Fun and games

We were in Nanaimo for a Doctors appointment and decided to check on the status of our new car which was due to arrive that day.

Our salesman wasn’t at the Hyundai dealership but another one told us it might be up to another two weeks. But in the meantime, we could take another car for a test drive. He wasn’t coming with us so we thought we would take it around the block for a quick spin.

We were almost at the highway when we decided to give Peter a visit and a quick ride. We took him around the block, including a drive up a very steep hill. He was surprised by the power of the thing. That’s because electric cars have huge torque.

Driving an electric car is a bit different from a regular car. At slow speeds, it feels as though you’re moving through molasses. That’s because of the regenerative braking system. It recharges as you take your foot off the gas. The other neat thing is that I hardly use the brakes even when going downhill.

A week later we got the call that our car was in. We had to go and fill in a huge amount of paperwork and then got a brief orientation. We hadn’t told Peter and Suzie so we decided to surprise them and take them for a ride. After that, we drove home.

There are paddles on the steering wheel which adjust the brakes. That’s a bit of a learning curve. I finally got it figured out and on the way home I put on the cruise control. Because it’s a smart cruise control I drove from Nanoose to Horne Lake Rd without touching the pedals—a nice feature.

We have taken the last few weeks getting used to the idea of not having a combustion engine driving us. There are also a lot of electronic bits and bobs to learn and get used to.

We mostly charge it at home but did charge at Canadian Tire just to get used to doing that. At home, we get the equivalent of 420 Km of travel for about $5. cheap travel! We will test it and ourselves this week as on Thursday we are going to Sicamous with a few stops in between.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, we’re sitting here watching the smoke from the Cameron Lake fire. We have friends in Port Alberni and hope they are all okay.