I can appreciate the excitement and anticipation that must have been felt by a family in 19th Century England about the impending arrival in the household of a horse.
Some of the old houses in my local area have, in their back gardens, a structure, a former coach house which would have been a matter of social status but more than that a symbol of independence in that for the first time in a rapidly developing economy there would be a practical form of private transport.
Our sense of expectation is the modern day equivalent of those far off days- an electric powered car.
In comparison to our current diesel vehicle based life where a full tank of fossil based fuel gives an emission polluted range in excess of 600 miles the transition to a zero emission electric power train will demand from us a whole new skill set.
Each and every journey will require thought and planning.
Based on a full charge range of 168 or so miles for our selected car and even then dependant on the ambient temperature and driving conditions we will have to schedule in the location and duration of charging stations. In this way there are strong similarities and affinities with the mode of four legged horse power in that the mechanical equivalent of regular rest and feeding stops are required.
As is invariably the case the phrase "There's an App for that" applies and on a few, in this pre-vehicle delivery stage, fictional trips we have inputted a destination and studied the resulting recommendations for recharging the batteries.
Quite a lot of preparatory work has been necessary as a consequence of our decision to go for an electric car.
It is evident that there has been scant and patchy gearing up by commercial organisations to offer and provide a framework for electric vehicles.
This is in spite of the splurge of publicity by the UK Government over what was heralded as "World Leading" legislation to promote electric and also driver-less transport.
I have spent hour upon hour researching and pursuing links and contacts for the installation of a home charging point as well as the fundamental requirement of insurance.
Ironically the installer that I finally chose is a subsidiary of a major Oil Company, obviously keeping their options open in the automotive sector for when global oil reserves dry up or become uneconomic or too controversial to extract from the planet.
Granted, that Company have been most helpful and have guided me through the paper trail of applying for a Government subsidy towards the cost of a home charging unit. The offer of up to £750 is generous and on the prices quoted for equipment and labour I was not expecting to have to contribute anything towards it. The process involved my submitting of photos of the electrical consumer unit and switch-gear, the facility for off road parking at my house and a couple of trees worth of documents proving that an order for a qualifying vehicle had been placed.
A condition of any installation is the fitting of an isolator switch within the supply and metering system. Just trying to find out who would have to be consulted about this modification was another session of phone calls. The main Utility Company referred me to an organisation of Meter Operators but that trail was a dead end. My trusted local electrician was not sure about the specification and also unsure about whether they were authorised to carry out what was a relatively simple task. The Smart Meter installers were part of our previous Supplier but we have just switched to a more eco-based company. To their credit our new Supplier, one of the many in a very competitive sector, knew exactly what to do and within a few days sentt over a contractor to complete this work.
About the same time the Charger Installers broke the news that the Government were to imminently withdraw the subsidy on the grounds that they wanted all installations after July 1st 2019 to be of a smart connectivity type rather than the simple plug in and play version.
The whole process had to be re-booted but the upgraded system is far superior. I took this to be a promising indicator that at long last the commercial operators are getting their act together.
I was brought back firmly to reality by entering the maze that is the insurance market for electric cars.
The first quote was some three times my current diesel car premium with the only tangible benefit above standard policy clauses being that in the situation of running out of electric power the car would be recovered to the nearest public charging station.
I have yet to wade through the small print to see if there is a "three strikes and out" type exclusion for this potentially regular predicament given the inconsistency of where a public charger in available and in working order.
On entering the car make and model details into an insurance market comparison site the range of premiums was astounding although I got the impression that many of the Insurance Companies just wanted their name to pop up and be noticed rather than presenting a workable policy basis for the Electric Vehicle sector.
I am still researching this aspect and do not hold out much hope of a quick resolution.
So, to recap.
The car will be here in a couple of weeks.
I have a revised provisional date for the charger installation but have to fund the full cost.
Affordable and workable insurance is still an issue.
Frankly, I think that getting an actual horse and stabling it with a few bales of hay at the back of the garage would be a much easier and practical option.
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