Is life getting easier with an electric vehicle?

Like Brexit, electric cars have become such a hot topic that it creates a fierce division of opinion. Don’t talk about them in a pub for fear that everyone will give you their opinion, whether you like it or not.

There are those who hate the idea of ​​being “forced” to buy an electric vehicle by government mandates and targets, while others are embracing the new world of emissions-free motoring and vowing to never go back.

So, after almost six months of driving an electric car, where do I sit? Well, I’m afraid I’m not entirely in the positive camp.

While there’s a lot to love about the Audi SQ8 e-tron, including its looks and comfort, there are a few things I find hard to accept for a car that costs more than €140,000.

Range is my biggest concern: the best I’ve seen on the dash after a full charge at home is 400km. The worst, in winter, was 310km. That’s a big difference and makes planning longer trips a tricky task.

I avoid charging my phone in public places whenever I can. In fact, I hate not being able to plug it in every time I go to a charger because it’s occupied or broken so much that I’ve avoided doing it altogether.

That restricts the use of this car to a 100-mile radius from my home, as I want to make sure I can get back without plugging it in. There will be a lot of people reading this who are completely baffled, as they have managed to get public charging to work for them, but I simply don’t have the time to deal with the added stress of a commute.

I think the roads here in the UK are already bad enough without adding the fear of not finding a charging point when I need it most. And whether you’re an EV fan or not, you have to admit that there’s rarely that extra stress on a journey when you need to refuel your petrol or diesel vehicle.

To make the switch to an electric vehicle permanently, I think I would need a range of 650 km. That way I could get to most airports and back with miles to spare and I wouldn’t have to worry about making a 45-minute stop to recharge the car along the way.

Since I’ve owned the SQ8, I’ve made very few long-distance trips and have used it mainly in the city. This is where an electric vehicle makes sense: short trips where range isn’t a factor and improved air quality is. I feel less guilty about taking the car to the garage when it’s raining, knowing that it doesn’t emit harmful emissions.

I manage to get by with one full charge per week. Unfortunately, due to my local tariff and the penalties for changing vehicles on a fixed contract, those charges cost me about the same as the petrol in my old RS6, but I know that’s more of a problem with me than the car.

The car’s problem, though, is its low fuel consumption. I’m lucky if I get two miles per kilowatt hour and it often dips below that. For comparison, my colleagues who have electric cars have managed at least double that, while another with an electric Vauxhall Astra gets closer to five.

I’ve also outgrown the SQ8 a bit. Well, at least my family has. We’ve just welcomed a new member to the clan and with two under twos in ISOFIX car seats, the back has become a very tight fit for my teenage daughter. Quite often, my better half climbs between the two seats in the car and finds it so tight that it’s difficult to even put on her seatbelt. For such a big car, I find the interior space to be a bit tight.

Multimedia technology has also had a bit of a nervous breakdown lately and has “forgotten” me as a user. This means that all my presets and favorites have been deleted, including the button I set to turn off speed limit warning beeps.

I now have to do it manually every time I start the car and I can’t tell you how infuriating it has become. I honestly don’t think the car buying public understands how annoying these warning beeps have become on new cars and the comments on my video showing how to turn it off prove that many didn’t even realise it was now a mandatory option on new cars.

For some reason, the multimedia system has also refused to connect to my mobile phone, making CarPlay an old friend that I miss so much. I have no idea why and no matter what I do, I can’t fix it.

This report may have seemed like a bit of a whiner, but in the pursuit of balance, there’s a lot I can praise about the Audi. I love the way it drives and the instant surge of power, and there’s no sudden shifting of the gearbox on start-up to worry about, just a smooth forward thrust.

It also looks fantastic and even after a few months the burnt orange paintwork still attracts admiring glances from passers-by. I love that it also has a huge boot which easily manages to swallow almost all of the toddler items I find myself transporting. It easily copes with our luggage for a weekend at Centre Parcs and is often put through its paces with a trip to the nursery.

There are also plenty of luxury details to enjoy: the soft-closing doors on the one hand, the electric tailgate on the other, and I find the seats incredibly comfortable.

But is an electric car for me? Well, as things stand, I’d say that for now I’m not. While there’s a lot to love about this Audi, there’s also a lot that frustrates me in equal measure. So as my time with it draws to a close, I’ll be trying to do my best to make peace with it.