#ballinluig

Electric energy by Tony Via Flickr: How long does charging take? Are there enough chargers? Is there enough electricity to swap over? It takes 6kWh of electricity to produce one gallon of Petrol. An electric car can travel the same distance as the petrol car for that energy. So without petrol, there is enough slack in the system. Some countries like Spain have very few chargers, so yes, in some places there are not enough. In Britain there are around 3,000 rapid chargers and 800 ultra rapid chargers. This leads into how long does it take to charge. This one is a little harder to answer as it can vary. The quick answer is I stop from 20/25 minutes to load up for the next jump. My car has a smaller 28kWh battery. Most chargers work at around 40W thus the 20 min charge time. There are newer chargers at motorway service stations that work at around 60w up to 150W. For a 20 min stop I usually drive 100 miles. When I bought my car nearly four years ago, there were a few holes in the network. North Wales and East Anglia had no rapid chargers. Today there are less gaps. Scotland has always been ahead of the game and many small communities have had chargers for years. The small Island of South Ronaldsay, where I was staying, there were two Rapid chargers in the village close to my holiday home. Charging can be done in many ways. I can plug into a house socket; 3amp, around 10 hours for 110 miles; a fast charger at 7amp, around 4 hours for 100 miles. Do I like my car? Absolutely. I would never want to go back to a petrol or diesel car. For long drives, the level of autonomy in my car makes the drive far less tiering.