I spent a week with an EV and it completely changed my opinion of them

After spending a week with an EV as my primary vehicle, the opinions I formed about it before spending so much time with it have changed – and some quite dramatically.

I learned that while I now know that I could easily live with it, which previously I wasn’t sure was the case, I also learned that I still wouldn’t want to, but for a completely different reason than I expected.

Quiet and effortless

The car I drove this past week is the Cupra Born VZ, an aggressively styled hatchback with 326 horsepower, some of the best seats I’ve ever sat in, and a fantastic Sennheiser audio system. Even the software was a pleasant surprise and rivaled the best smartphones I’ve reviewed. All the modern safety features were either easy to override or surprisingly useful, like the way it could read the road ahead and anticipate my movements and reactions almost telepathically.

After spending the first day experimenting with its considerable performance, I started riding the Born VZ sensibly and found that it was the absolute sweet spot. It was so different from what I expected from an electric car. The acceleration figures regarding electric cars are endlessly discussed and exaggerated, and I thought this would be the defining aspect of the car, but that is not the case. not at all. I found the mid-range acceleration – of which there is plenty – much more usable, and it contributed significantly to making the Born VZ such a blast to drive.

Flying past slow-moving traffic allowed me to make smooth, effortless and supremely comfortable progress in the Born VZ, and the more I rode it, the smoother and more mature my driving became as I rode the waves of torque. It matched the silence of the electric car, the lightness of the steering and the aforementioned support of the safety features. I never expected an EV to have such a dramatic effect on my driving style and the way I approached driving in general. As a mode of transportation that I would happily use every day, it was almost perfect.

Jump in and go

My usual cars both run on gasoline, and I’m probably extremely careful when I’m not driving them short distances. Neither car I own is suitable for this, and I’m concerned about excessive wear and tear on the engines, which will make journeys that are too far for me to walk yet too short to properly warm up the engine less then be ideal. I loved not having to worry about anything in the Born VZ, another aspect I hadn’t thought about before I started living with an electric car.

It may sound strange, but even not having to wait for the cold start process to finish before I could pull away was a joy, as was having all the power I could want immediately, without any requirement for me to be mechanically sympathetic. It all added up to the sheer ease of EV ownership that I quickly discovered. Another shock came after I returned the car. I realized that during my week with the car I hadn’t felt any ‘range anxiety’ – another much-discussed and unpleasant problem with electric cars.

I only charged the car three times, as it had a significant range of about 530 kilometers, and for my personal needs this would prove to be sufficient. I doubt it is necessary to charge the car for two or sometimes even three weeks once maximum power is reached. As my driving style became more relaxed, I noticed that after switching to the even more relaxed driving mode ‘Range’, the available range of the batteries hardly seemed to decrease. For reference, and to help you understand how big of a change the electric car was for me, I did that never used the Eco mode available in my gas car.

I was wrong about EVs

Just over a year ago, I’ve been thinking about buying an electric car for a long time, but I… didn’t and bought a gas sports car instead. I was happy with it then and am still happy with my choice. Even though the Born VZ is a car designed for performance driving, living with it has taught me that it is actually a rival to my other, more ‘normal’ car, because even with all its power I can’t imagine I can’t imagine I would ever want to drive it enthusiastically down a winding road by choice. It’s just too heavy and clumsy.

Instead, I never minded sitting in traffic or if a car hesitated in front of me. The roads I know best simply became roads, and I paid more attention to the sound of the Sennheiser speakers than to the driving modes. Driving was different in the EV and I was a different driver.

I enjoyed my time with an EV. It was one of the easiest, most enjoyable, convenient and relaxing driving experiences I’ve had. It would be great to use it every day for those regular, regular outings, because I know I would come out the other side feeling like I just came back from a weekend retreat in the countryside, complete with meditation workshops and free massages. If I didn’t bring the Born VZ back to Cupra I would make full use of it for some otherwise uneventful trips I have planned, happy in the knowledge that it would make them extremely comfortable and enjoyable.

Welcome to my future

Why don’t I exchange my regular car for an electric car?

It’s all just too normal. The Born VZ has been clinical, accurate and completely flawless. It completed everything without any fuss, which is not a negative, but actually a good thing. I quickly discovered that there was no involvement in the ride, but I didn’t care because it wasn’t necessary. There are even faster EVs, but I seriously wonder if I would just drive around in one after playing with the acceleration a few times, just like I did with the Born VZ. I’m almost certain I’d do it straight away in a slower EV.

There will come a time when I no longer want the excitement, noise and drama of a sports car or performance hatchback, and that’s when an electric car will be right at the top of my shopping list. I’m so glad I didn’t buy one last year because I now fully understand that it would have been a completely wrong choice, but I’m also so glad to find out that when the time is right, an EV will be waiting for me to enjoy driving in a completely different way.

I’m really looking forward to it.