Now that I've found cheap(ish!) monthly parking in Glasgow close to work we've both dropped our train and bus fares and are driving all the way into Glasgow in the Ion together. So far its working really well! About a 36 mile round trip, half of it on the motorway half of it in 30-40mph streets. So far with the heater on a couple of notches just so that it isn't blowing cold air into the cabin I'm getting home with about 40% battery and an estimated 30 miles range left.
As a city commuter it's brilliant, and is very smooth and relaxing to drive in traffic that is constantly speeding up and slowing down. No thinking about gears (whether manual, or trying to predict what gear an autobox is going to choose) just push the go pedal down more to speed up and lift it off to slow down! All perfectly smoothly with no lurches or unpredictable auto box gear changes. In most conditions I can do all of my slowing down until just below 10mph by simply lifting the throttle, so most of the time I'm doing "one pedal driving" where my foot doesn't leave the accelerator except at a stop light. (Steering is also nice and light at slow speeds so navigating junctions is effortless)
There is no doubt that one pedal driving is more comfortable and pleasant than constantly moving your foot from accelerator to touch the brake very lightly then back to accelerator. I really missed this one pedal driving style when I drove the Xantia recently! On the Ion I can hold my speed back even going down a moderately steep hill just by lifting my foot off the throttle, no need to press the brake. And every time I'm forced to slow down in traffic I just lift off the accelerator and feel a sense of satisfaction when I see the power gauge move into the charge region, knowing that I am not throwing away that momentum as heat and will gain a large portion of it back again as it charges the battery.
I am still acutely aware of how silent the car is to other people in an urban environment - just this morning I turned at a junction and watched a pedestrian step out into the road in front of me (at a fair distance though, and I saw him in plenty of time) without even looking in my direction at all, clearly he was looking for cars in the direction away from me and listening for cars from my direction and assuming that if he couldn't hear anything coming up behind him there was nothing there!
This is obviously stupid behaviour even without silent EV's, but people will get caught out so much more often with EV's driving around. I have seen a lot of people put one foot out to walk right in front of me without looking on the road or in car parks and then do a double take and stop with a fright when they see a completely silent car approaching and almost on top of them. As my car doesn't have a low speed noise maker that some EV's do, I am resigned to the fact that at low speeds (<30mph) where pedestrians are involved I will just have to drive extra defensively and assume that pedestrians ahead of me will NOT notice me, and give them a wide berth, be ready to hit the brakes, or give them a quick toot with the horn if they look like they're going to step in front of me...
I do also get the occasional stare from pedestrians on the street as I go by - I'm not entirely sure if it's the weird tall and narrow Kei car styling that they're staring at, (as it looks like nothing else on the road) or whether they've noticed that it's gliding by almost silently and that it takes a moment for that to register with them.
I implore everyone to look with their eyes not just their ears when they cross the road or walk around in car parks, and if you have kids, teach them to look both ways and remind them that some new cars are silent! As EV's become more prevalent you WILL be caught out eventually if you don't always use your eyes.
