Steph’s EV adventure (part 2) - adjusting to an electric car 🤩

We’re now over one month into having our subscription EV and……it’s been SO EASY. We honestly couldn’t imagine going back to owning our own petrol car.

So, what’s it been like?

I’ve shared some reflections from my first month as an EV driver for anyone else thinking about making the switch to electric!

What’s an ONTO subscription car actually like?

Getting our subscription EV was like picking up a hire car ahead of a holiday – it was clean, it had some mileage, everything we needed for a successful trip was included in the boot and the manual was in the glovebox. Our delivery driver explained some of the general features of the car, but I’d always recommend watching some YouTube videos of the car before delivery – these videos will go into much more (useful) detail than the delivery driver.

We were provided with an open delivery slot for the day of delivery and arranged to work from home. London traffic ultimately delayed the arrival of our delivery driver (as is to be expected!) but our driver kept us updated on his journey and everything went smoothly. Our EV arrived with about 80% charge, which meant that we could take it for a test drive straight away.

What’s charging really like?

As I mentioned in part 1, our biggest apprehension about the transition was adjusting to EV charging. But thankfully, this has been really straightforward and pain-free! We had already downloaded the Shell app and ZapMap prior to our car delivery, and it was then very straightforward to link our ONTO Shell Charge Card with the app and start using the chargers in our area.

Fitting charging into our usual routine has been as easy as we could have hoped – there is generally one available within a couple minutes walk of our flat and there are also lots of opportunities to charge the car as we drive around London. Although there is variability across London boroughs, we’ve generally been surprised by the number of EV parking and/or charging spots available (and, an unexpected upside is that EV-only parking has helped us park in some otherwise very busy areas!) We’ve already seen an expansion in the EV charging network around us in the month since we got our EV, and we’ve also followed a link on our local counsel webpage to request further EV charging infrastructure. Change is underway!  

Before getting our car, we had been open to exploring home charger options in our mansion block if street parking was too difficult. However, after more than a month with our EV (across a mix of busy and holiday periods) street charging seems very manageable and I think we’ll actually just stick with this for now.

Does charge anxiety go away?

In short - yes it does, with time. We’re already much more relaxed than when we first got our EV (…and, to be honest, I think some of the residual stress is tied up in making sure we have more than enough charge to get to the hospital now that we’re in the final trimester!).

As with any new car, it takes a few drives to understand the car and how it works. Our new EV has been no different, and understanding battery life is just part of this adjustment. And being honest and reflecting (way way) back, charge anxiety isn’t really that different to the fuel anxiety I had when I first started driving over a decade ago and worried that I would run out of fuel and get stranded on the motorway... It didn’t take me long then to develop an understanding of my car and its fuel usage, and doing the same with the battery range of our new EV is no different.

What else have we had to consider?

The ONTO app has been easy to use and allows us to quickly see our monthly mileage and battery level (and also has a handy ‘find’ feature for when we forget where we’ve parked the car!).

What surprised us?

Overall, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy the transition has been. Yes, there’s been an adjustment and, yes, sometimes a street charger doesn’t work or the app isn’t completely up-to-date – but these issues are easily overcome and have been outweighed by the other improvements to our car experience…not least spending less than GBP10 out-of-pocket on charging this month (thanks ONTO for the charge card)!