With no preparation or planning, mum of two, Jodie Davies, was recently given an EV for a week to see what it was like to live with.
While she had test driven EVs, she'd never lived with one. These are five points she found surprising:
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There are so many more chargers than I realised!
Despite standing on the sideline at my local rugby club every Sunday morning watching my son play, I had never noticed the 10 chargers in the car park. I’ve literally walked past them for months.
After living with an EV for a week, I found myself looking out for them and it turns out that there are far more in my local area than I realised. I can charge at the rugby club, the supermarket, the sports centre and at work. So, not having home charging doesn’t really matter to me.
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Other EV owners are really helpful!
When pulling up at a charge point and staring into the car’s boot at three different connectors, a kind lady came to my aid and helped me set up at a charge station. Albeit, some people might do a bit of research before jumping straight into having an EV for a week, but I’m more of a ‘winging it’ kinda gal.
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You need a lot of apps.
I’m always irked by the number of different parking apps I require for the various car parks I use, and EV ownership is only going to add to the pile of apps on your phone. It seems like every different charger in my vicinity requires a different app just so that I can pay.
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Time moves slowly when you’re in a rush.
If I’m very early for work and using a fast charger, then I used the time to go through emails and have a coffee, but before I knew it, the time was up, and I was already on my way. I actually felt like I could have done with an extra 10 minutes of work time.
However, on the day I did a school run, and was subsequently behind schedule, that fast charger felt like an entire age while I clock-watched with my anxiety rising. This is probably a me issue, as I hate being late for anything.
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There is plenty of information out there to help you on your way.
I found electrifying.com particularly useful, especially when trying to find out further information about the future infrastructure plans, the best EV to buy for my range needs, and some great calculators to work out what kind of saving you can make.
All things said and done, my time with a fully electric car was truly eye-opening – I miss it already in fact! In some ways it feels like the early days of learning to drive because lots of things are new and exciting. Needless to say, it is probably not going to be long before we add an EV to the family.
The EValuate Initiative
An AX survey of 800 drivers found that there is considerable appetite to sample an EV, with 44% of motorists agreeing that an EV replacement is an effective way of testing out EV ownership.
With average repair periods increasing due to the complexity of modern vehicles and global supply chain issues impacting access to parts, the EValuate test drive initiative provides drivers of combustion engine cars with an immersive, real-world EV test drive while their vehicle is off the road.
