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Friday 13 February 2009

Hi everyone here goes on the first experience of driving an electric Smart car.
Thanks to Bernd Hoermann from our team for delivering it to Howden House in Sheffield City Centre where I am based. He plugged it in to the nearby 3 pin socket with the bright yellow cable to top up the charge but I think also so people would see it in the car park and ask 'What's that then!!'
Couldn't wait to start the trial so I decided to work from home in the afternoon which also allowed me to travel home to Chesterfield in the light and before too much traffic around.
I went the same route as I normally would if I was driving home so I could compare like with like. I can see that there was very little difference in performance, acceleration was good at those tricky roundabouts and points in the traffic when you want to accelerate to change lanes.
I had to accelerate quickly on East Bank Road for example as a Bus bound for Bradford came thundering down the hill passed the parked cars.
Driving up the hills of East Bank Road and Blackstock Road was no problem. Tested the maximum speed on the Dronfield Bypass which I can confirm was 63mph going downhill which is enough for Urban driving.
The car battery dial was showing 100% full when I set off and with the heater on for the first 5 miles and radio on all the way, when I got home after 14 miles it had used 30% of it's charge. This is something that I will be testing during the 10 days I have the car. Radio, heater, lights on/off etc. Watch this space.
Well so far so good, this blog is longer than I would expect to post but hope it stimulates discussion and questions.
Have a good weekend. Back in Sheffield and more from me on Monday
Gary McGrogan
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous13 February 2009 at 17:08

    Are they mad?...giving you a new car on Friday 13th!! Anyway, hope you got home OK and enjoyed the trip...Like the photo...bodywork still in good shape- and the car's not bad either!
    It will be interesting to watch the performance as this is definitely the future for motoring...Good Luck...
    Cheers Stefan

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  2. Anonymous13 February 2009 at 17:31

    Good Luck Gary
    be interesting to see how it goes - warts n' all

    Mark Daly Care4Air Coordinator

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  3. Anonymous15 February 2009 at 11:34

    Do you know how long it would take to fully charge it from zero, how long the charge would last under normal driving conditions and how much a full charge up would cost you?

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  4. Gary McGrogan15 February 2009 at 14:16

    Hi Kev
    It takes about 8 hours from fully flat but the idea is to keep the charge topped up where possible. Plugging it in overnight gives you a range of about 50-70 miles but this depends on the use of lights, radio, heater etc. I do not know the cost of a full charge but I will find out.

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  5. Gary McGrogan15 February 2009 at 14:18

    Stefan is correct, as usual,this is the future for motoring but why does it take so long for new technology to become affordable. Does anyone know?

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