Clean Air and Convertibles: How to Enjoy the Two?
Clean air and convertibles, perhaps the strongest duo ever? How can we appropriately enjoy the two of them together?
We motorists are a weird bunch. Most of us drive cars that tick boxes for 2-3 journeys a year rather than every day. Compromising 360 days of the year for a car that works a handful of days. Don’t believe me? Take me for example, I used to have a Land Rover 4×4 and I live pretty rural, but I only really needed a 4×4 maybe 5 days a year if that.
Electric Cars: The Scariest Things EVER…
Even the 280-mile range EV’s leave many worried about that once-a-year-400-mile-trip. These people must have bladders of steel! No stopping for 400-miles? Surely a 20-minute mid-trip stop is welcomed? Use the loo, have a bite to eat, you recharge while your car does! 20 minutes is all you need to get another 200-miles topped up in a Tesla.
Examples of this Utter Waste?
In the UK, the biggest demonstration of this waste HAS to be the convertible. The thought of touring Lake Garda in a soft top has a great appeal, but less so cruising the Golden Mile in Blackpool (editor’s note: some at Fleet Evo disagree with this defamatory statement against Blackpool). That said, we buy more soft tops than pretty much any other European nation! Well, except, possibly even more bizarrely, the Germans.
The west coast of Scotland is a great place to drive! That said it’s the rainiest place in Europe… You’d probably need a very quick-closing roof to make use of this! UK roads are so congested and the resulting pollution makes you wonder if those who choose a soft top are displaying equal traits in their brainpower!
All of This is Changing…
Lockdown, slashed company car tax, renewables, and other pressures mean that you can start to enjoy cleaner air even when driving. Fiat has recently released their iconic 500 convertibles as pure electric! With the UK seen as the main market, aren’t we lucky? This car will whizz you through town and country in style and react quickly when the inevitable rain comes. Sadly, you’ll still be getting more chemicals than you would ever want from other road users’ exhausts. Luckily, this is changing and it’s changing fast! With cars like the Fiat 500 EV as cheap as £350 a month all-in, cleaner air is within our reach. Can’t do much about the rain though.