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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World

‘It was easy to keep my range anxiety under control’

Young professional Tristan, 29, drove a Peugeot e-208 for a week ‒ and was pleased to find it the almost-perfect local runaround. It even had space in the back for his black lab, Rudy

Like many people who work flexibly these days ‒ sometimes popping in to an office on public transport and sometimes working from home ‒ I don’t use my car much, but I do still like to have one to get around on errands, to my weekly squash game and on weekend jaunts with my wife and our young dog, Rudy.

I was keen to see if going electric might suit us, ahead of choosing a new car. The Peugeot e-208 seemed a great choice for us from the start. It looks great and has lots of modern features, a 200-mile suggested range on full charge and space in the back for doggo.

Rudy settles into the back of the Peugeot (Tristan Wynne)

Driving around the city on local trips, the car was excellent: comfortable, super smooth yet responsive and zippy.  It was fun to drive and I found myself feeling cheerful ‒ not your normal feeling when in London traffic ‒ whether I was nipping down to Tesco or popping to the gym.

What’s great about electric cars is that the power is there immediately and hill starts are not a problem. The car also had some really cool functions, like cruise control (I watched a YouTube video to find out how that worked). I particularly liked the proximity key engine start. You can just keep the key in your pocket and still start the engine, just by pushing a button.

Most of the time driving around London, I found it was easy to keep my range anxiety under control. In our area (SE22 East Dulwich) there are lots of charging points, including a pay-as-you-go lamppost right outside our flat. There are apps and websites that can track your spend and how much charge there is remaining. I used Char.gy for the lampost charger and Pod Point in Tesco.

It was easy to charge with the free chargers at Tesco (Tristan Wynne)

At the weekend it was enjoyable to take it for a longer jaunt to the in-laws in Oxfordshire, although I did notice that driving on the motorway depleted its range very fast, faster than I was expecting. I hadn’t realised how much a wet and cold day would impact it, either. The battery life isn’t as obvious to work out as petrol levels in a combustion engine, which made me slightly anxious about traffic jams.

Working out the costs of charging with different companies across different apps can be a bit overwhelming, too ‒ and a full charge can cost anything from £15 to £50.

But while there are a few provisos, overall my experience has made me feel positive towards electric cars. Based on my experience I would think of buying an EV, but if making long trips would opt for one with a bigger range ‒ just for safekeeping.

Tristan drove aPeugeot e-208, available now from £29,725 (peugeot.co.uk)

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