Everyone knows someone who has gone electric and won’t stop talking about it. Cheap to run, they say. Smooth. Never going back. Then there’s the friend who’s curious but cautious, with a list of questions about range, charging, and how both work in the winter.
Both approaches are fair. Committing tens of thousands of pounds to a car you’ve only driven round the block is a big leap. Renting one for a weekend is not.
What a weekend teaches you
A few days behind the wheel can answer questions a showroom test drive never could. Does the range suit your actual life? Can you get by without your own charger on the driveway
Start with something familiar. For example, plenty of Liverpool householders fly out of Manchester Airport for the wider choice of routes. If you rent a car in Manchester for the journey home, the M62 back is about 40 miles of easy motorway, and it’s a decent first test for an electric car.
Liverpool to Chester and back is also around 40 miles, which is barely a dent to most modern batteries. The Lake District is roughly 100 miles each way, and that’s where you’ll learn how charging really works. Try both distances, then you’ll know.
Charging, minus the mystery
Rapid chargers at motorway services can take many cars from 20 to 80 per cent in about 30 minutes. Most of us stop for half an hour on a long run anyway. Now the car gets something out of it, too
Download a charging map before you set off and check it the night before rather than at 10% battery on the M6. Most newer rapid chargers take contactless payment, so you don’t need a phone full of apps either.
Two things catch first-timers out. Cold weather trims range. So does fast motorway driving. Plan on getting less than the number on the dashboard when you collect the car, and you’ll rarely be caught short.
Why renting beats guessing
Car clubs and shared cars have already made plenty of people comfortable with the simple idea that you don’t have to own a vehicle to use one. Renting follows the same thinking, but this time with more freedom. You pick the dates, the distance and the car. If an EV turns out not to suit you, you’ve lost nothing except a weekend of being curious.
Most major rental companies, including Europcar, now stock electric and hybrid models alongside petrol and diesel, so you can compare them on the same roads in the same week. Fleets vary by branch, so it’s worth checking what’s available near you.
Before you decide
Electric won’t suit everyone. If you live in a flat with no way to charge nearby, owning one takes real planning. Better to learn that now, cheaply, than eighteen months into a finance deal.
But you might find the opposite. You might get home, plug in and realise you haven’t thought about a petrol station in days.
Either way, you’ll be deciding with facts instead of opinions from the internet. That’s worth a weekend.