10 Electric Vehicle (EV) Myths

There are several myths about EVs that are often repeated, but this does not make them true! Let’s consider ten of the most common myths:

• Myth 1: The range isn’t good enough

  The average driver travels 20 miles a day, and modern EVs can travel 200 miles on a single charge (some even more). This caters for the vast majority of journeys. For very long journeys, resources like Zap Map ensure recharging need not be an issue.

• Myth 2: They cost too much to buy

  Currently, the upfront cost of an EV is higher than a petrol or diesel car. However, when you include lower running costs, reduced tax and other perks, an EV becomes a cheaper option after a few years. There is much less to go wrong on an EV, you will experience lower maintenance costs.

• Myth 3: With electricity prices going up, they’ll cost too much to charge

  Even with higher electricity prices, EVs are so much more efficient that they are cheaper to ‘fill up’ [1]. The cost of EV home charging can be a third of what was spent previously on fuel. Because the car doesn’t care where the electricity comes from, consumers can seek out the lowest tariffs. Petrol costs will only get worse over time due to market uncertainty. You can compare your current car and an EV using this calculator.

• Myth 4: The charging infrastructure isn’t good enough

  Many people can charge at home, using off-peak rates for electricity. Most petrol stations will have EV charging points soon, so a 10-minute top-up will be easy to find. For a fuller recharge, fast charging points are increasingly available and growing in number across the UK (and Europe). ZapMap is a great tool to find the nearest EV charging stations to your location.

• Myth 5: The batteries won’t keep their charge very long

  Studies have shown that modern EV batteries will retain their charging capacity much longer than the fabric of the car will last. Data on a Tesla S showed it had 90% of its capacity after 200,000 miles [2], and the lifetime for batteries has been continuing to grow.

• Myth 6: They’re not actually friendly to our environment

  A UK Government study showed that EV emits 1/3rd of that of a petrol/ diesel car over its full lifetime [3]. While batteries are energy-intensive to produce, this ‘carbon debt’ is paid back after about 7,000 miles [4]. This distance will get less and less as the UK grid gets greener and greener.

  An added bonus is that EVs don’t pump out noxious Nitrogen Dioxide and particulates from the exhaust that are so damaging to our health, especially children.

• Myth 7: We don’t need cars with a decent public transport system

  In cities where people can live, work and play using excellent public transport, it should be the case that public transport meets everyone’s needs, but in a rural setting, this is not the case.

  Bus services are often infrequent or unreliable. Homes and places of work are not well connected by bus routes. Cycle routes are often unavailable for those that want to get out of the car. We should not replace 30 million petrol/diesel cars in the UK by 30 million EVs, but zero cars are also not the answer. While car-sharing services can help in many cases, they won’t work for a family with two working parents and children in a rural setting. Transitioning to a greener future is not about black and white choices.

• Myth 8: We can wait for the hydrogen cars and the hydrogen economy

  Car manufacturers like VW are no longer pursuing hydrogen fuel cell cars because they are much less efficient than EVs. Hydrogen infrastructure will also be hard to roll out, whereas we already have an electricity grid. Hydrogen will also become very expensive because it will be needed for ‘hard to decarbonise’ sectors like fertiliser production, steel and aviation, and for inter-seasonal energy storage.

• Myth 9: Because batteries require Cobalt mined in poor conditions abroad, they are unethical

  This has been an issue, but we have to also acknowledge the huge environmental burden of fossil fuel extraction directly on communities and the global heating that results from its use which impacts us all.

  Cobalt child labour is a quickly disappearing problem due to pressure on companies to clean up their supply chains [5]. And while electric vehicles are indeed far from clean, they are much cleaner than the gas guzzlers that currently are the alternative for many people.

  But the best news is that new battery designs don’t require Cobalt [6]. Innovations are already happening in batteries to reduce the use of problematic materials, and also, to make them lighter and more compact [7].

• Myth 10: The grid can’t cope

  One article in The Times in 2017 claimed we’d need 20 new nuclear power stations to deal with a switch to EVs! This was based on misunderstandings and some unrealistic assumptions [8].

