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Hi, I'm Gary and this is EV Musings, a podcast about renewables electric vehicles and things
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that are interesting to electric vehicle owners.
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And on the show today we'll be looking at the topic I hear about from time to time, which
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is the emergency long distance EV journey.
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Our main topic of discussion today is focused on doing emergency journeys in an electric vehicle.
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Now, I was chatting with an acquaintance of mine recently, a Tesla Model 3 driver of around
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five years, who said that he was going to sell it and get a hybrid.
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And when I asked him why, he trotted out a number of reasons, not of which were entirely
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But one that he did come out with, which I found interesting, was the emergency journey scenario.
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And it looks a little bit like this.
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My daughter is at the University of Edinburgh and I live in Maidstead and Kent, and what
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if I have to make an emergency journey to Edinburgh to see my daughter and my EV is only at
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30% state of charge.
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Now, I've heard variations of this a couple of times over the years, and let me start
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by recognizing that it's absolutely a genuine concern.
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If our children or other loved ones are in danger or suffering or needers, then the last
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thing we need are things that can slow us down from getting there.
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But this scenario does tend to break down just a little bit if you look at the detail
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The key thing is that it assumes that if you had a fossil fuel car, you would be
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able to do that journey in a much shorter time and that it's just the charging that
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would slow you down.
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Now, to illustrate why this is a little bit specious as an argument, I want to give you
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a slightly alternative version of things.
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Now, let's have a look at the fossil fuel version of this.
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I have a car with a third of a tank of fuel and I need to do a 500 mile journey across
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So I set off immediately.
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At some point, I'm going to have to stop.
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Let's assume I just stop, I fill up and I head off.
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Let's assume that the petrol station is open, that there's no queues to either charter to
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So I'm in and out in 10 minutes.
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I'm then going to travel from Maidstone in Kent to Edinburgh, which is a journey
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of without stopping or slowing down 430 miles and a journey time of around 8 hours is
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So let's set aside the dangers of travelling that far without stopping both from a health
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and a fatigue point of view.
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The other thing that you need to remember about this is that it's not going to be 8
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That's assuming you're travelling at the speed limit and part of that journey is
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around the M25 and across the Darwin crossing, which even as I record this on a Sunday
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afternoon in summer, there are delays.
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So you're not going to be doing that journey in the time that you think you're going to
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But it's also assuming that you're doing this when there are no accidents, no rush
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hour traffic, no diversions for roadworks, and you're hoping that the M25 is not closed,
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all of which have happened in the last six months on this route.
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In reality, your journey is going to be more like less than 8 hours, probably 10 hours.
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So let's look at the same journey with a Tesla.
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Now, according to the Zatmap route planner, you can do the same route using only Tesla
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superchargers and three stops of around 30 minutes each.
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Now, other than the first stop, which tops up the 30% charge, the other two stops are
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at least two hours apart.
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Total travel time is a little under 9 hours and you arrive in a fresher, more relaxed
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state than if you were having to do the complete journey without stopping.
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If your car had started with 80%, it may stone your journey would have been even quicker
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with three stops of around 15 minutes and an 11 minute top up for a total of 54 minutes
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stationary and a travel time of 8 hours and 11 minutes.
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Now if there's time, you could pop to the nearest Tesla supercharger in Maidstone and
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spend 30 minutes there and that makes your next two stops around 30 minutes each, again,
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Now if you have set off with a 100% full battery, your travel time would have
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been 8 hours and 5 minutes with 51 minutes of charging time.
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In other words, the time saving in this Tesla between setting off with a 100%
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state of charge and a 30% state of charge is a mere 49 minutes, which is about the time
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it took me to travel from central London to Hammersmith last Sunday around 6.30pm,
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which was a distance of about 10 miles.
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Now if you're thinking that 49 minutes is going to make a life and death difference,
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then bear in mind that the last journey I took from Reading to Birmingham, a two-hour
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journey in which I didn't need to charge at all, delays and traffic added 40 minutes
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Friend of the podcast and my London Bright and Amsterdam EV rally co-driver Tim Rolt-Smith
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was with his partner in Exeter recently when she learned that her mother was gravely ill,
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her mother lives in St Andrews, Scotland, they jumped in his Model S and headed off,
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stopping for a break in charging as they went, neither of them were unduly stressed
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about the journey and the 500 mile trip took around 10 hours.
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Now what this means is that using the family emergency excuse when it comes to electric cars,
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it's something of a red herring.
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This is a factor that plays into your insecurity about EVs when it really shouldn't.
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Now the other aspect of this is the actual lightlihood of the scenario occurring.
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Imagine the set of circumstances in which someone has been driving the car all day long
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or has done a long distance journey, has arrived home with a relatively low state
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of charge and before any home charging or public charging on local AC units could take
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place there's an immediate need to do a long distance journey there and then.
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Now is that scenario more or less likely than someone having a puncture in their vehicle
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and not being able to swap the tire out because remember we don't have spare tires
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anymore and punctures need to be taken to a nearby tire shop for replacement.
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According to the AAA and RAC punctures and 12 volt battery issues are the most common
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cause of vehicle collapse in the UK regardless of fuel time.
