With apologies to Kermit.

This is a bit of a moany post.

I really don’t know why I bother but I try to be as environmentally-conscious as possible. I think it is because it is no point moaning about things if you don’t do something to help. Of course, the ‘greenest’ thing you can do is to kill yourself just above a hole dug in the ground: no more consuming, polluting, breathing, eating. But that seems a little negative, even for me.

I am sure our carbon footprint is lower than average, in part because I have not quite recovered from Covid restrictions and we don’t travel as much as we used to. We don’t eat a lot of meat, but buy ‘quality’ meat when we do and buy Irish as much as possible. Of course, we eat lots grown in the garden. Several years ago we installed solar panels and they have been great. Apart from cutting our electricity bills they have radically reduced the amount of heating oil we use because the electricity generated heats the water – but not the heating. There is also the benefit that we get paid for exporting electricity to the grid.

But recently there has been discussion about that being withdrawn. I heard a discussion on the radio the other day and some expert was saying that they are being cut because micro-generation is difficult for the energy companies to deal with and that the generating cost of electricity is only about 10cents per Kw/H and the rest of the charge is distribution. WHAT! If that is the case, why do I pay about 1 euro a day standing charge and why are the price increases always blamed on the increasing price of oil and gas? You can’t have it both ways. Of course the rich can. For readers outside Ireland you will be interested to know that Ireland has the most expensive electricity prices in Europe.

Despite the fact that we don’t use the car that much I decided, last month, that, having saved up some money, we would make the leap and get an electric car. We have off-street parking so can have a home charger. We changed tariff so we have two hours of ‘cheap’ night charging. So we went to Wexford Cupra and asked them to convince me that we should change to electric.

Our car was a Seat Arona, chosen because it was the least complicated car we could find and had a small engine and was ecomonical. The dealership has been great in the past and since Cupra is the ‘sporty’ arm of Seat, all was good. And an important part of the purchase was that it should be European (Canadian would have been OK) and that no money went to the USA or Israel. The Cupra Born is a fancy VW and made in Germany and/or Spain. It has all sorts of complicated features like seat fabric made of recycled bottles or something that may sound great but are pretty irrelevant. The construction is supposed to be carbon-neutral but I don’t really believe that.

Anyway, like most people buying a used electric car, my main concern was the battery and range. Most of our journeys are short and that is perfect for electric cars but I do need to go to Dublin now and then. In most cases I use the bus (yes really) but we need to be sure we can get there and back.

We saw a car, in the typical Cupra blue (teal?) and, having been almost convinced, said we would be back after doing more research. Of course, two days later it was sold. But they had the same model, just in, with a larger, 77Kw/H battery which meant a range of more than 400km. It needed cleaning and new tyres and software updates and battery checks but we went for it. Then we had to wait. Because the update took weeks! I was getting worried and I almost cancelled the whole thing. But the car was finally ready.

In the meantime the home charger was fitted. This is a complete farce.

If buying an electric car is complex, so is getting the charger. Apart from deciding on the actual charger and if it will communicate with the car and whether it should be tethered or not, some ‘fitters’ say it must be fitted to the ‘fuse board’ (consumer unit) and cannot be fitted to the ESB unit where your electricity meter is situated. Long story, short. It can be. In our case it meant the charger is now fitted less than a metre from the meter and where we want it. Of course, you do not get a grant if you buy a used car but you do get a grant if you fit a charger. You get 300 euro back (I am still waiting) but these are a con, like all these grants and the supplier just hikes the price and absorbs it. Have you noticed any VAT cut in hospitality? Was it passed on to you?? LOL. So a home charger cost 1300 euro. How convenient. In fairness, the fitting was easy and quick and the fitter was efficient and helpful and explained the app.

Oh yes. Apps. I hate apps. We did do a long trip and tried to see if we could use a public charger. In short, we couldn’t because we did not have the App. But we found one charger that we could use with a ‘card’. The trouble was that it charged 80c a Kw/H. 80 cents!!!! Never mind the cost of petrol, it would be cheaper to fuel a car with gin than that! What a total rip off! And some chargers require a subscription to use them. So you pay them for the privilege of using their charger even if you don’t use it. It is the Wild West out there with public chargers and the authorities need to sort it out NOW.

The home charger charges at about 7Kw an hour so the two hours of ‘cheap’ electricity means charging about 14kw. You are supposed to keep the battery between 20% and 80%, charging more just before a long journey, if necessary. It maintains good battery health. So 14kw will add about 70-80 Km to the range. This means that if your daily journey to and from work (I largely work from home) is about 80km you can recharge that amount overnight at the cheapest rate for 2 hours. I said it was all complicated.

So, back to the car (which is three years old). An electric car requires a huge change of mindset and, I have to confess, that I am sad. I am not a real petrol head, or Jeremy Clarkson, but I have grown up with ‘cars’ and I do get excited by the roar of a petrol engine. It is just something that I grew up with. So much so that it is part of me. An electric car has no soul. It is another pleasure that we have lost. A link with the past, gone, along with polishing chrome bumpers and filling rusty wings.

However, the Cupra Born is a nice thing. It seems well made and I love the look of it. It is also easy to drive. But it is a mobile phone on wheels. It just does not seem like a car. It is really odd to get in and just press the accelerator and drive off. I wish I had to start an engine !

There is a lot to like. You can prewarm the car. And the heater works immediately – no waiting for the engine to warm. We experimented with aircon and heater and, so far, in mild conditions, it did not seem to affect range much. I know it will in winter.

It is also very clever. As you drive into a lower speed limit it will slow down, unless you depress the accelerator. to override. I like how the blue ‘bar’ showing how much power you are using changes to green when you brake and are making electricity! It is decidedly heavy but is great to drive and it accelerates like the hot hatch it pretends to be when you need to.

It can, of course, park itself, though it will be a while before I let it. But it also has amazing cameras and on the ‘infotainment’ screen you can see the car as though from a hovering drone and that makes parking a doddle. It has only been a few weeks but I like it.

But I will not give the car a name. I will never love it like I loved my first Cortina.

And the cost of running it? Well, it does about 5km per Kw/H which means, at the current overnight rate of 10cents (which is increasing by 30% soon) it costs about 2 cents per Km to run. That is a lot cheaper than a petrol or diesel. And in theory it is better for the environment. But, of course, it is not if the electricity is produced from fossil fuels.

I am going to write to the Government and tell them there are several computers in the home and I propose registering as a data centre so I am eligible for half price electricity.

are electric cars good? Cupra born review, owning a cupra born