Last month Jan felt we should, at last, get a second car. During the two decades we were in Bristol we only needed one car; so many outings were on foot or by public transport.
When we moved to Broadwas we decided to try to stay ‘one car’ as much for environmental concerns as anything else. We both have bus passes and when Jan goes to see business clients in Bristol or London it can most often be done on the train.
But with so much band rehearsal and performance and increasing local activity where buses and trains don’t go we realised that a second car needed to though about seriously. We have a beautiful Rover 75; ten years old, we bought it almost new and it has been wonderful – very comfortable, great to drive and reliable. But it is aging and to reduce the demand on it, especially as it is needed for business use where Jan can’t use public transport, a second car for local use would relieve our demands upon it.
What we can’t understand is why so many people need gross large cars that look like domestic tanks guzzling gas – and how a couple will go to church each in their own car just a mile from him. A distance easy to walk in decent weather.
We care about the environment; we are starting to implement energy management that reduces our dependence upon fossil fuels – like the new wood burner to reduce the use of oil – like recycling and upcycling and changing light bulbs to LED when a new bulb is needed. Jan is also leading a project in our village to see how we can further reduce, village-wide – usage of fossil fuels.
So it was a no brainer to decide that the second car had to be electric – zero emmissions. The outcome was a trip to the Nissan dealer Hylton Nissan in Worcester to buy a brand new Nissan Leaf Acenta that became mine to drive away the Monday before Christmas. Best Christmas this time.
Now the Leaf sits beside the Rover sipping juice from the mains as needed –
– whilst we can’t guarantee that it gets fed green power we do pay OVO in Bristol for our electricity so we do, at least, buy the equivalent amount from renewable sources.