Hi, I am Mike, a driving instructor in Lincolnshire, and I have been teaching automatic driving lessons in a fully electric car for two and a half years, first in a Renault Zoe and now in a Mini electric.
Move Electric asked me to keep a diary for a week to give some insights into what life is really like driving an EV every day – not just for my commute, but for my work . I have focused on the costs, as well as covering some benefits and concerns.
Here is how my last week working with an electric car went:
Monday, 27 September - overnight charging cost £2.87
There is torrential rain this morning, and this has me wondering how my Mini will be affected. I have three driving lessons booked today, all two hours each.
To preserve range - and for comfort - I set off with my car pre-conditioned; basically, heated and with the windows clear while it is still plugged in, to save the electricity. Once the windows are clear, I leave, although I turn the ventilation fan up a bit.
A fair bit of that work is undone when my first customer jumps in more than a little damp. No matter: it's an opportunity to show how effectively a Mini E will clear its windows. It’s super-fast and doesn’t use much energy really. I return home with 74% charge remaining. The rain did not have that much impact on energy use.
For lesson two, the weather is better and this customer is nearer home and preparing for a driving test this week. We are practising closer to the driving test centre, identifying nearby hazards. After this driving lesson, I arrive home with 48% charge remaining - so, according to the meter, we’ve used the same amount of energy again.
The third lesson of the day is focusing on slip roads and larger roundabouts on our bypass. This uses a little more energy due to faster driving and a few extra miles. I return home having driven another 43 miles and now have 17% remaining.
After a few errandsm I finish the day with 12% charge left and have covered 116 miles.
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This is the perfect use for an EV, doing plenty of miles each day but without ever doing a really long trip. And at 25,000 mile pa, the very low fuel costs and minimal maintenance certainly justifies any extra initial expense of running an EV. The only disadvantage I can see is that this instructor is limiting his clientele to those who only wish to drive EVs or automatics, unless of course he has a manual car as a back up.
Great article and one in the eye for all the BEV luddites out there who say BEVs will never take off. As an aside the owner got 150mpg and if he moves to a cheap rate tarrif it'll will work out to a massive 450 mpg in the real world, obviously day time house electric cost would increase slightly. But even then the rubbish claims by PHEV manufacturers can't get any where near 400 mpg. ps could someone check my maths as it almost sounds to good
No doubt this efficiency will drop when properly cold in the winter though.
But it proves to me that these little style lead EV city cars are definitely suitable for my use, if only I could afford one.