In what is perhaps the least surprising electric cars (EV) news of the month, it appears that Jeremy Clarkson still has a bit of a problem with the UK’s EV-charging infrastructure.
Or rather, the appalling lack of it.
In what was possibly not the best PR move on the part of Hyundai, somebody decided to loan Clarkson a Kona Electric to review for his Sunday Times column.
“At some point everyone has faced that moment when they know the day ahead is going to be fraught with misery, angst and swearing,” is the opener for Jezza’s review. And it all goes downhill from there….
“The electric car is coming. Be in no doubt about that,” he asserts. “We’ve had Teslas for the past 10 years and in the next two just about every mainstream manufacturer will jump on the bandwagon. Saying it won’t happen is not even worthy of a metaphor. It will.”
However, the problem for poor ol’ Jeremy is that “there simply aren’t enough charging points” to support mass ownership of EVs in the UK.
“Jaguar asked the government about this before it began work on the electric I-Pace and was told that by the time the car emerged this year, everything would have been sorted out. It hasn’t. And if more people start buying electric cars, things will get worse long before they get better…”
“One day, if charging points are as reliable and as common as petrol pumps, and top-up times have come down to minutes rather than hours, then you can make the plunge. But now? No. You’d be mad.”
To precis his ‘review’ of the car, it turns out he really quite likes it. But with the caveat that “like all electric cars at the moment, it’s completely and utterly useless”.
The full column is most definitely worth a read, if only to picture a drunken, red-faced Clarkson shouting and swearing at a broken EV charging point outside Soho Farmhouse!
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