Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive an electric car. It was a
Renault Zoe.
As our own car needs some repairs we used the Zoe offered by a car
sharing company to do the Saturday morning shopping. It is very
convenient as the car has its own parking spot at the charging station
at the end of our street, ca. 300m from our house. Before we bought
our car we always used car sharing (but there were no electric cars in
our vicinity back then) and I did not cancel the contract as you pay
only when you really use their cars - there are no monthly or yearly
fees. The Zoe is fun to drive and has power if you put the pedal to
the metal.
Electric cars really do make sense in a car sharing configuration. For
individual use they are too pricey, most of us living in apartment
buildings or blocks of flats have only the possibility to charge them
at public stations and they are no alternatives if one wants to visit
the grandparents who live 1000 km away (the Zoe here needs to be
charged every 200 km).
The yesterday experience reminded me of an old drawing I saw somewhere
that in the "future" we'll have big car parks with a lot of small
electric cars. One can walk in, take a car, drive to the next car
park, leave the discharged vehicle behind for charging and take the
next one to continue your journey.
