Three Years EV Ownership Experience: Brilliant, Bonkers… and Would We Go Back to ICE?

Simon Knocker
12 minutes ago
4 min read

Three years ago, we took the plunge.

In 2023, through our company, we bought an electric vehicle partly because of the tax incentives, partly curiosity, and partly because it felt like the right thing to do. Like many people at the time, we stepped into the EV ownership experience world without really knowing what living with one would feel like.

Nearly three years on, here’s the honest version: the good, the mildly ridiculous, and the things no one really explains at handover.

First things first: the EV Ownership Experience, the car itself

Let’s start with the positives — because there are plenty.

The car has been great.

Low maintenance, fun to drive, properly quick, and generally faultless mechanically. In nearly three years it’s had:

One service (I’m still not entirely sure what they did)
A couple of punctures (sporty tyres = sporty prices)
One lighting software glitch that mysteriously fixed itself
One “speedometer disappears while driving” moment, solved using the universal IT fix: stop, turn it off, turn it back on

So mechanically? Rock solid. And driving it? Genuinely enjoyable.

Thomas Drives Our EV for the First Time

The software dream… and the reality

Where things get more interesting is software.

EVs arrive with the promise of slick apps, seamless integration, and clever digital experiences. The reality?

A bit… clunky.

The car mobile phone apps work most of the time. Sometimes. Eventually. You quickly realise that car software is not built by the same people who gave us iPhones, MacBooks and intuitive UX. Things feel half-tested, over-complicated, and oddly frustrating for something so central to the experience.

The same goes for in-car screens. There’s an obsession with turning everything into a tablet — heating, radio, steering wheel warmth, the lot. It looks futuristic, but when you’re driving at speed, tactile buttons suddenly feel like a safety feature. I miss being able to turn the heating up without taking my eyes off the road and poking at a glass panel like I’m ordering coffee.

EVs and mild seasickness (yes, really)

Here’s one I didn’t expect.

Rear-wheel drive EVs — can make people feel carsick in the back. Our children complained long before I believed them. Then I sat back there myself.

They were right.

The instant torque of an EV, combined with rear-wheel drive, creates a jerky sensation when accelerating, or decelerating, sharply through corners. The force, exacerbated in a torque’y EV, wants to go straight; the front wheels want to turn; your inner ear gives up trying to negotiate peace. It’s physics, apparently. I even checked it both with ChatGPT and, to be absolutely sure, with our son who is studying engineering.

Front-wheel or all-wheel drive probably fixes this.

But it’s a real thing — and one no brochure mentions.

So perhaps buy yourself two pairs of these for your passengers.

Charging: the bit you only understand after six months

The biggest learning hasn’t really been about the car — it’s been about charging.

Lesson one: slower can be faster

Driving from Guildford to Swansea in South Wales sits right at the edge of the car’s range. What I didn’t grasp for far too long is this:

Driving at 60mph can get you there quicker than driving at 70.

Why? Because if you push on, you’ll burn more battery and end up stopping for 40–45 minutes to charge. Drive more gently and you might get there in one go. It sounds obvious. It wasn’t — at least not initially.

EVs absolutely reward calmer, more considered driving. That’s probably no bad thing.

Lesson two: charging in the rain is character-building

Petrol stations are undercover. EV chargers… are not.

So there you are, in sideways rain, holding a thick high-voltage cable (perfectly safe, apparently), trying to work out which app this charger wants, while getting soaked. By the time you’re done, you’re damp, annoyed, and wondering why no one thought a canopy was a good idea.

EVs should come with an umbrella. Or better infrastructure.

Lesson three: charging is still a bit of a mess

Different apps.

Different prices.

Different payment methods.

Different rules.

Things have improved, but it still feels under-regulated and inconsistent. Deposits appear and disappear. Receipts flash up briefly — if you’re lucky. Some chargers work flawlessly; others just… don’t.

And you’re on your own. No attendant. No fallback. If it fails, it fails.

Lesson four: motorway anxiety is real

The M25 is a special kind of EV stress test, particularly for us when returning home a journey at the limit of the EV range where the M25 is the last 10-20 miles.

For us there are no service stations on our stretch of the M25 and where there are, they have eye-watering prices. Miss your moment and suddenly you’re crawling around an unfamiliar retail park, burning precious range, hoping the charger you’ve chosen isn’t occupied or broken.

In an ICE car, you simply don’t think like this. With an EV, you have to. That cognitive load is real — and tiring on long journeys.

So… would we do it again?

Yes. Absolutely.

In fact, we’ve ordered another EV from those kind people at Marshalls Leicester.

They’re quiet, quick, low maintenance, and genuinely enjoyable to drive. The technology is impressive — if occasionally over-designed. And while I think most people use about 30% of what the car can do, that’ll probably improve over time.

Would I get rid of ICE completely?

No — not yet.

We’ll keep one traditional car alongside the EV. Some of that is practicality. Some of it is nostalgia. There is something joyful about gears, noise, and mechanical simplicity.