recommends Slades Garage
who have a wealth of experience in sourcing cars.
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