I ditched my electric car for a Land Rover, says MP – buying an EV was a mistake

MP Nadine Dorries claims that she ditched her electric car for a Land Rover SUV because she couldn’t handle the terrible range anxiety.

The Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire first realised that buying an EV was a huge mistake last December, when she went to collect her mother who was coming to stay for Christmas.

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Nadine revealed that, during her trip, the wipers on her Renault Zoe were struggling against the snowfall – and even though it was 2pm, the headlights were on.

She told the Daily Mail: “The farther north we travelled towards Mum’s home in Lytham St Annes, the lower the temperature outside dropped. The car’s heater was on full blast — and its battery was draining before my eyes.

“My ‘range anxiety’ — always present when I was at the wheel — was in overdrive. Just 30 per cent was left, so perhaps a few dozen miles, given how the heater was sucking up all the power.

“‘Where are the chargers in Lytham?’ I asked my daughter, and she checked her phone and said: ‘There’s one in Booths supermarket car park -but the app says it isn’t working.”

Her daughter checked again on her phone and discovered that there were chargers available at Stafford Services.

She explained: “It sounded so simple. We cruised around the car park for ten minutes but could see only Tesla chargers, and I’d heard it was difficult to connect my car to that network.

“Once I had connected it, it took ten minutes to kick in, with a loud and worrying bang coming from a metal box about five yards away.

“With a wait of at least half an hour, we decided to go into the service station to buy a coffee.

“So, that was it for me. Early in the New Year, I returned the car to the dealer with less than 5,000 miles on the clock. Now, every time I jump into my Discovery Sport — a hybrid, I’m pleased to say — I feel a sense of relief.”

She continued: “I support the push to cut Britain’s carbon emissions to ‘net zero’: it’s a policy that’s creating thousands of jobs and helping the environment. Cleaner air means we, our children and our grandchildren can live longer, healthier lives.

“I used to support the Government’s target to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, too — but that was before a pandemic, before Putin invaded Ukraine and before the cost of electricity shot through the roof.”

“Even in London, as I learnt with my Renault, finding a working charger can be difficult. And for longer journeys, like going to pick up my mum, it could be a huge issue.”

This comes after drivers were warned that electric cars could damage roads TWICE as much as petrol vehicles.

Plus, electric vehicle drivers were warned that they could soon be hit by a pricey “pothole tax”.