"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
That doesn't equate with a vehicle's range with a tankful of petrol
compared to a battery full of leccy. And the battery weighs a lot more
than the petrol.

Bill

no, its fairly close - leccy cars have about 200 miles range and petrol
ones 400 - 600.


200 versus 400-600 is not "fairly close".

Not only do you have to recharge the battery more frequently, but every time
you have to wait many hours, as opposed to 5 mins max when filling up with
60 litres of diesel. We have often done journeys of more than 200 miles,
stopping only for brief loo breaks and maybe change of driver. If we had to
factor in a much longer recharging stop, a journey of a few hours would turn
into one with an overnight stop - or a long stop at a place of interest
along the way.

When cars have enough range to do a whole journey on one charging of the
battery, then they'll be a viable replacement. We'll probably never get
anywhere near the recharge rate of 60 litres of diesel (700 miles range) in
5 minutes, but then that is several MW of power. But if charging can be
confined to overnight when you're not travelling (or 9-5 when you're in the
office) then it's no great hassle. But having to charge during a journey is
a definite disincentive to owning an electric car.