Electric car shortlisting – 5 features experienced drivers believe are needed in every car
Andrew Till / Mr. EV explains his recommendations and invites other drivers to add theirs
Our MG ZS EV has none of these critical EV features and it does my head in. It’s such a gamble planning long trips when I have no idea what the SoC is.
Justin Morris – Top 5 things every EV should have! – July 2021
Kia e-Niro
I have a 2021 e-niro and as Andrew says it has it all apart from smart route planning.
geoff hemingway – Top 5 things every EV should have! – July 2021
The top 5 features that should be standard
Battery percentage
This is also known as ‘SoC’ (State of Charge). Andrew considers this to be an essential feature needed for determining what range you have left. Equivalent to a petrol gauge.
Charging speed
The Charging speed will vary during charging, of course, the most important thing is knowing that it is actually charging! Unfortunately, not all chargers have this information displayed. Note that, in order to protect the battery, charging is not done at a constant rate.
Charging timer
Electricity from the Grid is significantly cheaper in the early hours of the morning if you’re on an appropriate home tariff. Consequently having the ability to set the start and end time for charging is very valuable if your charger does not have this capability.
Charging limit
In general charging above 80% is not recommended as it can cause battery degradation unless needed for a particular journey. Consequently being able to set a charging limit for a particular charging event is valuable.
Intelligent Route Planner
In-car Satellite Navigation should include the location of chargers. As charging is not a 5-minute event it’s also necessary to know the state of the charger before you arrive and where the next nearest is in case of problems.
The best alternative at present appears to be A Better Route Planner.
10 things you need to know when buying an electric car in the UK 2021
Cars with most of these features
Teslas have all of these 5 features except the ability to enable both start and finish times to be set.
The Kia e-Niro has all these 5 features, except an Intelligent Route Planner
The Nissan Leaf has had all these 5 features, except an Intelligent Route Planner, since its early versions.
Cars missing key features
Andrew says the DS 3 Crossback E-tense has none of these features!
Extracts from comments in Top 5 things every EV should have!
The Peugeot e2008 doesn’t didn’t show an accurate battery percentage however, a software update is now available.
Vauxhall Corsa e can only get the % level from the app.
