From the Crow’s Nest: Electric Cars: Will I switch on?

As a true petrolhead, I am struggling with the idea of the global switch to Electric Vehicles.

Like Ferrari chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, I don’t like them. When journalists at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show asked Sergio about the possibility of an all-electric Ferrari, Marchionne harrumphed: “It’s almost an obscene concept! You’d have to shoot me first.”

I would like you to picture the scenario: A typical South African family planning their yearly holiday down to the coast. They try to manage their journey in one go – leaving at midnight, to reach their destination during daytime the following day. Colour your picture by thinking of the annual exodus to Hartenbos and Mossel Bay.

With the normal aspiration vehicle, this is quite possible. Refuel three times and have a Wimpy breakfast (that adds 90 mins to your travelling time), yet you can have your feet in the ocean after ± 12 hours.

Now let me take you along on our recent journey in our newly acquired EV. No need to set the midnight alarm, as we can only drive a maximum of 300 km before recharging. And night driving also shortens the distance that you can travel. (Studies show that most electric vehicles currently on the market, can only handle between 120 km to 320 km on a single charge.)

We will have to recharge in Kroonstad, because the next recharge facility is Bloemfontein – and that is out of our range. (It currently takes 3-4 hours to fully charge an electric vehicle at super-charging stations and 6-8 hours at home.)

So, two hours’ drive time to Kroonstad and four hours of sitting at Steers – at the recharging station – watching thousands of petrol vehicles refuelling and speeding off with their Venter trailers. (We opted to leave the trailer behind, as this extra load would shorten the distance we can travel before recharging).

And we’re on the road again. Luckily, we have family in Bloemfontein, where we can overnight and recharge at their home base for eight hours. We used to visit them on weekends, but with our EV, it will now become an annual visit only.

On the way to our family, I nearly ran over a guide dog and his owner. They did not hear our approach and we narrowly missed one another. (Last year, a report by the UK Guide Dogs charity found a 54% increase in pedestrian injuries involving ‘quiet’ cars between 2012 and 2013. The report stated that people crossing the street are 40% more likely to be hit by a silent hybrid or EV than by one with a petrol or diesel engine.)

That night, we agreed that – in future – we would use the EV’s horn whenever we see pedestrians along the way. (We later discovered that this idea was not a good one; we were often mistaken for a taxi and were given the finger for not stopping to pick up the passengers.)

Fully charged! We hit the road the next morning and our destination, Colesberg, is 204 kilometres away. (We declined the family’s breakfast offer, as we would have another 3-4 hours to kill at the Wimpy in Colesberg.)

Wimpy’s offer of bottomless coffee had us more charged than our EV. A big discussion followed on whether we were to test the EV’s capacity and “aim for” Beaufort West – 319 kilometres away. This was the maximum distance – under perfect conditions, as stipulated by the manufacturer of our EV.

Being explorers at heart, we gave the thumbs up to head straight for Beaufort West. Unfortunately, we hit a headwind and barely made Three Sisters. Here, we were greeted by long queues of EVs, waiting for a vacant charge point. Our pit stop took six hours in total (of which two hours were spent waiting for a charge point.)

With so much time on my hands, I started daydreaming about a Formula 1 race with EVs. Pit crews sleeping while the race cars are recharging and spectators carrying sleeping bags with them – as this would be a two-day affair (the coffee had worn off and we took the opportunity to have a little shut- eye during the charging process).

At first light, we hit the road again – Oudtshoorn being the next goal. On arrival though, our EV’s batteries were depleted and we overdosed on caffeine once more. Three and a half hours later, we were on our way to Mossel Bay – 80km to go.

At the top of Robertson Pass, we made a quick stop to take in the view of the bay. Our holiday had officially started! 

So back to the question: Will I switch on? Yes, I will – in 2040, when EV technology has run the course of the cell phone battery development since inception. I remember when the battery life of the best phone on the market was six hours.

Tesla... get your back into it.


July 2017 Sales in a nutshell
We share the best used car sellers (only IDA dealers on the Signio platform)

The top 5 used passenger vehicle sales per manufacturer

VOLKSWAGEN
FORD
TOYOTA
BMW
NISSAN

The top three used commercial vehicle sales per manufacturer (bakkies)

RANGER 2.2TDCi XL P/U D/C
UTILITY 1.4 A/C P/U S/C
RANGER 2.2TDCi XL P/U SUP/CAB

Top 10 derivatives used car sales

POLO 1.4 COMFORTLINE 5DR
FIGO 1.4 AMBIENTE
RANGER 2.2TDCi XL P/U D/C
POLO VIVO GP 1.4 CONCEPTLINE 5DR
POLO VIVO GP 1.4 TRENDLINE 5DR
UTILITY 1.4 A/C P/U S/C
POLO GP 1.2 TSI COMFORTLINE (66KW)
ECOSPORT 1.5TiVCT AMBIENTE
FIESTA 1.4 AMBIENTE 5 Dr
POLO GP 1.2 TSI TRENDLINE (66KW)

The average age of used vehicles sold in July was 3.93 years.

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