Plugging in an electric vehicle (EV) to charge. Photo: James Coleman.
From Seven Hills to Beverley Hills, EVs are everywhere – and I ask you, is there another two-letter combo that gets people quite as revved up?
Arguments over, say, FJ, HQ, XY, RX, and SS seem very middle of the road. But EV? Steer clear – someone could blow a gasket.
My two cents and whether I’d buy another one after 20,000 km and two years of owning one? The short answer is hell yeah.
By that I mean for short trips. If you plan to use an EV as your everyday, ’round town vehicle – head to your nearest showroom.
I understand the adoption reluctance for those who live in apartments or rent and don’t have their own charging stations, but for those with rooftop solar or access to a charger at work or elsewhere where their car may sit idle for a good chunk of the day …
Has it been faultless? Nearly, but not quite. But even accounting for the time lost to fiddling with the home charger, or the occasionally exasperating app that runs it, it’s still far faster than fuelling up at the servo. The majority of the time I plug it in, let it charge for a couple of hours, remove the plug and drive the kids to the next school disco, art class, tennis lesson …
As for how an EV drives? Remember the smile on your dial when you stepped behind the wheel of a dodgem car for the first time? With one-pedal driving, I’m a 10-year-old at a country show.
Petrol savings are perhaps the most talked about positive, however another often overlooked benefit of shifting to an EV is the class’s impact on reducing air pollution, and its associated deaths.
The South Australian Government’s State of the Environment report 2023 states that in Australia the “annual mortality related to air pollution is estimated to be more than 3200 deaths”.
The uptake of EVs contributes to a reduction in that significant number.
Everything considered, I’m evangelical about an EV for an everyday driver – but for a long-hauler?
I have taken my car on lengthier journeys – Sydney, Batemans Bay and Canberra have all been successfully visited, but for trips requiring more than a quick recharge?
That’s a highway to hell.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told the Guardian that in regard to the near-term EV market: “There will be models available that you’ve never heard of, that are cheap, that are expensive, that are short range, that are long range, that are fancy, that are practical. You take your pick. You be you, and there’ll be an EV for you. That excites me a lot.”
What would excite me is not what EVs may become available, even long range, but how quickly Mr Bowen installs the number of chargers required on the highways to charge them.
According to the Australian Automobile Association, EVs “achieved record total sales and market share in Australia in the three months to 30 September, as internal combustion engine vehicle sales posted their lowest quarterly market share on record”.
Announcements like this show demand continues to climb. The number of public charging stations, admittedly, is improving – but there’s miles to go.
Until highways have as many stations as Shellharbour has streetlights, there’ll be no electric GT parked under the one at the front of my place.
