👋 Meet Jane

“When I drove a petrol car, I used to drive to a nearby town to refuel. I now charge from home for free, using my solar panels!“

🚙 Drives: Peugeot e-208
📍 Lives: Nottinghamshire
🔌 Charges: Mostly at home

🏡 Like many in my area, my husband and I already had solar panels on our roof.

We live in a semi-rural area, and we had to drive to the next town over to refuel our 10 year old Toyota Yaris. This meant that I was using petrol and spending a fair bit of time, just to refuel my car. I was already concerned with air quality, so when it came time to replace our petrol car, we decided to see if our solar panels could charge an EV for free. They could!

💷 The slightly higher upfront cost was easily outweighed by all the savings.

The main thing was free charging - my car is always topped up and ready to go now that I plug it in at home. Buying my Peugeot was a significant expense, but it was an investment that has paid off significantly. Peugeot also provided me with a free charger for my driveway. Of course, maintaining an EV is also cheaper, so that’s a bonus!

🚀 The performance surprised me - it’s excellent!

The car is very easy to drive - it is nippy and it’s easy to put your foot down if you need to, especially at the lights. The Peugeot is neat, comfortable, and the handling is excellent - which makes a huge difference on rural roads. Comfort is also important for me, and this car does a good job at that.

⚡ Range is really not as big of an issue as people make it out to be.

I am now driving longer and longer distances in my car, as I gained confidence and learned where the chargers are. My friends and acquaintances have admired my car and would consider getting one when the time comes.

Recharging is also easy. We have a second petrol car - an Audi A3 - but we would buy another EV above a petrol or diesel to replace that, having experienced how easy it is to drive electric!