Buckden Parish Council Guide to Electric Vehicles.
A guide to electric vehicles (EV’s) 2020
Information to those who wish to further their knowledge on electric vehicles and evaluate if an electric car would benefit them, while also helping the environment locally here in Buckden and indeed globally. Along with some common terms and acronyms used by manufacturers and dealers.
BEV = Battery Electric Vehicle; 100% electric drivetrain with battery.
PHEV = Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle; The complexity of two drivetrains one conventional (petrol or diesel), and one separate electric drivetrain, with control gear to use, one or the other, or both. The main source of power is the diesel or petrol engine and the battery is normally small in comparison but adds “off the line power”, or a short electric range, can be plugged in to re-charge the battery.
Self Charging Hybrid = The complexity of two drivetrains one conventional (petrol or diesel), and one separate electric drivetrain with small battery that work together, with the main engine charging the battery, no option to plug in and charge the battery.
REX Range Extender = A Battery Electric Vehicle drivetrain with a complementary petrol generator that can charge the battery when needed.
ICE = Internal Combustion Engine; Conventional petrol or diesel.
PART 1. TIME AND DISTANCE
Miles Range without refuelling (maximum range available in vehicles 2020)
Driving style and weather conditions will determine overall results in all categories.
Examples below look at the maximum range of each of the different vehicle types.
BEV. Battery Electric Vehicle. max 400 miles
PHEV. Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle. max 640 miles
Self Charging Hybrid. Internal combustion / Electric. max 640 miles
REX Range Extender. Electric drive train with generator. max 205 miles
ICE. Internal combustion engine. max 1,112 miles
Hours continuous driving with full tank/battery
UK average speed achievable (outside rush hour times) is 50 miles in one hour.
The continuous driving times below are based on this figure.
BEV. Battery Electric Vehicle. 8h
PHEV. Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle. 12h 40m
Self Charging Hybrid. Internal combustion / Electric. 12h 40m
REX Range Extender. Electric drive train with generator. 4h
ICE. Internal combustion engine. 22h 25m
As a rough rule of thumb you can get an idea of the range and travel times of other cars, by dividing the distance and times in the above tables.
As can be seen the internal combustion engine (ICE) wins out for non stop driving range, it should be considered however would you want to drive 1,112 miles without stopping as that would be a continuous journey time of just over 22 hours.
The average
distance travelled by car per day in the UK is 32 miles.
Probably the most challenging journey for an EV is a same day return journey, so if your visit was to a location where charging wasn’t available, either on route or at the destination and you then had to return, it would in effect halve your vehicles range, ie Renault Zoe 50 R110 real world range 200 miles, therefore this would restrict you to a 100 mile journey there (2hours) and the return also 100 miles (another 2 hours).
Charging an EV can be done in a number of ways, at home, at a good friends! at an on route charger. Charging at home will be the most common way you will want to charge, because it is cheap (2p per mile) and convenient, over night just like your mobile phone.
There are also different speeds of charger these range from,
At home 13 amp plug. 2.3 kW will add 6 miles of range per hour
At home 32 amp home charger. 7 kW will add 22 miles of range per hour
On road / supermarket / car park. 3.5 kW will add 11 miles of range per hour
On road / supermarket / car park. 7 kW will add 22 miles of range per hour
Motorway services / major routes. 50 kW will add 180 miles of range per hour
Motorway services / major routes. 150 kW will add 400 miles of range per hour
It should be noted that the above speeds are recorded up until the battery has reached 80% of its capacity thereafter the charge rate tapers down to counter the over heating of the battery, (with the exception of the home 13 amp plug charger). Not all cars are built to accept the higher charge rates.
If you want a spreadsheet database of all EV’s available in 2020,
From the Skoda CitiGo Electric £17,455 to the Porsche Taycan turbo S. £138,826,
that you can sort into various orders including, Manufacturer, Price, WLTP range, Real World Range, battery size, performance, etc.
email me Allan Jones at: ajjones@buckdenpc.org.uk
FURTHER PARTS TO FOLLOW
2. MAINTENANCE & COMPLEXITY
3. COSTS
4. ENVIRONMENT
5. SAFTY