Essay by Eric Worrall
“… I sat in a café one street back from the ruins of the seafront, watching as zombies lurched past. It gave me time to think. …”
I tried circumnavigating the UK in an electric van — here’s why it was impossible
It’s green, it’s eco-friendly … and it can take up to six hours to charge, as Chris Haslam discovered. The road trip revolution is still a long way off
My annual circumnavigation of mainland Britain and Northern Ireland presented the perfect opportunity to try to prove that it was not only possible, but, ideally, a breeze to complete a four-week road trip in an electric van.…
The next day was worse. Despite beginning the day with a 90-minute top-up in a BP garage, the last 40 miles to Normans Bay felt like a scene from the 1953 film The Wages of Fear.
…
Unless you’re a student of urban decline or a fan of post-apocalyptic horror, you’ll find three hours is too long to be in Eastbourne. I sat in a café one street back from the ruins of the seafront, watching as zombies lurched past. It gave me time to think.
…
So I admitted defeat, called VW and asked if it had anything that ran on diesel. It brought me a California camper van. It took five minutes to fill, had a range of 550 miles, an electric pop-up roof and a fridge that looked great when I loaded it with beer.
Read more: https://www.thetimes.com/travel/inspiration/comment-inspiration/electric-vw-id-buzz-campervan-circumnavigate-the-uk-chris-haslam-vjdr5mtn9
…
The entire article is well worth reading, laughed at every paragraph – as is MGUY’s hilarious take on this road trip disaster.
I did a similar road trip 25 years ago, at least the drive along the Kent and Sussex coast in the south east corner of Britain. Some towns along the coast road were absolutely charming, laid back sleepy beach front oasis, so I have good memories of that drive.
Other towns not so much.
I don’t remember zombies in Eastbourne, though Eastbourne did look a little run down, so we kind of drove through without stopping. I didn’t have to stop anywhere I didn’t want to or worry about range anxiety, because I was driving a diesel.
I did some more research on Eastbourne, things have really deteriorated since I visited. The town has a major Meth crisis, which nobody seems to be dealing with. Even a local Eastbourne priest recently admitted his drug use, but claimed drug use helps him with his pastoral mission.
I seriously hope that Lee Zeldin will end the import ban on European small diesel vehicles – they’re the most efficient road trip vehicles out there.
I love diesels, my current vehicle is a 4WD diesel. Its not just the range, roads in Queensland are really falling apart, and the 4WD handles near off-road conditions without being battered.
I have an Audi Q7 with a 3.0 liter TDI diesel engine – it’s awesome. I can easily make it from SLC to Denver without stopping for fuel.
My Australian mother-in-law has a caravan she sleeps in in her many travels. Are you familiar with the incredibly poor towing performance of EVs?
I would actually like a diesel van. I fondly remember VW Rabbit diesels, had couple of friends who owned them and they were awesome. Went any damned where, and drove forever on a full tank.
My father wanted to see if he could maximize the fuel economy he could get from a VW Rabbit diesel. On a 900 mile road trip from Washington to Utah we kept it to about 50 mph on the freeways for optimum fuel economy on one tank of fuel and measured 63 mpg. Fun to see what it could do, but that was a long, slow roadtrip. It had a 48 hp engine, did 0-60 mph in about 30 seconds, and top speed going down hill was about 85 mph, limited by aerodynamics and the puny engine. As it aged, it lost power and economy but it developed one great attribute. When downshifting from fifth gear to fourth at speed, clouds of black smoke belched from the tailpipe. It was a great tactic to ward off tailgaters. If they got too close, I downshifted and they disappeared in the smoke. No one wanted to stay behind that. They shifted lanes and passed. Problem solved.
Will the effective expiration of CAFE standards in the U.S. change the mix of engines across the typical car and truck sales models?
