Electric Vehicles - What Do You Know?

What is an Electric Vehicle?

An electric vehicle (sometimes referred to as an EV or BEV - battery electric vehicle) is a battery-powered vehicle that runs on electricity 100% of the time. This differs from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles that come in diesel, petrol or hybrid varieties and require petrol or diesel to operate.

Electric vehicles have the benefit of producing no by-products whilst being driven so are not harmful to the environment nor do they pollute the air that we breathe.

An electric vehicle requires charging by either using a home charging unit or public chargers that are available at many shopping centres and service stations. The home charging unit provides the cheapest method of charging your EV (dependent on your energy tariff) and they currently attract a government grant towards the cost of installation. Days Fleet Personal Choice have partnered with Pod Point to provide our clients with subsidised pricing on the installation of a home charging unit.

What are the different types of Electric Vehicle?

The term ‘Electric Vehicle’ is often used to describe a range of vehicles that utilise electricity during their operation. There are some types of vehicle however that are not classed as ‘Pure Electric’ vehicles. The differences are shown below.

EV (Pure Electric Vehicle) – These vehicles are powered completely by battery power driving electric motors and use no other types of fuel.

PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) – These vehicles are powered by a combination of electric and petrol/diesel. They contain much smaller batteries than a pure EV and have a reduced range in comparison (usually between 20-45 miles). The battery can be recharged while driving but to get the full benefit of fuel efficiency, the vehicles should be plugged in to charge.

HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) – These vehicles have similar technology to the PHEVs with one key difference. The vehicle will only recharge its batteries through regenerative braking systems and cannot be plugged in to charge. The result is a lower pure EV range but improved emissions over an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle. Most of the ICE cars released now are classed as MHEV (Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle) which means that they operate in the same way as an HEV.

How does an Electric Vehicle work?

Unlike ICE (internal Combustion Engine) cars, EVs do not have an engine and have very few moving parts. The wheels are driven by electric motors which are powered by a battery. The battery is recharged by plugging the vehicle in via its charging port.

The advertised range of an EV is advisory and several external factors will affect the distance that you can travel including the weather, outside temperature, use of internal power systems such as air-con and of course, driving style.

Dependent on the EV you are driving, you will be able to recharge at different speeds. This is also dictated by the type of charger you are using. Most home chargers will be set to 7kW which means a full charge could take somewhere in the region of 8 hours for vehicles with larger batteries. Publicly accessible chargers can be a lot quicker than this and you will see chargers ranging from 7kW to 50kW. The rapid chargers (50kW) can provide an 80% charge in as little as 30 minutes (dependent on your vehicle).

EVs also feature smart energy recovery systems that help you recoup some range while driving by using Energy Regeneration Braking Systems for example that convert energy back into the battery when you are slowing down.

If you have any questions or would more information on EVs then please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of our team on -

0345 565 2075

Email - sales@dayspersonalchoice.com

or use our LIVE CHAT facility and receive a call back from one of our team.