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Now is that scenario more or less likely than having someone send their vehicle in for service
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and not having the car until the car comes back from being at the service which is
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a situation that you can easily remove if you use a company such as Cleveland EV
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Mobile who comes to your house to service your car.
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Is that scenario more or less likely than living somewhere in the north of Scotland where petrol
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stations close at 6.30 or 7pm at night and often only operate six days per week.
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What happens when you need to do an emergency journey at 7am Sunday morning and you short
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Now I put it to you that the number of instances in which people have failed to
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reach loved ones in time due to having to stop and charge an EV are so small
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as to be almost zero.
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Now I further put it to you that these instances are heavily outweighed by the number of instances
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in which traffic, road works, a flat tire, an accident have delayed people to the point
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where they've missed a loved ones final moments.
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Now I think we also need to consider what we mean when we talk about getting there
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If the loved ones are on the point of death and the delay means the difference between
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getting to see and speak to them before they pass or not then obviously any delay
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could be seen as disastrous.
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But I also think that if a delay means the difference between getting to an injured or
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distressed child in five and a half hours or six hours or even seven hours if the charging
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aspect is included that's probably the least of your concerns.
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But I would point out that delays on the UK roads are pretty much guaranteed nowadays.
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Only recently I was heading down to do some work on the south coast of England as I passed
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the Winchester junction on the M3 at 5.30 in the morning a truck had ridden up on one of
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those concrete bollards used to separate carriageways on a contraflow and it had ended up blocking
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the motorway completely in the north bank carriageway whilst also leaning over at a precarious
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angle meaning it wasn't easy to clear without potentially tipping it over onto the carriageway.
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I tracked the M3 for the rest of the day and I found that there was between 35
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and 70 minutes of delay on that stretch for pretty much 12 hours as they diverted traffic
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at the Winchester exit over the roundabout and back onto the motorway at the other side.
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I wonder how many people were on urgent missions of mercy in that queue.
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Of course the other issue with this scenario is it implies that this is an issue for any
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parent or child with elderly parents with an EV but again this scenario is very specific.
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It involves a long distance journey in this case kent to Edinburgh for 150 plus miles and
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the implication that because of this long distance someone would need to spend a long
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time charging but the reality is probably different on multiple levels.
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What if the journey is only 150 miles?
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Even a short range EV could cover that from a 30% state of charge with a stop of I
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don't know 50-20 minutes.
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What if the journey is in an ultra rapid charging car such as a Porsche Taycan or
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an 800 volt Hyundai or Kia again the charging time would be minimal.
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Essentially it would be longer than just filling with petrol assuming there are no
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queues to fill up with a local petrol station but it's not going to be anything
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like the hour, two hours that people believe a charge will take.
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Of course the other issue that I'm not taking into consideration here is the
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emotional stress associated with a journey such as this.
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If the journey is urgent which we assume it is due to the nature of the
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emergency and the fact that we can send about time wasted charging anything that
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can slow down or prevent you from making that journey in the shortest time
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possible is going to cause stress and distress I recognize that and I
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understand that but at the same time as I've already noted these stressors the
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delays and issues are not necessarily EV related anything that can cause a
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delay can be of concern roadworks traffic an accident a detour or
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diversion acute the petrol station focusing on the EV aspect of this is
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probably creating an issue where one doesn't really exist now the big elephant
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in the room here of course is why are we actually using cars to do journeys like
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that if we take it as a reasonable that time is the key issue here and that by
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definition if you need to get to a loved one as quickly as possible when
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it's not an issue then surely it would be quicker to take the train sure
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it's been more expensive sometimes a lot more expensive when she booked a journey
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leaving pretty much immediately but looking at the train timetables the
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journey from Mason to Edinburgh would take six hours stations to station and
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yes there are a couple of changes to make and yes you're the vagaries of
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natural rail services if times your main driver surely a train's easier let's
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consider someone living in central London want to get to Edinburgh the road
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journey is seven and a half hours with no stops that's a petrol car
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that has a large enough tank to cover the 400 miles without needing to stop the train
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journey direct out with no changes is as short as four hours 22 minutes so in
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summary yes there's a valid concern that having to stop and charge your EV in an
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emergency could delay you but there are valid concerns related to all aspects of
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delays due to driving most of which are complete outside your control the
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chances of a specific situation occurring where a vehicle is in such a
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low state of charge that having to stop in a long journey would mean the
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difference between life and death are phenomenally small finally stopping to
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charge an EV is not something that takes all day despite what some naysayers
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will have you believe quick and often is a good way of charging several short
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stops to take advantage of the charging curve when your car charges and its
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fastest can decrease charging times alternatively slow and infrequent can
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work if you decide to stop for something to eat for example while you
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charge public transport is also a quicker alternative on many long distance
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journeys and is more relaxing because you can do things on the way rather than
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having to focus a hundred percent on the driving so what do you think have
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you had instances where having to stop and charge has delayed you to such a
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point that it's caused an issue if it has if you also have times where
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things other than charging have caused your issues traffic accidents
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diversions vehicle problems let me know
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I'm Ford EV musings.com
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time for cool EV or renewable thing to share with you listeners trees and fun
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