To be able to set out from home on a business trip and return the same day using an EV is the point at which EVs become a serious proposition for high mileage drivers.
Until now, there has been no realistic alternative to using petrol or diesel. (This blog is being written from an Irish point of view so public transport for business trips, other than in Dublin, is just not practical).
This may be about to change with the announcement of the Audi e-tron Quattro concept, though this will not be available until 2018. The range for this car is more than 500 km.
What caught my eye was the claim that it will travel Dublin to Galway and back on one charge. This is a trip I make frequently in my role as the Independent Environmental Consultant for a large wind farm project near Galway. Such a trip is not possible in the EVs available at the moment. Some would say that I could stop at intervals and re-charge. As there is no re-charge facility at the construction site and only one motor way service station between Dublin and Galway, this is not an option.
Of course 2018 is some way off and the price of this Audi will be out of the range for most business users. However, the exciting thing is the prospect of more car manufacturers bringing out similar models and the price falling such that a 500 km range EV will be common place within not too many years.
Update to article dated 27 Sept 2015. Since this blog was written, VW (Audi’s parent company) has been found to have been cheating on emissions tests in the US by manipulating the engine management software. Thus readers are advised to treat the quoted claims in this article with skepticism until independently proved.
Source of article http://www.enviro-solutions.com/dailynews2/180915-audi-etron-quattro.htm