A long while back (30+ years?) my fuzzy memory is that diesel was almost always cheaper than gasoline. Yet diesel is now significantly more expensive. Is my memory faulty, or is there some underlying reason that the comparative price points of diesel versus gasoline have flipped?
(Both serious questions. Not my usual snark.)
Mostly, you can thank the government for environmental regulations that make it more costly to produce, as well as for increasing diesel fuel taxes.
higher costs associated with producing ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), plus higher taxes
The diesels don’t even like the low sulfur diesel fuel. The only part that likes it is the VV turbo.
Yes, hydrotreating to remove sulfur also lowers lubricity, so expensive additives have to be used to help mitigate engine wear.
Diesel is cheaper to produce, because it requires less energy to crack it than gasoline when refining from crude.
When markets were free from government regulation is why it used to be cheaper than gas. Not so anymore. Saving the earth is expensive.
Perhaps still true in US refineries but the extra demand for diesel in Europe alters the equation. Europe exports surplus gasoline to the US, and imports diesel from the Middle East (used to be a good chunk from Russia before the Ukraine war).
Thanks all!
Dieselisation in Europe ws promoted by taxation that encouraged the use of lower CO2 emissions vehicles with better fuel economy. Auto manufacturers responded by improving diesel engine performance for acceleration giving them wider appeal. The result was that fuel demand switched in favour of diesel, while refineries had been built to make more gasoline. At the same time the use of fuel oil for power generation and industrial heat and marine fuel was heavily discouraged by regulation. However the cost of upgrading and desulphurising those heavy fractions is much higher than the cost of making gasoline from middle distillate components. So on the one hand there has been cost push, and on the other, demand pull towards equalisation of pump prices to reflect relative mpg.
Which is cheaper for running costs depends on local taxes and markets. Probably diesel engines will last longer given some of the additives in modern gasoline including bioethanol.
I opted for diesel again when I replaced my vehicle last year. I’ve had to sacrifice 100 miles of range to AdBlue to appease the climate gods, but hopefully they won’t stop me driving it for a good while yet.
Doing a modest 200 mile round trip a couple of days ago I did not envy the Teslas lined up to recharge when I stopped briefly for a comfort break, or the couple I saw in limp home mode on the motorway. And I kept my air-conditioning running on quite a warm day while they plainly did not.
When I was a kid back in the 60’s, diesel was definitely the cheapest. But that was also back when the only things that burned diesel was big rigs and farm equipment.
When gas started getting expensive, manufacturers started making diesels that were targeted for the family market. Right after that, diesel prices started rising.
Mercedes-Benz started using diesel fuel in 1936 with the introduction of the 260 D, which was the world’s first series-production diesel passenger car.
I have a Bronco Sport, with a 3 cylinder petrol engine, and currently get 6.7 l /100 km on mixed driving (including at 114kmh on the highways), but as low as 5.9 l/100 km on country roads. I run the A/C when it is very humid or when running over 80 kph.
My calcs show that’s 35 mpg for US gallons.
My 1997 Chevy Cavalier, 2.2L, 5 speed [ with 245k miles on it], does 30+ mpg around town and 40+ mpg on the freeway at 80 mph…[ CA I-5 ]
I think the Green Blob does not really want the hoi polloi in individual motor vehicles, period.
I’m starting to wonder if the EV push is a reinvention of Soviet style internal travel restrictions. EV range anxiety achieves more or less the same goal as Soviet style internal passports and police checkpoints, but is self enforcing – you don’t need to antagonise people with constant police checks to stop them travelling too much.
Eco-enforced 15-minute cities will be more or less the same goal as Soviet style internal passports and police checkpoints,
All we peasants need are sturdy sandals, so we can stand on terra firma and watch the elites flying high over head in their jets.
I think the elite want a return to
sedan chairs, the better to suit their status.
