The Guardian reports that the Nissan Leaf electric car has gone on sale in the UK.
Let’s just remind ourselves what the spec on the car is:
- 110 miles range per charge (claimed)
- more like 80 miles range on test drives
- 8 hours to charge from home mains
- ½ hour to charge to 80% capacity on a fast charger
- too many fast charges will damage the batteries
- try and find a fast charger anywhere at the moment
- batteries will deteriorate year on year anyway, so the range per charge will drop further
- Li-ion batteries in general have a habit of going kaput after 18 months – 6 months outside the warranty period
- a new set of batteries costs around £18,000 – the price of THREE Vauxhall Corsas
OK. So back to the gushing Guardian story, which glosses over these simple facts even though it actually points most of them out in its own blurb! Several people are mentioned by name as having bought a Leaf:
Mark Goodier, the Smooth Radio DJ, is one of the first. “The great thing about electric cars is that the fuel distribution is already in place,” he said. “We all have mains electricity at home. We have it at work and councils are already working on how to install thousands of charging points at the roadside. You can see why electric vehicles make such sense, particularly in towns and cities.”
Yes. As long as you don’t do more than 80 miles, or sit for too long in a traffic jam, can resist the temptation to turn on the aircon in the hot weather, don’t need to nip to Tescos when you get home or take the kids to football practice, and can then wait for 8 hours before using it again… electric cars are brilliant.
Richard Todd, a silicon chip designer from St Albans, used to drive a Toyota Prius, a hybrid half-electric and half-petrol car. “As an engineer I have always wanted an electric car – I’ve just had to wait for the battery technology to arrive,” he said. “Hybrids are good but the driving experience of an all-electric vehicle is way beyond this.”
Hellooooo! Mr Chip Designer… an 80 mile range is NOT a sign that “battery technology has arrived”. That will only be when the range is nearer 500 miles per charge.
Having said all that, the fact that it costs around £2 to fully charge the thing (equivalent to about £10 for the same mileage on a tank full of petrol) is attractive. Just a shame about all the other problems.
I can’t wait until someone’s battery goes flat while they’re stuck in traffic.
EDIT 31/3/2011: Autoblog’s gushing “first drive” totally fails to mention the restrictions set by the 80 mile usable range, or the effect “climate control” has on the range. Or, for that matter, the effect the reviewer’s heavy foot on said range.