Changing people’s minds about EVs

Recently, my mum said: "You really changed my mind about electric cars."

Back in May, we went on a trip to Devon. It was a five-and-a-half hour drive each way to get there, not including stops.

I was a little bit apprehensive about doing over five hours of driving in a single day. Now, this isn't because I have an EV. It's just a long time to be behind the wheel of any car.

But it was easy. We picked a farm shop for our charging stop and had a lovely lunch. We charged at our hotel and then made another farm-shop stop on the way back.

Mum said: "Yes, we had to stop but we would've stopped anyway for lunch."

I think she expected a lot more short, frequent charges as opposed to just one each way.

The thing is, I don't stop when I need to charge, I charge when I need to stop.

A stop to get food and coffee and just relax for 30 minutes was key to being able to complete each leg of the journey. Not to mention that EVs tend to cause slightly less fatigue than ICE vehicles.

There's a lot of narrative around how driving an EV is always difficult with tons of stops on a long journey. That's rarely the case for me, and overall, I find the EV experience easier than when I had a petrol car.

Sharing experiences like these is so important for changing the narrative about EVs. I like to be very honest about what it’s like to drive an electric car. It’s very rare that it’s difficult or something goes wrong but it’s nice to know that these positive experiences have an impact on people.