Best of Robert Llewellyn… share the car and save the cash

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Best of Robert Llewellyn… share the car and save the cash

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Bobby’s best-ever electric vehicle columns for TheChargingPoint.com

By Will Dron on February 6, 2012 5:26 PM
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With Robert Llewellyn currently filming a new series of BBC comedy Red Dwarf (he plays rubber-headed android Kryten), we thought we’d reprise some of his best columns.

This week, after our survey result revealed that readers are chiefly holding back from buying an EV because of high purchase prices, we look back at Robert’s article about one possible solution – car sharing.

Oh, and there’s a reference to a Top Gear electric car dig, which adds extra relevance, as last night the show took the opportunity to make another ‘humourous’ (though ultimately baseless) comment about plug-in cars (click here to see).

By the way, the new series of Red Dwarf will be broadcast in the UK on Dave later this year, but Robert will be back with us with fresh scribblings as soon as filming is over (late February or early March, depending on how long it takes to get the make-up off).

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Robert’s LEAF diary – week 23: Share and share alike


First published: 30 September, 2011

Common questions when you are seen getting out of an electric car have changed a great deal over the last couple of years. Originally it was always, “How far will it go on a charge?” and, “How much does it cost to buy?”

After this year’s Top Gear debacle, that changed to, “How much do the batteries cost to replace? Clarkson said £19,000 after about a year.”

Oh yes, ridicule them as I may, I know the middle-aged men in jeans still pack a punch when it comes to gross misinformation.

Now, a very common question-come-statement I hear is, “It’s alright for you, you’ve got somewhere to park and charge overnight, I live in a flat with no parking spaces. What am I supposed to do?”

Surely the answer is very simple. Don’t own a car.

That may sound snide and cruel, it may even be a bit Top Gearish in its insensitivity but it doesn’t actually mean “don’t drive a car.” It means, “Why d’you need to own one?”

If you live in a town or city, cars are really expensive to buy and maintain, they’re a real hassle to park and to tax, insure and pay congestion charges. Surely the suggestion not to own one, but to drive one when you need it is rather sensible.

When I see men my age who work flogging motors in car showrooms, I don’t feel sorry for them. It’s not an easy job but over the past 15 to 20 years or so they’ve been busy, boom time even.

When I see young men in car showrooms doing the same job, I worry for their future. It’s not like the automotive industry is going to stop and I’m not talking about an imminent banking collapse or the demise of the Euro.

I’m talking about young people. In Britain, the percentage of 17- to 20-year-olds with driving licences fell from 48% in the early 1990s to 35% last year, according to a recent article in the Guardian newspaper’s G2 section [‘On the Road to Nowhere’, 26/09/11].

I know from first hand experience that the desire or need my 17-year-old son has to own and drive a car is virtually non-existent. We got him a license, paid for his lessons like good middle class parents, he did them diligently enough but he’s just not interested. He hasn’t driven for months. He lives in London and rides a bike or catches a train. The very notion of him owning a car is about as likely as him owning a helicopter. It’s never going to happen.


"The desire or need my 17-year-old son has to own and drive a car is virtually non-existent. The very notion of him owning a car is about as likely as him owning a helicopter"


That doesn’t mean he won’t drive, but I think car clubs and sharing schemes like Streetcar and Zipcar are going to become more and more popular. Two of my mates, old blokes like me, live in London and stopped owning cars a few years ago. They are both members of Streetcar. They book them when they need them and don’t worry about them for the rest of the time.

And interestingly, the one type of new, innovative, disruptive technology, which fits neatly into this space, is the electric car.

These car-club vehicles all have a dedicated parking space, how hard would it be to fit a dedicated wireless induction charging plate in that parking space? Failing that a charge point beside it.

According to the boss of Zipcar, Scott Griffith, the average journey time in a Zipcar is four hours, covering a mere 29 miles. Blimey, even the wretched G-wiz could just about make that.

The way we see and use cars is going to change dramatically, I’m all for it. It could mean that if you don’t own a car, just use one when you need it, you’re not going to be as concerned about what the car ‘says’ about you.

Young people obsess about clothes, shoes, mobile phones, music, types of lager and rail cards. Yes, they’ll grow up and some of them may indeed start being interested in cars, they might want or need to drive because of their families, but all the research clearly indicates that their desire to own a car is severely on the wane.


"The average journey time in a Zipcar is four hours, covering a mere 29 miles. Blimey, even the wretched G-wiz could just about make that"


Car manufacturers are obsessing about this, coming up with new and inventive schemes to keep us driving even if we don’t buy their cars personally.

Apart from sales to car clubs and rental schemes, there are innovations like the Peugeot Mu system allows you to rent any car in the Peugeot range at whatever time you want it. From people carriers to electric cars, from big vans to electric scooters.

I’m very hopeful that these schemes will take off, that fewer and fewer people will burden themselves with owning an incredibly complex and expensive piece of machinery, that people who live in flats will say to me, “I don’t own a car, but I drive an electric one all the time.”

So, I hope the young man in the car sales showroom will see the writing on the wall. I’d suggest get into car club management as soon as you can."

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[Filipe]

Pareçe que este rapaz está correto.