Let’s not forget that on top of EV shortcomings such as long recharge times, uncertain cruising ranges, higher list prices than gas/diesel types, low resale values, lower reliability ratings than gas/diesels, inconsistent cold-weather performances, their sales in many jurisdictions have been propped up by government rebates. Except those are in turn supported by consumers’ tax dollars, and when the rebates are removed EV sales have taken precipitous drops. That’s been the case already in Georgia, Ontario, Denmark and Hong Kong. Now we’re seeing a repeat in Canada where the subsidies enticed consumers in Quebec, British Columbia and a few other provinces led to EV last December to account for 18.3 % of all new car sales. Once the subsidies were removed this past April, the number fell to 7.5%. So before anyone gets too optimistic about the future of these types, let’s see how fast manufacturers can straighten out these problems so that EVs can stand on their own feet.
I know this is becoming a broken record but:
“Except those are in turn supported by consumers’ tax dollars”
Government is borrowing more than its collecting.
Those aren’t your tax dollars at work, they’re your kids tax dollars at work.
They’re your
kidsgreat-grandkids tax dollars at work.And probably several generations more, once you’re borrowing trillions.
The shortcomings of electric vehicles can be overcome eventually, but government subsidies kept them on life support. Now, we’ll see what happens to the markets as the government in the US at least begins to lift its heavy hand on the scales.
I’m not holding my breath. They have been working EV shortcomings for nearly 190 years and still have the same problems. They did make one improvement though as the first EV was not rechargeable.
There is a segment where EVs are effective. Golf carts.
I will give you that and I have to admit that I have indeed found a golf cart useful on occasion.🙋♂️😉
Electric forklifts are pretty good, especially indoor.
Shortcomings, (not including battery hybrids)):
Weight.
Until Mr. Fusion comes into production, weight will always be an issue and with it wear and tear on tires, breaks, bearings, and who knows what else.
Fires.
Even a failure rate of 5 ppb (parts per billion) does not eliminate fires. New batteries that do not spontaneously combust can be developed. The question is, will they have less energy capacity? The answer, based on 50 years involved with electro-chemical power sources (aka batteries) is that it is not impossible but also it is not likely to happen.
Recharging.
No way is a 15 minute charge possible. In the lab, ok, especially with superior heat removal, but not in production. Just the cost of copper cables to handle the current load will not be easily solved, let alone where that current comes from at a 100 spot charging station with 100 cars charging at the same time. The grid will need massive conductors.
Environment.
Aside from the pollution from tires (more with EVs due to weight), batteries do not work at cold. These are chemical processes and all chemical processes slow down at cold temperatures. Current EV batteries cannot be charge at all in cold temperatures commonly experience in winter, especially in northern states. Current EVs require battery heaters running off the battery to maintain a minimal operating temperature and this reduces energy available. In warmer temperatures, self-discharge reduces energy available. Not a major impact, but the devil’s in the details and this detail must be included.
In California, the PG&E residential e-rates are $0.41 baseline and $0.51 per kwhr.
https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://www.pge.com/assets/rates/tariffs/res-inclu-tou-current.xlsx
So, an EV that uses 0.30 kwhr/mile is costing $0.15 per mile, since most folks here use more than the baseline amount.
My old Chevy gets 30+ mpg on gas costing $3.80, or $0.127 per mile…
So, EVs here are more costly to drive than an ice car.!!
[ and my tires are lower cost too]
Very good, but the shortcomings addressed apply to the machine, not the cost of operating the machine. Your post is sauce for the goose, after the goose is in the oven.
Good points, except the mistaken notion that EV’s weigh more than ICE vehicles. If you compare vehicles in the same class, their curb weights are pretty much the same. This myth gets bandied about without checking the details. Fact is yes main battery assembly weighs a lot, however it is replacing an engine, transmission, drive shaft(s), differential, and fuel tank plus fuel. When you weigh these items no longer needed in an EV you end up with about the same weight as the battery pack and drive motor(s). And their chassis’ are often considerably lighter than comparable ICE vehicle as well.
