Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

There are EVs which can now tow. The biggest problem, which I was trying to point out is the lack of reliable infrastructure, nothing has been done in our four years plus of ownership. Indeed this thread is four years old and I don't think the club have added anything encouraging. There just aren't enough charge points.

Interesting to think when cars first became an alternative to the horse just how long the lack of fuel supplies got sorted?! Maybe it was twenty years or so?

Although hydrogen power might be possible it isn't going to solve the the looming costs to motorists and van users as charges for polluting vehicles increase.

Just a few thoughts. 

It is still a two cylinder ice, in the BMW,,with it charging the battery ,instead of both the wheel and the batt as in most HIbrids,

"hybrid petrol and electric are just not suitable for towing".

Have you looked at the Caravan club Tow car of the year, and the CCC Tow car of the year? There are 2 electric cars and a PHEV in the caravan club winners, and one in the CCC. 

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/whats-on/awards/towcar-of-the-year/2022-winners/

PHEV hybrids are great for towing with. The Volvo XC90 PHEV (T8?) is a great 7 seat PHEV and was a previous TCOTY category winner.

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/whats-on/awards/towcar-of-the-year/2018-winners/

"The future for caravanning is very bleak. Very bleak indeed, and I truly believe that unless you only tow 10 miles then caravanning will be finished if not banned to keep the electric car dream alive and bury the appalling range of them."

I literally just posted that I just got back from a 500 mile round trip to the lakes and back towing with my EV (Polestar 2)... (Unicorn Vigo S3 MTPLM 1550). Things are improving all the time.

The infrastructure has improved quite a bit in the last 4 years. Gridserve are doing excellent work updating and upspeeding the Electric Highway network, and have some super hubs (Braintree and Rugby) . Ionity and Instavolt are providing reliable rapid infrastructure. Osprey are widening their network and introducing charging hubs. E.ON seem to be pretty good - if yet small, same with Swarco and MGF EV power. There are a number of other Hubs open or opening that is setting the standard for things to come. 

BP and Shell need to get their respective acts together or they are done for. Geniepoint too. 

Tesla are opening their super charger network to other brands (already done in NL). 

The Club are slow. They have now added a few charging points to their Club site network (Brighton and Cayton) and have a policy for on site charging via the van hookup. But things will need to improve more for wide spread adoption. 

My only concern is that this year has seen a huge uptick in the number of EVs on the road, and that is a trend that will not reverse for the next 4 years (the company car benefit is simply too attractive to ignore), seeding the new and second hand market. Will the rapid infrastructure be able to keep pace? I am on the fence, but so far I have never been let down when I needed it. 

We haven't seen any noticeable improvements, especially on motorway services. We are lucky that we have a Rex so can keep going. How motorists cope when service points are out of action is a mystery to us!

According to the chairman of the motor manufacturers association when he was on TV last week he stated that whilst sales for EVs of all sorts was steadily going up the roll-out of the charging infrastructure across the country was woefully inadequate. 

I am not sure I would use the term "woefull". The provision is very variable depending on where in the country you are, but is improving all the time - in the 30 days to 9th Nov, there were an additional 147 rapid chargers added nationally. 

https://www.zap-map.com/statistics/#points

But the key point with an EV, if you have access to home charging (around 60% of the nations homes) then visiting a public charger is not the norm, but the exception. 

147 in 30 days is less than 5 per day - nationally. I guess that the car manufacturers are hoping for more than 5 car sales a day.

60% of EV users charging at home means that 40% have to rely on chargers elsewhere and from anecdotes many of the existing chargers, it would appear, are out of order.

1) You don't need 1 rapid charger for every car. Just like you don't need 1 fuel pump for every car. Directly comparing the number of rapids installed to the number of cars sold is fairly meaningless. 

2) The legacy car manufacturers are hoping not to sell _any_ EVs right now (or at least just the minimum) as they are not yet geared up for the manufacturing base to support mass adoption, and their margins on ICE cars are much higher than those on EVs.That is (partly) why EV costs are higher than ICE costs today. That's why the chair of the motor manufacturers association is keen to promote the idea that the infrastructure is not ready for adoption. It causes the car buying public to think twice about moving, without pointing the blame at the manufacturers themselves. 

3) While 40% who can't charge at home will have to rely on charging elsewhere, it does not follow that 40% of EV owners only public charge on rapids. i)  EV ownership / usage is effectively self policed by the idea that home charging is the norm. I.e. those who cant home charge will think twice before getting an EV. ii) Charging on fast chargers (supermarkets, car parks, shopping centres) is very viable. These are not rapids, and are in general very reliable. Workplace charging is also on the increase and may also satisfy the need of an EV driver without using a rapid. iii) some EV drivers will choose to have one even if they cant home charge, and will likely have identified their model for doing so. I know a number of Tesla drivers who cant home charge and always use a super charger. 

Our son has just got a VW EV and has no intension of getting a home charger  as he gets free on site charging at any of his companies premises and any of their partner companies

Also he says many of the same companies employees are doing the same,

Is that where the increases in EV ownership is becoming more attractive