Frightening fiction – mythbusting EVs and charging

This October we’re dusting off our ghost vacuum and sucking up some of the terribly tall tales around EVs, charging, and safety. While the spooky season may be on us, there’s no need to fear: the Zaptec team is here to shed some light on these important issues…

By: Paul Pschierer-Barnfather

New things are often scary. Some people believe that EVs are more dangerous, less suited to their needs, or maybe even worse for the environment than normal cars. So, today we are going to look at some of these topics, from EV fires to range anxiety, environmental issues to charging safely.

Light my fire

Talk about EVs, and it won’t be long before someone mentions fires. Drawing from the infamous Rimac Concept_One crash, or the spate of electronic devices with battery issues, some have been led to believe that EVs are more prone to fire. Apart from neglecting that their vehicle is filled with highly flammable liquid on a regular basis, they may be ignoring that we already have data on exactly this issue.

In the US, from 2012 to 2020, there was approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 205 million miles travelled. Can you guess what the nationwide US Department of Transport data shows for all vehicles? A fire every 19 million miles travelled – 10 times more frequent than Tesla’s Vehicle Fire Data. While lithium-ion batteries do have a different risk profile to petrol or diesel vehicles in the event of a fire, the likelihood of a fire is much, much lower.

Scare stories

‘Range anxiety’ is often mentioned, but seldom experienced. Did you know that the average UK car drives just 20 miles per day? The average range of all-electric cars in the UK currently sits at 193 miles. In fact, the highest range currently available in a production EV is 323 miles (averaging summer and winter data). Ask yourself, genuinely, how frequently do you travel further than that? If you do, how often do you stop to stretch your legs or grab a bite to eat? It is surprising how well a modern EV’s need to recharge matches our own!

Lost in the fog

“Once you take manufacturing and batteries into consideration, EVs are worse than petrol or diesel cars!” How often have you heard that or something similar? Of course, we all know that EVs have no tailpipe emissions, but what about over their entire lifecycle? Well, it turns out that even if they are charged entirely with coal-fired electricity, EVs are still cleaner. In reality, electricity rarely comes from coal: in the UK last year, 42% of our electricity was from renewable sources - with coal dwindling to just 2%.

In 2020, a widely-cited TU Eindhoven study comparing the lifetime green house gas emissions of electric cars with the emissions of cars using gasoline or diesel showed that electric cars recover the initial CO2 defecit from battery manufacture in only 30,000km, going on to emit only a third of the CO2 compared to internal combustion equivalents.

When it comes to battery life, it’s important to remember that EVs are very different to mobile phones! Modern EVs now routinely go for hundreds of thousands of miles on the original battery. When the vehicle does finally come to the end of its life, the old batteries can always be re-used or recycled to make new batteries.

Home safe

Is it safe to charge your car at home? Chargers have big, scary power cables and can look intimidating. At Zaptec, we can certainly understand where this concern is coming from. Like all appliances and electrical devices in your home, chargers must meet electrical equipment safety regulations. While there may well be risks from cheap, low-quality imports, EV drivers are a sensible bunch; they know that it’s wise to choose a high-quality, professionally-installed charging system that has been designed from the ground up with safety in mind. At Zaptec, we take our responsibilities very seriously. All of our products are extensively tested to meet the latest safety standards and we have a strong assurance programme for our approved installers.

Hopefully this has helped to put your mind at rest. If you would like to learn more about worry-free charging solutions, why not take a look at the Zaptec Go and Zaptec Pro?