In work we have a hybrid - it was odd the first time I drove it, as its totally silent when it starts on the electric, then the engine kicks into petrol mode when it needs it. It happens seamlessly and you hardly notice it. However, our country just isn't set up for us all to have them. I'm lucky I have a drive so wouldn't be an issue, but for people who have to park on the street its going to be nearly impossible to charge from home - imagine all those trailing cables! Many supermarkets and car parks are putting chargers in, but usually only a couple per car park so nowhere near enough. Then there's the question of the extra electricity needed to power all these chargers - solar and wind power here are totally inadequate and nothing seems to be happening in regard to harnessing the never ending tidal energy. So that leaves nuclear......with everything going on in Ukraine I dread the thought of many more nuclear power stations - ripe for attack . So who knows what the best way forward is.....
Very relevant points VW, been a huge push for green energy but it's just not feasible in the time scale they want to achieve it. I think electric cars are lovely. I don't think I'll ever be able to afford one though.
Whoops Trisha, bet you were cross with yourself.
There is a lot to be said for being part of a group, and the support and friendship that is gained from this.
Unfortunately it doesn’t. I’m going to have a rear camera fitted if I can find somewhere that’ll do it. It does have a sensor but I’m disappointed with the range. By the time it starts bleeping only about two or three feet away. I still love it and I’m getting used to it. It still seems like a huge car to me. I’ve only driven teeny cars before. A parking sensor would definitely be useful because even though I’ve been driving for 33 years I’m still absolutely hopeless at parking. I can go backwards and forwards 50 times and I’m still just about walking distance from the kerb.
One thing I have noticed is that electric cars are everywhere. And that’s only the ones with the green stripe on the number plate that stand out. Not all of them have that as they only started doing it a few years ago. Until I got my Zoe id never seen one. Now there’s three on my road and one of them’s the same colour as mine. The first time I saw it I was walking back from the village and I thought someone had stolen my car. Yesterday I went to my dads with os and on the motorway the 3 cars in front of him were all Teslas as well. They used to be a rare sight and now they seem to be about 1 in every 20 cars.
When OH and I go anywhere we are counting the Teslas, so many now. Good to hear you are still loving it Magggzz and hope you get someone to sort out a rear camera. I have one in my Kia soul, it was manufactured with it, when I first got the car I didn't trust it and continued to use the side mirrors and rear view but now I'm used to it, it really benefits parking exactly between the lines
There is a lot to be said for being part of a group, and the support and friendship that is gained from this.
My car doesn't have a parking camera, just beepers, which go off like mad and then you find you've stopped 3 feet away from the object that they've detected - if I got paid £5 for every time I then have to get back in the car and ease it a bit further backwards, I'd be able to afford a new one!!!
My OH and I, in theory, could go down to one car between us, but the issue is that he is 6ft tall and a big fella, so likes a big vehicle, I am 5ft 2" and have short little legs so don't like driving a big car, it's impossible to find a compromise that we'll both be happy with and there's no point in getting something we both hate.