James May still isn’t convinced by electric cars

James May still isn’t convinced by electric cars

I’ve got the new model 3 the the so-called Highland I’ve only had it a few weeks and I’m I’m still conflicted about electric cars I’ve had six now two of them were hydrogen fuel cell Toyotas before the whole hydrogen infrastructure thing fell apart yeah but they’re essentially electric cars you know

Driven by an electric motor but with BS there’s a lot I like about them I like the the silence I mean it feels like magic and Star Trek to me because I’m of a certain age I like that they’re polite I can leave my little country Hobbit Cottage at 4 in the morning

Without disturbing even a worm it’s fantastic but I still think the ambition is way ahead of the Battery Technology it’s still not really good enough M even um even with the Tesla where you have the supercharger Network and yeah but there still aren’t enough of them yeah

And they they’re and it still takes too long I argue with this with people um both sides because you get the anti people who are simply anti because they’re defensive about something and then you get the ridiculous EV evangelists who say oh you know I’m quite happy to stop driving after 250

Mph by the time I’ve had a Waz and eaten my burger my car’s charged and I think rubbish you’re what you’re claiming is that the exhaustion of your range your hunger and an available charger Co inside precisely and they don’t you actually if you if you drive all around

The country you end up navigating between highspeed Chargers and hoping there aren’t too many people on them my back of an envelope calculation and I’m not good at mathematical modeling or anything but I think if if we go ahead with the 2035 date and so on and the car Fleet the National Car

Fleet is replaced at roughly the rate it is now in another 15 years or so about 75 80% of the car Fleet assuming everything else stays the same will be electric and if it’s still at current technology I.E it’s it BS we’re going to need millions of charging points it’s not tens or

Hundreds of thousands it’s Millions yeah and you cannot get around the problem of even a quick charge taking 15 or 20 minutes because the other argument I have with people is but I say argument debate usually happens online somewhere they say oh well you never have to fill

It with petrol and then anyway by the time you filled up with petrol and haded Wei and bought a packet of fruit pastels you might as well have charged your car and I say no I’m I’m actually boring enough to have timed this and I do stop

Even in my 911 which has a famously large petrol tank and fill it up and go and pay and get back in the car and it can just be 3 minutes I am a bad Ambassador for the electric car really because cuz you are seen to be quite uh

Well not Evangelical on the subject but you you will seem to be um very sort of pro I I am I am pretty Pro I think we’ve known you know since the beginning of the 20th century that electric motors are are the sensible way to power a car

Because I mean internal combustion is fascinating like clockwork is and it’s full of flaws and that’s what gives it mechanical character and that’s why we love it and you have to manage it you have to have a gearbox blah blah all this stff it’s all great it’s very

Exciting but in terms of Common Sense the electric motor low maintenance quiet smellf free no reciprocating Parts makes more sense the the electricity storage electricity storage is always been a problem um and I’ve what was the actual point I was going to make yes uh is that

What what people call range anxiety I actually think is recharging anxiety because if an electric car had a small battery which would save weight which is important very um and save a lot of money because the battery is the expensive bit so it has a small battery

It’s only got a range of say 150 Mi but it recharges in 1 minute I’d be delighted with that and there are lots of charges yeah um the reason we have cars you know like my outgoing Tesla which was the model S bloody huge thing uh that weighs slightly more than a

Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow which is a car from the 60s yes and and is a much more lavishly appointed thing uh is because of that massive battery it has to have the massive battery because it’s an acknowledgement that charging is an issue and even with massive batteries

The range of electric cars is not that impressive not comp not compared with my Polo which will do easily 450 Mi on a tank and you know on Top Gear we had an Audi that was driven for over a th000 miles it was a diesel on one tank yeah

And it’s still recharges are refills in a matter of minutes and and anywhere and anywhere yeah um so it’s it’s it’s a I I like being part of the experiment I I feel an obligation as a car Enthusiast to do my bit but I’m I’m sorry I was go

On I’m I’m on a bit of a roll but I’m a bad people like me are bad evangelists for the electric car because I have two homes this is going to sound very first worldy I know but I’ve got two homes and that’s my most regular Journey between those and you

Can charge it both I can charge it both indoors we both got garages they’re only 100 miles apart yeah I’ve got numerous other cars to use if I need to go somewh so they’re perfect for you because when they’re not perfect you take something else exactly yeah but that doesn’t mean

They are ready for widespread adoption yet the thing that I find interesting about internal combustion and I’m I’m going to talk about the whole of the Industrial Revolution and everything but very briefly is that it’s an incredibly complicated thing you’ve got Pistons going up and down then you’ve got a cam

Shaft going round and around and possibly push rods going up and down as well and springs being Inc compressed and valves going up and down and then gears going around it’s all this got but all you actually get out of it look at one of those cutaway diagrams oh of a

Modern engine you think Bloody Nora look at all that stuff going on but what you get is a shaft spinning round and round same as the bottom bracket of a bicycle same as a windmill same as a water wheel same as a capson and windless on a ship

That’s all you need to EMP the world and the electric motor is such an elegant way of doing it yes that it’s always made sense and it is it is weird that we’ve refined and it’s not over I don’t believe it’s over by a long way refined

The piston engine from a thing that went D D D D D D with a hot tube you know ignition system yes so these incredibly sophisticated ones combined with electric motors to make hybrids and and you know they’re so beautifully thought out and yet all they’re really doing is giving

You and round that’s all it is yes and you can do that with your legs if you like yeah

James May has owned numerous EVs of different kinds, including two Teslas and a couple of hydrogen fuel cell Toyotas, but he still has major reservations about them.

The former Top Gear host turned Grand Tour presenter explains why battery-electric cars don’t work for everybody, why the charging infrastructure is so far behind where we need it to be and why he still uses a diesel VW Polo for longer journeys.

You can watch our full 90-minute podcast with James May (episode 200) on our YouTube channel, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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