The item you did not address is battery life and replacement cost. If you assume similar mileage for main battery replacement in an EV, to replacing an engine in an ICE vehicle (say 200k miles), the ICE engine is about $4k to $7k, while the battery pack is $18 – $25k both being installed cost. (and hybrids are worse, in that once the main batt produces a serious fault, the car becomes a boat anchor as it will not even allow the ICE engine to start until you replace the faulty batt)
I think EV’s are stupid, but the weight issue is a false notion.
Was the significant drop in EV sales a consequence of the reduction/elimination of subsidies or the anti- Elon/Tesla movement at the time?
Certain south coast town Zombies, very much a problem. Avoid Iceland (cheap supermarket) on Tuesday as it’s OAP 10% discount day, apocalyptic.
Age awaits you too.
You may not find yourself in Iceland on Tuesdays. But you will still, as the poet says, have a passionate heart but with an aging body tied to you ‘like a tin can to a dogs tail’. [Yeats].
And idiots like yourself when younger will still find the sight of you and your friends, if there are any left, ‘apocalyptic’.
Unless you meet with what may be your preferred alternative on the way there…
Me and age met a long time ago, but I haven’t lost all sense of humour along the way.
It’s green, it’s eco-friendly … and it can take up to six hours to charge, as Chris Haslam discovered. The road trip revolution is still a long way off
As Willis showed in his recent article, that’s just not going to change much. A 5 minute fill would require cables as thick as your arm, with built in cooling, and thousands of volts driving the charge. Multiply by millions of vehicles. That 5 minute charge is limited by the laws of physics to an infrastructure practically impossible to build.
The left and the greens in particular don’t seem to have any trouble breaking any laws they feel like to get their point across, but its much harder to break the laws of physics than it is to torch a Tesla.
EVs are not a replacement for internal combustion vehicles, wind and solar are not a replacement for fossil fuel and nuclear generation, CO2 can not cause catastrophic global warming and the CAGW clowns are liars and cheats.
Don’t sugar coat it!
Tell us how you really feel!
/humor
New diesels have to meet some very stringent emission standards – one model has about 6 temp sensors on the elaborate exhaust – I don’t think these vehicles will be like the diesels of 20 years ago for reliability and high mileage. EVs should not be mandated but there is improvements in the works – Mercedes is testing a new type of electric motor which is lighter and slightly more powerful and Toyota is trying a new bat technology – no lithium – and 10 minute charge, There may be a place for Evs but NO MANDATE!
10 minute charge still requires infrastructure that is “practically impossible to build”.
A co-located nuclear reactor would solve the power delivery issue.
How many nuclear reactors are we talking for the UK? One per 100k people?
Say about 1000 in the UK to cover the entire country. Possible in theory only.
Except nukes don’t like ramping up and down as people connect and disconnect to the chargers. A big open cycle gas plant would be a better choice I think.
Just bring back the Nucleon.
https://www.ans.org/news/article-3058/the-1958-ford-nucleon-an-idea-thats-still-ahead-of-its-time/
Not sure why the down votes.
5 minute charging🤷♂️😞
The problem for EVs is the battery – not the motor – the electric motor is equal or superior to the gas/diesel engines. Railroads like electric motors. The new Tesla 3 is very impressive but NO SUBSIDY OR MANDATE,
Long charging times for EV’s violate the Cardinal Rule for safe driving: “Never come to a complete stop in a ghetto”
Rude comment, but true.
EV’s are in general fun to watch, or to be precise their owners trying to charge them. Out of their usual turf and facing an unfamiliar charging station. Either the app or it’s QR code are not working or the charger itself faulty or has been vandalised.
Now imagine that poor EV-schmuck and a dozen loud laughing oldtimer owners staring in your way while your desperation grows to get some measy Wh of charge in your drained battery.
Pardon me that we show no mercy for those virtue signalling ecotards who want to take away our fun, freedom, mobility, money and property.
