It seems that every new purchaser of an EV is obsessed with making a movie about going to collect it from the Dealership and availing their subscribers subsequently of the day to day practicalities of ownership.
Although lumped into a good proportion of, at first glance, irrelevant social media coverage and at risk from being regarded as being inane, self-publicising and smacking of one-up-manship I must say that, having now had an all electric car in the family for approaching a year, it is just this type of information that will persuade others to make the change from an internal combustion engine for their primary or secondary form of private transport.
It is a big decision.
In some respects the motivation of helping in a small way to reduce emissions takes a bit of a back seat even though it may have been the prime reasoning.
To some extent we were, as a family, late to the concept of an EV but I feel that many who are seriously considering the changeover are just biding their time. This is perfectly natural given the progress in technology of batteries, the affordability of vehicles and the emergence into the mainstream market of, well, just normal looking motor cars rather than ridiculously pricey, plain ugly or avant-garde styled examples.
What we have found out is the phenomena of "range anxiety". This is a direct relationship between how much a vehicle, when out and about, has left in power charge and the proximity to home (if that is the main charging point) or a public access charging point. It is a real and tangible fear.
On a few longer journeys and even though the on-board computer suggests we can easily return home on the single charge we have made a long detour to seek out a charging station just to have that additional range, you know, a comfort blanket, just in case, a safety net and all other expressions that apply in the interest of resolving insecurities.
Even having carefully planned an excursion we have been thrown into a bit of a panic upon finding a charging point out of action. In such circumstances we have had to initiate Plan B and with Plan C in reserve, just in case.
All of the above may sound like insurmountable problems which, frankly, are just too great to tolerate for something that we rely upon heavily for our everyday requirements. Yes, the infrastructure is not quite there yet but those companies looking to invest billions in charging networks are also holding on until numbers of potential clients for EV power are at an optimum level.
Anxiety, tension and stress apart the family decision to change to an EV has been overwhelmingly positive.
There is a strange thrill to silent running ( apart from wind and tyre noise at normal vehicle levels) and I particularly love the artificially generated sound up to 20mph to alert pedestrians to your presence.
EV's are, after all, next generation in terms of engineering and they drive the same or even better than their fossil fuel counterparts. Running costs and servicing costs are low. If on a good tariff on your own domestic charging point the fuelling costs can be a tangible fraction of petrol and diesel.
Acceleration can be good and I have not missed at all the accompanying noises off from conventional powertrains and gear changes. Don't get me wrong I have been a bit of a petrol head in the past and not averse to driving around just for the sake of hearing a melodious exhaust tone but that is, I am happy to say, something that should be confined to history.
Our family are fortunate in having a home with a driveway which makes parking and charging so easy.
In this country a good proportion of the housing stock does not have this amenity but I do envisage, in the near future, dedicated neighbourhood chargers for shared use.
I did see that installation of points into roadside streetlamps was being trialled which would vastly increase practical EV ownership n just about every location.
Well, I've spared you having to sit through multiple home made movies on all and sundry aspects of the subject but if you are thinking about EV ownership then spending time wading through hours of footage is actually quite a good grounding.
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