The reality of living with an EV without home charging

It’s not impossible, but it’s certainly time-consuming!

After only having an EV for a year, I handed the keys over to a dealership and said my final goodbye to the Corsa-E Griffin at the end of April (2023). The decision to go back to an ICE car was certainly not an easy one especially with how easy and nice EV’s are to drive, with their instant power and regenerative breaking. However, without the ability to charge from home and the ongoing issues that Vauxhall were unable to fix, it was time to leave the EV world for now…

Prior to February this year, I had the ability to charge at home and extremely cheaply due to being on an EV tariff with Octopus Energy. We were a two car household too which meant the sole journeys weren’t being done with the Corsa-E. In fact the Corsa-E was mainly used for shorter, more local journeys due to the range it had. With the amount of miles I was doing on that car at that time and being able to plug in on a night, having an electric car was perfect. It was super cheap and fun motoring.

Since February, my situation has changed a little. I now live where home charging isn’t possible and I’m solely reliant on my car for all the journeys, which have also increased. Not having a home charger resulted in having to make use of public chargers for every charge rather than just the odd time when doing a long journey.

The cost of publicly charging is usually far greater than charging from home even if you’re not on an EV tariff. Charging solely using public charging made the cost per mile inline, if not more expensive than ICE cars depending on which charger was used. During the time I was solely using public charger, my cost per mile was between 13/14p. The increase in charging costs wasn’t the issue as you get used to what you have to pay and budget accordingly. The bug bearer was the time. I felt like I was just constantly sat in car parks charging. It felt massively unproductive. I tried to incorporate charging with shopping or other activities but that wasn’t always possible. It was mentally time consuming too. I was constantly thinking about charging to make sure I was ready for the next journey. Thankfully though during my time using public chargers I didn’t experience any issues with getting on a charger or using them — some silver linings!

EV’s are fantastic cars for those who can afford them and with the right circumstances. They are extremely easy to drive and a lot of fun too. In my opinion though to comfortably live with an EV you 100% need a home charger.

I will miss how cheap EV’s are too maintain in terms of servicing and not having to pay road tax but I’m honestly loving being back driving an ICE car due to the mileage I’m currently doing. Being able to comfortably drive 500 miles on a tank of fuel does bring back a smile on my face especially coming from the Corsa-E which would only do around 164 miles on a charge.