On 10/08/2013 00:38, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
charles wrote:
It only takes a few minutes to fill a diesel Mondeo. Last time I
tried. Or am I missing something?

Yes, the original topic was about electric cars and they will take a lot
more than "a few minutes" to refuel.

Well yes, but I was commenting on a 600 mile range of a conventional car.
Saying I'm not really sure just how necessary that is.

Of course no electric car has anything like the range needed for long
distance travel - even in the UK. I doubt there's one on the market that
could run for a morning at motorway speeds. Although you might think so by
the ads.

Some years ago I drove from Manchester to Portsmouth while towing;
crossed to Caen and set off towards St. Malo (we couldn't get on the
direct crossing). I'd deliberately not filled up again in the UK, as
French diesel was a lot cheaper then. After a while I decided to fill
up, only to find station after station shut. Luckily, by coming off the
main roads and searching nearby towns, I managed to find a small garage
run by a Muslim guy who'd decided to stay open. This was in the days
when most French garages switched to unmanned, automated payment on bank
holidays, but, as I found, could not accept non-French chipped cards. I
was damned glad of the decent range of my car that day!

SteveW