My work trip turned into a 13 hour nightmare when my EV and public chargers were completely abandoned – I’m furious

Electric car newbie Matthew Swann seethed when a routine commute turned into a crazy 13-hour ordeal.

Back in January 2023, Mr Swann, 22, had to travel to Newquay on the Cornish coast in an electric car from Saffron Walden in Essex.

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“My work has ensured that I have a rental car. It was an MG ZS EV and the interior of the car was great with a lot of features that make it very easy to drive.”

“However, the whole EV aspect of the car was a nightmare. A drive that would normally take 5 hours took about thirteen hours – and that was before I hit traffic.”

Matt was extremely frustrated with the car’s overall range and the high cost of public charging: “The electric vehicle forced me to stop in awkward places due to its poor battery life and the need to charge it.”

“The cost of charging the vehicle from electric sockets ended up being more expensive than my own car.”

“I think the biggest issue I faced was infrastructure – the chargers were easy to find in more urban areas, but when you get to more rural areas they’re impossible to find without downloading different apps and hitting one look at few different websites. ”

This situation led to the all-too-common feeling of serious “range anxiety”.

Matt explained: “I had to drive around Newquay for an hour on a low charge just to find an outlet – only to find the outlet was faulty. That was mostly the case during my time with the car.”

“There was a long line for the only charging station I could find, but I had to wait over two hours for people in front of me to finish charging before I could start – it was ridiculous and of course not forgetting my own.” The loading time was about 40 minutes.”

There was another issue that annoyed Matt: “Each EV slot required payment at launch.”

“That was a problem because if I wanted to top up at a petrol station while stretching my legs, it cost me around £50 for just 5% of the charge.”

“The EV experience made it the most difficult part of my week. All of this is completely unnecessary. I have to say the infrastructure is the biggest issue right now and then the battery life of the EVs – I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.”