He puts it eloquently as always in his Llewblog: " Mr Clarkson went on to explain that as well as being prohibitively expensive to buy, these cars were prohibitively expensive to drive. He suggested they could cost as much as £8.50 to charge the battery. At this point I admit my relaxed ears pricked up.
£8.50, that sounds like a lot. Where did they get that figure from?
£8.50 to charge the Nissan Leaf’s 24 kWh battery means the electricity costs 36p per kWh. So the researchers at Top Gear must have searched long and hard to find the most expensive daytime tariff they could, I’ve searched and I couldn’t find anything like 36p per kilowatt hour but I have to accept you could find it somewhere.
According to the plethora of energy comparison websites, the average cost of daytime electricity is between 14 and 18 pence per kWh meaning a full battery would cost £4.23 if you charge in the daytime, working out at 4p a mile as opposed to 12p per mile for a traditional car doing 50mpg.
I charge the Nissan Leaf at night when the cost is under 5p per kWh, which works out at £1.20 for 100 miles, which means it’s costing me fractionally over 1p a mile to drive the car.
However, I’m sure you can pay more if you want and the Top Gear script writers will have underlined that, and Andy Wilman the producer will have insisted to Mr Clarkson that it was imperative that he say, “It can cost £8.50 to charge this car to drive 100 miles.’
‘We all know batteries are rubbish’ said the apparently knowledgeable Mr May, ‘they always run out.’
What, as opposed to a petrol tank that stays perpetually full?
So the official TG line is now, electric cars are fine, it’s just batteries which are useless. It’s a line that, judging from my Twitter stream alone has clearly struck a chord.
Is it true?
I think there is ample evidence to say it is very far from true. The batteries in the Nissan Leaf are extraordinary, they are a step change in technology. If, after say 100-150,000 miles the batteries range starts to decrease, Nissan will re-furbish the battery for much less than the £19,000 figure so casually bandied about in the Tory press recently
Nissan will re-furbish batteries in the UK, at the plant in Sunderland where the batteries are made. They will re-cycle 97% of the materials and fit the re-furbished battery back into the car and it will be as good as new, for another 150,000 miles.
While it is true that no one yet knows exactly how long a modern electric car battery will last, (they’ve not been in use long enough) we are beginning to get a good idea of their longevity.
Once again I will refer to Paul Scott’s Toyota RAV E4 in California which has now travelled over 120,000 miles on the original battery pack and it’s showing no signs of failure. Also worth pointing out that in the time he’s driven the car, Mr Scott had to replace wiper blades and one shock absorber. The maintenance costs of that vehicle are so low as to register as zero.
The ending of the Top Gear section on electric cars was a little tragic. Three men whose lives revolve around internal combustion engines and burning rubber facing the now universally accepted truth that we are going to face a chronic shortage of the fuel we all depend on.
They stood there like confused rabbits with no idea of a solution other than saying ‘hydrogen mumble mumble.’ That’s just it. ‘Hydrogen mumble mumble’ is not a very convincing solution.
Meanwhile, all around the world actual engineers and scientists are working on viable, economic and sustainable solutions to this truly appalling prospect with dedication and enthusiasm.
Petrol currently costs £6.26 per gallon. @ 50 mpg, £12.53 per 100 miles.
Diesel currently costs £6.72 per gallon. @ 50 mpg, £13.44 per 100 miles.
I would like to add one point. I see many online comments that Top Gear is 'just entertainment'. This is both incorrect and to miss the point. Top Gear is intentionally misinforming and misleading the public. Technically and of course after consultation with the legal team they tell the truth, but never the whole truth. And they influence public opinion, particularly the lazy majority who unquestioningly repeat Clarkson and May's 'facts'. It is right that they should be held to account and that as a result, space created for a replacement to Top Gear, a programme which informs truthfully as well as entertains.
