Reply To: Government to review EV dangers as Transport Minister “astonished” by sudden EV breakdowns

[Les Gornall]

I own a Nissan Leaf and after a long journey I found I was approaching my last charger with enough battery to get me to my home charger plus another five miles. In retrospect I should have charged up 10 miles worth (10mins total time or less) and continued. However, on descending into the valley in which my home is situated, the temperature dropped by about 5 deg.C and this rolled off the low end capacity of the batteries. Consequence – I came to a dead stop in a narrow lane a mile from home. Fortunately there was a domestic layby in front of some cottages and I was able to stop off the road but had I not made that I would have been stopped dead in a blind dip on a fast narrow road. A high speed impact would have been inevitable. It was snowing and visibility was a problem. Fortunately kind neighbours lent an extension lead and in an hour the lights were back on and we got home. However, once the power was off the wheels locked and there was no way of pushing the car to safety. This is a major problem. Even rolling a car onto a set of dolly wheels for towing would not be possible with human pushing alone. Having said all this I would never go back to an ICE powered car.