So it’s not like I had far to go. I liked the EV experience, having travelled around in Nikki & Kate’s Leaf (and indeed, having had the joy of accompanying Nikki on little bits of her test drives now and then) it wasn’t like I had far to go on the liking an EV front.
But the whole driving the EV experience has just continued to delight. Indeed, I took Chester to an agency shift over in Wales (lordy, the NHS in Wales is a whole different world) and the experience felt very much, well, retrogressive. Or archaic. I mean, I got in the car and then had to fill up with petrol. And I’ve not had to fill a car with petrol for a few weeks.
It smells.
I’d forgotten that it smells, and since it was a Sunday, the first two petrol stations I tried were closed. Talk about range anxiety. Having wandered out onto the motorway I had to wind up the radio to cover the engine noise…
On the other hand, the particular place I went to was, in fact, well outside the range of our current EV. Although it would be doable with charging.
But the whole experience just seemed…less civilised. Travelling by EV is terribly civilised. Or it has been so far.
The iMiEV is, sadly, one of the early ones without level 2 charging. Level 1 we can do (mains plug), Level 3 (DC rapid charge) is fine too. But Level 2 was standardised after the car was built and thus whilst we have the plug there is no electronics to talk to it. Having spoken to Mitsubishi there’s no dealer/factory fix for this – and whilst there is an aftermarket fix it’s £1000. Although it does at Mode 3 charging. (Note: EV companies really need to get their fricking act together and define one standard naming scheme, because Modes 1, 2 and 3, and Levels 1, 2 and 3 seem to be different things. Make with the sensible naming scheme folks*)
Anyhow, I’m now thinking that (since the car is still under warranty) the best plan may be to thieve Nikki’s separate charging box idea, where the box lies to the charger, making charging happen.
In other news – today I tried out Roll for the Soul. A community bike cafe that’s within about 5m of my cycle route home. I’d read a nice review, and it looks friendly, so I slipped in today knowing that Kathryn was going to be home late.
I had a tasty (tasty) wrap and a bottle of Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola (which I rather like). The staff seemed nice, but sitting outside my dinner was almost had by a giant sky rat (or seagull as some call them). Fortunately, my flailing and general go-awayness made it go away and I had the rest of my dinner in peace… :)
* It reminds me of Western blotting in Biochemistry. Such wittiness is a play on the term ‘Southern Blot’. *sigh*.
