{"id":2669,"date":"2022-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/uncategorized\/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T14:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T14:41:23","slug":"streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Streets ahead? What I\u2019ve learned from my year with an electric car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Record sales and now news of a battery that lasts hundreds of miles. It&rsquo;s getting better, but going green was tough, admits a reluctant pioneer<\/p>\n<p>This time last year my partner John and I celebrated purchasing an electric car by driving through London to see the Christmas lights without having to pay congestion or Ulez &ndash; ultra-low emission zone &ndash; charges. I gleefully tweeted that Regent Street, deserted in lockdown, seemed a London from a different era: empty roads and glittering shop windows.<\/p>\n<p>This was my first moment of enjoyment of the electric vehicle (EV), whose purchase had been the source of considerable domestic tension. An eternal optimist, John was convinced we should dispense with a diesel car. The arrival of a grandchild, living at the opposite diagonal corner of London, tipped the balance. It would cut 30 minutes off a hellish journey.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2022\/jan\/08\/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Record sales and now news of a battery that lasts hundreds of miles. It&rsquo;s getting better, but going green was tough, admits a reluctant pioneer This time last year my partner John and I celebrated purchasing an electric car by driving through London to see the Christmas lights without having to pay congestion or Ulez [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Streets ahead? 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It&rsquo;s getting better, but going green was tough, admits a reluctant pioneer This time last year my partner John and I celebrated purchasing an electric car by driving through London to see the Christmas lights without having to pay congestion or Ulez [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Regional technology news - North - TechSparx - Business technology stories in the North\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-08T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-28T14:41:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/6437.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"140\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"84\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editorial Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editorial Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/streets-ahead-what-ive-learned-from-my-year-with-an-electric-car\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editorial Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techsparx.co.uk\/north\/#\/schema\/person\/a67e7f1ec4654ee30ec6c9c2899a146e\"},\"headline\":\"Streets ahead? 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