That said, if I had to rely on public charging for my day to day, I’d be in the same spot as a gas car —- or worse, with only access to a level 2 charger.

I was in Steamboat this weekend, and for some reason they have no superchargers. Relying on a level 2 charger giving me 10% charge after an hour was.. tedious at best. I would not want an EV if that was my regular experience. It’s one reason I’d never recommend anything except a Tesla until there are widespread level 3 chargers for all brands.

So in my experience, having an electric car in London is super convenient. There's myriad ways to charge it and increasingly good rapid charging options along major routes. But I'm sure that's not everyone's experience in every neighborhood or city. Hopefully things keep improving as rapidly as they have been.

NB: I have seen someone in London string a charging cable up through their non-ground-floor apartment window once, but only once :)

[1] https://www.ubitricity.com/charge-points-uk/

Plus, while what you say is probably feasible for bigger cities, I'm not convinced yet that small to medium sized cities will introduce something similar anytime soon, or is it the case in the UK?

Just out of curiosity: how far apart are the lamp posts in London? How difficult is it to actually get a parking spot by one? Can more than one car in the vicinity of a lamp post charge their car or only one per post?

Or, you use a carshare, and the car is located in a garage/lot where it spends every minute it's not in use plugged into a charger.

EVs aren't a solution to the unsustainability of individual car ownership in high population density areas.

There's no (usable) car sharing services that I'm aware of where I live.

The hazards of buying a car with a proprietary DC fast charge network, I guess. Especially given how CCS chargers are now twice the speed of Superchargers and less 'oversubscribed.'

I bought this tool on the battery platform of the rest of my power tools: https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/DMP180ZX

Best $120 I've ever spent! Can't recommend enough. Also great for inflatable mattresses, kiddie pools, basketballs, and shuts off automatically when it gets to the pressure you set.

> California law requires that station operators provide free air and water to customers who purchase gasoline or diesel fuel. [2: Complaint form if you were denied]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/3sp0jj/fyi_gas_sta...

[2] https://apps4.cdfa.ca.gov/AirWaterComplaint/#:~:text=Califor....

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QR4Q42L

It doesn't actually take very long even from nothing and since it's designed for high pressure it doesn't even take much effort to get up to normal car tire pressures.

But FYI for anyone else who is having this struggle: most tire places will check and fill up your tires for free (even if you didn't buy tires from them).

But in most (all?) EVs you have regenerative braking that reduces the load on the brake pads, so they last longer. You can kinda do the same in an ICE by coasting down but it takes a lot more preplanning and annoys impatient people behind you.

And that was a nothing fancy Hyundai.

(And of course if you drive manual you can do this yourself).

With an ICE, I have no idea whether the wear and tear you avoid on the brakes is offset by the strain you put on the engine or if it saves or wastes gas. Don't know don't care. I just do it because I am Walter Mitty.

One could shift the automatic gear selector to 3 or 2 (or whatever you have) to engine brake in most autos. This is taught as a thing to do if your brakes fail.

But on my manual, I can take a freeway exit and do most of my braking from 120km/h to about 15km/h through the engine. And similar if the light ahead turns red.

This is actually what you’re supposed to do in a manual: be in gear at all times so you can accelerate if you have to.

My brakes will probably last 3-4x longer than an automatic’s.

Letting the drag slow the vehicle in an automatic is still a win -- your instantaneous MPG goes to >99 and you save wear and tear on multiple parts of the vehicle. It's a really big win, and with people so antsy about the price of fuel (aka the cost of driving) I'm shocked to observe how many people are still driving in very expensive manners (fast starts, hard braking)

I frequently coast up to red lights and stop signs, shedding 25-50% of my miles per hour, but brake wear is greater under heavier loads so doing 25% less breaking is a lot more than 25% savings on wear & tear.

I'm not sure what % is a "significant" threshold for you, but >25% is definitely significant to me.

Where you will run into problems with brakes is due to corrosion if you live in a climate where roads are salted in the winter. Since the pads last so much longer, there is a danger that the disposable parts that are designed to last the normal lifetime of pads will corrode and fail before the pads wear out.

FWIW, in 5 years, replaced my wiper blades, tires, and washer fluid and that's it.

That's more impressive than the engine tech.

Please share more details.

80k mile warranty. They should have plenty of tread at 50k miles.

My car has a blinker light in the outside mirrors, the right one of which stopped working after I reversed into a wall with the mirrow. I replaced the mirror glass but didn't bother about the light, given that the ones in the front and back of the car worked perfectly fine. Well, that was enough for them not letting me pass the inspection - I had four weeks to get it fixed, otherwise my car would have been off the road. The repair set me back almost 500 Euros, for an effing small blinker light...

The only thing that was a close call was the passenger window would stick sometimes but it rolled down for the inspection so we were good to go.

As opposed to AC getting worked for a few years and the cabin air filter merely getting stinky, but manageable.