CoCar : Exeter Electric Community Car test

I said we'd had the CoCar (Exeter Community Car Share) installed around the corner. I enrolled in the scheme and decided to try it, ideally as a non-critical test run. It uses electric cars and an increasing network of access locations. We have two stationed in e-Car reserved bays around the corner. To get started I needed a keycard like for a hotel room. This has to be touched onto a blue area on the front windscreen to unlock the car. 

I booked a car using the iPhone App and then the next day we sauntered the 100 metres to pick it up.

The car was plugged into a charger and so I had to disconnect it, noticing it was at 96% charged. I should have taken a couple of pictures around the car for CoCars, but I forgot.

The bright green hosepipe-like charging cable seemed to dominte the bootspace in this small car. I guess I could have coiled it - but in my excitement I just loaded it in.

Then, into the little Fiat 500e (other option was a golf-like VW ID.3- maybe next time). We were soon away, noting its nifty little gear changer set up like radio buttons on the relatively empty dashboard. I expect there will be a massive decluttering of dashboards following the full eCar revolution. My manufacturer picture below illustrates the gear changer [P-R-N-D] Very simple. The car even has a one-pedal rgenerative braking mode, although I was too chicken to try it for any length of time.

It was silent as it moved away and remarkably easy to drive. We decided to take it to the farm shop as a test run and it handled the narrow roads around here with ease. I thought it was fairly nippy too, courtesy of the e-engine. At 96% it showed a range of about 140 miles. Easily enough for local runs. There was a full handbook in the glovebox as well as a simplified guide to the scheme. We dispensed with some of the functions, but I did find it amusing that Greta Thunberg's number was first on the phone dialler. We discussed the car over a couple of well-deserved delicious strawberry milkshakes in the shop and both decided we liked it,

The farm shop used to have a couple of Supercharger stations, but now has about a busy dozen or more as well as a pop-up store for eCars. A sign of the times and maybe the demographic?