Nine things new owners tell us surprised them

Every few months we ask the newest members of the community the same question: what surprised you? The answers are consistently more interesting than anything in a brochure, and they are almost never the things people worry about beforehand.

First, the quiet. Everybody knows electric cars are quiet; nobody expects how much difference it makes to a long drive, or to a conversation with a child in the back, or to arriving somewhere feeling less frayed than you left.

Second, how rarely you think about charging. New owners brace for a chore and discover a habit — plug in when you get home, the way you plug in a phone, and the car is simply full every morning. The people who find this hardest are the ones who cannot charge where they park, which is why we bang on about that in the buying guide.

Third, one-pedal driving. Almost nobody expects to like it. Almost everybody does, within about a week, and then finds the brake pedal in a hire car strangely rude.

Fourth, the warm car on a cold morning. Preconditioning while plugged in is the single most-loved feature nobody mentions in reviews.

Fifth, how much of the cost is not the fuel. Members consistently report that the running costs that changed most were the small, boring, recurring ones, and that the total is lower than they expected even in households that cannot charge at home.

Sixth, that they stopped caring about the range number. Almost every member describes the same arc: obsessive for a month, occasional in month three, and by month six they check it about as often as they used to check a fuel gauge.

Seventh, that the winter drop is real and, once you have planned around it once, entirely unremarkable.

Eighth, how many people ask about the car. New owners are surprised to find themselves fielding questions at every car park, which is either delightful or exhausting depending on your temperament — and is, incidentally, how a good half of this community found us.

And ninth, the one we like best: how much of the enjoyment turned out to be social. People join for the car and stay for the group chat, the meetups and the person who talked them through their first rapid charger. If you are a few weeks in and reading this, that part is open to you too. Come and say hello.