I keep my cars for a long time. This is more due to laziness and a desire to stay in my comfort zone than any instinct for thrift. Once I know where all its controls are located, the radio is set to my preferred station and my seat is far enough forward for my short legs, I am loath to change it.Since 1997, when I bought my first brand-new car, I have owned just four – and one of those was written off by a teenage daughter who had just learnt to drive.
Yes, I had range anxiety. Yes, I worried about how easy and/or convenient it would be to charge my car. I also wondered how complicated an EV would be to drive. Given that every car I had ever owned featured not just an internal-combustion engine but a manual gearbox, my leap into the future of motoring was a big one.
We have a power point in our carport. After a few days of my normal city driving, once the car’s charge is down to about 60 per cent, I simply plug it in and leave it overnight, just as I do with my phone. Next morning, both car and phone are fully charged. The other, frankly, is all the goddamn beeping the car does, especially when I back down the driveway. Am I about to scratch my new car on the retaining wall? Or slam into another car coming down the road? Or, worse, into an unseen pedestrian approaching my driveway? No, I am not. Instead, I am in imminent danger of hitting a leaf or a stick or a flower head.