My Low-Fat Car - Falling in Love With Electric Cars!

OK, I'm going to try going green. The REVAi AEV is the bestselling electric city car. Not normally what I'd go for. But hey. A girl's got to keep up with the modern world. So, I went for one.

After getting over the initial appearance of the car, when I got inside, I was actually pleasantly surprised. The car has only been designed to fit two people but has decent boot space too.

There's a bit of retro - the brake is like the old hand-brakes you had in cars years ago - but all the mod cons (radio, heater etc.) But the most unique part is that there are no gears. Instead, on the dashboard you have a knob which has 4 simple settings "R" for reverse "N" for neutral "F" for forward and "B" for Boost. Any car that has a "boost" button has got to be cool!

It took a while to get used to turning the car on. There is no noisy engine. You just turn the key, put the button to "F", foot on the pedal and away you go. It's scarily silent - but I liked it! Imagine how quiet the city would be if everyone had them?

My first impression on driving the car is "This is just so much fun". There is no engine, which means the bonnet is tiny. It's just you, a window and the big bad world. I felt like I was in a glass box driving around the city and I noticed so many more things that I wouldn't have noticed before.

The biggest challenge of the car is getting used to the battery gauge. I am used to the petrol car's gauge to know how many miles I had left, but it took a while to get used to the electric car's power indicator. It goes down much quicker than a petrol car and at one point I was at the edge of my seat wondering if I would have enough juice to get me home. But by day 2, I totally had the hang of it. They say you get about 50 miles before you have to recharge. However, this does depend on how heavily you drive it. Going up lots of hills or driving very fast isn't good for Mr. Battery Powered Car.

Then came the most unique part of the experience; plugging your car into your house. Yes, really. It is that simple. You just plug the lead that comes with the car into an extension lead and then into your house. Apparently the total cost of charging the car is about 150 quid a year. That is pretty amazing really. The tax and insurance on them is cheap as chips too.

I have to admit, I really liked driving the electric car. I actually can't see any good reason why more people don't have them. Unless you are a sales rep or have millions of kids I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't buy one of these?

The purpose of a car is to get you from A to B in a quick time and protect you against the elements. Take away the fancy car manufacturers marketing about how the car gives you some sort of status etc. and the electric car serves all your needs. Yes, there is the whole recharging thing but I would much prefer to spend 50 quid a week on clothes than giving it to one of George Bush's cronies.

For me, the electric car is just like finding a really good low-fat ice-cream. It serves exactly the same purpose but doesn't do as much damage. Driving a car and knowing about global warming brings over this horrible eco-guilt; which is a bit like diet-guilt - but only worse.

I think that the electric car really is the answer to anybody like me out there who cares about the environment but doesn't want to give up the luxury of owning a car. Ignore Jeremy and the lads from Top Gear. I definitely would consider buying one of these as my next car.

(P.S Just a quick thanks to www.greenaer.ie for lending me my fugable car for the weekend!)