Where do you want to go? China or India? I have always found India infinitely more fascinating — for a simple reason. If you ask Sinophiles about China, they always quote statistics; Indophiles tell you stories. It’s fine to know that China has built 24,000 miles of high-speed rail track, or that its GDP is growing at an annualised rate of 8.27 per cent, but it doesn’t make me want to visit. It’s like reading an article about the film industry in the Economist: informative, yes, but it doesn’t make you want to go to the cinema.
The electric car market is trapped in a similar numerical morass. The more you read on the subject, the more you wish you had a degree in electrical engineering. I suppose all technologies are like that in the early days. There’s a house down the road that’s one of the first homes in Britain to be wired for electricity. It was owned by William Spottiswoode, president of the Royal Society, and when he decided to get the leccie put in, he needed Michael Faraday to supervise the wiring.
True, you are no longer poisoning the lungs of Londoners, but I can live with that
But, as my brother explained, you don’t need to memorise Maxwell’s equations to get by. A rule of thumb is that an X kW DC charger gives you X miles of extra range in 20 minutes charging. So plug into a 50kW charge for 20 minutes and you’ll add 50 miles to your range. Charge at home on a 7kW charger and you’ll get roughly 21 miles per hour. I have discovered several 50kW chargers within easy walking distance of good Indian restaurants, so my worries are at an end.
The other tip is not to recharge at motorway service stations.
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