Well actually only last week, a smart young man we shall call him Yen, headed to darkest Hawkes Bay for his grandads reaching into an eighth decade, to be celebrated with a luncheon at a little country Pub.

Now Yen is a very clever chap who works in IT and many will know that field has its rewards, no surprises then that his car is an EV, very compatible for a life in the nations capital.

So the journey begins with a fully charged Battery and passing through Levin a short stop for a takeaway coffee and a top up burst of electrical energy. Then up and onto Palmy where a longer pause. to ensure the readout indicates a full charge. One little emerging opportunity knocks accompanied the then tethered vehicle and its pilot trying to get forty winks, when a couple of god botherers from Jehovah or similar attempted some soul saving. Having resisted that gross privacy invasion, you see they can also see from the meter how long the tethering will last if allowed to run to time and plan their tactics accordingly, our hero Yen, heads off over the saddle road to Woodville and then Dannevirke where another little burst of electrons ensures stress free travel.

Choosing to pass on available EV charging at Waupuk and Waipawa, Yen is heading down through the Pakipaki peatlands and swamps when his headsup display begins flashing and sounding warnings of impending death of the energy storage. but no disaster, he makes a charge plug in Hastings. Only to be left wondering just how much of the energy storage was compromised by the consumption of the alerts.

So Yen made his Grandad’s big day out and everyone lives happily ever after, for now anyway.