It proves no such thing. If there was a problem with an expected charging station underway not being available, running out of juice could be a consequence. Your theory expects noone to wish to travel further than the range of the car.

Less than one call out a day isn't such a hardship for AA.

The difference is when an EV range indicator says zero range it means zero and the car will stop, when a ICE car range says zero it means 1-2 gallons left!

What is the betting that the same drivers would run out of petrol/diesel?

Edited by nick62 on 22/11/2020 at 14:28

Anyone reading or watching reports by long term users of EVs cannot fail to notice that at present making any long journey is a real headache. It requires careful pre-planning, can involve long unwanted stops and is often stressful. None of that applies to ICE cars for virtually any journey in the UK.

Obviously things will change but it looks like being a good while before rural areas get back to where they are today with the ICE world. EV supporters arguing that all is fine now have their heads in the sand.

Whilst the issues around access to charging EVs have still not be resolved (at least to give me any confidence that an EV would meet my requirements), I see that the article reports that unlike the AA the RAC have developed a mobile charger for their crews to give an emergency charge ... and that the majority of call outs are not because of drivers ignoring a plummeting range on their dashboard but rather arriving at a planned charging site to find the charger is out of service, or that an overnight home charge has failed, so perhaps the drivers have not been totally at fault.

Apparently the recovery services are receiving a surge in calls from owners of EVs running out of juice.

The AA have rescued more than 600 EVs in two years.

Most cannot be towed normally and have to be transported with all four wheels off the ground. Apparently on the spot charging has been rejected as it involves a diesel generator which Greta would not be too pleased about !

So they're rescuing a number equal to or fewer than one a day? Not a lot really and as has already been pointed out EVs have the equivalent of a fuel gauge. IC cars also run out with monotonous regularity. Unless there's a fault it's a totally avoidable mishap.

Claimed ranges for both EVs and ICEs (via mpg) are always under ideal conditions and both can suffer depending on how the car is driven. EVs have two extra problems with range for long trips, even ignoring scarcity of charge points.

Fuel consumption for an ICE is only slightly affected by weather or day/night variations. In an EV range plummets with any combination of dark, wet, cold or very hot. Fast and ultra fast charging is only possible between about 20% and 80% battery capacity. Outside that window the rate goes right down. So ignoring all the other factors, on a long trip your usable range is about 60% of the claimed one unless you are prepared to make really long stops.

There was a report in the German papers today of an ebike rider who froze to death, with the likely cause being that his battery was empty.

If it was that cold that he froze to death the battery capacity would probably have been inadequate in any case!

According to a radio interview this morning the report was based on people not being able to charge the motor up overnight because someone else was using the charger, in other words 1 charger was used to charge more than 1 car.

point being the chargers used were not charging to full capacity so took longer to charge one car than was supposed to, meaning the other car had to leave for work on what charge was already there...according to interview that is?