If you're hiring an electric car, you’ve got a surprise coming your way

21 June 2023 , 21:21

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Charging infrastructure in the UK really needs to improve quickly (Image: Getty Images)

When my family came to visit us from the United States last week as we celebrated my son’s first Holy Communion, I thoroughly agreed with their decision to get a rental car.

With two toddlers and a double buggy, it just meant it would be easier for them to get around London. Especially as where we live we rely mainly on trains and old stations with accessibility issues. What I disagreed with was their choice of car.

When they said they were going to get a fully electric vehicle I warned them it would be a nightmare.

But their list of pros for the Tesla (other EVs are available) – very low fuel costs, no toll (congestion) charges, extra boot space in the front and back, and, of course, its green credentials – seemed to outweigh the cons.

That was until they tried to charge the thing. After whizzing around taking in the sights and visiting other relatives, my brother-in-law went to top up the battery.

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What a palaver.

Every charging point he went to seemed to have its own bespoke app that needed to be downloaded – a bit like car parking these days. That meant wasting vast amounts of time when he actually found places to charge.

On one occasion he spent nearly an hour trying to download an app in a supermarket car park, then had to leave or risk getting a parking ticket for being there too long.

In other places he found he had to queue up and face a frustrating wait for car owners ahead of him to charge up first. Knowing they had to return the car to the hire place with at least 85% charge caused no end of stress.

There are simply too few places to charge, too many long queues and too many apps to faff around with first.

The only way to eliminate the stress seems to be to install a charger at home and, of course, not everyone can do that. I certainly couldn’t – and wouldn’t have done it for just a week.

When it comes to climate change we know EVs have a huge part to play. But much more needs to be done by the government and the car industry to make hitting the road in an EV a whole lot easier.

Eva Simpson