I was in a car park yesterday and all the battery charging bays were empty. And the same last week in another town.
I live in what could be called a “tradies” town, so dominated by 4WD trade utes and SUVs of different types.
Also see lots of large caravans in the area, with again, big V8 or diesel hauling units.
I don’t need those, and when old Holden V8 died, I picked up a 2nd hand Mitsub 380 at a nice price. That car has more than enough grunt and range for me.
As for EVs, there is one Tesla I see occasional, and 4 or 5 mobility scooters.
Another idiot YouTuber making making silly faces and pointing. Surprised there isn’t a giant red arrow pointing at the obvious.
MGUY is hilarious, not the usual YouTube bubblehead.
A visit to Eastbourne always gives pleasure. If not when arriving, then when leaving.
Normans Bay is isolated but in a beautiful area. Eastbourne is well worth a visit, though I haven’t seen it after dark.
The last thing anyone wants is concern about the vehicle they are using when doing a long road trip or as in this case a holiday tour of Britain’s beaches. Uncertainty of achieving just a few hundred miles distance is something we had consigned to ancient motoring history but apparently not any more.
The other thing to remember is the UK is probably the most condensed country in terms of resources. Every town has or had fuel restaurants pubs B&Bs etc. Every town is within a few short miles of the next town. If an electric camper van can not make the trip in Britain it is unlikely to make it anywhere.
When my diesel SUV is down to its last quarter of a tank I relax knowing there will be a selection of fuel service options in the next 125 miles. When an EV gets down to 25% charge the situation becomes worrying, Eastbourne is one of the better places to run out of charge…..
About that meth head minister, my church in Illinois has experience. Assistant pastor. Pregnant Girls. Open weed use. Left to start another church. That church failed. Mug shot for burglary and possession of meth. Not all “ministries” are equal.
Here in the UK the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) latest bulletin said sales of EVs remain significantly behind the 28% government mandated target for 2025.
The UK i Newspaper also recently said (5th July) that business analysts Alix-Partners warned that the Chinese EV boom could soon collapse. There are apparently 129 brands of EVs and plug in hybrids in China and it is likely that only 15 of these will be financially viable by 2030! Many are already struggling to achieve sustainable profitability.
There is good evidence that BYD is struggling under a colossal debt burden and could be the next Evergrande.
It is indeed a very funny story, with some illuminating key points made as asides. His remarks about time to recharge hit one of the key issue with EVs when used for some of the purposes for which ICE cars are used. If its going to take a couple of hours to charge them, as compared to the present 10 minutes, then either we have far more charging stations than we currently have pumps, and that means 10-20 times as many, or we travel far less in cars for long distances. There is no way around this.
And even then, they would still not meet the application for long distance travel, because the extra time it adds to the journey is a real factor in whether its a feasible product for that application. Not just cars, either, ambulances to take another key example, you cannot have them out of serviced for hours recharging.
If you are an older couple perhaps, living in the country with off street parking, charge your car overnight, use it for day trips of no more than 100 miles max, it will be fine. You can probably even top it up in the supermarket parking lot now, though you will probably hardly ever need to.
But they are simply not the same product as an ICE car, they are not plug compatible with them in the applications most people assume they can use ICE cars for. The advocates always dismiss this with stats about average trip length. But that is not addressing why people buy cars. The ability to make occasional longer trips is something they take for granted and which may be an important part of their buying motive. If you offer them something that looks like a car, but doesn’t do something they want from it, you probably can make them buy it, if there is no alternative. But you are not going to make them want to pay the same price or more for the reduced functionality. What you will get is people buying mild hybrids while they still can, and then a drop in the overall new car market, and a boom in used ICE and hybrids.
I just watched “The Wages of Fear” last week. 😳
Being in California, the registration fee on my 2003 Chevy Duramax diesel increases every year and is now up to $421. My ‘16 Mazda is $175.