If you look at road tests on, for example Autocar or Auto Express, you will see that no car equals it’s official fuel consumption or emissions results, petrol, diesel or hybrid but, even so, car exhaust emissions are only part of the problem. Electric cars will not solve the problem, indeed whist they may reduce particulates from brake pads, tyre particulates will be worse due the high weight of the battery packs.
Increase the range and you remove independence in the charging network, less waiting on new infrastructure could increase uptake. But I'm one of the special ones, if a vehicle can't do 300 miles reliably in any weather it doesn't fit my needs, sure if we had a reliable widespread charging network it'd be fair to argue I could top off the batteries in a lesser vehicle, but I'd argue back my day is long enough to do without sitting in a service station waiting for the battery to charge.
If that's the case, I personally think range extended EV (not today's PHEV with just 30 miles of range) make more sense for your use case. 160 miles ~40kWh battery, enough to cover vast majority of journey and your single outbound trip on electrons. Then either recharge at destination during the day, or use the fallback generator for return. Yet battery isn't so big, the battery manufacturing footprint goes to waste. Also doesn't put you at mercy of the (currently) very bad infrastructure. But government and manufacturers don't seem to think this way. It's either inefficient giant SUV (etron, EQC, iX3) or PHEV with just enough range for local use. (or super expensive £20k e-Up compared to £10k petrol version). I personally feel reliable ~200 miles pure electron range is more than enough for driving 2 hr ~120 miles between rest stops, as long as the charging infrastructure is solid. So I'm considering a base-level Tesla Y to replace my Octavia as family car, hopefully before the expensive combined timing belt + major service + gearbox oil is due in 2022.
In an ideal world maybe, but work aren't interested in installing charging points, and to be fait why would they, it's a rented building with limited parking as it is. But commuting is only a small fraction of use, I've no problem beasting out a 300 mile drive in one hit, OK it's rare, but a dozen or so times a year I find the need to do stupid long journeys, last one was last week and the stop in the middle was only 10 minutes to exchange cash for goods. Most EV's & PHEV's are fine for local journeys and city folk at present, and as that's where the biggest problems are then all well and good, but they range need to go up and the cost down before they are adopted widely (IMHO) OK, so I'm jaded, I make long journeys, but so does the wife, 300 + mile days are nothing for her (service engineer) and I don't see her companies customers being all to happy with her plugging in at their expense. Times they are a changing, but it needs to happen faster.
Indeed, electrification on everything need to happen faster. Each to their own, EV is still not yet at mass adoption stage, your high mileage case is probably going to be a late adopter. But I cannot stand misconceptions: Plugging in doesn't automatically mean company pays. Government OLEV have workplace charger grant. My company used it and installed standard pod-point chargers, everyone pays the standard 12p rate for their own usage from the chargers. That's the thing though, commuting is a large percentage of use for vast majority of people. I think as long as between-rest-stop range and daily commuting range is less than what EV can offer, its range is more than good enough for a very high percentage of days. Just plug in while resting for 20min, for the other few percent of travelling. For cost, purchase price is only a part of vehicle ownership. My wife's Nissan Leaf, for example, haven't done any servicing in ages. The powertrain doesn't need ANY servicing. Brake fluid + pollen filter every 2 years, that's it. Energy cost is 1/3 of an economical diesel. Being early adopter, we can drive into London for free, park anywhere in Westminster for 4 hours and only pay for nominal 10min. I think most modern EV's range is already excellent, more than enough for most people. and total cost of ownership will be actually cheaper if charged at home.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/diesel-emissions-group-legal-claims/ Article on MoneySavingExpert regarding these diesel emission claims. A quick skim read through seems to suggest it isn't a scam. As long as you feel you have been misled to purchase diesel, you can sign up to participate the no-win-no-fee claim. I have a 2013 Skoda Octavia diesel, not one of the VW diesel sandal engine. But I plan to sign up to one of the law firm after a bit more research. My case is going to be: I'd never bought the vehicle had I known about the the financial burden introduced by cities around the country due to toxic emissions. Who would have thought my 4 years young car (Toxicity charge was introduced in 2017, brand new diesel cars at the time is required to pay) would be subject to bad-emission charges. Car manufacturers says the engines meet emission standards but the Euro 5 diesel emissions standard are lenient and worthless because of their lobbying efforts. Total cost of ownership have been affected.
