The British government claims to be fully behind the electric car movement and recently announced that it would ban the sale of most ICE vehicles by 2030, an ambitious target that will make it one of the earliest countries to switch to electric power.
So you might expect that government’s climate spokesperson to be all in favor of EVs, or at least appear so in public. But Allegra Stratton recently revealed to Times Radio that she prefers to drive her third-hand Volkswagen Golf over an electric car.
Stratton, who lives in London, claimed she preferred diesel power because she has to make regular trips of 200-250 miles to visit elderly relatives far from the capitol.
“They’re all journeys that I think would be at least one quite long stop to charge,” she explained, adding that those stops would slow the journey down and cause discomfort to her two young children who might otherwise sleep for the entire journey (if you’ve got kids, you’ll know exactly why she thinks this is a problem).
Related: Britain Now Needs To Solve Range Anxiety, Following Decision To Ban ICE Units In 2030
Stratton conceded that she might consider switching to an electric car in future if “the stop time for charging improves so much it’s half an hour”.
Attacked From All Sides
Not surprisingly, Stratton’s comments resulted in attacks from all sides. Environmental campaigners and politicians from the opposition Labour Party jumped on what they saw as the hypocrisy of someone so senior in the government’s environmental arm being so out of step.
And EV supporters picked holes in her reasoning, pointing out that EVs are exempt from the London congestion charge, which could potentially save her money, and some can accept almost a full charge in less than 30 minutes.
But I absolutely understand Stratton’s thinking. She has a car that works just fine, is cheap to run and is probably fully paid off. I doubt she drives into central London for work, and probably lives outside the congestion charge, so the daily fee doesn’t affect her. Living in London, she probably doesn’t even use the car much at all, so can’t see the point in spending $600 every month on an EV lease. And when she does need to use a car to make those long trips to see family, an old diesel Golf’s 500-mile range and 60 mpg is hard to beat.
Electrical Problems
Despite having driven and enjoyed dozens of electric cars, I’m not ready to switch, either. Firstly, the true (as opposed to advertised) driving range of most affordable electric cars is substantially less than 300 miles. That’s worse than a gasoline car and almost half the range of a diesel.
Related: Is It Possible To Drive An Electric Car 1,000 Miles In A Day?
Yeah, but most journeys are less than 300 miles and you’ll want to take a break on a long journey anyway, EV fans will say. And it’s true, most of my weekly journeys are short. But they’re punctuated by three-, four-, five- and even seven-hour trips, and on those kind of journeys I like to keep moving. I don’t want to hang around in a service station car park charging my car. I want to take a leak, grab a coffee and get going.
And then there’s the charging issue. Yes, some cars can charge in 20 minutes, but most can’t. And even those that can, can only do it when connected to the fastest chargers, which aren’t at every location. I’ve done long journeys in EVs before and more than once arrived at a charger that my app told me was free five minutes earlier, only to find it was broken, or someone had that very second plugged in and would be occupying it for most of the next hour. I’ve never consumed so much cake as I have when taking a long trip in an EV. I’ve also never driven so slowly because I’m always thinking about the dwindling range. And I hate driving slowly.
Diesel Do Nicely
Conversely, I’ve run stacks of diesels and for all their noise, vibration and stink, I’ve found them really useful and likeable. I love that the leggiest can do over 700 miles on a tank meaning I can drive four hours to the airport, not have to worry about finding a charger to hook up to, and when I get back on an 11 pm flight there’s still enough juice in the tank to take me all the way home without stopping.
I love that I can add another 700 miles in two minutes, and that give or take the odd variation in flow rate, any random fuel pump I come across is going to top me up as quickly as the next one. But most of all, I love that ICE cars allow you to be spontaneous in the way EVs don’t.
Related: Audi A6 TDI Ultra Travels To 14 Countries Without Refueling, Sets World Record
Don’t get me wrong, I like EVs. I like their sense of calm, their explosive performance and the thought of how much more appealing cities will be when they’ve cleaned up the air quality, which I haven’t forgotten is the main focus of the EV story. The cars and technology have come on in leaps and bounds over the last decade, and solid-state tech will change the game again.
When that happens, maybe Angela Stratton will be ready to make the shift. Maybe I will, too. For some people the current EVs fit perfectly with their needs, so they’re happy to move across. But at this moment in time not everyone is ready to switch, for a variety of reasons. I think Stratton was naive in admitting her thoughts in the Times Radio interview, but I admire her honesty.
