Peter.N. wrote:Ah well. I shall be dead by then, I enjoyed my motoring when there were very few cars on the road and no speed limits.
I'm really torn.
Half of me is really impatient for cost effective long range, fun to drive EV's to arrive, (apart from the cost effective bit, they have already!) and having an electronics background I am perfectly comfortable with the increase in electronics and decrease in mechanical's that an EV affords! I am also very happy about the reduction in pollution, reduction in servicing costs and elimination of many points of failure that an ICE car has. It's the way of the future and I'm confident that the changeover will happen well within my driving life time. (I'm "only" 41)
On the other hand I am actually already finding myself feeling pangs of nostalgia for classic Petrol (not Diesel!) cars including my Xantia, even though I am still driving it and haven't even owned or driven an EV yet!
In some ways a modern petrol engine is a marvel of engineering, although it has taken them 100 years to get to the degree of refinement and reliability they have now. I grew up on 70's cars like the Citroen GS (my first car) which didn't have any computers, and only the most basic points kettering ignition system. I don't think it even had a radio.
I enjoyed learning about the mechanical's, how to fix and maintain them myself (although I'd never say that I was "good" at mechanical work, I still struggle with some jobs you guys seem to find easy) and the cost savings and satisfaction of doing it yourself, especially when you're young with lots of time on your hands and no money!
However I seem to be reaching that stage of my life already where I just don't have the time to spend maintaining an old car as a daily driver. Having a 10 month old son might be part of the reason
but having a house that still needs renovation work doing is probably another... point is as much as I love my Xantia and the hands on repair and maintenance work, having to do it to keep an old daily driver and only car on the road is somewhat stressful and not nearly as enjoyable as the work could be if it was done under less urgency. (Must get the car back on the road before Monday and work in the rain to get it finished etc)
I could reduce the driving portion of my commute costs significantly (by half, probably) if I switched to a stinky Diesel, but apart from not enjoying driving a 2 litre Diesel, the writing is now on the wall that they will be public enemy number one in the next few years, and I'd still have an ICE car that has all the points of failure of a petrol car (plus a few more like DPF) and I'd be buying an old car with someone else's skeletons, as that's all I'd be able to afford in the Xantia size range. I couldn't afford to tax and maintain two polluting ICE cars, so the enjoyment of driving the V6 would be out the window as I'd have to sell it, then I'd be back in the situation of one ICE car which I now didn't enjoy driving which I still had to keep on the road at all costs for my commute, so all the same maintenance stresses I have now, but with Diesel which I am far less familiar with fixing!
Enter a small very cheap EV like the C-Zero. I can buy a 5 year old one for £5k with 10k miles on the clock in near new condition and a near perfect battery. I can do my commute mileage for 1/10th of the cost of a petrol and 1/5th of the cost of a Diesel on standard rate electricity or half as much again on split plan night rate if I had it, and this is on fuel costs alone. There is also no yearly car tax, and vastly reduced maintenance costs and points of failure. (No timing belts, no exhaust etc etc) The car also has ISO fix mounts for our car seat base that the Xantia lacks and a 4 star NCAP rating vs 1.5 stars for the Xantia! So probably quite a bit safer to be transporting a baby in despite it being a smaller car.
If I just replace my current car portion of my daily commute with the EV that's only 16 miles round trip on a car that can do 50 miles in winter with the heater on and up to 70 in summer with no heater. Plenty. I could also replace my train journey to Glasgow IF I could find somewhere to park... that would then be about 34 miles round trip - still plenty, and enough left to grab groceries after work, and it would eliminate an expensive train season ticket. (£89.50 a month at the moment)
I'd have two cars so never have to worry about panicking to get one back on the road for Monday so I could take the time to work slowly and carefully on the V6 with jobs like timing belt etc... I could enjoy driving it on the weekends or on long trips away knowing that I'm no longer running a "classic" and fairly rare car into the ground through a daily grind. The EV becomes the "practical" daily commuter and shopping cart and the Xantia becomes the fun, long distance, large load and emergency backup commuter car should the EV have a problem.
As the Xantia is the last true green blooded Citroen I'm feeling nostalgic for it for that reason too. A small EV for the daily grind would help me prolong the life of the Xantia and hang onto it for that much longer as a fun to drive car before I finally have to let it go and let Hydractive 2 fade into memory...
