Ev

Birthday picture

After a few years of owning a plug-in hybrid, I found myself trying to use it in electric mode as much as possible. For a car with a range of just 20 or 30 miles, on electric, this was hard work. So, a couple of years ago we made the switch to full EV. In our case, a second-hand Jaguar iPace. We tried a few options, but in the end decided to buy British.

Any regrets? Well, no, it’s a lovely car. The main thing that surprised me about going electric, is that I hardly ever charge out on the road. The question that any fossil fuel car owner needs to ask themselves is:

If you want to fill your tank from 1/4 full to full, do you plug in at night and wake to a full car for a cost of about GBP 6 ($8) or out on the road at 70p/kWh (total cost GBP 60 ($80)?

In the UK everywhere is fairly close, so the only time I use a public charger is when I have a long journey, and then only to top-up enough to comfortably get home.

I think, if I lived in rural America, like my brother, it would be a lot more difficult. But here, in the UK it works just fine, and my fuel costs probably average about 1/10 the costs of a fossil fuel car. Something that the UK government has cottoned on to and will be introducing a per mile tax on electric vehicles in 2028. Well, we wear-out the roads too, so it’s sort of fair. I also feel like there is some nudging going on, because the government is realising that if everyone had EVs there is no way the electricity grid could cope.

Other pros of EV ownership are:

  • Home charging at night, mostly uses the (in the UK) the abundant low-cost wind energy that noone else needs at night. Our car is wind-powered!

  • Service intervals every 2 years. And then hardly anything to do. Who’d have thought electric motors would require less maintenance that an engine with hundreds of moving parts that are powered by small explosions?

  • Amazing acceleration. This is somewhat wasted on me, as a boring driver. But on occasion Porche-like acceleration can be useful (and fun).

  • No defrosting on cold days. Just turn the heating on from your phone 15 mins before you go.

Cons:

  • You’ll have to find a garage that does electric. But, incidentally, not for MOTs (mandatory annual UK vehicle safety check). Also, much of the normal car stuff that might go wrong - wipers, headlights etc is all still 12V and entirely separate from the high voltage stuff. At least, it is in the Jag.

  • You have to think ahead, and if you are planning a long journey the next day, plug-in that night.

Conclusion

For me, going back to petrol would feel like being forced to use a Windows 95 computer after years of being an Apple user. I’m a convert.

Simon Monk