Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

Do you take your Caravan to Cuba?, you talk about Cuba on this ‘Caravanning forum’ without  issue🤷🏻‍♂️

The user and all related content has been Deleted User

speaking of fossil fuel, this coming from an ageing fossil whose towing days will be very short by 2030, we have changed our old oil-burner to a Mazda CX-5 which meets EURO-6 limits and that will (hopefully) take us to the end of our towing (or even driving). There are more ways to save the planet than just through motoring cuts!

There certainly are but that’s a whole other thread. 

Did you consider alternatives to petrol/diesel when you bought your Mazda?

See the thing is, my caravan is 1500Kg and I towed it 258 miles in one day. And could have done another 100 miles should I have wanted to. And the same the next day if I had been so inclined.  The technology is already here and improving all the time, should you want to engage with it. As Brue says - it's as much about mind set and choice as it is about technology. 

 

The user and all related content has been Deleted User

It wasn't stressful, because it was organised. I knew where I could stop, not where or when I would stop. The journey unfolded as it unfolded. Just to be clear - in a 260 mile, (5 hours non-stop towing) journey I stopped twice. 

Could you make your distances work?  Absolutely. Day 1, 4 and 5 are each needing 1 stop with my car - of between 10 and 30 mins. Day 2 and 3 are clearly the longer and would need two stops, again of 40-50 mins each, but absolutely could be done.

You would, of course, also need to charge to 100% after you had reached your end of day destination, something that would require a 7kw charger over night, or 40 mins on a rapid, topped up with your granny charger from the hookup over night.

However, I would be wary of the rapid charging infrastructure in Croatia. It exists, but is sparse. Same with Slovenia. So maybe the challenge is more with destination adoption of infrastructure, rather than technology. 

But the point is this. Cars exist, with the infrastructure (in the UK and much of Europe), to make long multi-day journeys while towing. If you had asked if you could tow say 600 miles in one day, I would say no - its not there yet. But if you are splitting your journey, and taking your time anyway, then yes the technology is up to the job. 

 

Are you really suggesting this journey could be fitted around the amount of recharge stops you built into your one day. Its not about mindset but practicality

There is also the problem currently, that if more than a few folk with caravans wanted to recharge at services, the wait would rapidly become unacceptable, not to mention a logistical nightmare.  I’m sure things will change with better battery technology giving greater range, even  when towing. However, we are not there yet and electric towing for more than a handful wouldn’t be practical.

Whilst there may be some for whom it is a mindset thing there are many others for who it is not.

I posted, in response to your OP and made the point that it seemed you were providing very useful info, and in an even handed way but, if you cannot afford an EV, can't charge it at home and can't do the things you want, or need, to do then that is not much of a choice to my mind.

I fear that I can see the change to mass EV ownership will be more likely to come from being given no choice, rather than being able to exercise choice oneself.

A&J, I understand what you're saying but caravanning and motorhoming are niche markets, which some can afford and others can't even entertain. We're hopefully talking about developments in these markets, which will be expensive and fairly untested at first but things have changed since the start of this thread five years ago and we are now seeing more progress. 

It might be that we all rent vehicles in the future rather than make large financial purchases, who knows?! It's interesting to see that EVs now have more capabilities in relation to our vanning hobbies.