  The flaw in this argument rests on the assumption that everyone is charging at the same time, but in reality, the load can be spread, lowering the peak demand. Nationally, 73% of cars are garaged or parked on private property overnight, according to RAC Foundation. Utilities are offering deals to help them to do smart management of the grid, offering customers some perks for signing up for these win-win deals. You just tell the service provider via your charging App you want to be charged by 7.30am tomorrow morning and the software decides when to schedule you.

  So the peak demand will be considerably less as a result, and in fact, EVs with their batteries will then become part of the solution, rather than the problem. And the charging infrastructure need not be the hurdle many assume it to be with most charging occurring at home.

  Homebuyers are increasingly interested in adopting and valuing renewable technologies, on the road, and in the home [9].

  EVs will actually help create the flexible and adaptive grid we need in the move to renewables and electrification of transport, heating and much more.

Notes and sources:

1. “EVs convert over 77% of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels. Conventional gasoline vehicles only convert about 12%–30% of the energy stored in gasoline to power at the wheels.”, US Dept. of Energy, https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/evtech.shtml But be aware of disinformation that tries to counter this; see Electric Car Myth Buster — Efficiency,  Steve Hanley, CleanTechnica, 10th March 2018, https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/10/electric-car-myth-buster-efficiency/

2. Impact Report, Tesla, 2019, https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/2019-tesla-impact-report.pdf

3. Lifecycle Analysis of Road Vehicles, Department of Transport, 25th November 2021, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lifecycle-analysis-of-uk-road-vehicles

4. A GLOBAL COMPARISON OF THE LIFE-CYCLE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS OF COMBUSTION ENGINE AND ELECTRIC PASSENGER CARS, ICCT (The International Council on Clean Transportation), 20th July 2021, https://theicct.org/publication/a-global-comparison-of-the-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-of-combustion-engine-and-electric-passenger-cars/

5. In 2019, Tesla said: “Tesla’s batteries use nickel-rich cathode materials which contain less cobalt than other widely used cathode chemistries in the industry, with our ultimate goal being to eliminate cobalt completely from our cells. For portions of our battery cell sourcing, we procure cobalt materials directly from producers that are verified as compliant with Tesla’s Code. We work with participants along the value chain to shorten the supply chain by eliminating third-party cobalt refiners and by ensuring that Tesla’s material is stored in clearly marked and segregated areas of the plant and is toll processed on dedicated lines for Tesla’s production.” See [2] Page 36.

6. In 2021, mass-produced Cobalt-free batteries were announced https://interestingengineering.com/ev-firm-develops-worlds-first-mass-produced-cobalt-free-battery

7. Nexgenna - Sodium-Ion Batteries, The Faraday Institution, https://www.faraday.ac.uk/research/beyond-lithium-ion/sodium-ion-batteries/ 

8. There is an industry of ‘solution denial’ out there with regular articles over the years in The Wall Street Journal, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, etc. spreading disinformation on EVs, Heat Pumps, Solar PV and Wind Turbines, all trying to sow the seeds of doubt about the transition away from fossil fuels. Often these articles are planted by ‘think tanks’ funded by fossil fuel and anti-regulation free-market interests.

9. Unfortunately for the misinformers, but fortunately for the planet, it does not seems to be working. The Government’s own attitudes surveys - most recently the Winter 2021 survey - show overwhelming support in the UK for renewables, and interest in EVs and heat pumps is growing fast. The transition will be good for our health and is now proving to be good for the economy too, as well as being good for the planet. However, it is disappointing that there are some ‘greens’ who seem to repeat some of the myths such as ‘the grid cannot cope’ or ‘heat pumps do not work in old buildings’, and these arguments have been dealt with in an essay The Green Electrification Sceptic.

10. Buyers paying significantly more for homes with low-carbon technology, as energy prices rise, Lawrence Bowles, Savills, 22nd April 2022

11. Charging Point Locator https://www.zap-map.com/live/

12. Journey Cost Comparison Calculator (moving from petrol/ diesel to an EV) https://www.zap-map.com/tools/journey-cost-calculator/