Going electric with personal transport

How we get around in the world is one of the big cross-overs between work and everything else we do in life and it can go to the heart of living your principles – or ‘walking the talk’, as some have it. 

Unless you live and work in a metropolis with excellent integrated transport systems, chances are you need to drive a car from time to time. Like many, last time I chose a car I went for a sturdy diesel (Audi A3) with long range fuel efficiency and low carbon emissions. We all thought that was the right thing to do. Now we know it wasn’t – we’ve been through the emissions scandal and all the problems with nitrogen oxides and dioxides and particulate matter has become common knowledge.

So what to do? Well my wife and I talked about it and discussed all the issues about charging points and ‘range anxiety’, which I can now relate to! And we decided to get on the product cycle a bit earlier than usual and become ‘early adopters’ (or Fast Followers, to be more precise) – we got ourselves a Nissan Leaf!

Now, so far as I know we are the only folk in our village (somewhere in North Oxfordshire) to own a fully electric vehicle. I hope that situation changes rapidly, as it will mean more voices calling for electric car charging infrastructure to be rolled out at a faster tempo! Currently it’s the enlightened supermarkets and fuel stations that are providing rapid EV charging, often through partnering with a charging network, e.g. Waitrose and Polar Network. It takes about 30 minutes to fully charge and that gives you a range of about 120 miles.

What can we do? Well, engineering designers are already making a huge contribution in creating seamless integrated transport with our clients, which increasingly means thinking about alternative energy and autonomous vehicles within the infrastructure matrix. I think we can do more to make sure that all our future transport designs embed these new vehicle requirements. I think we can also be more vocal with landlords across our offices estates to be proactive in putting in place EV infrastructure – the astute among them already see this as a good way of keeping high quality tenants.

But come on, what’s it like you ask? Well, it is pretty groovy – you do feel like you are driving a little space pod. If you are old / young enough to remember Knight Rider, then slowing down from speed sounds a little bit like that. Cool! It’s taken me a while to get used to the handbrake (a pedal on the floor instead of the clutch) and just a neat joystick for forward and reverse where the gears used to be. As you might imagine, it’s a silent and smooth ride and very responsive (instantaneous electric-motor torque, of course). 

That silent movement means that electric cars are stealthy, which can takes pedestrians by surprise. So (Health & Safety Moment) those of us taking up electric cars do need to drive with extra awareness, particularly in urban settings.

I look forward to seeing more EVs in office parking spaces before long.