Steve Cropley: life with an electric car keeps changing
A few days with a new Fiat 500 showed how quickly the EV world is advancing
This week, our man is impressed by the real-world usability of even a short-range electric car, ponders the relationship between average speed and efficiency and compares London's fearsome 20mph speed limit zones with Germany's limit-free autobahns.
*Friday*
Headed eagerly out of The Smoke for a weekend update in Autocar’s electric Fiat 500, because EV life keeps changing. Paused my usual London-Cotswolds trip at Membury services to try the Gridserve chargers that last year replaced those woeful Ecotricity units on motorways. Mine worked well: it connected quickly, read my credit card without drama and boosted the battery 30% by the time I’d downed a coffee.
*Saturday and Sunday*
Lots of local zipping about the Fiat’s speciality. It’s amazing how a semi-rural life advances your car’s odometer in 30-mile chunks, but our home charger obliterates short-haul EV problems. Still, I wasn’t confident we’d pull off a 127-mile round trip to meet a son for Sunday lunch – not least because Fiat has always been hopelessly optimistic at forecasting how far any 500 will go on a ‘tankful’. (Remember when it advertised the 50mpg Twinair’s fuel consumption as 68.9mpg?) The EV’s WLTP range is 199 miles but none of us has ever got closer than 150, and even a modicum of leadfootery slashes it further. This time we made it with 22 miles to spare.
*Monday*
Back to London in the Fiat, indulging my long-time preoccupation with the fact that aerodynamic drag rises as the square of speed. I’m no theorist but, as I understand it, if a car encounters an aero load of A at 50mph, it’ll be close to 2A at 70mph and one-third A at 30mph. Such considerations really matter as fuel costs head skywards (and as new EV drivers become more aware of energy consumption).
I believe there’s a trade-off in many a driver’s head between how much energy they aim to save and how much dawdling they can tolerate. For this experimental journey, I decided the right speed was 58mph – and was rewarded with a journey that took about seven minutes longer than usual, and an apparent range of 166 miles, which (for once) is a whisker better than what you’re offered on start-up at this time of the year.
*Tuesday*
Very sorry to hear of the untimely death of Mark Vinnels, brilliant and much admired British engineer, whose name always seemed to bob up when interesting and challenging projects were in the news. I met him as a team leader on various Lotus projects (the Vauxhall VX220 was one) and he subsequently did much to propel McLaren’s bold advance from 2010. More recently, he took his renowned skills as a ‘leader and maker’ to Rivian, the electric pick-up company. Vinnels rated that project highly so he came to our offices in person to make sure we understood it, too, which was typical. He’ll be sadly missed by his many friends and admirers.
*Thursday*
Could some experienced inner-London driver please give me a bit of practical advice about coping with 20mph speed limits? I do obey them but it’s unnerving: drivers behind (white vanners, motorcyclists, middle managers in Audis) become furious and vindictive, pulling phenomenal passing manoeuvres in the most terrible places. Accidents in the brave new slow-motion world may be less serious, but they definitely seem more likely.
I’ve seen many try 25mph, but that feels a bit quick if someone’s up ahead with a radar gun. Others settle for 23mph, which still seems to offend followers, especially if like me the person in front is driving a Fiat 500 EV or a Dacia Duster. A surprising number of drivers behave as if 20mph limits don’t exist. Perhaps they’ve heard that no one implements them. If so, it’s something we all need to know. Can someone (preferably not a cycling zealot or a smug law maker) explain the realities? I’m okay going slowly but what I most desire is a peaceful driving life.
*And another thing…*
Liberating return trip to Frankfurt that included a couple of seriously fast autobahn taxi trips: what a pleasure doing an unbridled 100mph for a while, even in a 100,000- mile Opel Zafira. Arrived home with time to spare.