Exploring an EV life?

Like many people, I became curious about Electric Vehicles (EVs) but was constantly put off adopting one because of stories around range anxiety, charging complexities and generally not understanding how one would fit into our lives.? I kept thinking about how hard it was to keep a working iPhone charged up, let alone a car.??

With young children to consider too, it seemed like an awkward equation to balance.? Hybrids appeared to be the right answer - a balance between range and electric options but whenever I’d driven one I’d not really been impressed and certainly didn't feel motivated by the experience to break the status quo of how we solved our transportation needs.

As I got involved with shared mobility more and more, I joined the board of Co Cars in Exeter and there began to see the reality that went with EVs.? Still, though, it seemed like the equation was hard to balance on a personal basis.? But I got a chance to take a Renault Zoe out for the odd trip and the experience was pretty good.? A kind of go-kart sense of speed and surprisingly our family of four fitted in this tardis of a super mini.? This was at the start of 2020 and at the time we were running as our main family car a Kia Sportage Diesel SUV.?

Even then Diesel prices were such that we were spending ￡200 to ￡300 per month fueling the car on top of the lease and insurance.

In looking at various EV options we took the opportunity to test drive a BMW I3, VW EGolf. Jaguar iPace and of course many Renault zoes.? Nothing felt quite right and the expense of things like the iPace just didn't fit our budget.? The question also kept coming back to how and when do you charge things up?? What did that really mean to your daily routines or timings for long trips etc.? Base charging?? Destination charging?? It was a new vocabulary.? So I was very grateful for the opportunity to borrow a Renault Zoe from Co Cars for 6 weeks.? Finishing the lease on the SUV meant that this was the time to test out whether an electric car was really going to work for us.

School runs were a doddle.? The awesome little Zoe having exactly what it needed for the in town experience, one easy gear and no changing, enough boot space and a lovely feeling of not adding to the air quality issues of congested travel back and forth at those times. ? Very little battery use on the short trips and the new sense of ‘making fuel as you drive’ thanks to the regenerative breaking system.? Also very easy to park.? We never charged it at home, but found two charges a week using the public infrastructure got everything done.? (It was also two chances to get some more steps in while the car got its zap so a win-win).

This was a phase of lockdowns and covid disruption so working from home was significantly reducing other commutes.? It was a good time to be exploring these things.? Then the first big test came with a long distance trip to Portsmouth to visit family.??I undertook this trip solo as I wasn't sure how it would work.?

Over the next 48 hours I learned a great deal about charging and chargers!?

This Renault Zoe had AC charging (slow) and with a range of just 130 miles on paper it could do the trip.? The cold day I traveled and the undulating nature of the route meant the battery didn't last very long at all. ? After many impatient attempts to charge it along the route I ended up stranded in the middle of Dorset with the only charging options available to me taking 8 hours + to recharge the battery.? At the end of a weary day I reluctantly took a hotel room for the night to then resume the trip the next day.? Clearly, I did not understand how to plan for long trips!

This could have been the end of our EV journey as we looked at various options for the next car, but for the arrival of ONTO.? Here we could adopt an EV into our lives on a month-by-month basis.? The subscription including charging cards for when we were out and about and the pricing on the Zoe meant we could pretty much finance one for the equivalent to our previous diesel bill, and as long as we favoured the use of the ‘free’ included charging it would balance out pretty well.?

So we took the plunge with the mindset that if it didn't work out we’d simply go back to a 3 year lease on a more traditional option and look again when that expired.

18+ months later we are still with ONTO and actually have two vehicles with them at the moment due to the amount of travel we are doing as a family.? Right now we exceed 2.5K miles per month but in a few weeks we will be dropping back to one car and when a second is needed using the shared mobility options from Co Cars.? Now with VW ID3s as well as Zoes and a plethora of other hybrid options they give us the ability to pick the kind of vehicle best suited for the trip on the occasions that we need them.

The lessons we learned from the 6 weeks of experimenting with an early model Renault Zoe were instrumental in helping us pick the specification of the car we wanted going forward.? DC (fast) charging was a primary consideration and a real-world range that exceeded 150 miles was very important.? It’s been great to see the extended rollout of public infrastructure and we’ve made great use of Co Charger (shared EV points) as well as a handy lead supplied by ONTO with the car that has enabled us to trickle charge the car at home overnight when other options did not suit.

At this stage, I can safely say that all our use case trips for 95%+ of our school, work and family lives have been covered by the EV and the economics have worked out even better than we’d planned.? The continuous rise in the price of diesel has outstripped the changes in pricing for the EV subscription and PAYG models that we are using (all our sources of electricity are from renewables so have been less impacted by the energy price increases too).? We also see reduced costs during quieter periods and can then ramp up again when needed so the overall cost of ownership in the year is lower.

There’s still a lot to learn and the feeling of pioneering is still there at times as we approach a vacation or different length trip with a slightly paranoid urge for preplanning!? Let’s see what the next 18 months look like.? We always have the option to change at any point without much difficulty at all thanks to the flexibility of the arrangements involved but so far I can’t see us needing to do that.

If you’re thinking of giving an EV a try then please don’t hesitate to reach out.? I’m happy to share the rest of our experience so far, and always keen to pick up new ideas on how to make EV life smooth running.