ELECTRIC WIZARDS

We join the RAC to find out how its patrols are adapting to the brave new world of electric vehicles with the latest technology designed to get stranded EV drivers back on the road

- Tristan Shale-Hester

ANYONE who's ever broken down knows it's an unpleasant - sometimes alarming - experience. Depending on where you are and how far your nearest recovery patrol is, you could spend hours waiting at the side of the road, possibly in foul weather conditions next to a busy highway if you're particularly unlucky. That's all before you have to worry about how bad a state your car's in and how much it will cost to put right.

That's why it's so important for breakdown companies to be as efficient as possible and innovate to find new ways of rescuing stranded motorists. The RAC is one of the biggest names in the business, and its orange vans are a common sight on roads all around the UK.

Having been around since 1897, the organisation is well placed to observe the changing landscape of British motoring and adapt to new trends. And of course, one of the biggest changes in recent years has been the increasing adoption of electric vehicles. To tell us more about its work, the RAC invited us to its headquarters in Walsall, near Birmingham, to give us a demonstration.

ONE of the phrases that often crops up in relation to EV ownership is 'range anxiety'. Indeed, with public charging infrastructure still spread thinner than it should be, many drivers are worried about the prospect of running out of juice on a long journey.

This is something that the RAC has considered, and the firm has now launched a new piece of kit that allows electric cars to be topped up at the roadside.

"We wanted a solution for our EV customers that didn't just involve picking up the vehicle and moving it," explains James Gibson, the RAC's head of technical. "A 50kWh battery pack weighs about 700kg, which is a lot to carry around in the back of a van just in case you need it, so I challenged the team to find an alternative."